If they were mayor ...
By DEENA WINTER
104.1 “The Blaze” KIBZ hosted a mayoral forum Tuesday morning, moderated by KLKN-TV news anchors Rod Fowler and Lauren Silverman. Here’s what they asked, and here’s how candidates answered, in condensed form.
Where do you stand on building a new arena/convention center and how would you get it done?
Roger Yant (independent): It’s a good idea, but he doesn’t want it done at taxpayers’ expense because they’re already over-taxed. He would support a new arena if it could be funded privately. He says the 2015 Vision group is made up of “Lincoln’s finest and wealthiest people,” but wants to know: “Has anybody asked the people who are actually gonna have to pay for it?”
Chris Beutler (Democrat): “I think we should do everything reasonable to make the arena happen.” Young people need more leisure opportunities. He said Lincoln loses tourism dollars because the Pershing Center is deteriorating. But it will take help from the Legislature and he has experience in that department.
Ken Svoboda (Republican): He supports it but wants voters to be allowed to weigh in. Pershing is a “gracefully aging old lady” who needs millions of dollars in upgrades. Even if Lincoln builds a new arena, he says, “We are not going to and cannot compete with (Omaha’s) Qwest Center. We are never going to get a Rolling Stones concert in Lincoln and we know that.”
How do we keep young people in Lincoln?
Beutler: With good amenities, like parks, but primarily with good jobs. But we must solve road problems to help create business and expand university research facilities.
Svoboda: By creating a more favorable tax climate and retaining and expanding local businesses. He has worked to create jobs on the City Council and notes he was “the only council member” invited to a private reception with Verizon Wireless officials (although their identities were kept secret, even from him) last year when they were still deciding where to locate.
Yant: If elected, he would assemble a team charged with recruiting new businesses to Lincoln and stop the “snafus” that keep existing businesses, like ITI, from expanding. “I want to see a city who works with businesses.” He’d also create more activities for young people, such as blues or jazz festivals, bowling tournaments, bike races.
How would you have handled the firetruck situation and how will you move forward with the Lincoln Fire Department?
Svoboda: “It wouldn’t have happened under my watch because I would have had much better control over my employees. We wouldn’t have had the debacle that we have today.” He says what bothered him the most about the whole firetruck scandal is “nobody stood up and said ’I’m responsible.’ I was waiting for the mayor to (do it).”
Yant: Agrees it wouldn’t have happened if he were mayor, but also says he disagrees with the mayor’s decision to pay $180,000 to hire a local human resources consulting firm, Talent Plus, to assess the department and help select an interim and permanent fire chief (although ultimately the mayor decided not to fill the fire chief vacancy so close to the next election). He says that’s the mayor’s job.
Beutler: He says the whole thing was one of a series of leadership problems. He wouldn’t have taken city’s purchasing agent Vince Mejer, off the case, as the mayor did. “That was a poor management decision.”
With the city projecting a nearly $9 million deficit, how would you balance the budget?
Yant: He says he’s a fiscal conservative who believes city government is “bloated” and should be smaller. He’d conduct performance audits, consider reducing city employee retirement plans from a 2-to-1 match to a 1-to-1 match, saving millions. He criticizes the public bus system for costing about $9 million to operate while only generating about $1.3 million in revenue.
Beutler: Citing his experience with state budgets as a 24-year lawmaker, he says it’s time to fix a “structural problem” with Lincoln’s budget: City expenditures are outpacing revenue, according to five-year projections. “The City Council and the mayor have let this go on for way too long,” he says, “so that today what you have going on is essentially a mess.” In the short-term, it’s going to take “real cuts” not “one-time” cuts the council and mayor have made recently. He promises not to raise property taxes to make ends meet.
Svoboda: He quoted Ronald Reagan, who said, “a government bureau is the nearest thing to eternal life we’ll ever see on this earth.” He identify core city functions — public safety, providing clean water, building roads — and move on to quality of life needs — libraries, parks and trails — which must be funded. He conduct “benchmark performance auditing” to identify what every city employee does and where cuts could be made.
How would you streamline the building of streets to make it less difficult for businesses to be built, such as Hy-Vee?
Beutler: He called this is another example of a problem that goes back to leadership problems. He says the mayor doesn’t get involved, up front, on big projects, snafus occur within city departments and mid-level managers push their own philosophies. With Hy-Vee, he says, the city put the “horse before the cart.” He says he’d look closely at public works to “find out what’s wrong” and work to solve the street funding shortfall.
Svoboda: He says road construction is expensive, and that’s why it’s important for the city to capitalize on areas that already have the necessary infrastructure, such as the 56th Street interchange with Interstate 80. He would hire “someone with strong developmental ties” to work in the mayor’s office.
Yant: He agrees that on the Hy-Vee deal, the city put the “cart before the horse” by promising to build the grocery a road before making sure it could do it. Hy-Vee should have had to pay for the road, he says. And the city should build roads ahead of developments — not the other way around — and capitalize on the Interstate 80 corridor more.
Where do you stand on moving the state fair to 84th Street?
Svoboda: He supports moving the fairgrounds to free up land for the university and consolidating the county and state fairs, but says that decision will be made by the governor and lawmakers, not the mayor.
Yant: He opposes moving the fair, which he said will be costly, and thinks Lincoln could lose the fair altogether. “I look at it as another land grab by the university,” he said, noting more land is already being freed up for the University of Nebraska-Lincoln through the Antelope Valley Project. He suggested UNL consider building up, instead of out.
Beutler: He supports moving the state fair and said the mayor should take a leadership role in promoting the idea at the Legislature. He said it was a bad decision for the county and state fairs to part ways rather than economize by joining. He said UNL is key to Lincoln’s long-term economic health, and the city should do everything it can to help the university expand its research facilities.
Would you support a drag racing strip in Lancaster County?
Yant: He supports it 110 percent and would do everything he could to get it here because it would create jobs and provide entertainment. If the county keeps putting up roadblocks, “it’s going to end up in Waverly.”
Beutler: While drag racing isn’t everybody’s idea of a good time, it’s important to have a variety of options for people — and he would encourage the County Board to find an appropriate place for it. “It seems to me in a big, wide old county that we have we ought to find a place for it.”
Svoboda: Not only does he support it, he’s been working hard to make sure it happens by lobbying the County Board to find a home for it. “It’s a viable industry on the grow,” he said. “How can we turn our back on $10 to $24 million dollars worth of revenue coming into the county? … If we don’t take advantage of this right now, we have lost something great.”
What grade would you give the city for its economy and quality of life?
Yant: C
Beutler: C, but he’d give its government an F
Svoboda: C