Posted: Tuesday, November 8, 2005 6:00 pm
Mayor Coleen Seng is seeking advice from supporters on whether to run for a second term.
Several sources say she asked a group of friends and supporters for a blunt assessment, but the mayor's office was mum on the issue, refusing to comment. In the past, Seng has said it’s rude to ask so soon whether she plans to run again.
Her four-year term ends in 2007, which may seem a long way off, but not on political calendars. Republican Councilmen Ken Svoboda and Jon Camp both have expressed interest in the job, along with 22-year Democratic Sen. Chris Beutler, who will be term-limited out of the Legislature next year.
If one were to judge Seng’s inclination by the number of public appearances she puts in weekly and headline-making press conferences she’s held recently, it would appear she’s leaning toward another run.
When do we get to Waverly?
Occasionally City Council talk wanders around to Waverly, and the possibility — or impossibility — of annexing the town some day.
The topic came up during a recent “common” meeting of the Lincoln City Council and Lancaster County Board to look at a Comprehensive Plan update, which guides the community’s growth and development. Councilman Jon Camp asked whether it would be wise to annex land as close to Waverly as possible since “several of us believe northeast is where the market is going.”
Stephen Henrichsen, special projects manager for the city-county Planning Department, said state law doesn’t allow a primary class city (Lincoln) to annex a second-class city (Waverly, population 2,600) unless Waverly voters agree to consolidate with Lincoln. The same law would apply to Hickman.
The rules are different for Omaha, which wants to annex Elkhorn, population 8,000.
“I think there had been an assumption that we were in a similar circumstance as Omaha,” Henrichsen said.
Still, council members asked that the proposed Comprehensive Plan update be altered to include in the city’s first growth tier more land south of Interstate 80 from 120th Street to 127th Street, where an east beltway is planned. That request will be discussed at today’s planning commission meeting.
Cook wanted Wal-Mart details
Councilman Jonathan Cook was not happy to hear that the annexation agreement between the city and a developer who wants to build a third Wal-Mart in Lincoln wasn’t ready in time for the Monday council meeting.
During a pre-council meeting, Cook was fairly stern in asking why the agreement wasn’t done, and why the council wasn’t forewarned the prior week. He said council members received an official-looking document that looked like an annexation agreement in its weekly council packet. City-county Planning Director Marvin Krout said that document must have come from the law department, because it wasn’t from his office.
Krout said one of developers’ complaints has been that it takes too long to reach annexation agreements, but he acknowledged that this probably wasn’t the best development to try to speed up the process by setting a date for the public hearing and hoping the agreement would be ready by then.
Still, Krout said, the public probably wouldn’t be interested in the “arcane issues” in the annexation agreement, such as who pays for right turning lanes. Cook disagreed with his assessment that taxpayers aren’t interested in those aspects.
“I don’t think they’re arcane issues,” Cook said.
‘M class’ update
So whatever became of that committee the mayor assembled to look into erroneous salary data the personnel department presented to the City Council to help justify pay range changes?
The committee was supposed to get back to Mayor Coleen Seng by the end of September, but still hasn’t.
The group is looking into salary data used in conjunction with pay range changes the council approved in December to gradually increase the salaries of 139 city employees in the “M class,” or managerial and professional category. The salary survey concluded Lincoln’s salaries lagged by nearly 6 percent compared to seven other comparable cities.
In late August, Seng said a personnel department staffer made a misrepresentation of the data. In the meantime, the council has refused to approve annual cost-of-living raises for M class employees. The council also has talked about using its investigatory power to look into the matter.
Councilwoman Annette McRoy, who is on the mayor’s committee, said it had to gather fresh data from those seven cities, and a report should be ready in the coming weeks. The committee will recommend how many M class pay ranges the city should have, and how they should be structured.
“We are moving forward, making progress,” she said.
84th to open soon
For those who think 84th Street has essentially been under construction for 10 years, take heart.
The widening from two to four lanes — from Cornhusker Highway to Nebraska 2 — should be done by the day before Thanksgiving. While bits and pieces of 84th have been under construction since 1996, this last phase, from Pioneers Boulevard to Nebraska 2, began in March 2004.
On Monday, workers made “the golden link” — connecting a water line and embarking upon the last 150 feet of pavement, said Public Works Director Karl Fredrickson. After laying stripes, sealing joints and clearing away debris, the road will finally open.
“We’re real close to buttoning it up and having it open to traffic,” he said.
Quoteworthy
“Anyone who serves that long in city government either gets an award or goes on to be mayor.” — Councilman Jonathan Cook, complimenting a longtime volunteer on the police advisory board.
“We were trying to schedule a trip to Cancun to be gone.” — Councilman Jon Camp, on the council’s repeated inquiries in recent weeks as to when the proposed Wal-Mart Supercenter would be on its agenda.
“Have you informed Helen that she becomes responsible for all maintenance?” — Councilman Jonathan Cook, on a portion of a trail being named after former Lincoln Mayor Helen Boosalis.
Reach Deena Winter at 473-2642 or dwinter@journalstar.com.