Video Transcript
ANC: When you head to the ballot box tomorrow, you aren’t just voting for the next mayor and county legislators, but you also are voting for or against term limits. What exactly is Onondaga county’s Prop 1? Allow me to show you.
VO: If you find yourself in the Onondaga County Courthouse, you might be trying to get out of there as quickly as possible. Whether its jury duty or contesting a parking ticket, it’s not like you want to be there. Unless you’re an Onondaga County legislator. In the legislature inside the courthouse, county legislators can stay as long as you please and many have. Until maybe today. If Onondaga County proposition one passes, a couple of things would happen. First, it would change the term length from 2 years to four years to give legislators more time to govern rather than campaign. Second it would put the cap at three terms for a total of 12 years in office. However, current legislators would be grandfathered in, and the rule would only take effect from this election on. So reps like Brian May and David Knapp, who have served since 2011, would have to concede their seats in 2038. This notably creates split opinion. But the Syracuse.com editorial board was not afraid to take a stand when they endorsed the proposition.
Marie Morelli: And so we’ll have new voices. We’ll have new ideas, and we’ll have less of an incumbency advantage, because when you’re in office for a very long time you build up a lot of favors and influence, and it’s hard to knock you off if you’re a challenger.
SOKOLSKY : You might think this kind of cap on power and influence would not have support of the legislature but that’s not accurate, at least off the jump. Legislator Maurice Brown wrote a blog post on his website to endorse a term limit on his own tenure. However, Brown has since changed his mind on the matter.
MAURICE BROWN: This proposal should include everyone. It should include, you know, the executives. It should include the sheriff. It should include, you know, a lot of these countywides. Uh, our district attorney has been, you know, Bill Fitzpatrick has been there since, I think, 03, 05. Um, he’s been there a long time.
SOKOLSKY: Although Brown supports four year terms and term limits, he thinks this initiative was rushed onto the ballot, and it is flawed. But regardless, he and Morelli are pleased that this decision belongs to the community.
SYRACUSE, N.Y. — Residents of Onondaga County are not just voting for their next legislature tomorrow, but for the future of the office itself. If passed, Proposition One, on the back of the ballot, would institute term limits on Onondaga County legislators.
There are currently no term limits in place for the Onondaga County legislature or executive. If this proposition passes, it will cap only the legislature at three terms. Prop one would also extend the term length of legislators from two years to four years.
County Legislator Maurice Brown approves of having longer terms. To him, it translates into more effective governance.
“It’s really hard to get stuff done in two years, because you spend the first year orienting yourself, just trying to get your feet under you,” says Brown, who was elected in 2023. “Then you spend the next year trying to get elected again.”
Brown posted a blog post to his campaign cite initially endorsing his constituents to vote yes on proposition one. However, after hearing other perspectives, the first-term legislator now is not in favor of the matter. Brown wishes other parts of the Onondaga County government would also receive term limits with the legislature.
“I hope we put something else in front of the voters that is more complete,” Brown said. “That includes all of the county wide offices.” Brown additionally disagrees with the timing of the proposition, citing a higher voter turnout rate on presidential election years.
Despite his disagreements on when this initiative is put in front of voters, and the narrow scope of who it targets, he generally agrees that term limits are necessary to a functioning democracy. This is a view shared by Marie Morelli, the Editorial Opinion Lead for Syracuse.com.
“With people having staggered terms, there’s going to be some new ideas, new voices, new blood on the legislature,” Morelli said, who recently penned an article endorsing proposition one. “We’ll have less of an incumbency advantage. … It’s hard for an incumbent to lose.”
Both Morelli and Brown agree that 12 years is too long of a time for legislators to serve. Brown, a member of the Democratic caucus, argued to have the limits cap at two terms at four years.