On Dec. 10 you opined that term limits for local politicians is bad because it restricts the pool of available candidates, and because the voters are quite capable to reject incumbents.
All across government we have seen incompetence, cronyism, unethical and illegal behavior " often with multi-term incumbents and rising stars. Career politicians tend to lose their moral compass and/or their passion to exclusively and unselfishly serve the electorate. Andy Grove of Intel Corp. wrote a book titled "Only the Paranoid Survive" in which he claims that a degree of paranoia in leadership keeps the mind sharply focused and avoids the old cliche of "fat, dumb, and happy." This certainly applies to politicians.
We need systemic changes to our political system. First, gerrymandering has been rampant in our national politics such that 80 to 90 percent of seats are solidly aligned with one party or the other, thereby stamping out most of the "productive paranoia." Second, the absence of term limits encourages politicians to view their seats as somewhat akin to a life-long appointment, with ascension to higher office being the pre-destined pathway forward. Third, if we encourage a long term "good old boys club" we can't fail to foster cronyism, which almost inevitably leads to disservice to the electorate.
Some politicians may deserve to be in office in perpetuity, but there is just too much advantage to the incumbent because folks are resistant to throw out incumbents who have become part of the family. The strongest evidence for term limits can be seen with the U.S. Congress. They consistently poll below 20 percent job rating approval, yet the vast majority is re-elected time after time. It is similar to a row of carrots growing in the garden from seed " every carrot may be a good carrot, but many must be reluctantly weeded out for the betterment of the whole crop.
It seems to me that about 8 years maximum service is the optimal balance of capturing the value of experience and avoiding the traps of incumbency. A continuous flow of new faces and fresh ideas is stimulating and tends to keep the whole process "honest." And the learning curve for new electees need not be arduous. If the political entity in question is too small to generate a flow of fresh candidates then perhaps it is too small to exist as a separate political body and should be merged or disbanded.
Let's look at the districting of Douglas County commissioners. Does the environment and set of concerns up at Lake Tahoe naturally group together with those on Foothill Road to make a homogeneous district? Do we really have five distinctly different districts in Douglas County that can and do generate a constant flow of top quality candidates for county commissioner? Or is this gerrymandering driven by equalizing resident-count, thus causing an artificial handicap to good government? State law does accommodate at large county commissioners.
But your central theme, that our political structure does not employ term limits even-handedly, is valid and needs attention. I urge all our local and state leaders, formal and informal, to take this time of recession as an opportunity to consolidate and restructure in preparation for the inevitable upcoming return to boom times.
Please consider greater use of term limits and reducing gerrymandering. Top quality leaders are passionate to keep both our short-term crises and these long-term issues front and center simultaneously.
n Jim Herd is a Gardnerville resident.
