Apparently real Hollywood politicians are debating the legitimacy of term limits in the West Hollywood City Council. I find it strange that the picture of one of the challengers to the incumbents in the upcoming election has his picture in the LA Weekly blog and it looks like he is trying out for a part about Johnny Cash. Anyway, in this race there are six challengers against three incumbents. Two of the incumbents have been in office for a total of 40 years. Guess who is supporting term limits and who is opposing them.
That's right, the people who have been there for years and years do not support something that could end there career. City Councils usually don't put term limits on there members because it is such a small election that slight increase in voter turnout has the ability to reshape the whole council. Historically, or at least since 1984 when West Hollywood was established as a city, West Hollywood has an extremely low voter turnout. Out of the 23,000 registered voters, only a few thousand actually vote.
Another thing that people like with long serving City Council members are the friendships made with local business owners and higher echelon members of the community, that is unless you are trying to open new businesses or set up new ordinances.
Everyone of the challengers support term limits for the West Hollywood City Council. The longest serving member of the West Hollywood City Council is John Heilman. Heilman was elected in 1984.
Challenger Scott Scmidt had this to say about how long Heilman has been in office, "A lot has changed since 1984. In 1984, Ronald Reagan was re-elected president, the Soviet Union boycotted the Olympics , Dynasty was the number one show on television, the Los Angeles Raiders won the Super Bowl."
He argues that time has changed since then and that he needs to be removed from office. Perhaps the most damning thing to Heilman's record was his campaigning against Proposition 20. Supporting Californians overwhelmed the opposition. Prop 20. reform gerrymandering in California that had grown out of control. Politicians would redraw their districts and make it impossible to lose an election.
Would term limits reduce the need for reforms like this? Who knows but it would make it so somebody couldn't reap the benefits of redistricting.
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