At a town board meeting on January 5th, the 2014 law restricting Clarkstown officers to eight year terms was repealed. This decision comes after three residents, including the town’s supervisor, sued the town in state court contesting the term limits law.
The town supervisor, George Hoehmann, is reaching the end of his second four year term and wishes to run again. This term limits law, which he himself voted in favor of in 2014, would have blocked him from this campaign. Similar to the term limits fight that was recently had in Yonkers, Hoehmann, like Mayor Mike Spano is the focal point of the controversy. Many residents in attendance during the meeting attacked Hoehmann for his shifting of positions on term limits.
“If (term limits) was good when you were a councilman it would be good now. I get it. No one wants to lose their job.”
L’Tanya Watkins
As a recently-declared Democrat, Mike Spano himself was the beneficiary of term limits after Republican Phil Amicone was prevented from running for a third term in 2011. Back then, Spano publicly supported term limits as shown in this video:
The recent vote in Clarkstown was similarly close as it was in Yonkers in November. By a 3-2 vote, the board rescinded the existing term limits restriction altogether which now paves the way for Hoehmann to seek a third four year term.
The Related Lawsuits
The lawsuit filed by Hoehmann and two others is still proceeding. The town board debated on whether to hire outside counsel to defend the town in state court, or to continue to use the town’s in-house attorney, Craig Johns. Johns has been supportive of Hoehmann’s claim that a voter referendum was needed to change term limits. A 2 to 1 vote rejected the hiring of an outside attorney and Mr. Johns’ office will be defending the town in the upcoming litigation.
At the core of the issue in both Clarkstown and Yonkers is whether or not elected officers can themselves enact laws which govern their own tenure. Both lawsuits argue to the court that even though voters are ultimately deciding who serves in these offices, they are disenfranchised when they are not empowered to also set the fundamental rules for the same offices.
The City of Yonkers was officially served with the lawsuit December 22nd 2022 and an appearance date has been set for January 23rd of this year.
