This past Election Day, NYC voters passed a Charter Amendment calling for restoration of the two-term limit for citywide elected officials, borough presidents and councilmembers. The proposal also included a loophole, according to Councilmember Erich Ulrich, (D–Ozone Park), which allows 34 incumbent councilmembers (including Ulrich himself) who were elected prior to 2010 to serve three terms.

Now Ulrich and New York Civics have joined forces to eliminate the third-term loophole and restore the city’s term limit law to restrict elected officials to two consecutive four-year terms.

Ulrich, the only councilmember to join with former Parks Commissioner Henry Stern and New York Civic at the City Hall meeting to promote their proposal, stated, “The Charter Revision Commission failed to take care of this issue, and instead capitulated to the political powers that be. No one is indispensible, including yours truly. The people have spoken three times on this issue. We have to make it right again.”

Also participating in the campaign are Perez Cassino, a Charter Commission member, former Lt. Governor Betsy McCaughey, Seymour Lachman, director of the Hugh Carey Center for Government Reform at Wagner College and former Deputy Mayor Randy Mastro. The campaign goal is to collect the signatures needed to include this initiative on the 2011 ballot.