MoCo term limits- convince me

[Anonymous]

I'm undecided about the ballot issue for term limits for the Montgomery County Council and County Executive. Can anyone out there tell me why they're needed? Or why we should keep unlimited terms?

[Anonymous]

I'm against it. It doesn't solve anything, and it doesn't bring in any new blood. It just turns into a game of musical chairs. Once you are termed out, you run for a different office, and someone who termed out elsewhere runs for your old office.

[Anonymous]

I am for it. The current political environment has become stale and entrenched with many council members becoming unaccountable. The only way to get rid of a bad council member now is through a primary, but no person who wants a political future as a Democrat in this county would primary any ther Democrats. Therefore, we get the farce that we had last time Berliner ran where he was only opposed by a developer backed candidate as retaliation for his ten mile creek vote. Now Berliner has not seen a since development he has saw fit to oppose, like a Chevy Chase Lake, Westbard and downtown Bethesda. Despite significant opposition from communities.

So you see that as the political alliances become more entrenched, it becomes harder to get them out. While at the same time they become less accountable to residents. If someone had to form a coalition and raise campaign money today in District 1, I can guarantee you the outcome would not be a Roger Berliner and our District would not continue to be represented by someone living in Potomac while making life miserable for everyone else in the District.

So if that doesn't convince let me put it another way. Do you want more great public policy like 10% increases in property tax while continuing developer impact tax exemptions for roads and schools? Because if you want more of that, then vote no.

I myself will be voting yes.

[Anonymous]

I'm surprised anyone needs convincing. They have similar term limits for counties throughout MD with no ill effects.

[Anonymous]

The real question is, why would anyone be against term limits?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm surprised anyone needs convincing. They have similar term limits for counties throughout MD with no ill effects.

Any positive effects?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm surprised anyone needs convincing. They have similar term limits for counties throughout MD with no ill effects.

Any positive effects?

Howard County has the same 3 term limit for councilmembers and a two term limit for executive. I don't think anyone could rightfully argue that it is being mismanaged. In fact, it is probably the best run county government in the state.

[Anonymous]

Bumping this because it is important and the non-stop Trump-A-Thon is crowding out discussion of real issues.

[Anonymous]

Term limits are a waste of time.

[Anonymous]

This is a Robin Ficker amendment, which alone is just about enough to convince me to vote against it.

But if you want a more nuanced view, here is what the Washington Post has to say about why they're a bad idea for county governance:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/term-limits-would-pointlessly-purge-montgomery-county-council-members/2016/10/19/394ed9e8-9600-11e6-bb29-bf2701dbe0a3_story.html?tid=a_inl&utm_term=.8ab134b11497

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am for it. The current political environment has become stale and entrenched with many council members becoming unaccountable. The only way to get rid of a bad council member now is through a primary, but no person who wants a political future as a Democrat in this county would primary any ther Democrats. Therefore, we get the farce that we had last time Berliner ran where he was only opposed by a developer backed candidate as retaliation for his ten mile creek vote. Now Berliner has not seen a since development he has saw fit to oppose, like a Chevy Chase Lake, Westbard and downtown Bethesda. Despite significant opposition from communities.

So you see that as the political alliances become more entrenched, it becomes harder to get them out. While at the same time they become less accountable to residents. If someone had to form a coalition and raise campaign money today in District 1, I can guarantee you the outcome would not be a Roger Berliner and our District would not continue to be represented by someone living in Potomac while making life miserable for everyone else in the District.

So if that doesn't convince let me put it another way. Do you want more great public policy like 10% increases in property tax while continuing developer impact tax exemptions for roads and schools? Because if you want more of that, then vote no.

I myself will be voting yes.

This. In an ideal democracy, all good candidates should be able to get traction to run. But the party machine in MoCo and the flow of money to incumbents makes it impossible to get new blood to replace the incumbents in the pockets of the machine. I am very tired of an electorate that only knows the issues superficially and buys the wink and nod from people like Berliner, who "fought" Westbard (and other development) in name only, voted to tax the crap out of us, and doesn't give a damn about those of us that need to live in the county.

Who says we need BRT on Old Georgetown? Isn't it parallel to the Red line? can't we just have sufficient public transit to the metro stations? Why do we have to narrow Old Georgetown Road at Rockville Pike? Oh, to make it safer for pedestrians since we are bringing thousands of more cars because of the development. Why do all of our neighborhoods have "drive like your kid lives here" signs? Because no one on the council wants to deal with all the development pushing traffic off of main roads onto residential streets because we won't invest in infrastructure or have developers invest in it at the time they are developing.

