Mercury asks for term limits
The new District Act is getting more press. The Mercury editorializes this morning that elected directors should be limited to 12 years. Somewhat bizarrely, the editorial says:
Under the bill carried by Assemblyman Ira Ruskin, D-Los Altos, on behalf of the district, the board, with part-time members, would remain at seven by breaking the county into seven elective districts.
So far, so good. But redistricting alone isn’t enough.
How is the redistricting a solution to anything? Unless the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors is somehow undemocratic, it puzzles me why not using the same district boundaries as the county is any way to address an entrenched SCVWD board. The solution isn’t to add term limits to the current bill, it’s to scrap this amended District Act altogether.
[Edited 4/23/08: I had left out the word “not.”]
Amen! The current Board members have been there too long. And the amended District Act is a cheap ploy to allow appointed Board members (Estramero and Sanchez) to continue in office without having to get voted in.