Even if New York City voters decide in November to restore a law barring elected officials from serving more than two consecutive four-year terms, a majority of the City Council may not have to abide by the voters' wishes.
The Charter Revision Commission, the panel appointed by Mayor Michael Bloomberg to review the city constitution, is considering a so-called grandfather clause that would allow all incumbents to serve three terms.
Under the proposal, a limit of two terms would apply only to newly elected officials. On the City Council, 32 of the 51 sitting members are currently eligible to serve a third term and would benefit from the clause.
The Charter Revision Commission, whose members are divided on the topic, is slated to decide the issue and others on Wednesday.
The prospect of giving special dispensation to incumbents has fostered consternation among some commission members.
Hope Cohen, a member of the commission, said she opposes term limits but believes voters have the right to decide if they want to return to a limit of two terms. If the voters choose a two-term cap, she said, the law should be effective immediately.
"The commission has its own good faith and integrity to protect," she said. "I wouldn't want us to lose that in the homestretch by essentially what could be seen as a favor to currently sitting council members."
Speaker Christine Quinn, who has been on the council since February 1999, told The Wall Street Journal on Monday that she strongly supports a grandfather clause for incumbents.
"When the mayor proposed extending term limits from two to three terms, he requested this for all city elected officials then serving, including himself, the borough presidents, the council members," said Ms. Quinn, a potential 2013 mayoral candidate.
"Therefore," she said, "it is only appropriate that this includes elected officials who were freshmen at the time."
In October 2008, at Mr. Bloomberg's urging, Ms. Quinn and the council overturned the term-limits law that prohibited elected officials from serving more than two consecutive four-year terms. Voters approved term limits in two referendums in the 1990s.
The decision to overturn the law fueled widespread voter anger, with some political observers saying it contributed to Mr. Bloomberg's narrow margin of victory in November 2009, when he won a third term.
Stephen J. Fiala, a former City Council member and a member of the Charter Revision Commission, said the mayor and council's actions on term limits in 2008 brought him "moral indignation." But he said he supports the grandfather clause in order "to not be punitive."
"In this country, when we promulgate a new law," Mr. Fiala said, "we typically do not make the new law retroactive."
Stu Loeser, a spokesman for the mayor, declined to say where Mr. Bloomberg stands on this issue.
Matthew Goldstein, the commission's chairman, said through a spokesman that he expects a "spirited debate" at the panel's Wednesday meeting, but declined to state his position.
Council Member Inez Dickens, who is in the midst of her second term and voted for the term-limit extension, is "inclined to agree" with a grandfather clause, an aide said Monday. She doesn't support any term limits, her aide said.
Council Member Dan Garodnick, who voted against the term-limit extension in 2008 and is in his second term, said he, too, supports the grandfather clause.
"For the purposes of having some continuity, I think rules like this should always been done prospectively," he said. "That's how it should have been done two years ago, and that's how it should be done now."
Anthony Perez Cassino, a member of the commission and a former City Council candidate, said he believes the grandfather clause would "create more cynicism in the public."
"It would engender more ill will," he said. "This, to me, is a black and white issue. And if you polled the public, I bet you, it's black and white to them as well."
