Lincolnite: Lincoln's Online Community

Hello my name is Mike Deal and I would like to run for mayor.
I am your average lincolnite, I have a wife and two kids. I work at a job that is not going to make me rich by any stretch of the imagination. When the price of gas goes up the amount of gas I purchase goes down and no extra’s like pop. If something goes wrong with my car I have to check my bank account to see if I can afford to fix it now or if I need to do some creative financing. Unlike our city government I cannot spend more than what I have. Our government is a representative democracy, in other words we vote for people that will vote for what we want. They are supposed to represent us and do what is best for us, but if they have no idea what we have to deal with then they are clueless as to what we go through. I doubt that the lawyers and business owners that normally run for office can relate to being short of money. My job takes me all over the city every day and I see $500,000 houses and I see houses that need to be condemned but they have people living in them. I see our senior citizens trying to make ends meet on a fixed budget that does not allows for the price fuel and food to rise and fall. I see abandoned buildings that once had a thriving business that helped feed and house the people of this great city. I remember when this city had parties and festivals that the people enjoyed and helped take our minds off the day to day grind.
My plans for the city have both short term goals and long term goals. The short term goals would be to work to make this city able to pay for what it needs without having to dip into each department’s extra money accounts. The city tried to remove the use it or loose it mentality by telling each department that any extra money they had left over from the previous year they could set that money aside and save it to buy something they needed in the future. Well each department that did that had saved up a good deal of the taxpayer’s money to buy something and the city council decided that their short sidedness was a reason to take the taxpayers money and use it to help fix this budget mess. OK I see two problems with this. Number 1, don’t we have a department that looks over the books of each department in this city and if they see a department spending extra money to avoid loosing it the next year? And if they saw this going on, give them notice that this will not be allowed and next time they will be fired. Number 2, the taxpayer’s money is the taxpayer’s money. If the city needs money the city needs money. There are many people in this city that need their money more than the city needs to stockpile the taxpayer’s money.
I would really like some feedback on this. I will post more in the next few days.
Topics to be discussed soon
Ambulance service rates going up
Fire equipment purchase
LB555
Median mowing contract
Wal-mart
Downtown monopoly on multiplex theaters
City’s fixation on downtown Lincoln
If any of this makes sense to you and you would like sign my petition to get my name on the primary ballot for Mayor of Lincoln E-mail me and I will figure a way.

Ambulance service rates going up
Ambulance service rates are going up, in my opinion because of former Mayor Don Weesley. He was a politician and was willing to sell his integrity (what little he had) just to be Mayor. He needed support and he found it in the fire departments union in the form of Mike Spadt. The union assembled up as many firemen as they could to campaign for him. He was elected mayor and in return the mayor led the charge to turn LFD in to Lincoln Fire and Rescue Department. Doing this Lincoln Fire and Rescue Department could be compared to bigger cities when it came to pay. This also meant that they would also have more members called Paramedics and creating a whole new class of employee for the Firemen. I wonder how large of a raise in pay did the new fire chief get when he took over as chief?
About a year or so ago the Fire Department decided that it could no longer afford to transport the elderly from the Hospitals to Rehab centers because they were loosing too much money doing it. So you may have noticed a new Ambulance company in town. They came in and have been transporting the elderly to and from the hospital, with out loosing money. Even though they only do emergency calls, it still has not been kind to the fire department. They are running $500,000 in the hole each year.
SO the city trying to make up for this bit of stupidity is raising rates. Guess who uses the fire departments ambulance service most? First the elderly when they are very sick, next inline are people that have been in accidents. Ok let’s raise rates on the elderly who in this town do not have a big voice speaking for them and future accident victims, whom ever it may be.
We need to give more of the emergency calls to this new ambulance service and try a shared response system to the calls. Create a system where we use Lincoln Fire and Rescue department and a private company to cover the cities emergency needs. Reduce the calls that the fire department rolls on and reduce man hours. SAVE MONEY while keeping a high level of service.
All of the above is just my opinion

I was strongly opposed to the City taking over ambulance service from the private sector but, and correct me if I’m wrong, the voters approved the takeover.

It would be interesting to see what it would cost to return ambulance service to the private sector and how it would affect the City’s budget.  I have to wonder, however, how willing the private sector would be to take back the service after local government worked so hard to wrestle it away.

This is from the fire house news online. It is a online mag for fire departments to show thier stuf. This one is dated 11-8-2000. Guess who all was on the city council at that time?
Camp Cook McRoy Seng those I am real sure and maybe Svoboda but I am not sure
Lincoln, Nebraska

The Lincoln Fire Department will provide the city’s 911 ambulance service starting Jan. 1. Lincoln voters Tuesday narrowly defeated a city charter amendment that would have created a new ambulance authority.

