Term Limits

CITY Council needs a two-term limit. Eight years is enough. Council folks know they'll keep getting re-elected. They get the sense that they can do whatever they please, and the law no longer applies to them. They're supposed to be public servants, yet some of them are only interested in serving themselves. Joseph Wolos, Philadelphia

WHEN anyone is elected to an office on the city, state or federal level, term limits should come into play. The voters should be able to put a candidate in for two terms - and then they have to get out. Most of these old geezers want more and more. They believe they have the power to do as they please. Deals are constantly being made behind closed doors. They all preach the same thing, "Do as I say, not as I do. " A lot of incumbents are up for re-election. I'll bet Harry Reid and that disgraceful woman Pelosi are sweating.

STU BYKOFSKY'S column on state Rep. Mark Cohen's expense habits highlights precisely why I am an ardent supporter of term limits. Our founding fathers never intended for citizens to make a lifelong career of serving in elective office! Dale Septer, Cherry Hill The forgotten day D-Day, June 6, 1944, the invasion of Normandy. "The longest day. " The beginning of the end of World War II. June 6, 2007, the 63rd anniversary of D-Day and not a word in either the Daily News.

MIAMI - Dissidents in Cuba on Sunday dismissed Raul Castro's call for term limits, branding it an empty gesture designed actually to extend the Castro brothers' 52 years in power. The proposal, if implemented, would mean Raul Castro would have to step down as head of government in 2018, when he would be 86. His older brother Fidel transferred power to him after emergency surgery in 2006. Fidel Castro was 79 then, as his brother is now. The proposal is positive but "doesn't resolve our essential problem, which is the monopoly on power by a group whose policies have failed for 50 years," dissident economist Oscar Espinosa Chepe said by phone from Havana.

Among the proposals soon to be haggled over in Congress is a measure to limit the number of terms each U.S. representative or senator would be permitted to serve. Although some may believe the 1994 elections stand as a strong argument against term limits, they remain a necessary political reform. The purpose of term limits is to change the present Washington mentality that makes self-preservation a higher goal than responsible government. If a politician approaches his job knowing that his service will be temporary, he will be more likely to look beyond narrow, parochial interests.

The specter of term limits haunts politicians everywhere. Last year voters in California and Colorado approved referendums curtailing the tenure of state legislators, and the matter is now in the courts. Now an initiative in Washington State threatens to unseat House Speaker Tom Foley. Although term limits seem to have an irresistible appeal to a disgruntled electorate, many experts are skeptical. They see the idea as a Republican ploy to win a House majority, and say it would sacrifice valuable expertise by forcing experienced legislators to retire.

Michele Masterfano lives and writes in Philadelphia When I drive across the Schuylkill on 34th Street, coming out of University City, I always think that the Center City towers, with the sunlight reflecting off them, looks like the Emerald City. It looks prosperous, bustling, and happy, even though you are just looking at buildings. But I've also come to realize that there really is a wizard behind the curtain pulling the levers that run the city. That wizard is not a man speaking into a booming microphone but the machine politics of this city.

THE QUESTION of auditor independence is at the heart of the Enron fiasco. Although many of the current proposals to ensure this independence are worth considering, the best of them is one borrowed from the world of government and politics: term limits. Like elected officials in New York City and elsewhere, auditors of publicly held companies should be allowed to serve the same company for only a set number of years. An auditing firm that knew that its contract had a defined time horizon - say, five years - would have far less incentive to compromise its standards to accommodate a management whose accounting practices were questionably aggressive or problematic.

STU, great column on the Deferred Retirement Option Plan. I'm from Northeast Philly, and you can count on me to pass the word not to vote for Verna, Rizzo, Tasco and DiCicco. These Council members are a disgrace. They are so arrogant they truly believe there's no one else out there who could do a better job than they do. The only way to stop this is to put term limits on City Council. Three are all you get, and then you have to find another office to run for - or get another job. How about another article explaining how we, the citizens of Philadelphia, can vote to put term limits on City Council - and, while we're at it, on any office that allows unlimited years in office.

