Clarify Suffolk term limits as a total 12-year rule 

In an era when election rules are in constant dispute, the Suffolk Legislature is expected Tuesday to take a step toward preventing the kind of legal snarl that arose last year when former Legis. Kate Browning tried to win back her old seat.

Browning, of Shirley, left office in 2017 after serving the legal limit of six two-year terms as a county lawmaker. Four years later, she got the Democratic nomination to run again, claiming the county law limited "consecutive terms" rather than a lifetime total.

Not so, Suffolk Republicans said, then sued. At first, Acting Supreme Court Justice James Hudson upheld their claim and threw Browning off the ballot, but then the Appellate Division overturned that ruling and reinstated her. Browning prevailed and ran — then lost the election to Republican James Mazzarella of Moriches.

The legislature, with the GOP now in the majority, is ready to change the law to what the Republicans unsuccessfully claimed it had said or was intended to say. Under the bill sponsored by first-year Legis. Stephanie Bontempi (R-Huntington), term-limited lawmakers can't start the clock again by sitting out a term or two. They’d be free, of course, to serve in other county offices, namely comptroller and county executive, for which the same overall 12-year limit would be enforced.

The rationale for term limits, when Suffolk voters approved them nearly 30 years ago, was that turnover benefits the system and that a sense of permanent incumbency is unhealthy. Term-limit foes respond that voters should always get to choose who gets to stay in office, and who should go, and when. Over time, term limits appear to have become a matter of county consensus. Nassau County never chose to introduce term limits. It should.

The lifetime limits described in this amendment to the Suffolk charter add up to a long-enough 12 years, whether in the form of three four-year terms for the countywide offices or six two-year terms for legislators: "No person shall serve" in these posts, it says, "for more than 12 years, whether consecutive or non-consecutive."

When someone fills a vacancy to complete another's elected term, that partial term would not count toward the limit. If someone leaves early in a term, however, that full term does count toward the limit. 

Since Suffolk is committed to term limits, it makes sense to keep a 12-year ceiling from expanding into 24 years by restarting the clock after a hiatus.

County lawmakers should approve this bill, which has clarity on its side, and send it to County Executive Steve Bellone who should sign it — allowing voters to decide in a ballot proposition if this is indeed how they expect term limits to work. We think they would.