Excerpts from Thursday’s North County Times Article "Activists Seek Term Limit for Supervisors" by Gig Conaughton:
Angered by county supervisors’ decision to challenge California’s medical marijuana law, and backed by a national marijuana advocacy organization, local activists Wednesday filed letters of intent to start a voter-initiative to impose term limits on supervisors. Medical marijuana proponents say the five county supervisors, all of whom have served at least three consecutive four-year terms, are "out of touch" with voters and that term limits could eliminate the problem.
"These supervisors have been running unopposed, and they (feel) they can do anything they want," said Claudia Little, one of the activists who signed papers at the county Registrar of Voters office. "They’re insulated … and their attitude is just arrogance. We need to stop this dangerous activity of them not listening to their constituents."
County supervisors voted unanimously in December to sue the state to try to overturn California’s 9-year-old, voter-approved medical marijuana law, Proposition 215, the "Compassionate Use Act."
Meanwhile, officials from the Marijuana Policy Project said Wednesday that they would help county residents gather the 66,121 signatures needed to qualify a two-term limit measure for supervisors on the November ballot.
The project is a national nonprofit that wants to see marijuana use regulated no stricter than alcohol is.
Spokesman Bruce Mirken said the group, funded by its 19,000 dues-paying members, was ready to pay to hire signature gatherers to help qualify the term-limit measure.
"This is not something we embrace lightly or easily," Mirken said. "But what the supervisors did was just way over the line. This is a way of saying, ‘Hold on, being elected to office is not a blank check. You’re still responsible to the people who elected you.’"
The project spent $15,000 to conduct a telephone poll of 500 county voters that was released this month. The survey stated that most respondents supported Prop. 215 and opposed the supervisors’ plan to challenge it. The survey also stated that 66 percent of respondents "strongly supported" term limits for supervisors.
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Not to hit the joke with a sledgehammer, but I think that Marijuana Policy Project Spokesman Bruce Mirken would have shown a real sense of humor if he had said "But what the supervisors did was just ONE TOKE over the line."
Seriously though, I’m not sure term limits have made the State of California any more functional or given us legislators with any more common sense. And sure, I supported term limits for the California legislature way back when because I thought that it was the only way to get rid of Willie Brown.
But does anyone today seriously believe that the legislature runs better now than it did under Brown? Does anyone think that the excessive empowerment of staff and the lack of institutional memory is a good thing? Or the instability that occurs when parties in both the minority and majority can’t have a leader for more than a couple years? Or the endless discussions and obsession by everyone within a mile of the Capitol – legislators, lobbyists, and staff – over where every legislator will go next.
Sure, it’s easy to find fault with the San Diego Board of Supervisors, as it is with any elected body. None of them could model for perfect, and each have quirks that magnify under constant scrutiny for almost a decade. But truth be told, as a team they have done a good job working together and fixing many of the fiscal problems that haunted the county several years ago.
And the idea from "activist" Claudia Little that the Supervisors are not or can not be challenged is wrong at best, ignorant at worst. I mean Claudia, if the idea of term limits (or pot smoking) is so important to you, please at least take a few minutes a couple times a week to read the newspaper here in San Diego. Or watch the news. Two San Diego Supervisors are facing fairly strong challenges. In San Diego’s urban 4th district, Republican incumbent Ron Roberts is being challenged by liberal Democrat San Diego City Councilwoman Toni Atkins in a district that has a large ethnic and gay vote. And in the northern GOP fortress of the 5th, my former employer incumbent Bill Horn is going toe to toe with former Republican Assemblyman Bruce Thompson.
And it goes on. if the Inzunza clan had not imploded, one might expect the southbay’s Latino machine to have made a serious move on Supervisor Cox as soon as they felt they had the upper hand – maybe the next election. Or perhaps a more conservative candidate would make a move on Supervisor Slater, who represents a rather different and more Republican district than she did before the lines were re-drawn.
My point is that term limits does not necessarily give the taxpayer any better government, and that the lack of term limits does not shield politicians from the electorate to the extent term-limit advocates would have us believe.
The article:
www.nctimes.com/articles/2006/01/19/news/top_stories/21_45_551_18_06.txt