IFOR ONE AM a proud senior citizen. I've seen many come and many go. I say we need term limits to any elected office. Some of these geezers are like fixtures on the wall. Two terms and hit the road. We need some young blood in office to represent the taxpayers. Vote the bums out, the people must push for this resolution. Pat Panichelli, Philadelphia

HAVANA - Cuban President Raul Castro has unexpectedly raised the possibility of leaving his post, saying Friday that he is old and has a right to retire. But he did not say when he might do so or if such a move was imminent. The Cuban leader is scheduled to be named by parliament to a new five-year term on Sunday, and he urged reporters to listen to his speech that day. "I am going to resign," Castro said at a joint appearance with visiting Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev.

AS JANUARY WINDS down, so does that political period I call "the month of good ideas. " This, annually, is the too-limited time during which our elected officials offer grand proposals to make democracy better. They push sensible plans, which is great. But, like many New Year's resolutions, there's more promise than progress. Take the "no budget, no pay" bill passed last week by the U.S. House. Not paying members if they can't do a budget is appealing, right? Yeah, and unconstitutional.

AS A NATIVE of Pennsylvania who now lives abroad, I wholeheartedly agree with John Baer's explanation of Rick Santorum's landslide defeat in 2006: "Pennsylvania got to know him. " Baer's statement that Rick Santorum wants to outlaw gay marriage, though, actually downplays the former senator's extremism. If he had his druthers, Santorum would outlaw gay sex between consenting adults. In discussing Lawrence v. Texas, an ultimately successful challenge to an anti-sodomy law, Santorum said that a Supreme Court finding in favor of "the right to consensual sex within your home" would be equivalent to a right to bigamy, polygamy, incest and adultery.

ATLANTIC CITY - When the Revel mega-casino opens in May, many of its dealers, beverage servers and other customer service workers will be young, attractive and sexy. And a policy the casino is implementing will probably keep it that way. Applicants are being told they will have jobs for perhaps only four years at a time, after which they will have to reapply. That means competing with younger, fresher faces - a requirement that has never been made before in the 33-year history of casino gambling in Atlantic City.

THIS JANUARY, Philadelphia City Council says goodbye to six members. That's a lot of turnover for a legislative body that evolves about as frequently as the British monarchy. It's also an opportunity for some positive change. But change doesn't have to wait until the new year. As lame ducks, the six departing members - Anna Verna, Jack Kelly, Frank DiCicco, Donna Reed Miller, Frank Rizzo and Joan Krajewski - have a unique opportunity, to forget about the political pressures getting elected or of keeping their political cronies happy.

PHILADELPHIA'S Gun Court - a seven-year "experiment" - will be closing at the end of the year due to funding issues. Court officials reportedly have "no data" on whether the court succeeded in preventing future gun crimes by the defendants. Seriously? No data after being in existence for seven long years? In other words, Gun Court was just another tax-funded government program that ultimately proved to be a complete failure! Rob Boyden Drexel Hill Term limits for bozos Term limits for all elected offices.

WHEN ASKED, several City Council members had no problem with Dwight Evans' backroom brawling to get the SRC to choose his preferred charter provider, Foundations, over the firm picked by parents and the community. Evans' machinations and those of then-School Reform Commission head Robert Archie were detailed in a report issued last week by city Chief Intergrity Officer Joan Markman. Marian Tasco, who is a contender for Council presidency, said, "It's a disagreement. Folks fight for their point of view.

To us, the more people talking, the better. That's why, starting today, we're creating a way for more people to be at the table, weighing in on how to make this city better. Today, the People's Paper is launching the People's Editorial Board. The board will be a group of eight to 10 citizens who meet to discuss and deliberate over Philadelphia's hot topics, like "Should police use 'stop-and-frisk' tactics?" or "What should we do about those damn bicyclists who don't follow traffic rules?"

IN LAST week's One Great Idea, Joey Vento had it right by recommending that we clean up waste in the system. The voting, taxpaying public needs to demand that the city bring fiscal responsibility and honest government back from near extinction. Start by downsizing City Council by several seats as the population base clearly doesn't justify the size. Next the school board should be under the public eye and not under an overpaid and over-perked czar. Her funding of "pet" programs is a slap in the face to taxpayers.