City Charter change would lock grip of political elites

Oahu voters next month may be deciding not only who will lead the city for the next four years, but also for the following four years through 2024.

That’s because of controversial proposed City Charter amendment No. 15, which would perpetuate our political elite by extending term limits for City Council members and mayor from two consecutive four-year terms to three.

It’s a bad idea that was resoundingly rejected by voters when term limit changes were last put on the ballot in 2006.

Looser term limits lock in the game of musical chairs in which entrenched politicians sitting on fat special-interest bankrolls shuttle back and forth between the City Council and state Legislature, with little opportunity for newcomers.

Five of nine current Council members are former state legislators, and a like number of legislators are former Council members.

Rep. Romy Cachola and Sen. Donna Mercado Kim bounced from the Legislature to the Council and back to the Legislature when they hit term limits.

Proponents of Charter amendment No. 15, championed by City Council-appointed members of the Charter Commission, claim it’s about improving continuity in city government, but that’s laughable with today’s dysfunction at Honolulu Hale.

The mayor and Council are political competitors more than collaborators for a better Honolulu, battling fiercely over everything from rail to homelessness to community grants, with little being accomplished.

Do we need continuity of such futility, or do we need fresh thinking focused on solid solutions instead of tired political games? The best chance of electoral competition, for Council seats especially, is when incumbents hit term limits.

This amendment is about career continuity for professional politicians: If it passes, the four Council members assured of re-election this year get at least one more gift term, as do the five members running in 2018.

It greatly benefits Council Chairman Ernie Martin, who ducked running for mayor this year and hinted at a 2020 run instead.

If the Charter amendment passes, he’d be spared unemployment for two years with his 2018 term limit gone “poof.”

Mayor Kirk Caldwell can’t be blamed for Charter amendment No. 15, as three of his Charter Commission appointees voted against it, but he could benefit politically the same as Martin.

Caldwell once had ideas of running for governor in 2018 when Gov. Neil Abercrombie would have hit his term limit, but after Gov. David Ige upset Abercrombie, he wouldn’t see an open seat until 2022.

Assuming he gets by Charles Djou this year, a bonus mayoral term would keep him visible if he still has designs on Washington Place.

Eighty percent of Honolulu voters had it right when they enacted term limits in 1992 to discourage such entrenchment, and it would be a mistake now to make city elected office even more of a closed shop.

Reach David Shapiro at volcanicash@gmail.com.