Deena Winter: No vacancies now, but ...
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If Lincoln City Councilman Dan Marvin is elected to the Legislature -- he announced Tuesday he’ll run for Sen. DiAnna Schimek’s seat next year -- the remaining six council members will get to decide who fills his seat.
If Marvin is elected in November 2008, he’ll be sworn into office in January 2009, just a few months shy of the end of his first four-year City Council term.
City Attorney Dana Roper said it takes at least four votes of the remaining council members to fill a vacancy.
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Marvin’s potential departure would leave the council with four Republicans and two Democrats. Although the council is officially nonpartisan, certainly there are times when philosophical differences factor into votes and positions on issues.
Marvin, a Democrat, said he considered that, but noted that most council votes are unanimous, and though there are philosophical differences, council members have “fairly common interests” overall.
Councilman Ken Svoboda said if Marvin moves to the Legislature, the council would like to accept resumes from people interested in serving out his term, and a steering committee would probably be formed to vet them.
Personally, he’d be interested in someone like Marvin, with a financial background and ability to compromise.
“(Marvin) always looked at what’s better for the city,” Svoboda said, and he is “someone not solely interested in what (his) party thinks.”
While the person serving out the remainder of Marvin’s term would only be in office a few months, the appointment would certainly offer a nice bump in name recognition if he or she were interested in running for the full four-year term.
Sell it on eBay
The city is looking to sell two parcels of land it owns on the northeast corner of a busy city intersection, but one Lincolnite has a bigger auction in mind.
Councilman Marvin said a real estate developer suggested to him that the city auction off two parcels at 48th and O streets on eBay.
Apparently, other cities have tried it.
“He was dead serious,” Marvin recently told his colleagues on the council.
No word yet on whether the city will take him up on his advice.
Council interested in new planning commissioners
Normally, the appointment of new planning commissioners doesn’t attract much interest.
But with three vacancies about to be filled, the City Council is suddenly very interested in the mayor’s choices to fill the seats.
Jon Carlson, Gerry Krieser and Mary Strand are leaving the city-county Planning Commission.
Councilman Jon Camp has made it clear he wants the candidates to attend a public hearing before the council.
“This is an important body,” Camp said.
Councilmen Svoboda and John Spatz have also expressed interest in giving Mayor Chris Beutler’s nominees more than just a passing glance.
Svoboda said it’s probably the most important appointment the council approves.
Two of Beutler’s nominees who have real estate backgrounds would seem to appeal to Camp, Spatz and Svoboda. The mayor has nominated Realtor Wendy Francis; Robert Moline, CEO and president of HomeServices of Nebraska; and Leirion Gaylor Baird, who used to work in the San Francisco mayor’s office. They serve six-year terms.
The nominees must be approved by the City Council and the Lancaster County Board.
Decision soon on consulting contracts
The mayor is expected to decide soon whether to reverse a decision made by outgoing Mayor Coleen Seng that governs how consulting contracts are awarded.
On the day she left office, Seng signed three executive orders that lowered the thresholds at which city departments must open consulting jobs to all companies for bids.
The point of the change was to level the playing field for minority-owned companies and “under-utilized” companies.
The city spends an average of $12 million per year on consulting fees, primarily for engineering.
Seng’s change in the rules caused a bit of an uproar in the local engineering community, which has lobbied Beutler to go back to the old way of doing things.
Mayoral aide Trish Owen said a proposal to address the situation is on the mayor’s desk, and she expects it to be finalized shortly after he returns from vacation.
Beutler left Saturday for an Alaskan cruise; he returns Sept. 14, Owen said.
Send me $3,000 — or else
Councilman Camp recently received a threatening e-mail that scared him enough to consult the police chief.
In the e-mail, a purported hit man claimed he’d been hired to kill Camp, but would spare his life for $3,000 up front.
The sender cautioned him not to contact the police or tell anyone, “because it could be one of them” who hired him.
Police Chief Tom Casady assured Camp not to worry, that he was the victim of a “well-known e-mail scam popping up all over.”
Reach Deena Winter at 473-2642 or dwinter@journalstar.com.
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