May 01, 2015
Stepping up its game against what it sees as a moribund city council, one of Philadelphia’s newest political players, the PAC known as Philly 3.0, is launching a TV ad in favor of term limits for city council members today.
The ad references council’s recent action not to hold hearings on a proposed sale of PGW as a prime example of what they see as the problem.
“Warning: for Philadelphia taxpayers, city workers and retirees. Philadelphia has one of the worst pension gaps in the nation. $5.7 billion dollars. Yet city council refuses to act,” the ads says. “There was a plan to protect taxpayers and city workers, but council wouldn’t even hold hearings. No reasons, no answers. Typical. Another reason 73 percent of Philadelphians want term limits for city council.”
It’s true that Philadelphia’s city council has very little turnover, and once elected, members tend to stay in office for decades. Three current members have been in office for more than 24 years.
And term limits, if enacted, would put Philadelphia in good company. Of the nation’s 10 largest cities, only one, Chicago, has no term limits at all. Philadelphia is the only large city that limits the mayor’s term, and not city council’s. Most of these nationwide limits were enacted in a wave of voter-initiated reforms that occurred about 10 or 15 years ago.
“Chicago is the only of the cities that has no term limits at all, and most would observe that Chicago appears to most dysfunctional government among large cities,” said Nick Tomboulides, spokesman for U.S. Term Limits.org, a group that advocates for term limits nationwide. “In terms of public corruption, Chicago is number one.”
Philly 3.0’s executive director, Alison Perelman, explains it this way:
"Look, we’re a city of nearly 800,000 registered Democrats, and all it took to get back onto City Council in the last election was between 44,000 and 66,000 votes,” she said. “That’s fewer people than can fit into Lincoln Financial Field. Seriously. Student Council races at Temple University are more competitive than that.”
