Deena Winter: Officers no longer undercover

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Three police officers who’ve been trying to crack down on prostitution and drugs in the Everett, Near South and Capital Avenue neighborhoods  — some of them by posing as prostitutes and johns — blew their covers Monday.

(Capital Avenue’s boundaries are 17th to 21st and K to G streets.)

Their identities were revealed on TV getting an award from the mayor for their work.

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OK, it was just the city’s government access cable channel, so maybe the criminals didn’t see.

Sgt. Michael Bassett and Officers Cassandra Johnson and Megan Schreiner got the mayor’s April excellence award at the City Council’s weekly (televised) meeting.

(A fourth officer who has taken a new job, Zachary Byers, also got the award but wasn’t at the meeting.)

Asked after the meeting whether the officers didn’t just blow their covers, Police Chief Tom Casady said: “I don’t think we have to worry about it very much — the hookers, pimps and johns don’t watch many City Council meetings, and our officers look a little different when they are ‘in character.’”

But seriously. In his nomination letter, Capt. Bob Wilhelm wrote that the undercover details were extremely dangerous and distasteful for the officers.

“They are placed in one-on-one situations with people who can be desperate, and they are required to think on their feet and improvise,” Mayor Coleen Seng said.

In five months, the team made 10 prostitution arrests, 18 arrests for soliciting prostitution and pandering, and one arrest for a drug sale. 

Trucks move to the right

Heavy trucks that barrel through Lincoln on Nebraska 2 soon will be making a move to the right.

City officials plan to put up signs instructing trucks to stay in the right lane as they go through the city.

Westbound trucks will be allowed to merge to the inside lane west of Southwood Drive, so they can get on the bypass.

The goal is to improve traffic flow by discouraging trucks from blocking traffic by driving side by side.

“Some of those trucks — once they get going, they don’t like to slow down,” said Karl Fredrickson, public works director.

They’ve been known to blow stoplights on occasion, he said.

“The third one back doesn’t like to stop,” he said.

He didn’t get the memo on nonpartisan council

Nebraska Republican Party Chairman Mark Quandahl issued the following statement after last week’s municipal election:

“We are extremely excited that Republicans took back the City Council — the Democrats have had their chance the past eight years, and last night the voters decided to give a Republican City Council a chance. … We were of course disappointed to come up short in the mayoral race. Ken

Svoboda is an outstanding leader and ran a commendable campaign. We are happy to still have his leadership on the City Council. And with a slim margin of victory, Chris Beutler by no means has a mandate to implement an agenda of failed liberal policies — we’re confident that our new Republican City Council will hold him accountable.”

City didn’t get this memo

Governing magazine says parking garages are falling out of vogue in downtowns — apparently everywhere but here, where Lincoln plans to build one on the site of the former StarShip 9 theater.

Governing columnist Otis White says Minneapolis is looking to sell eight city-owned downtown parking garages in the hope that developers will build something on top, around or near them.

He says if light rail continues developing in Minneapolis, there will be less demand for parking.

“Cities hate parking decks because parking is a lousy use of downtown land,” White says. “Hulking decks suck the life out of streets.”

Retail, hotels or office towers are preferable because they generate property taxes, he says.

Of course, Lincoln plans to put that above and near its new parking garage.

White goes on to say: “The street-killing aspect (of a parking deck) is so recognized these days that some cities require developers to put retail on the ground level of their parking structures.”

Lincoln plans to do that, too.

He goes on: “That helps a little, but it would be far better for urban vitality if those upper floors were filled with office workers or hotel guests.”

Check. Lincoln plans office space and a hotel above its new garage.

So it’s not clear whether Lincoln’s parking garage would pass muster with White, but he probably has never had to find a parking spot on a Husker game day, either.

Mayor-elect plunges in

During the week before Chris Beutler takes over as mayor, he has been a busy mayor-elect.

So far, Beutler has received memos from all city department and agency heads detailing their accomplishments and goals.

By Thursday afternoon, he will have met with all the heads (more than a dozen) to discuss their budget requests and needs. And he has named CPAs Ron Ecklund and John Cederberg to offer input during budget meetings.

And Monday, he’ll be sworn in as mayor, along with two new council members, John Spatz and Doug Emery — who both got a primer by attending the informal precouncil meeting Monday.

He said it

“When you say wildlife — is that college students?” — Councilman Jon Camp, after Councilwoman Patte Newman said wildlife sometimes take up residence in vacant Lincoln homes.

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