The Board of Supes Tuesday advanced legislation that would impose a lifetime ban of two terms on members of the board and mayors—but not any other elected officials.
The measure would change the City Charter, which now says supervisors can’t serve more than two “consecutive” terms.
In the history of the modern charter, only one person, Aaron Peskin, has ever served two terms, waited four years, and won another election. No mayor has even tried, and it’s hard to imagine anyone who would.
“This,” Supervisor Shamann Walton noted, “is a solution in search of a problem.”
Supporters, including Sup. Bilal Mahmood, said the bill would close a “loophole” in the city’s term-limits law. That’s not technically accurate—the term limits are part of the law the re-instated district elections in 1999, and the language on the ballot was clear that the eight-year limit was not for life.
Mahmood also said this was a way for more people, particularly young people, to have the opportunity to run for public office. But it doesn’t apply to the School Board or the Community College Board, where many young people get their start.
Sup. Myrna Melgar argued that offices like the DA and city attorney require specialized credentials. To run for DA or city attorney, the charter requires a valid license to practice law in California and five years membership in the State Bar.
There are at least 10,000 lawyers in San Francisco who meet that standard.
The law that Mahmood is pushing, Walton said, wouldn’t allow, say, a deputy city attorney with many years of experience to run for that office unless they challenged the incumbent.
Sup. Jackie Fielder pointed out that two of the last three city attorneys (Louise Renne and David Chiu) have been appointed by a mayor, and had no prior experience in that office.
The current district attorney was also appointed by a mayor.
Those people have the advantage of incumbency.
“This is just ludicrous,” Walton said. “It is not intended to allow more people to serve.”
Board President Rafael Mandelman said that “term limits are not always a positive good.” Among other things, he said, they are anti-democratic, depriving voters of the right to choose the person they think is best for the office.
Walton offered an amendment that would expand the term limits to all elected offices. That went down, 7-4, with only Sups. Connie Chan, Chyanne Chen, Fielder, and Walton in support.
Then the board voted 8-3 to continue the measure a week, which is requited before any charter amendment can go to the ballot.
Mandelman, who said he opposes term limits, voted with the majority.
Nobody even mentioned the much larger issue: The mayor of San Francisco, almost unique among US systems with an executive and a legislature, can fill vacancies on the Board of Supes by appointment.
It appears this is now headed for the June ballot.
