Deena Winter: Only Seng knows if she'll run again

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Mayor Coleen Seng has decided whether or not she’ll run for re-election next year. She just won’t say what she decided.

Upon hearing speculation that she was holding off on making her plans known until after the city budget process ended, I asked her Monday, after the City Council finalized a budget, whether she’d made a decision.

She said, “Yes I have made a decision, but that is not to be talked about right now.”

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When is it to be talked about? “A little bit later,” she said.

In April, she said, “I don’t know that there’s any reason I shouldn’t run.”

Seng’s actions may speak louder than words, because there’s been a noticeable lack of activity on Seng’s part to organize a campaign.

As for the other candidates, Sen. Chris Beutler has filed a campaign statement with the Nebraska Accountability and Disclosure Commission that indicates he is running for mayor. The report says the “Citizens for Beutler” campaign received more than $7,000 in contributions during the last half of 2005.

Beutler said he filed the report because he’s accepted contributions, but hasn’t made a final decision yet.

“It’ll be interesting to see what the mayor does,” he said. “We’ve talked about it but I don’t know definitely (what Seng’s plans are).”

Both Beutler and Seng are Democrats. And another Democrat is interested.

Councilman Jonathan Cook said since nobody has formally announced, “I’m waiting to see how that shakes out.

“It remains an option is all I can say,” he said Tuesday.

As for the Republicans, Councilman Jon Camp is also considering running and Councilman Ken Svoboda said he’ll formally announce his candidacy in the next month or two.

Businessman Roger Yant has said he’ll run as an independent.

Thick reports, glossy brochures and pretty postcards

Councilman Cook continued to wage war on paperwork Monday — literally.

He informed city department heads Monday that he could have lived without the thick copy of the city’s zoning code he recently received. It’s about as useful as copies of municipal code changes, he said, because often by the time the council gets a paper copy, it’s already outdated.

They can look it all up online anyway, which seems obvious to Cook, a computer software developer.

Department heads can add that to their list of “Things to remember” when putting out publications that may fall into council members’ hands.

They’ve previously been chastised by Councilman Jon Camp for spending taxpayers’ money on what he considers overly colorful or glossy (ie: expensive) publications.

Even private citizens sometimes bristle about spending on things like pretty postcards.

Lincoln attorney Peter Katt recently complained to the City Council about postcards inviting people to the grand opening of the Big X overpass portion of the Antelope Valley project.

He suggested the postcards were sent out by a consulting firm to “politic this and push it on the public so we feel warm and fuzzy” about the massive public works project.

“Should they be this pretty?” he said, holding up one of the postcards. “Do we really need to spend a lot of money politicking this? And giving free rides to support it?”

He suggested street bond issues would have a better chance of passing if the city would “make sure money is spent building roads and not making them pretty and politicking them to the public for other purposes.”

Be there, be on time

County Board members aren’t happy with the City Council’s attendance record at their joint “commons” meetings.

The issue of the council’s commitment to the meetings was placed on the agenda of Monday’s commons meeting.

Chairman Bob Workman introduced the agenda item, saying, “We have missed some of you.” He asked whether there was anything that could be done to make the meeting time more convenient for council members.

He said he thinks the meetings are productive.

“At least we get to see your faces and remember your names,” he said.

The committee briefly discussed the possibility of pushing the meeting time back from its current 8:30 a.m. start time, but Councilman Ken Svoboda said that time works well for him. He said those who aren’t making the meeting “will have to answer to that.”

The board members laughed after someone suggested the meeting time be pushed back to 8:35 a.m., but Commissioner Ray Stevens didn’t think that was so funny. He pointed out that all of the City Council members were late for the last meeting, and five were late on Monday.

Graffiti ordinance on the agenda

It soon may be illegal to do graffiti in Lincoln.

Councilwoman Patte Newman is introducing an ordinance that defines graffiti and makes the application of graffiti a misdemeanor with a mandatory minimum $200 fine for the first offense, $250 for the second offense and $300 for three or more convictions. The maximum penalty would be $500 and six months in jail.

But the ordinance also would require victims to erase the graffiti.

Property owners would be required to remove the graffiti within 15 days of receiving a notice from the city. Property owners could pay the city to remove the graffiti.

If they don’t remove it, the city could do it and charge the property owner.

Property owners would have a right to ask for extensions or waivers from a Graffiti Appeals Board for a $50 fee.

Newman said the intent is not to victimize the property owner twice, but to have consequences if they refuse to do anything about the graffiti even after being offered assistance. She said a network of volunteers is being formed to help people who can’t remove the graffiti themselves.

“What we find is people are pretty darn law-abiding and if you send them a letter they’ll usually take care of the problem,” she said.

Reach Deena Winter at 473-2642 or dwinter@journalstar.com.