Sam Yoon files for limits
Challenger targets terms
July 30, 2009
By: Richard Weir
Mayor Thomas M. Menino’s unwillingness to rule out another eight years in office gave ammunition to a term limit measure filed yesterday by challenger Sam Yoon, who said he wants to restore democracy to the city that give birth to it in the United States.
“It’s not personal about Tom Menino. It’s about democracy,” said the at-large city councilor, noting that his measure would “ensure a turnover of fresh ideas and new leadership at least every eight years. That’s what democracy is about.”
The Herald reported yesterday that Menino – already Boston’s longest-serving mayor – is primed for four more years and won’t rule out four more after that.
“I don’t know. I don’t plan those things out,” said Menino, 66.
Yoon wants to prevent Menino or any future mayor from having that choice. His petition, presented to the City Council yesterday, seeks to have the Legislature amend the city’s charter and cap at two the number of four-year terms Boston mayors can serve.
Yoon said his measure would “better engage voters, create more “open and competitive” races and force mayors to focus on fulfilling their agendas in eight years rather than in “endless elections.”
At-large City Councilor Michael Flaherty, who also is running for mayor, said he’s not opposed to term limits but wants the issue decided by voters as a ballot question.
“The question has really come to the fore because the mayor has not been able to regulate himself. When the mayor was elected, he pledged to Boston residents only to serve two terms. He went on to serve a third, a fourth, now he is seeking a fifth and thinking about a seventh and possibly an eighth,” Flaherty said.
“I think after 16 years, if you haven’t been able to accomplish all that you set out” to do, why “should you be given four more?” he said.
Menino declined to say whether he would support a term-limit bill – the measure has to come before him for approval – saying he needs to look at Yoon’s proposal.
But the mayor dismissed the notion in general, saying, “It’s campaign season.”
“We have term limits every time we put our names on the ballot,” he said. “People could throw us out of office as quickly as they put us in office.”
