Comments (0) Best Brooklyn assemblyman who never quits - 2007
Jim Brennan
The argument for term limits—imposed on city officials by referendum in 1993—is that politicians grow jaded, complacent, and worse the longer they remain in office. There are so many examples of this ailment dwelling in the un-limited state legislature that it's hard to argue against this logic. But there are also those, like Brooklyn assemblyman Jim Brennan, who just keep getting better. First elected in 1985, Brennan this year alone has earned his keep several times over. He won passage of bills to force the ham-handed city buildings department to crack down on the epidemic of rogue developers who have been running roughshod over home-owning communities around the city. He was also the only elected official to expose the high costs that the Pataki administration's deregulation of utilities brought to consumers. When the state refused to provide details of its agreements with Forest City Ratner for the huge Atlantic Yards project, Brennan took it to court. There, he won the release of hundreds of pages of previously secret records that showed what the government and the developer hadn't told the public: that their pledge to provide affordable housing was based on a shaky financial premise.
