Proposal would raise bar for amending charter
Putnam County legislators are weighing charter amendments that would make it harder to change term limits and eliminate ambiguity about how many times the county executive can serve.
Dan Birmingham, the deputy county executive, briefed the Rules Committee on Sept. 12 on a proposal to require a unanimous vote of the Legislature to change the maximum of four 3-year terms. A change now requires approval by six of the nine legislators.
A second proposal would clean up charter language that limits the county executive to two consecutive 4-year terms. New wording would clarify that the county executive cannot serve more than two terms, “whether partial or full, and whether consecutive or not.”
Initially, the agenda for the meeting indicated the Rules Committee would discuss extending legislative terms from three to four years in anticipation that the state would require elections to be held in even-numbered years, as it did recently for towns. The charter amendment proposed by Birmingham would allow the Legislature to waive unanimous consent if state law required a change.
If approved by the full Legislature, the charter amendment would be subject to a permissive referendum, which allows residents to collect signatures to put an issue on the ballot.
“I’m a strong proponent of term limits,” said Ginny Nacerino, who has represented Patterson for 12 years and will leave office on Dec. 31 because of term limits. “We’ve seen how dysfunctional Albany operates and we certainly don’t want people here forever.”
The Rules Committee meeting had its own moments of confusion, with a resident who spoke toward the end calling it “disorganized.”
Twenty minutes into Birmingham’s presentation, he realized that some legislators in attendance who were not on the committee thought they were discussing whether to extend terms from three to four years. That initial proposal had been attached to the distributed agenda.
Birmingham said that he talked to an unnamed county official who believed that “it could be a distraction” to propose adding an extra year. “It detracts from the main point of ‘let’s lock in and solidify and protect the term-limit provisions,’” he said.
Erin Crowley, who represents the Town of Carmel and Mahopac, asked why the proposals were not vetted by the Charter Review Committee, but Birmingham said its members only meet once every 10 years and just convened in 2023.
While Paul Jonke, who chairs the Legislature, called for the Rules Committee to vote on the amendments before adjourning, Nancy Montgomery, who represents Philipstown and part of Putnam Valley, reminded the committee that the agenda had not been updated with the revised versions.
“The public doesn’t know,” Montgomery said before the proposals were tabled. “The public thinks we’re approving extending our terms.”
