Editorial: 'No' to term limits in Elk Grove Village

There's a campaign to place term limits on elected municipal offices in Elk Grove Village, and how people feel about the initiative no doubt is tied to a great degree to how they feel about the officer holders.

If you like Craig Johnson, who's been mayor for 22 years, you probably don't like term limits that much; if you don't like him, you probably can warm up to the concept.

And of course, if you have no feelings about Johnson one way or the other, you can afford to take a more detached and philosophical view (although in that case, you're apt to be among the apathetic people who don't vote anyway and therefore probably don't give much thought to the term-limit debate either.)

We've never been fans of term limits - with one notable exception - and we're not fans of them in the case of Elk Grove Village.

In saying that, let's be clear: We understand the arguments in favor of term limits.

We recognize that they can bring more people into government service, help encourage different perspectives and foster new ideas, combat the well-recognized power of incumbency.

But there also are significant drawbacks. Term limits can unnecessarily disturb continuity of government operations and needlessly undermine stability.

More pointedly, they can arbitrarily force people out of office who otherwise are experienced, productive and popular public servants.

Beyond all of those considerations, our biggest objection to the concept is it contradicts the principles of democracy.

The people, after all, already own the power to limit terms. If they're dissatisfied with officeholders or captivated by fresh candidates, they have the power to vote the former out of office and the power to vote the latter in.

The history of our 243-year-old republic has been one, with few exceptions, of a relentless evolution toward greater democracy. Term limits are a step in the other direction.

In the case of leadership positions in the Illinois General Assembly, we have supported term limits because the people of Illinois don't really have a vote in, say, Michael Madigan's election as House speaker.

But in Elk Grove Village, the people do have a vote.

As in other suburbs, many of them for whatever reason don't choose to exercise it in municipal elections.

But those who have in the last several years - including the election this past spring - have voted by large margins to re-elect incumbents.

An arbitrary imposition of term limits would disenfranchise those voters.

That's not fair. And it's not good for the community.