Because Chris Beutler was accidentally overpaid about $10,000 for the work he did raising money for the city Parks Department, maybe it was only fair that his mayoral opponent, City Councilman Ken Svoboda, also get overpaid for maintaining landscaping  for the city.

And so he did. Svoboda said he was recently overpaid about $9,500 for median maintenance work done by his family-owned company, Ray’s Lawn and Home Care.

Ray’s has been phasing out its city work because Svoboda is running for mayor, and the overpayment came when the company was paid for work on some of its final contracts.

Svoboda said he caught the error and notified city officials last week. After verifying the overpayment, he said he put a check in the mail. The city received Svoboda’s check Monday.

This month, while compiling Beutler’s pay information for the Journal Star, city officials discovered Beutler received two extra paychecks worth about $10,000 total during the nearly seven years he worked for the city as an independent contractor. He received extra payments in 2005 and late last year.

Beutler reimbursed the city after city officials informed him of the overpayment.

City Finance Director Don Herz said he was “obviously not very happy that we’re dealing with this again.” Of the more than 100,000 payments processed by the city annually, worth more than $300 million, he said normally only two or three overpayments to vendors are discovered.

“I’m concerned now,” he said. “I’m not too happy with two of these occurring in a relatively short amount of time.”

He plans to put together an action plan that will include training, payment procedures and forensic analysis of payments to vendors over the past few years to look for problems and make sure there haven’t been other double payments.

He has not figured out how Svoboda’s overpayment happened.

Svoboda hires another consultant

Word on the street was that Svoboda was shaking things up in his campaign for mayor, but the candidate said he just hired an additional media consultant to refine his campaign message.

The new consultant began working for him this week, but Svoboda wouldn’t identify him or her.

“I don’t really know the name of the consultant,” he said.

He said Lincoln advertising agency Snitily Carr is still working for his campaign, too.

Svoboda said he also interviewed the consultant who worked for Gov. Dave Heineman “at his (Heineman’s) request,” but Svoboda said he “didn’t feel comfortable with an East Coast company.”

Would Wesely work for Beutler?

Republicans occasionally whisper that former Mayor Don Wesely would have some kind of role in Beutler’s administration, if he’s elected.

Wesely dismissed that idea, and Beutler said, “I’m trying to win this campaign, and I’m not going to be talking about individual people.”

When pressed, Beutler said, “I think the answer is no.”

Neighborhood group gives grades

The Lincoln Neighborhood Alliance — which advocates on behalf of neighborhood issues — has given out grades to the people running for City Council and mayor.

The grades were based on candidates’ stances on issues in which 17 neighborhood associations are interested, including sidewalk repairs, downzoning, neighborhood design standards, widening streets, burying power lines and alternative transportation modes.

The results:

Mayor: Chris Beutler: B, Ken Svoboda: D

City Council: District 1 - Doug Emery: B, LaRae Eifert: C. District 2 - Allan Abbott: D, Jon Camp: B. District 3 - Jonathan Cook: A, John Erickson: C. District 4 - John Spatz: C, Annette McRoy: B.

To read the candidates’ answers, go to www.lincolnneighborhoods.org.

Chamber gives scores

The Lincoln Chamber of Commerce also recently gave out some scores. The chamber gave candidates a score of 1 to 4 (with 4 being the best) based on their answers to such questions as how to find money to build new roads, the use of tax increment financing, how much funding economic development should get, government mergers, cutting personnel costs and flood plain standards.

Here are the results:

Mayor: Svoboda: 3.13, Beutler: 2.78. District 1 - Doug Emery: 2.68, LaRae Eifert: 2.18. District 2 - Allan Abbott: 2.39, Jon Camp: 3.06. District 3 - Jonathan Cook: 2.43, John Erickson: 2.88. District 4 - John Spatz: 2.45, Annette McRoy: 2.51.

To read the candidates’ answers, go to www.lcoc.com and click on the “Election 2007” icon.

Kinsey endorses Camp

Former District 2 City Council candidate Jane Kinsey — who won a respectable 23 percent of the vote in the April 3 primary — threw her support behind Jon Camp last week.

That wouldn’t be surprising, considering Kinsey and Camp are both Republicans, if she hadn’t challenged him for his seat and been quite vocal in her criticism of Camp during the campaign. But after meeting with Abbott and Camp, she went with her former adversary.

Kinsey said they agreed that taxes shouldn’t be raised, that the City Council should be more open and responsive and that City Hall needs more oversight.

Abbott said he was surprised by Kinsey’s decision because she ran on a need for change.

“A vote for Jon Camp will not create change,” he said.

City union endorses candidates

Last week one of the city’s five unions came out with its endorsements in the coming election.

The Public Association of Government Employees, which represents nearly 500 blue collar, technical and clerical employees, has endorsed: 

* Emery in District 1.

* Abbott in District 2.

* Cook in District 3.

* McRoy in District 4.

All are Democrats except Abbott, who is registered as an independent but has been endorsed by the Lancaster County Democratic Party.

“The membership was impressed that these candidates give us hope that the current negativity on the council might be replaced by positive, forward-thinking leadership,” union President Jeff Stump said in a news release. “These candidates are also not beholden to LIBA (the Lincoln Independent Business Association) or other special interests that seek to hold back progress in our city.”

Write-in candidate

A Lincoln man is running for mayor as a write-in candidate May 1.

Jim Wilson, who says he is a 59-year-old Vietnam veteran, has filed the necessary paperwork to be a write-in candidate for mayor. His name won’t be on the ballot but can be written in by voters.

Wilson unsuccessfully ran for Congress last year, losing to Maxine Moul in the primary election.

In a handwritten announcement, he said he supports a city manager form of government, drive-in theaters, expanded StarTran hours, a bicameral Legislature and creation of a senior citizens co-ed softball team. He said he’s pro-choice and “pro-smoker” and proposed a tobacco tax “to pay off fines at our libraries for children’s overdue materials.”

Quote of the week

“In sports, I would like to see Nebraska play Michigan in football this August.” — write-in mayoral candidate Jim Wilson, in his statement to the press outlining 15 goals. This was No. 4.

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