JESSICA MERTURI
Staff Writer
On Tuesday, April 11 the City of Malibu will not only elect City Council members, but they will also be voting on Measure U.
As City Attorney Christi Hogin put it in this year’s sample ballot, “Measure U is a proposal to adopt an ordinance that would increase from two to three the number of four-year terms to which a person may be elected to serve on the City Council.”
In April 2000, 64 percent of Malibu voters decided that the number of four-year terms that an elected City Council member should serve is two. However before that law can even take effect, proponents for Measure U are trying to get voters to say “yes” to the new proposal and increase the number of limits to three.
“It is always better if people have the widest possible choice in potential elected representatives,” said Doug Kmiec, chair and professor of constitutional law at Pepperdine’s Law School, “and term limits actually narrow that choice artificially by declaring members of the community, even if talented or capable, ineligible.
“There’s no question that there’s value in having fresh faces or new blood or turnover in political office,” Kmiec, who wrote the rebuttal to the argument against Measure U on this year’s ballot, went on to say, “but the proponents of Measure U believe that that is a judgment for the voters.”
Kmiec believes that ‘it is more advantageous for voters to have a full plate of candidates where no one is left off the ballot’. The voter should be the one to decide whether to re-elect the seasoned incumbent or replace them with a new candidate.
“Term limits abbreviate that choice,” Kmiec said.
Kmiec became involved with Measure U when he was asked to evaluate the measure by fellow parishioner and Malibu City Council Member Pamela C. Ulich because of his in depth study of term limits. “As a fellow parishioner and member of community I was glad to do it,” Kmiec said.
Kmiec’s own study of the American Constitution has led him to believing that term limits are “fundamentally anti-democratic.”
“One of the things that’s true about or founding period is that it was populated by political theorists of great wisdom,” Kmiec said. In his rebuttal argument against Measure U, the great theorists Kmiec referred to were the justices of the U.S. Supreme Court who believed that term limits restrict the power of the people when it comes to electing who they think would best represent them.
“[Proponents for Measure U] were concerned about a circumstance where all experienced members of the council might leave at one time,” Kmiec said, “and thereby depriving the city of the benefit of their insight and leaving only new members who would have to do a great deal of studying and learning, just to arrive at the position that the more experienced members had.”
Opponents for Measure U view this notion of keeping old members in office as a way for the proponents chosen candidate to stay in control.
“This is not about policy, it’s about power”, stated Richard H. Carrigan, treasurer for Citizens Against Measure U.
“They did this for themselves,” said Carrigan. “Not for the people.”
Carrigan believes that there are two problems at hand. The first being that it is unfair of the proponents to try and make Measure U apply to this year’s candidates just because it is their chosen incumbents that are going to be termed out.
“It’s a slap in the face to the voters who voted in 2000,” Carrigan said. “It’s overturning democracy.”
Carrigan, along with three fellow activists, pleaded with the council on January 9 that if Measure U passed, to make the laws applicable to future council members.
Carrigan believes that in order to be democratic, proponents must allow the vote in 2000 to take its course before trying to bring about a new law.
Rich Fox, fellow co-signer of argument against Measure U, agreed.
“It’s outrageous that they allow themselves to benefit from the law change,” Fox said.
Fox, like Kmiec, does not believe in term limits. However, his major qualm is that if current members of the City Council meant well by their idea of Measure U then they “must eliminate themselves from benefiting from their own action” when their own second term ends.
The second point Carrigan made was that “in a small city like Malibu, eight years is enough.”
“If eight years is enough for the President of the United States, don’t you think that should be enough for Malibu City Council Members?” Carrigan said.
Carrigan believes that rotation in office allows for “new blood and new ideas” into the political arena every eight years. To Carrigan, holding a political office is no place to become an “entrenched lifetime politician.”
“If you serve eight years, you are doing that for the benefit of community and civic responsibility,” Carrigan said. “If it goes beyond eight years, it’s not a public service anymore. It’s a career, in my opinion.”
According to Carrigan, the longer an elected official spends in office, the greater advantage they have over new candidates. This is due mostly to the amount of advertising, visibility, and media coverage they receive.
“Look at the ads of Barovsky and Stern,” Fox said. “Over the years, as incumbents, they have developed a supporter base of dozens of people that they can immediately call upon to make donations, whereas challengers begin without any previous supporters to call upon to donate to their campaign.”
Fox believes that this automatically puts them at a “huge financial advantage.”
“Because so few voters pay attention to local politics,” Fox added, “people often vote for names they recognize.”
Opponents, like Carrigan and Fox, want the playing field to be more level.
“The way you maintain a level playing field is to neutralize the advantage of the incumbents,” Carrigan said. “There are plenty of good, capable, civic-minded citizens in this community and they volunteer for commissions and committees. And they should be given an opportunity to get on the city council and bring their vision for Malibu to the fore.”
Elections take place Tuesday, April 11. On that day, voters will also be able to vote on Measure U. The polls are open between 7:00a.m. and 8:00p.m. For information regarding your poling place, viewing a sample ballot, or filling out an absentee ballot, go to www.ci.malibu.ca.us.
04-11-2006