Past term

This morning’s Mercury had an editorial calling for term limits for the SCVWD Board. Not coincidentally, the agenda for this morning’s Board meeting (moved up from next week to go along with the budget workshops) included a discussion of term limits. I give Director Estremera credit for asking for this item on the agenda; no other special district in California has term limits for its board. That said, the most enthusiasm any Director could summon was Patrick Kwok’s “mixed feelings” on the subject. Director Sanchez felt that public sentiment was on the side of term limits, a position strenuously opposed by Director Santos, who said that he’s never had a constituent bring it up to him. Director Judge is flatly against term limits.

Director Wilson is also against the idea, but widened the discussion to increasing access for would-be candidates for Director. His ideas included District financing of either ballot statements or of entire campaigns. Chair Kamei, who won a very competitive election two years ago, wondered where the press attention was then. As I’ve noted before, the Board members will usually not mention l’affaire Zlotnick by name, so I have to assume that the incomprehension about the current press attention to the Board is not entirely real. Of course, the Mercury itself was very wrong to have ignored the SCVWD before the scandal broke.

I wouldn’t call myself an elephant in the room, but almost the entire discussion of making Board races more competitive took place with no acknowledgment of the District 2 election, although Director Judge did nod to me when he said that people look for term limits when they get mad, making a reference to the recall election of 2003.

I agree in principle with the sentiment expressed at the meeting that term limits are a blunt instrument to deal with the problem of voter alienation. However the perfect solution, eliminating that alienation and increasing engagement, is not going to happen. For bodies that receive almost no public scrutiny, like the SCVWD Board, term limits are tool to force incumbent turnover and bring in new blood and new ideas.

In the end, the Board voted to open public hearings on the subject, with no requirement to finish before the deadline for placing an item on the November ballot. Director Santos expressed the strong opinion that such hearings should be held out in the community, and I agree.