Almost as bad as the downsizing scheme is the proposal for four-year terms. Longer terms make officials less accountable to the voters and are virtually guaranteed to increase the influence of special interests that can afford to lobby the council.

Proposals for term limits are, by their nature, anti-democratic. They deny candidates a chance to run and voters a chance to select the officials they choose. We oppose them at all levels of government but they are especially dangerous at the local level, where they meddle with the robust democracy that should also exist at the neighborhood level. (This is also a solution in search of a problem, as it is exceptionally rare for alders to serve more than 12 years under the current system.)67,950

This brings us to the question of pay for alders. We respect some of the arguments that have been made for increasing pay for alders, many of whom work so hard some weeks that they are probably not making the minimum wage. We are open to the idea of providing a pay hike for alders, and we can also see value in giving them access to at least some of the benefits available to city workers. But we are ill at ease with the idea of going to a full-time council of professional politicians. That seems to us to be a recipe for providing less in the way of genuine representation and more in the way of insider empowerment.