There has been a great deal of discussion lately about limiting the terms of Mayor in the City of Troy. Let's explore this a little bit from an historical viewpoint. There have always been term limits in the city of Troy - it's called the 'vote.'

Before Troy became a city in 1816 it was an incorporated village (1798). The village had thirteen presidents before 1816. During this 18 year period all but three presidents served office for one year.

Upon the city's incorporation in 1816, the President was replaced by the position of Mayor and was appointed by the Governor of the State until 1822. From 1822 to 1840, the mayor was elected annually by the Common Council. There were five Mayors who served during that time period.

From 1816 to 1875, there were 31 mayors serving the citizens of Troy, averaging a little more than a year in office for each. The exceptions being for the terms of the first eight mayors which ranged from two years to Troy's second Mayor Esaias Warren who served for eight years.

Beginning on February 13,1840, Mayors were elected once every two years, although during the Civil War period they all served one year terms. Two year terms returned after the war until Edward Murphy, elected in 1875 and who was alleged to be part of the corrupt Tammany Hall, served 7 years before going to Congress. After Murphy, there were 23 Mayors serving terms from 2 to 8 years until 1964, when Troy changed from a mayor to city manager form of government.

Back in 1939, the Common Council approved a change to 4 year terms for Mayor. Only three mayors served eight years, or more than one term, until the city went into the city manager form. There still was a mayoral position, but it was more ceremonial than power base.

In 1964, Robert Stierer moved from Michigan to become Troy's first city manager. He lasted about 3 years. Sidney Smith, Adrian Gonyea, Ralph DeSantis, John Buckley, Steve Dworsky, and others followed. Some would say this time of "city managing" was Troy's worse period in history.

Troy fell off the industrial map. In 1960, Troy had a population of 67,106. By 1990, it had lost more than 12,000 people. In one decade -1960 to1970 - when Troy's urban renewal plans went into effect, the city lost 6,280 people and thousands of buildings.

In little more than 150 years - from 1798 to 1960 - Troy evolved from three family farms to one of the most successful industrial cities in America. At the beginning of the 19th century there were less than 2000 people living here. By the close of the century there were 60,651 residents, making Troy the 62nd largest city in America. Population climbed to a record high of 81,104 by 1925. Troy's accomplishments over these years have been written about by numerous historians.

Throughout all of this history, tenure for the Mayor has been in the form of one, two, and four years. Yet, there seems to have been no limits to how many times one could run. It was decided by the political parties, the candidates, and the voters. Most Mayors of Troy served one term and moved on. Some of the more popular ones like Connie Burns came back for a second time. He served eight years from 1912-1920, and again from 1928 1936, for a total of 16 years. Mayors after the city manager form of government were still elected although the so called "power" was supposed to be in the hands of the City Manager and Council.

The bottom line is Trojans have had no problems with putting "terms" on their Mayors. They vote them in and the vote them out - more than 50 times in the city's history. That's about one mayor every four years. It seems to me that putting restrictions on how many times one can run seems ludicrous considering the history of Troy voters. After all this ain't Albany!

What Troy voters need to consider is do you want to limit terms or do you want to limit success?