Instead, firefighters will take over the city’s emergency ambulance service from current provider Rural/Metro that has served the area for decades. The vote was 51.45% against the proposal out of more then 78,000 votes.

The Lincoln City Council voted in June to award 911 ambulance service to firefighters instead of private provider Rural/Metro. Critics of the move organized to put a city charter amendment on the Tuesday ballot.

The amendment would have postponed the Fire Department’s Jan. 1 takeover and would have created an ambulance authority to oversee emergency service and select a provider.

Lincoln Mayor Don Wesley?s aid Jennifer Brinkman said, ?we have a lot of stuff to do.? In meetings Wednesday she said they were discussing what to do about vehicles and staff. They had tentatively tested and offered people jobs including some on the staff of Rural/Metro.

She said they will be ready but having to go through the whole political process has put them a few steps behind.

LB555
OK let us talk about LB555. Tax Biteler, I mean Chris Beutler introduced a bill that would increase the tax on fuel by 2 cents a gallon. That does not sound like much but to people that don’t have much that would be a burden. The companies that transport elderly and low income people to Doctors appointments and to other important places would have to pass that cost increase on to their clients. He wrote the bill because the state needed money to pay for roads. Anybody hear the press conference the other day when a city council person cheered Mr. Beutler for pulling out of the states budget money for road improvements here in Lincoln, just in time for him to run for mayor. What has been said in the past was that the state was not giving the city of Lincoln its fair share of state money, but now that Mr. Beutler is kicked out of his state office he has held for many years he now finds money to help Lincoln. He has had many years to help come up with the cities “Fair Share“. Anyone think that maybe this is because he is afraid that he will not like working in the private sector? Sounds like a politician to me. Is he young enough to use this office as a stepping stone to the governor’s office?
One other thing is Mr. Beutler has a $70,000 per year contract raising money for the Parks & Recreation Department, would this become a conflict of interest as did Ken Svoboda’s mowing contract, especially when you do not fulfill your end of the contract and still write yourself a check on the city’s money.
If Mr. Beutler or Mr. Svoboda becomes our next mayor it will be more partisan politics and more of the same, just a different name to get mad at.

mike4mayor_of_lincoln - 14 November 2006 09:25 PM

Ambulance service rates going up
Ambulance service rates are going up, in my opinion because of former Mayor Don Weesley. He was a politician and was willing to sell his integrity (what little he had) just to be Mayor. He needed support and he found it in the fire departments union in the form of Mike Spadt. The union assembled up as many firemen as they could to campaign for him. He was elected mayor and in return the mayor led the charge to turn LFD in to Lincoln Fire and Rescue Department. Doing this Lincoln Fire and Rescue Department could be compared to bigger cities when it came to pay. This also meant that they would also have more members called Paramedics and creating a whole new class of employee for the Firemen. I wonder how large of a raise in pay did the new fire chief get when he took over as chief?

I think running against former Mayor Wesley is going to have the same results as the Repubs had when they tried to run against former presidential candidate Kerry during this years elections:  none.

Running against the union may have some effect, especially with the fiasco that the fire trucks have given us, however I think overall it won’t have the effect you may desire.

Also, please remember, it was not the city that decided to move the firefighters into the ambulance buisiness, it was the people of Lincoln, who voted for it.  I think it would be a very bad idea to run against them.

Overall:  I’d rather see what your solution is, so lets have at it: I hope it’s not privatizing.  I used to work for Transfigurations, a privatized contracted company taking care of developmentally disabled adults.  Their mistakes make this firefighting fiasco pale in comparison:  I lost 7 weeks pay to them, and nobody wants to try to recover it for the employees that worked KNOWING they would not get paid.

Anyway, good luck to you.

Also, please remember, it was not the city that decided to move the firefighters into the ambulance business; it was the people of Lincoln, who voted for it.  I think it would be a very bad idea to run against them.

The Lincoln City Council voted (not the people) in June to award 911 ambulance service to firefighters instead of private provider Rural/Metro. Critics of the move organized to put a city charter amendment on the November ballot. The amendment would have postponed the Fire Department’s Jan. 1 takeover and would have created an ambulance authority to oversee emergency service and select a provider.
The people voted against creating a department that would have looked into what would have been the best for the city, why it was defeated I am not sure. The reason some people wanted this department was because they knew it was a loosing decision for the city, money wise that is. This department could have saved the city tons of money.

