West Palm Beach case instructive for local term limits defenders everywhere

The continuing saga in West Palm Beach, Fla., where a two-term incumbent mayor is trying to weaken the existing voter-approved term limit so she can run again, is one that is again playing out in cities and even state legislatures across the country. And the result is nearly always the same: the people win.

But it does require some resistance. It may be instructive to look at how citizens in this South Florida city are defending their popular term limit against the political ambitions of their mayor and certain city commissioners. Their blog, updated daily, tells the story.

The end result is a near foregone conclusion -- 2009 polling shows some 76% of Floridians in the Southeast region of the state oppose replacing a 8-year term limit with a 12-year one -- as long as a few people, like West Palm Beach businessman Rick Shepherd shown here, stand up and rally their neighbors to act.

West Palm Beach Mayor Lois Frankel clinging to power in spite of term limit

It’s an old, old story now playing in re-runs in West Palm Beach, Fla. An arrogant politician feels entitled to his or her position and schemes to overturn popular term limits to keep it.

In this case, Mayor Lois Frankel has launched a petition drive to weaken West Palm Beach’s 8-year mayoral term limit. Although her earlier trial balloons were shot down, she is attempting a desperate end run around rank-and-file West Palm Beach citizens who embrace the 8-year limits.

There is little doubt that voters love term limits. This is true nationally – a 2008 poll shows 83 percent generic support for the idea – but also in Florida where an April 2009 statewide poll showed 79 percent specifically favoring Florida’s 8-year limit on the state legislature. Here in Palm Beach County, 8-year term limits for the county commission won in 2002 with 70 percent of the vote. In fact, right now there is a citizen referendum campaign under way to enact term limits in Palm Beach Gardens!

I am tempted to quote Frankel regarding a downtown development she was pushing, "Why bother with a referendum when it’s widely accepted?"

There is only one reason, of course. Lois Frankel does not want to let go to the reins of power. Yes, she could run again for mayor later under West Palm Beach law. But she couldn’t do so now with all the exceptional powers of an incumbent in a strong mayor system.

That’s right, Mayor Frankel. And that is reason number one why we have 8-year term limits in this city!

Let’s review some of the reasons that West Palm Beach has 8-year term limits and why we should keep them:

• 
  In 1991, West Palm Beach followed other large and growing cities in adopting a strong-mayor system of government with term limits via voter referendum. This is a system where the elected mayor is given almost total administrative authority and a clear, wide range of political independence. As turnout is very small in local elections and the mayor has massive favors to grant to local interests, a strong mayor has enormous electoral advantage that largely detaches him or her from the will of the people. Hence term limits were included as a necessary limit of strong mayor power by ensuring regular, competitive elections.


• 
  Under any municipal system – but particularly under a strong mayor system -- term limits topple the local fiefdoms that develop through the natural merging of interests between incumbents and special interests.


• 
  As cities grow and the leadership positions become more powerful, term limits are more important than ever. That is why 9 of the 10 largest cities in America have term limits.


• 
  Eight years is the traditional, time-tested American term limit for a good reason: A eight-year term balances the benefits of both experience and of rotation in office. Eight-year term limits are imposed on the President of the United States, Florida’s governor, the Florida legislature and the Palm Beach County Commission. What is the argument for exalting the mayor of West Palm Beach above all other politicians?


• 
  The strong mayor position in particular attracts careerists. It is, after all, a comfortable job, not just an opportunity for public service. For instance, in 2004, Mayor Frankel was awarded a 40% raise to today’s salary of $125,000. The paychecks come with some other considerable perks including: free health and dental care with no deductible, no premiums, no co-pays, no prescription drug costs and the ability to see any doctor with out additional cost; $400 per month car allowance; $420 per month ‘management incentive; life insurance and long-term care insurance; and a retirement plan.
• 
  Term limits are democratic. The strong mayor system was chosen to centralize power in order to move city projects forward, not to create a monarchy. Term limits ensure rotation in office, which necessarily introduces a broader range of experience and perspectives, permits greater citizen participation and broadens the circle of those with intimate knowledge of local government. It helps create a more engaged and informed local electorate.


• 
  Term limits discourage corruption. Corruption is highly correlated to tenure because secure tenure breeds the hubris and opportunity necessary for corruption to blossom. Not only that, but the closed, tight circle of a government without regular rotation is far less transparent – and hence less accountable – than a more open, term-limited one. This was a key reason why term limits for the Palm Beach County Commission was so important. Please note that the two most outspoken opponents of the 2002 campaign for county commission term limits – Mary McCarty and Warren Newell – are now in prison for corruption.

The bottom line is that at a time when the unemployment rate in Florida is more than 10 percent, it is shameful that Mayor Frankel's top priority is to save her own job. Let’s keep our 8-year term limits!

West Palm Beach: The city's not about one person

When former West Palm Beach mayor Nancy Graham reached the end of her second term, she she initially ran to the courts to circumvent the 8-year term limit. The she thought better of it: "The city's not about one person," she said.

Fast forward to 2010. Another big ideas (and big budgets!) mayor, Lois Frankel, is coming to the end of her second term and seeking a way to keep her job. Her chosen vehicle is the city's charter review commission, which is a 5-member board created to review and suggest changes to the city's system of government. In January she stacked the commission with four of her devotees who are said to be impartially weighing the benefits of a Frankel third term.

"I have no ulterior motive," Frankel told the Palm Beach Post. "The committee was not put together to look at (term limits)."

Yeah, right.

She didn't fool the Post, nor anyone else. As the Post points out in an excellent editorial on the subject, "If her push to end term limits proves to be unpopular, the mayor has a backup plan that would give her an additional 20 months in office. That plan calls for timing mayoral elections with presidential elections. Instead of leaving office in March 2011, Mayor Frankel would stay until November 2012."

The idea of a charter review commission is a legitimate one, and indeed it behooves the city to review its new (well, since 1991) strong mayor system. Term limits, among their other benefits, help limit the power of the strong executive, by ensuring that the significant power of this position cannot be used to secure a job for life. The strong mayor system was intended to centralize authority in order to move city projects forward, not to create a monarchy.

Frankel is out of touch enough to be shocked at the pushback she is getting. The press, fellow city commissioners (including, of course, potential mayoral candidates) and citizen activists lept into action as soon as the first charter review commission meeting was announced. As a result, the first meeting was cancelled about an hour before it was scheduled to start.

It is not late for Mayor Frankel to tuck the burst trial balloon in her pocket and, with dignity, serve out her last year as mayor. She can always run again in the future after sitting out a term if she wishes, albeit without the powers of incumbency that make a low-turnout reelection a formality.

Nonetheless, West Palm Beach citizens are laying defensive groundwork just in case their popular term limits law is assaulted.