City Councilman Jon Camp thinks it’s time for Lincoln to consider hiring a professional city manager to lead Lincoln.

That would mean moving from the strong mayor form of government to a council-manager government. Lincoln would still have a mayor, but the mayor’s power would diminish considerably. The mayor would chair the City Council and have one vote and no veto power.

Replacing a partisan mayor with a nonpartisan city manager would allow the mayor to act like a CEO, the city manager to act like a company president and the council to act like a board of directors.

To make room at the council table, Camp’s plan would eliminate one at-large council seat. The council would appoint a city manager to execute its policies, manage city personnel, prepare budgets and oversee the day-to-day operations of the city.

Camp said having a city manager would make city government less political and more responsive and accountable “without the political bosses twisting arms at city hall.”

But the three men running for mayor say a city manager would be exactly the opposite. Because the city manager wouldn’t be elected, they’d be less responsive to voters.

One has to wonder: Why would Camp want to essentially relegate the next mayor to the role of cheerleader and ribbon-cutter?

After all, he flirted with the idea of running for mayor himself — although he says he’d still be promoting this idea if he had run.

The city will elect a new mayor in May and Camp’s Republican colleague on the council, Ken Svoboda, is running. Which begs the question: Doesn’t he have confidence Svoboda would be a good, strong mayor if elected?

Camp said it’s not about what he thinks of those running for mayor; it’s about what’s best for the city.

Svoboda said he was disappointed in Camp’s proposal and said Camp should probably focus on getting re-elected to the council instead of taking the campaign focus off “what we should be talking about: creating new jobs.”

Camp said he respects Svoboda’s opinion but, “In all due respect (to) Ken, the issue is not whether he or Chris Beutler or Roger Yant would be a good mayor.”

Svoboda said cities with weak leaders are often tempted to move to a city manager system, but he says that won’t be an issue if a strong mayor is elected.

And having a city manager won’t take politics out of city government, he said, because the City Council can fire the manager depending on which way the political winds are blowing.

From a purely budgetary perspective, Svoboda noted city managers generally are paid a lot more than mayors.

Not surprisingly, the other two candidates for mayor also oppose Camp’s idea. Democrat Chris Beutler said if Lincoln had a strong mayor, we wouldn’t be having this discussion.

“I think we’ve grown a great city with the system that we have and what we need is to get a strong leader back in office,” he said.

A manager would be less accountable to citizens, Beutler argued.

Independent candidate Roger Yant said voters should elect the city leader, not the council.

To move to a city manager government, voters would have to amend the city charter. Camp said he intends to ask the council to put the issue before voters in May 2008.

LIBA endorsements

The Lincoln Independent Business Association political action committee announced its endorsements for the upcoming primary election in April.

LIBA — a 1,000-member business group that says it promotes free enterprise, reduced government spending and lower taxes — interviewed candidates for mayor and City Council, and endorsed:

* Republican Ken Svoboda for mayor.

* Republican John Erickson for Lincoln’s southwest district, District 3, now represented by Councilman Jonathan Cook.

* Democrat incumbent Annette McRoy and Republican John Spatz for the northwest district, District 4.

* Democrat Doug Emery and Republican LaRae Eifert for the northeast district, District 1.

* Republican incumbent Jon Camp for the southeast district, District 2. (Although LIBA wasn’t aware of Republican candidate Jane Kinsey’s plans to run at the time of interviews, and she could be added to the endorsees later.)

They endorsed more than one candidate in some districts because the top two vote-getters in each race advance from the April 3 primary to the May 1 general election.

The fact LIBA endorsed only one candidate in Districts 2 and 3 shows they don’t think Allan Abbott (an independent candidate in District 2) and Cook, the Democratic incumbent, will support LIBA’s goals.

LIBA generally endorses Republicans; LIBA’s PAC chairman Russ Bayer said those endorsed “are advocates of business, a strong economy and efficient government.”

After the primary, LIBA may further narrow its list of endorsees.

Speaking of endorsements…

When Cook formally announced his decision to run for another four years on the council, rather than for mayor, I asked whether he endorsed fellow Democrat Beutler’s candidacy.

Cook declined to answer the question during his press conference, saying that’s “not my job.”

After the press conference, when asked why he wouldn’t endorse his fellow Democrat, Cook acquiesced, saying, “He will make a fine mayor.” We’ll mark that as a begrudging endorsement.

A step back in time

Here’s what was happening in Lincoln 50 years ago: Pershing Municipal Auditorium was formally dedicated.

And Lincoln firefighters were assigned to ride with police officers in patrol cars on a “buddy system,” but after one firefighter refused to carry a gun and was dismissed, the system eventually was abandoned.

Quote of the week

“Jon wants one for his yard.” — Councilman Cook, after Councilman Camp asked LES officials what one transmission tower costs after being shown photos of damaged transmission towers and lines.

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