Overall:  I’d rather see what your solution is, so lets have at it: I hope it’s not privatizing.  I used to work for Transfigurations, a privatized contracted company taking care of developmentally disabled adults.  Their mistakes make this firefighting fiasco pale in comparison:  I lost 7 weeks pay to them, and nobody wants to try to recover it for the employees that worked KNOWING they would not get paid.

My solution would be a combination of private and a city run ambulance service. All non emergency runs would be done by a private company like it is now. Areas of the city would be with a private company all the time with back up being done by the city. While other areas that are more prone to needing emergency care would be done by the city with a private company backing the city up.  Using statistics to determine what areas have the most ambulance calls and schedule them to be the most efficient. I have not done any studies on this I am just an average guy with ideas, some may be good some my not be. It is just an idea I am sure something could be worked out.
Please let me know what you think.

Sorry I have not posted in a while. My mother was diagnosed with cancer. She had surgery and now we wait to see if they got it all.

OK Lets talk about what kind of Mayor I would be. I know there is a need for taxes and I know that there is a need for people to keep as much of their money as possible. It is the job of the city council and the mayor to balance these facts and come up with an efficient use of tax money. Some services could be privatized to save money like the guy that gets $20,000 in overtime to replace signs and paint parking lot lines. The city used to have a program called the green team that used high school aged kids to do lawn care at the city parks during the summer. Could we increase that to a limited year round schedule? Turn a team loose at 4:30 P.M. till 7:30 P.M. and have them trip bushes and scoop snow with a shovels. They could also do light landscaping duties like putting down the layer of wood mulch they do each year on some of the foot paths. Has anyone seen a Star-trans bus empty? I have, I am a driver here in Lincoln and I see buses that have only 1 or 2 people on it. They could replace the big diesel guzzling buses with the smaller handy type buses that they have and save money for the middle of the day and at the end of the day. Use the big ones for the busy times and the smaller ones when it is slow. I would get my hands dirty in each and every department to see what the workers are doing and to see if there was any way that I could help save money. I remember a city council meeting that a city engineer said that when the city had a grading company come in a and grade an area they had to go back over it and do it again because the grading company did it wrong. Why in the world would we be doing that if we paid that company to grade it? The city engineer made it seem like this happened a lot, and they need to keep all the engineers to make sure that the work gets done right. I would reduce wasted tax money.

I would work to make Lincoln a city that companies want to do business in. In the past couple years we have lost a few companies to other cities. I have not seen any new Industries come to Lincoln.  We need something more then a few restaurants opening here to help generate more tax revenue.  Imagine an aerospace company here in Lincoln.  If I remember correctly the Brunswick company had a plant out in the Airpark area that made products that was used back in the 60’s and 70’s on rockets that went into outer space.  We used to have a survey taking company but they moved to another city as well. When this company left it did not only affect the company but it affected companies around it as well. A hotel that was located next to it lost lots of business because of this move.

If we can court a couple of companies and get them to open a plant or office here we would have more jobs.  If these jobs were in a better than minimum wage class jobs then we would get more revenue.  If these brick and mortar buildings are built on property located in the city then we would get more property tax revenue.

Take a look at where Lincoln is on the map.  We are located close to the center of the United States and in this day of high gas prices shipping from the center would be cheaper.  Then look at education here in Lincoln with UNL, Doane, Wesleyan and Southeast Community College having these fine places of higher education would give the companies that move to Lincoln a smarter pool of employees. With all this going for Lincoln why don’t we have more companies giving Lincoln a try?  Could it be that this and past mayor’s have not shouted the praises of Lincoln loud enough?  Is our cost of living here, in Lincoln, to high?

I need a just few more signatures on the petition to put my name on the ballot for the primary election. I also would like a couple of people willing to volunteer some time to help with the campaign. If anyone would like to help me out on this PLEASE E-mail me.

Has anyone seen a Star-trans bus empty? I have, I am a driver here in Lincoln and I see buses that have only 1 or 2 people on it. They could replace the big diesel guzzling buses with the smaller handy type buses that they have and save money for the middle of the day and at the end of the day. Use the big ones for the busy times and the smaller ones when it is slow.

I hear this suggestion (or suggestions like it) relatively often. Unfortunately, your proposal requires the purchase and maintenance of twice as many buses (a full fleet of large buses for peak times, and a full fleet of small buses for off-peak times). In other words, you won’t be saving money, you’ll be increasing expenses substantially. Hardly what you were going for.

