City Councilman Larry Seabrook, expressing delight that he and other city office-holders will now be allowed to run for a third term in office, this week, called term limits an undemocratic policy that has hurt the ability of persons of color to assume positions of leadership.

Seabrook, one of the most vocal opponents of terms limits on the City Council, said that he reluctantly supported the three-term limit for city officeholders because he has always felt that no term limits can be justified.

Seabrook said, “Before we had term limits, black and minorities were rising to important positions on the City Council. The facts and the results of term limits speak for themselves. The reality is that conservative interests pushed term limits as a way of holding back progress for blacks and Latinos.”

The City Councilman, a long-time legislator representing the Co-op City, Baychester, and Edenwald areas, stressed, “The seniority system, before we had term limits, helped blacks and Latinos achieve power. It was the republican and conservative elements that pushed for term limits.”

Seabrook added, “It is absolutely undemocratic to deprive citizens of the right to vote for candidates based on term limits. Extending terms limits to three terms will increase the number of candidates we can vote for in citywide elections. That sure sounds democratic to me.”

The City Councilman also dismissed the argument that the law on the three-term limit should have required a referendum of city’s voters. The voters, on two separate occasions, approved the two-term limits in city referendums.

“I don’t think we should operate city government on the basis of referendums,” Seabrook stressed. “If we had a referendum on property taxes, we would have no property taxes and limited revenue with which to run the city. If we had a referendum outlawing civil unions or marriages among gay couples, the public would probably vote to deny gays their civil rights.”