Rosendahl’s Twisting Take on Term Limits Plan

The chambers of the Los Angeles City Council were crowded with City Hall staffers last Wednesday.

Many staffers skip the meetings -- they can be a black hole into which time vanishes -- but couldn’t resist the spectacle of watching council members justify putting a measure on the Nov. 7 ballot to potentially extend their political careers.

It was a foregone conclusion that the council would approve the measure, which would expand the current limit of two terms to three. But then Councilman Bill Rosendahl said: “I’ve had a real problem with this, and I want to talk about it.”

His beef, in short, was that easing up on term limits could give council members a lock on their seats for too long. Unless, that is, the city also enacted campaign-finance reform to make it easier to unseat an incumbent.

Rosendahl finished his speech and then had a chat with a few colleagues. The next time he rose during the debate, his tone was a little different.

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Question: What did he say?

Answer: Buckle up. Here’s the transcription:

“To be personal for a second, there are many folks around this horseshoe who have done an incredibly good job serving the public,” Rosendahl said. “If we stay with two terms, we lose Eric Garcetti, we lose Jan Perry, we lose Janice Hahn, we lose Ed Reyes, we lose Mr. Zine over there, my buddy, and we lose Jack Weiss.

“Now I don’t know about Jack Weiss, where his head is at and where he wants to go with it, but I can tell you that when I look at Janice Hahn, I get inspired. I get inspired about what she thinks, and how she acts and what she believes in, her passion, her intellect and her vision.

“I sit next to Ed Reyes. I’m sitting next to a guy with a big heart and a big soul and a classy guy, a guy who cares about people first.

“When I hear Eric Garcetti as president, I marvel at his articulation, I marvel at his energy of coalition building, his consensus building, his openness. He’s a terrific president of our council.

“When I listen to Dennis Zine and he talks about personnel matters and he talks about people that matter that have served our city government, about the police and the fire and the overall workers, I’m passionate because he’s passionate about these people.

“When I look at Jan Perry, I look at a very bright, focused, hardworking, honest, strong person who has a lot of things that she wants to accomplish and I really want her to have that opportunity to accomplish it.

“So what I’ve just said about Dennis Zine, you know, Ed Reyes, Janice Hahn and Jan Perry and Eric Garcetti, is that I would give them unlimited opportunities to get elected, frankly, because they are really good public servants. So this is where I am at now.

“I truly believe in comprehensive campaign finance reform, I truly believe in a level playing field, I truly believe because I’ve been a member of the League of Women Voters for over 20 years and I did more television shows on elections than everybody in this state and everybody in this state combined. I literally did hundreds of them....

“And I can tell you that when I was with the cardinal [Roger M. Mahony] the night before last, he said: ‘You know Bill, your City Council is the best I’ve ever seen because of the high energy and the positive commitment these people have to make the world a better place.’ ”

Rosendahl finished by saying he believes it’s up to the people to decide, then joined the 14-0 vote to put the measure before the electorate.

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Q: How have efforts to ease term limits gone in other places?

A: In 2004, voters in Montana and Arkansas resoundingly rejected ballot measures to soften term limits. And in Florida last spring, a similar measure was yanked off the ballot after term-limit advocates launched a media blitz against it.

On the other hand, the Idaho and Utah legislatures repealed their states’ statutory term limits in 2002 and 2003, respectively.

And in Colorado in recent years, more than 100 cities and 51 of 64 counties have repealed or relaxed term limits.

Virgil Harms, the mayor since 1961 of Paoli, Colo. -- one of the first cities in the state to eliminate term limits -- said that he wasn’t sure why so many Colorado locales had rolled back term-limit laws, but that it made sense for his town.

“Our town is a town of 40 people, and if you get rid of me, how are you going to get somebody to serve?” asked Harms, a farmer. “It wasn’t my idea, but I got caught up in it.”

It doesn’t appear there have been any successful attempts in California lately to soften term limits.

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Q: And, circling back to the city of Los Angeles, which developer wants a waiver from a law that would require him to build affordable housing?

A: Geoff Palmer, who got into trouble in 2003 when a contractor hired by his firm knocked down the oldest home on Bunker Hill without a permit -- whoops! -- leading to his settling with the city by accepting a $200,000 fine.

Now the developer is trying to build another of his Italian-themed apartment buildings in a part of downtown west of the 110 Freeway. A parking lot occupies the site.

City law holds that, in that part of town, developers must set aside 15% of their units for low-income tenants and charge them lower rents. Palmer has asked to be relieved of that requirement.

He has sought exemptions before and been able to negotiate with the city for fewer affordable units.

Palmer doesn’t believe the law is fair because developers in most other areas of the city aren’t held to such laws. And he thinks his market-rate apartments will be more affordable than condominiums around town.

“We’re not asking for any government support” on the project, said Peter Novak, an executive vice president with Palmer’s development firm. “This is 100% privately financed.”

In a 2001 interview with The Times, Palmer said: “Why should one developer be responsible for all of society’s ills? I’m a businessman. I want to build what the market dictates. Don’t tell me who we should build for.”

The city planning department is expected to decide this week.

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Q: Where does Palmer live?

A: He recently bought a $17-million beachfront home in Malibu, a great place to escape from his $21-million spread in Beverly Hills.

Q: What would the Los Angeles Leafblowers’ helmets look like?

A: One of the missions of this column is to propose or promote bold ideas that are perhaps overlooked by busy local legislators.

A few months ago it was suggested in this column by Tony Perez, a deputy to Councilman Ed Reyes, that if the city gets a pro football team, that team’s name should be the Leafblowers -- after one of the great City Hall brouhahas of our time.

One reader, who would rather remain anonymous, took time out during his busy workday to help design some prospective team helmets. Check them out.

The designs received lukewarm reviews in City Hall. Some suggested that the leafblower on some designs resembled an angry whistle. Others thought the “LB” should, of course, be “LA.”

Bernard Parks Jr. -- whose boss (and father), the councilman, is leading the city’s effort to land a team -- was less than enthusiastic when a reporter showed him the designs.

“You need more sleep,” Parks Jr. said to a reporter.

Sleep? Not a problem, sir. I attend three City Council meetings most weeks.

Times staff writer Juliet Chung contributed to this report. Steve Hymon can be reached at steve.hymon@ latimes.com.