With the election three weeks away, Beutler and his Republican opponent, Ken Svoboda, plunged into Monday's Lincoln Young Professionals Group debate.
BRIAN CHRISTOPHERSON / Lincoln Journal Star | Posted: Tuesday, February 26, 2008 6:00 pm
Things were going just fine. Both candidates had their complimentary bottles of Aquafina and talking points and then …
Question: Mr. Beutler, what was the best action and worst action by the current (mayoral) administration?
“Oh, wow,” said Lincoln mayor hopeful Chris Beutler.
The half-full Lincoln Community Playhouse filled with laughter.
Hardly an easy topic to navigate given some of the grumbling surrounding outgoing Mayor Coleen Seng’s performance.
With the election three weeks away, Beutler and his Republican opponent, Ken Svoboda, nonetheless plunged into Monday’s Lincoln Young Professionals Group debate.
They spent the night trying to sell themselves as best they could to a group of under-40 professionals. The Journal Star was a sponsor of the debate. All questions were posed to the candidates by members of Lincoln’s YPG.
“Because of the failure to engage the City Council in a constructive way. … I think that’s one of the great failures of the current administration,” said the Democrat Beutler.
“I tell you, I’m going to work steadily on building a less-partisan atmosphere. … I’m totally astounded by the partisanship at this (city) level, especially since most of the issues are not Republican-Democrat issues, they’re good management (issues).”
To the mic stepped Svoboda.
He questioned Beutler’s idea that the City Council has operated along party lines.
“The majority of our votes are 7-0. Rarely do we even have one that goes 6-1 or 5-2.”
But he did agree that the next mayor has to communicate better.
“There has to be that open communication between the mayor and City Council. I would see (information) on TV, read it in the newspaper or hear it on the radio before I heard it come from the mayor’s office.”
Another blunt question: What will Lincoln look like at the end of your term and how would it look if your opponent is elected?
Svoboda said he wanted Lincoln to establish an identity. No more thinking like a “big small town.”
“We’re no longer just that big small town,” he said. “We’re a city and we have to identify ourselves as that. We have to identify ourselves as a competitor on the national market.”
Svoboda said his goal would be for people four years from now to say “Yes, we’re Lincoln, Nebraska, the greatest city in the country.”
Beutler’s turn.
He said he’d like to make more use of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, which he called an “underestimated institution.”
He’d like to see three or four more research facilities go up in the vicinity of the university.
And “if there’s any way it can be reasonably financed, I’d have an arena in Lincoln. I’d have all of the 10 pillars (of the 2015 Vision Group).
Svoboda said he wants the mayor to have more of an open-door policy, while also stressing that government would be wise to sometimes get out of the way.
“I think (government) gets too ingrained in the position of thinking it’s now my money when it’s deposited into the city coffers. It’s not. It’s your money.”
Throughout the evening, Svoboda talked about being from the private sector, about the successful lawncare business his family built.
Without being asked, he even addressed the controversy about work his landscaping company hadn’t finished at an 84th Street median.
“Yes, we had an issue with that, but we were accountable,” Svoboda said. “The minute I found out, what did I do? I went out there and did the job to make sure we got it done. That’s accountability, people.”
In his closing remarks, Beutler said local government desperately needed to win back the lost trust of the people.
“Never in adult life have I seen city government so out of touch with the public. Never has the confidence in city government been so low, because our City Council and City Hall have not come to grips with three major problems of our time.”
Those three problems in Beutler’s estimation:
1) Lacking road infrastructure funds. “For six years now, we have been lacking in road infrastructure funds. It’s a serious problem. The first thing the mayor has to do when the mayor gets in there is take a hold of that issue.”
2) Budget mess. “The city’s deficit has now ballooned to 9 million (dollars) and Ken’s going to add all these police officers … We got to go in there and cut expenditures so over the long term the expenditures are equal to revenues, and this city council and mayor’s office have been unable to make the needed cuts.”
3) The idea that people consider Lincoln a town unfriendly to businesses. “We need to figure out why we have this reputation and get rid of this reputation.”
When it was time for Svoboda’s final words of the night, he said: “What it comes down to is leadership. You need to decide who it is that is standing before you tonight that can do what they say they’re going to do.”
Reach Brian Christopherson at 473-7438 or bchristopherson@journalstar.com.