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Dick Steinberg has resided in the city of Brookfield for 35 years. He served 34 years as municipal judge and has been an attorney for 50 years. He enjoys tennis, golf, biking and creative writing, which includes legal issues, sports, government and people.

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TERM LIMITS PART 1.

By Richard J. Steinberg
Wednesday, Sep 10 2008, 11:06 AM

Term limits for elected officials has long been a topic of discussion, from federal to state to local public offices. My research includes JSONLINE which is a valuable source.

The focus of this article is on local public offices starting at the top.

JSONLINE relates that in Grafton, WI. 71% of the voters in 1994 favored an advisory referendum for term limits, and on April 1, 2008 Fondulac,WI. voters decided by 62% to keep term limits. In 1994 Cedarburg, WI. voters approved an advisory referendum on term limits 2-1.

There have been arguments pro and con on the subject of term limits.

Historically, term limits or rotation in office dates bach to the American Revolution, and before then early civilizations such as Ancient Greece and Rome.

The President of the United States of America is subject to term limits by means of the 22nd Amendment to the US CONSTITUTION in 1951.

There are local municipal governments who have adopted term limits, and in the City of Brookfield there is no term limit for the highest office of Mayor.

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Comments

Scott Berg   

Correct, there are no term limits on any elected official in the City of Brookfield, including the mayor, municipal judge and aldermen.  I cannot recall any discussion of imposing such limits since my own election in April, 2000.

Some would argue Brookfield has gone in the opposite direction.  Starting in April, 2002 the aldermanic positions changed from all 2 year terms to 4 year terms with half (7) seats up every two years.  I opposed that change since I believed then and still believe that shorter terms provide greater accountability at the polls.  A counter argument is that it takes two years to learn enough about the job to really become effective.  The longest serving alderman was Norm Draeger at (I believe) 39 years.

Changing municipal judge to a 4 year term was briefly considered, but no action was taken.  You could argue fairness since judge and mayor are the only two city wide elections, making the incumbent judge work twice as hard to stay in office, compared to the mayor.  Given the 34 year tenure of Judge Steinberg despite several contested races, that doesn't seem to be much of a real issue.

September 10, 2008 11:32 AM

mick   

We already have term limits...it's called elections. If you don't like the incumbent then vote them out. Term limits can also have the negative effect of forcing out a good office holder. It's merely a way of forcing someone out of office in a manner unachievable through the elective process.

September 10, 2008 2:43 PM

mick   

We already have term limits...it's called elections. If you don't like the incumbent then vote them out. Term limits can also have the negative effect of forcing out a good office holder. It's merely a way of forcing someone out of office in a manner unachievable through the elective process.

September 10, 2008 2:56 PM

Richard J. Steinberg   

To repeat, Term Limits, Part 1, the focus is on the office of mayor.

To correct, Municipal Judge became a 4 year term in 2004 by vote of the city aldermen.

September 12, 2008 6:07 PM

Scott Berg   

Oops!  Absolutely right, Dick.  There was some debate, but in the end it became 4 years for judge.

Perhaps you could also comment on Brookfield's system of two alderman each for 7 districts as opposed to the more common one alderman per district.

September 12, 2008 8:47 PM

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