Seriously, the current crew on council doesn't care. there is no ability to support a run to oppose. term limits make sense in this environment, although I have heard developers are standing ready to field their own set of candidates to replace the dead wood that'll be leaving.

[Anonymous]

Why empower the system to dictate that an excellent council member can no longer serve by implementing term limits? Why tie your hands? Instead, let voters decide when it's time for a new voice.

No term limits.

FWIW, I'm involved with a county commission (as an appointed member in a strictly volunteer capacity). I can attest to the fact that the council members most closely affiliated with the issues addressed by the commission are highly educated on the issues, work tirelessly on myriad issues, are accessible to constituents, and truly work to improve the county. These are council members we are lucky to have, and they shouldn't be pushed out by term limits.

Again, let voters decide when it's time for new representation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm surprised anyone needs convincing. They have similar term limits for counties throughout MD with no ill effects.

Any positive effects?

Howard County has the same 3 term limit for councilmembers and a two term limit for executive. I don't think anyone could rightfully argue that it is being mismanaged. In fact, it is probably the best run county government in the state.

How do you know it's because of term limits? Was Howard County a mess before term limits?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am for it. The current political environment has become stale and entrenched with many council members becoming unaccountable. The only way to get rid of a bad council member now is through a primary, but no person who wants a political future as a Democrat in this county would primary any ther Democrats. Therefore, we get the farce that we had last time Berliner ran where he was only opposed by a developer backed candidate as retaliation for his ten mile creek vote. Now Berliner has not seen a since development he has saw fit to oppose, like a Chevy Chase Lake, Westbard and downtown Bethesda. Despite significant opposition from communities.

So you see that as the political alliances become more entrenched, it becomes harder to get them out. While at the same time they become less accountable to residents. If someone had to form a coalition and raise campaign money today in District 1, I can guarantee you the outcome would not be a Roger Berliner and our District would not continue to be represented by someone living in Potomac while making life miserable for everyone else in the District.

So if that doesn't convince let me put it another way. Do you want more great public policy like 10% increases in property tax while continuing developer impact tax exemptions for roads and schools? Because if you want more of that, then vote no.

I myself will be voting yes.

This. In an ideal democracy, all good candidates should be able to get traction to run. But the party machine in MoCo and the flow of money to incumbents makes it impossible to get new blood to replace the incumbents in the pockets of the machine. I am very tired of an electorate that only knows the issues superficially and buys the wink and nod from people like Berliner, who "fought" Westbard (and other development) in name only, voted to tax the crap out of us, and doesn't give a damn about those of us that need to live in the county.

Who says we need BRT on Old Georgetown? Isn't it parallel to the Red line? can't we just have sufficient public transit to the metro stations? Why do we have to narrow Old Georgetown Road at Rockville Pike? Oh, to make it safer for pedestrians since we are bringing thousands of more cars because of the development. Why do all of our neighborhoods have "drive like your kid lives here" signs? Because no one on the council wants to deal with all the development pushing traffic off of main roads onto residential streets because we won't invest in infrastructure or have developers invest in it at the time they are developing.

Seriously, the current crew on council doesn't care. there is no ability to support a run to oppose. term limits make sense in this environment, although I have heard developers are standing ready to field their own set of candidates to replace the dead wood that'll be leaving.

So this is basically for the anti-development, anti-BRT, "Stop the war on cars" crowd. Who can't manage to win actual County Council elections. But presumably many of those who are not antidevelopment (renters who lack in interest in restraining the supply of housing, poorer folks who rely on services development helps pay for, etc) are less likely to mobilize against this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am for it. The current political environment has become stale and entrenched with many council members becoming unaccountable. The only way to get rid of a bad council member now is through a primary, but no person who wants a political future as a Democrat in this county would primary any ther Democrats. Therefore, we get the farce that we had last time Berliner ran where he was only opposed by a developer backed candidate as retaliation for his ten mile creek vote. Now Berliner has not seen a since development he has saw fit to oppose, like a Chevy Chase Lake, Westbard and downtown Bethesda. Despite significant opposition from communities.

So you see that as the political alliances become more entrenched, it becomes harder to get them out. While at the same time they become less accountable to residents. If someone had to form a coalition and raise campaign money today in District 1, I can guarantee you the outcome would not be a Roger Berliner and our District would not continue to be represented by someone living in Potomac while making life miserable for everyone else in the District.

So if that doesn't convince let me put it another way. Do you want more great public policy like 10% increases in property tax while continuing developer impact tax exemptions for roads and schools? Because if you want more of that, then vote no.

I myself will be voting yes.

+1 Next step is finding good candidates & cutting the bureaucracies in Rockville. MoCo should really have more local representation similar to the ANCs.