Suffolk Closeup: Time to limit the limits on the DA’s term

Suffolk County has had a superb district attorney for the last 10 years — quite a change from recent decades. But Suffolk District Attorney Tom Spota is “term-limited.” Under present county law, he cannot run for re-election next year.

Last week, Mr. Spota launched a lawsuit challenging the county law limiting the Suffolk DA to three four-year terms. The law was enacted in the 1990s when the idea was popular that term limits would keep government fresh and reinvigorated. But term limits were never imposed on members of the Congress or, in New York State, the Legislature. In both, virtually all members are able to hold on to their positions as long as they want, with the help of some district gerrymandering.

Joining as plaintiffs in the lawsuit brought in State Supreme Court are Suffolk’s sheriff and county clerk, who are similarly term-limited. The lawsuit holds that all three are “quasi-state” positions and Suffolk was “without authority” to impose term limits on them. They are “defined by state law for law enforcement and administrative activities,” it says. Thus “only the governor of the State of New York may remove or fill a vacancy in the offices of district attorney, sheriff or county clerk.” Their terms in office “are explicitly mandated” in the New York Constitution, according to the lawsuit. As precedent for overturning the term limits, the plaintiffs cite a limit placed on the term of the sheriff of Los Angeles County: “California courts determined that only an amendment to the state constitution could change the qualification for that office.”

The county sheriff, Vincent DeMarco, and county clerk, Judith Pascale, are both in the middle of their second four-year terms; Mr. Spota is in the middle of his third. He commented last week that he hadn’t made up his mind about running again. Of the lawsuit, he said “it’s about righting a wrong from nearly 20 years ago.”

Limits were applied to the terms of the DA, sheriff and county clerk in 1993 after a vote by the Suffolk Legislature and passage in a county-wide referendum.

County executive is technically the top position in Suffolk government. But, in fact, the ßDA is the most powerful governmental post in a county with a long history of corruption. The DA is key to going after official wrongdoing. Mr. Spota has been a tough, capable and independent DA. Originally a Republican, he ran for DA as a Democrat in 2001 against Republican incumbent James M. Catterson Jr., charging Mr. Catterson with running a highly politicized office.

After his victory, Mr. Spota put a focus on governmental corruption, actively and successfully prosecuting both Republicans and Democrats.

When he ran for re-election in 2005, the GOP didn’t put up an opponent to the popular Mr. Spota but endorsed him. The same happened four years later. The Conservative and Independence Parties endorsed him, too, in 2005 and 2009.

Also set in 1993 were term limits for county executive, treasurer and comptroller and the 18 members of the Suffolk Legislature. They likewise were limited to 12 consecutive years in office. Those limits are not being challenged by the lawsuit.

Because of term limits, Suffolk Legislators Jon Cooper of Lloyd Harbor and Vivian Viloria-Fisher of East Setauket were unable to run for re-election last year.

Mr. Cooper was among the brightest members of the Suffolk Legislature ever, generating one ground-breaking measure after another, with several adopted on the state level and some even nationally. Ms. Viloria-Fisher was a long-time chair of the legislature’s environmental committee, crusading for the county’s Farmland Preservation, Open Space and Drinking Water Protection Programs. They are now in peril because of a bloc of legislators, including new ones with no historical memory. She was honored this past weekend in Riverhead by East End Dem Women with the first Nora Bredes Lifetime Achievement Award. Good, but better that she were still a member of the Suffolk Legislature fighting for preservation.

The absence of Mr. Spota from the DA job would be an enormous loss to Suffolk.

Especially disturbing, I hear that a person convicted of government corruption, an advisor to various Suffolk GOP chairmen and a close confidante of the late Mr. Catterson, has in recent months been seeking to influence who will succeed Mr. Spota as Suffolk DA.