I like Chris Beutler. He is coming to this spring's mayoral election prepared with some solid ideas and proposals. Good for him.
His latest proposal -- his first was related to road construction funding -- is to create an economic development advisory board by the name of the "MOVE Council" (Mayor’s Opportunities for a Vibrant Economy). (Note to Mr. Beutler: enough with the awful acronyms already!) The eleven-member board would be composed of members from various community groups, such as LIBA, Homebuilders of Lincoln, and so on. I am of two minds on the proposal.
On the one hand, I'm glad to see Mr. Beutler charging head-first into the campaign with an array of ideas for what he will do if elected. Good for him.
On the other hand, this proposal is awfully vacuous. What will MOVE actually do? Not much, I'm afraid. Its task will be to come to a "consensus" on economic development topics. But any consensus likely to come from an ideologically diverse group will be watered down and hardly worth the effort. After all, consensus-seeking strips out bold, controversial ideas by design. Consensus is great for times when you don't want to tick anybody off, but it's usually not worth much for solving complicated problems. Furthermore, by shifting the burden of finding a solution to an unelected board, Mr. Beutler is effectively proposing to shrug off responsibility for one of the most important parts of his job.
One is left to wonder: does Mr. Beutler have any opinions of his own on the topic of economic development? I'm sure he does. I refuse to believe that his best idea is passing the buck to an unelected board. Come on, Chris, tell us what you would do.
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