VOTERS STILL HAVE CHOICE WITH 'NO' ON TERM LIMITS.

Byline: Wayne Avrashow Local View

``Shouldn't the people have the right to vote for someone as many times as they want to vote for him?''

- Ronald Reagan, 1986.

ON March 5, Los Angeles County voters will decide two ballot propositions, which, if successful, would implement term limits for county officials. Measure A would limit terms for all officials, members of the Board of Supervisors, sheriff, district attorney and assessor, while Measure B would only affect the supervisors.

Term limits are a political scheme that artificially limits democracy. Puncturing term limit myths reveals that Measures A and B would cause Los Angeles County voters to surrender their right to vote for the candidate of their choice without receiving any meaningful benefit in return.

Myth No. 1: Experience in government is not essential.

Few people seek inexperienced doctors, lawyers, teachers or plumbers. Yet the logical result of term limits ensures inexperienced office holders.

Not long ago, Orange County declared bankruptcy and many feared Los Angeles County was next in line. With our county's fiscal house teetering and black clouds of bankruptcy looming, our experienced county board members combined spending cuts with effective lobbying for federal assistance to successfully prevent a fiscal calamity.

Los Angeles County's population is greater than 42 states. The five supervisors administer a $16.5 billion annual budget encompassing 37 departments. This is no place and there is no time for novices to learn county government.

Myth No. 2: Los Angeles County officials have lifetime tenure.

The will of county voters has prevailed by defeating incumbents when desired and by returning favored officials for an additional term. The system has worked and worked well.

The Los Angeles district attorney is an office with constant turnover, which creates the most slippery of political slopes. In 18 years, the voters have replaced District Attorney Robert Philibosian with Ira Reiner, Reiner with Gil Garcetti and Garcetti with Stephen Cooley. None of these D.A.s served more than two terms.

Two current members of the Board of Supervisors have first-hand knowledge that incumbency does not guarantee success. Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich defeated an incumbent; and Yvonne Brathwaite Burke was defeated as an incumbent but then staged a successful political comeback.

Myth No. 3: Term Limits actually work.

Despite the heated, anti-politician rhetoric often voiced in the western United States, there has been a recent reassessment of term limits benefits. Last month, Idaho's state Legislature repealed term limits for its state legislators and county commissioners. Only seven years after the measure was approved by Idaho voters, the speaker of that statehouse summarized the legislature's overwhelming, bipartisan vote by stating that term limits were ``sold to the people by special interests.''

Montana officials filed suit to overturn their state's term limits, and the Oregon State Supreme Court overturned that state's term limits law. As demonstrated in Idaho, Montana and Oregon, term limits create inexperienced legislators, foster a loss of institutional memory, and tilt power to lobbyists and bureaucrats.

Myth No. 4: Term Limits are a catalyst for novel political solutions.

State government adopted term limits in 1990 and the city of Los Angeles followed in 1993. Instead of the promised infusion of novel political creativity, we witness a debasing game of political hop-scotch without public advantage as termed-out state legislators campaign for the City Council and termed-out city officials campaign for the Legislature.

Term limit advocates have never offered a satisfactory answer to Ronald Reagan's fundamental question. Measures A and B would curtail democracy by depriving county residents of the basic and vital right to select the candidate of their choice.

On election day voters have the ultimate constitutional weapon without term limits - a vote to return or remove any official they choose.