Voters could decide on limiting terms

Ulster County lawmakers were to vote Tuesday night on a resolution that would allow voters to decide whether to impose term limits on some of the county’s elected officials.

But lawmakers were not considering whether voters should be given the opportunity to weigh in on whether the lawmakers themselves should be given longer terms.

The county Legislature’s Laws and Rules Committee on Monday approved, 4-2, a resolution that asks voters to decide in November whether the county executive, comptroller and legislators should be limited to serving 12 years in office.

The full Legislature was to take up the measure at its monthly meeting Tuesday evening. (That meeting occurred too late to be included in this story.)

The committee voted 4-2 against a proposal that would put to voters in November the question of whether the term of county legislators should be increased from the current two years to four years, blocking the measure from the floor of the Legislature.

Legislator Joseph Maloney, D-Saugerties, who sponsored the resolutions, said that with two-year terms, lawmakers spend more time campaigning than focusing on county issues. And he said term limits would prevent incumbents from gaining a “built-in advantage” when running for office.

Legislator David Donaldson said term limits, especially for legislators, are

unnecessary because voters have the ability to vote officials out of office.

Donaldson, D-Kingston, noted that in November 2017, voters elected eight new members to the 23-member Legislature, including some who defeated incumbents running for re-election.

“I think people who believe in term limits should limit their terms,” agreed Legislator Kathy Nolan, D-Shandaken, a freshman legislator.

In April, the Legislature defeated a single proposal to have voters decide whether to both lengthen the terms of county legislators and limit the years most elected county officials could serve.

At a public hearing in March, most speakers supported the idea of term limits, saying that limiting the time an elected official serves would bring new people and new ideas to the county government.

Extending the length of legislators’ terms, however, didn’t garner as much support at the hearing, with critics saying there was no reason to extend the terms and arguing that two-year terms were intended to give voters a chance to quickly remove legislators who aren’t representing constituents.

In June, hearings on the two proposals garnered no public comment.