No. Castle Resident Fails in Bid to Get Term Limits on Ballot
A North Castle resident who sought a referendum asking the public to vote on term limits for town board members learned there is no legally permissible way for him to get the proposition on the ballot.
Anthony Futia, a nearly lifelong North White Plains resident, was told last week that Section 81 of state consolidated law governing towns did not allow for a term limits referendum to get on the ballot through a petition. Futia had submitted a petition to the town containing 401 signatures on Sept. 5 in hopes of having a referendum scheduled for this November.
Town Attorney Roland Baroni said the law is very specific regarding the types of matters that can be addressed in a referendum through the petition. It is limited to changing the number of council members, changing the length of terms and establishing or abolishing the ward system. In 2015, Futia forced a referendum asking for the establishment of the ward system, which was resoundingly defeated.
“Term limits to be created by a board would be in the format of a local law, which your town board would consider or choose not to,” Baroni said. “That’s the way the statute reads and that’s the way the Association of Towns interprets it, that’s the way the (state) attorney general has interpreted it in three separate opinions and that’s the conclusion of my own research.”
Late last week Futia said after he consulted with his attorneys who drew up the petition he is strongly considering filing an Article 78 to challenge Baroni’s interpretation. He said they are researching the precedents for successful petition drives in New York State to get the term limits question on a local election ballot.
Futia said he wanted to offer the proposition to voters because there has been a long history in North Castle of the town’s political committees cross-endorsing candidates or failing to run opposition to maintain uncontested elections. This year’s town election is uncontested.
“You’ve got a situation that we had in the ‘60s and ‘90s where the two political committees, the Republican and Democratic committees, don’t want to run anybody against each other’s candidates,” Futia said. “You don’t have a choice when that happens.”
The North Castle Town Board has two registered Republicans, two registered Democrats and one independent, who was endorsed by the Democrats.
Town board members last week said that despite the committees’ decisions a registered member of a party can force a primary if they collect the requisite number of signatures on a nominating petition. Supervisor Michael Schiliro said four years ago Futia challenged him in a primary for the Democratic nomination.
“Elections are term limits,” Schiliro said. “If people want to see people return, they return them to office. If they don’t, then they don’t return them to office. That’s how term limits work in this town and a lot of other municipalities across the state and country.”
Councilwoman Barbara DiGiacinto said as recently as 2013, all three town board incumbents up for re-election were replaced in one cycle.
However, Futia charged that there have been people interested in running for office and have interviewed but weren’t accepted by at least one of the committees, Futia said. That way the committees can control of who is involved in town government, he said.
“People wanted to run but they wouldn’t put them up,” Futia declared.
Democratic Committee Chairman Barry Malvin said the biggest impediment for having contested elections is the dearth of candidates.
“I would say Tony is incorrect,” Malvin said. “Nothing could be further from the truth, particularly in this election because neither party endorsed or cross-endorsed a candidate from the other party.”
Martin has more than 30 years experience covering local news in Westchester and Putnam counties, including a frequent focus on zoning and planning issues. He has been editor-in-chief of The Examiner since its inception in 2007. Read more from Martin’s editor-author bio here. Read Martin’s archived work here: https://www.theexaminernews.com/author/martin-wilbur2007/
