[arin-discuss] Term Limit Proposal

Tue Mar 25 16:06:53 EDT 2014

On 03/25/2014 09:59, John Brown wrote:
> and when you don't term limit you can trend to stagnation and entrenchment. 

And when you *do* term limit, you can trend to stagnation and entrenchment.

In the city where I live, we have term limits on the mayor, who can only
serve two four-year terms.  Back in the early 2000s we had a mayor who
was competent, smart, energetic, and did a lot to help develop the city.
 Some of his plans weren't without controversy, but they did move the
city in what most people consider to be a better direction.  The areas
he targeted for redevelopment have received positive national and even
international coverage.  But he was termed out after two terms.  The
next elected mayor was the picture of stagnation and entrenchment.  He
did _nothing_.  It's not clear he even knew he was the mayor.[1]
Fortunately, he was too lazy to run for a second term.

Our current mayor is arguably not much better.  She's of questionable
competence, has been accused of cronyism, and has managed to alienate
large parts of the city.  My personal view is that she's not horrible,
but she's not as good as what we had back in the early 2000s.

Applying this thinking to the AC, how do term limits help the situation?
 The longest-serving AC members are about as independent from industry
meddling as one can be.  Forcing them out due to term limits would not
only rob the AC of their knowledge and experience, it would open the
door to filling their roles with industry-propped candidates.  And the
big players can easily overcome term limits by simply rotating members
of their large staffs through as others become termed out, whereas
smaller players cannot do that.  Those concerned about the undue
influence of the "big guys" should be very worried about term limits.

Term limits as a concept is certainly interesting and it sounds nice
until you really start to think it through (or experience its effects).
 It has a wonderful populist overtone (if you actually like populism)
but actually takes power away from the people.

Anyway, sorry for the long note.  I am done now.

michael

[1] http://oaklandunseen.tumblr.com/post/34857548712/ron-dellums (yes,
it's supposed to be a joke, but there's a reason it's actually funny)

> On Tue, Mar 25, 2014 at 10:48 AM, Jawaid Bazyar
> <Jawaid.Bazyar at forethought.net <mailto:Jawaid.Bazyar at forethought.net>>
> wrote:
> 
>     Democracy is overrated. But term limits are a bad idea.
> 
>     Paul notes a couple reasons - you lose talent and experience.
> 
>     I will add another one. When you term limit the people who are
>     elected, power will shift to the permanent bureaucracy - the aides,
>     the managers, etc and away from the people who are elected and
>     accountable to the membership. Power shifting from the elected to
>     the unelected is the precise opposite of what people hope for from
>     term limits.
> 
> 
>     On 03/25/2014 10:33 AM, Paul Timmins wrote:
> 
>         I have concerns that forcing people out of a position where
>         people repeatedly vote for them is undemocratic, and can
>         threaten the stability of the regulatory regime by forcing
>         people with experience out of a role when their judgement may be
>         perfectly okay and properly reflect community consensus.
> 
>         It also can promote inappropriate industry influence by allowing
>         large players to target roles well in advance knowing a certain
>         candidate will be out of the election to cause undue influence
>         on ARIN's policies.
> 
>         Additionally, the proposal is being floated by someone who has
>         been on the BOT for 6 years, and thus their judgement may be
>         clouded because they've been on the BOT too long.
> 
>         Paul Timmins
>         Clear Rate Communications
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