Mayor Bloomberg has struck a deal to appease the man posing the biggest threat to his plan to run for a third term: billionaire term-limits advocate Ronald Lauder.
Lauder promised Bloomberg he would support legislation in the City Council to give all officials the option to run for a third term in exchange for a guaranteed seat on a Charter-revision commission.
“I want Mayor Bloomberg to have a third term,” the cosmetics heir said last night outside his East Side apartment building.
But he stressed he’s supporting Bloomberg for only one more term.
“I believe we can make a once-only exception. If they try to make it a permanent three terms, the voters, by referendum, would have to vote it back to two terms – and I would put my money behind making sure that happens.”
Term limits can be changed only through a referendum or a vote in the City Council.
Under terms of the deal, worked out over the phone last Friday but made public yesterday, the charter commission – which would be appointed by the mayor – would study reverting to a two-term limit and put it on the ballot in 2010, representatives of both men said.
Bloomberg would already be serving his third term.
“The mayor said as soon as this November election is held this year, he would appoint a Charter-revision commission, Lauder would be a member of it, and they would, in the year 2010, deal with the issue of ending the three terms and reverting to two terms,” said Howard Rubenstein, Lauder’s spokesman.
He added, “Lauder never varied from his position that it shouldn’t be permanent.”
“They’re pretty much in agreement. The mayor wanted only one extension and a sunset, but the legal ramifications of it led to this agreement.”
Mayoral spokesman Jason Post said Bloomberg and Lauder did not discuss what would happen if voters two years from now opposed a three-term extension.
The Post on Sept. 30 broke the story that Lauder – who bankrolled successful efforts to create and uphold term limits in 1993 and 1996 – would support a one-time extension so the mayor could shepherd the city through the fiscal crisis.
But Bloomberg last week said a one-shot deal could pose legal problems, and Council Speaker Christine Quinn insisted the legislation should permanently change term limits to 12 years for all city officials.
Council members who spent yesterday rallying against a term-limits extension by legislation slammed the Lauder deal.
“Obviously, one billionaire is bending over backwards to get another billionaire on board,” said Councilman John Liu (D-Queens), who is leaving the council next year.
“Never before have I seen such a vivid exposure of how much control the New York elite still tries to exert.”
Councilwoman Letitia James (D-Brooklyn) said, “It is a conflict of interest, and it’s just totally self-serving, and it’s all being framed to benefit only one person, and that is the mayor.”
James and Councilman Bill de Blasio, another Brooklyn Democrat, are introducing a bill that would require the council to form a revision commission to study any change in term limits before putting it to a public referendum.
sgoldenberg@nypost.com