By putting a deceptive ballot measure in front of voters, Supervisor Shawn Nelson, who will be forced from office due to term limits in two years, is hoping to be able to stay in office another 14 years!
With four days notice, mostly over a weekend, termed-out Orange County Supervisor Shawn Nelson has decided try and pull two of his colleagues into a last-minute power play to considerably extend his time (and their time) in office by putting a measure on the November ballot ostensibly to “reform” Supervisorial term limits – but let’s be very clear – the reason for this power-play is that the measure is written in such a way that every current Supervisor would have their “term limits clock” reset to zero, and could each serve three more four-year terms after completing the one they are in now.
So for Nelson, instead of retiring back to the private sector in 2018, he would be eligible to run again – and in fact two more times after that. He would have to serve twenty years in office before term limits would force him out of office.
This measure would mean that Todd Spitzer, set to “term out” in 2020, could serve until 2028 – as would be the case with Andrew Do. Lisa Bartlett and Michelle Steel would not be forced to retire until 2030!
While the voters of Orange County have voted over and over again for term limits, not wanting to have career politicians in local office, Nelson’s cynical ploy – if he can grab two co-conspirators – would create an entire board of career politicians, taking in their big paychecks and building up massive pensions, while avoiding a return to private life.
Supervisor Nelson lacks credulity when he says he won't run again.
Nelson says that he wouldn’t run for another term after his current one – with all of the credulity of a used-car salesman. With all due respect, this is a guy who campaigned on not taking a pension as a Supervisor and reneged on that promise to the voters. With this play, Nelson becomes the poster-child for term limits.
Nefariously Nelson knows that the only way to get voters to approve his scheme is to basically lie to them, and keep voters from knowing key information. If the ballot measure clearly explained to voters how it would allow the very supervisors who put it on the ballot to do an end-run on term limits, they would reject it.
No, instead Nelson has thrown out the idea of a “lifetime ban” for Supervisors who have termed out (which as I said wouldn’t happen if this passes for a long, long time). The current rules allow a Supervisor who has termed out to try and return after being out of office, which has happened only once. In other words the current system is working just fine. Nelson’s proposal also cynically is framed to ask voters if they want a three term-limit for Supervisors, without making it clear that there is already a two-term limit in place!
And of course this sort of smarmy play is always introduced at the very last moment, with the perpetrator hoping to quickly get a vote done before word of this terrible policy proposal can spread and opposition can form. Nelson knows that if the Board doesn’t approve this in July then it will be too late to make the November ballot, and he will be forced from office.
I would remind readers that the reason for the two-term limit now in place is three-fold:
1) To ensure the idea of the true citizen legislator, who takes their private sector experience and applies it for a time in office, and then returns back to “live under the laws they created.”
2) To limit the influence of special interests who donate massive amounts of money to politicians. Studies have proven that it is generally the case that the longer a politician is in office, the cozier and more co-dependent they are with moneyed interest groups.
3) Two four-year terms mean that other qualified people have an opportunity to serve. Without limits, the power of incumbency would keep politicians in office in virtual perpetuity.
I spoke yesterday with Supervisor Michelle Steel who strongly opposes placing Nelson’s measure on the ballot.
While not as unequivocal that he will be voting no, like Steel, this morning Supervisor Spitzer told me that, “Shawn is not being honest in his rationale, and that this measure is self-serving to benefit himself.” Spitzer went on to say, “Given Nelson’s false promises to voters in the past he doesn’t have the credibility to advance this proposal.”
Spitzer conveyed that he is not opposed to a discussion about revising term limits, especially with an eye towards including countywide officials beyond just the Supervisors, but that he doesn’t support something rushed to the ballot quickly without input from the community. That would appear to close the door on Nelson’s proposal, which he brought forward so late that it has to but put on the ballot this month.
Andrew Do’s staff has told me that he will not be at Tuesday’s meeting. It’s unclear how Nelson can get the three votes that he needs to put his scheme in front of the voters.
But for now I would recommend that if you want to stop Nelson’s power-play, you would want to call, e-mail or post something on the Facebook pages of Nelson’s four colleagues:
**ACTION ALERT** PLEASE CONTACT THESE SUPERVISORS
Here is contact information for the four Supervisors:
Supervisor Andrew Do
Phone: (714) 834-3110
Email: ado@fyklaw.com
Supervisor Michelle Steel
Phone: (714) 834-3220
Email: michellesteel@shawnsteel.com
Contact them right away and tell them to vote no on the Nelson power play. I would not waste your time reaching out to Nelson. Anyone who would propose this is no longer listening to the people.
*Publisher’s note: This piece was revised at 8:15am to reflect the feedback from Supervisor Spitzer.