Even with smaller buses, you have only just begun to address the inefficiencies in Star Tran’s operations. After all, a small bus with “only 1 or 2 people on it” is only marginally more efficient than a large bus with the same load. The real solution lies much, much deeper than something as simple as bus size. You need to look at factors like: local driving culture; affordability of Downtown parking; route design; bus frequency; street layout patterns; potential rider demographics; and so on.

Yours may be a politically popular method of addressing a perceived problem, but it is not a solution. Any proposal that merely shrinks Star Tran’s buses without solving myriad other problems first is doomed. What Lincoln needs is a comprehensive—and I do mean comprehensive—transportation improvement package, not tiny, knee-jerk, feel-good measures.

I am motivated to use Star Tran (which is infrequently because of bus schedules) for environmental reasons but economically, it provides little incentive for me to use it.  The bus schedule also requires a flexible work schedule.  During the summer, when I’m not transporting kids to school, it is possible for me to use the bus but it doesn’t save me a lot of money to do so.  Just for what it’s worth.

This is my first post, but I have been lurking on here for a few days.  It sounds lilke you have alot of the same concerns about this city that I do. 
First and foremost on my list of problems with Lincoln is the unfriendly atmsophere we have here for business.  We have a huge untapped resource for industry in this city at Airpark.  At one time Lincoln Air Force base was the 4th largest Airbase that the US had, and all of that infastructure is still in place over there.  In fact there is so much water capacity over there that the Airport Authority has to periodically open up the fire hydrants just to keep the water in the mains from going stagnant.  There is also Railroad, Electrical, Telephone, Gas, Airport access, Interstate Highway access, not to mention plenty of land, and in place buildings that are worth tens of millions of dollars if we tried to build a industrial park from scratch.  However other than the few businesses that are there Airpark is almost empty.
Second on my list is the Fire Department.  My wife did her paramedic clinicals and worked part time for Rural Metro up until the day that LFD took over.  The simple fact is that the Fire Union got Don Wesley elected, and LFD was quickly loosing it’s justification for existing, so Wesley gave them the Ambulance service as a thank you, and as a way for LFD to justify their existence.  That’s not to say that we don’t need a fire deparment, recent events have shown that the need for a qualified and high quality fire department exists, I just think that LFD is too big, and carries to much political power.  When is the last time you heard the Police union come out and publically rant and rave about local politics.  But it happens with LFD on an almost daily basis.  The ambulance service needs to go back into private hands.  I say let it out for bids, and let’s see who gets it.  Also once a new company comes to town, then LFD needs to reduce their staffing levels to pre EMS days with the only increases coming from a population increase calculation.
Third is traffic.  I live in the far South end of town, and it’s to the point where I do not do business in the North side of town.  It’s not that I am one of those snobs that other posters have talked about, but it’s just that I do not want to spend my whole day driving across this town.  We need two things, we need a loop around the city, and we need a North/South expressway right through the middle of town.  I know it might mean tearing down some houses and cutting down some trees, but it needs to be done if this town is going to continue to grow at the pace it is.
Fourth is Star-Tran.  Star Tran is a waste of money plain and simple.  How often do you see more than 1 or 2 people on a city bus outside of downtown.  We could get by with a fleet of busses similar to what the rental car companies have at airports.  People who ride the bus becasue they somehow feel that they are helping save fuel are just kidding themselves.  THose busses run 99% empty sucking down diesel fuel and people think they are saving the planet.  I know people will say that we need the busses for those who can’t afford cars, and they are right, but why should be support a whole bus system just for the benefit of a few hundred low income folks.  We could go to a more need based system similar to a taxi service using smaller shuttle type busses and save a ton of money.  These smaller shuttle busses could also be better utilized in the areas of medial transport than the larger buses.  That is to say that the transport to and from doctor / hospital appointments that now go to the taxi services could easily be handled by Star Tran.
And my last area is downtown.  When is the city going to realize that we have sunk enough money into downtown.  There is nothing outside of the haymarket to do, unless you want to go bar crawling, so why do we keep trying.  Downtown needs to be turned into office and residential space first, then the support busineese will come on their own.  Quit tearing down perfectly good buildings to buile more theatres and hotels, when there is noting else to do once you get there.  We live close to Southpointe, and me and my family, can shop, eat, get a snack, go to a movie, all without having to move our car, or pay for parking, and not have to walk more than a few hundred yards.  Now when I can do that downtown, then I will start going there for entertainment.  Even when we do go downtown to eat we go to the Haymarket, and when we finish our meal, we get in our car and drive someplace else to finish our night.
That’s all for my ranting right now.  All in all I would say that your views and opinions are on target with alot of other people that I know, so keep the dream alive, and maybe someday I will see your name on the ballet.

Mat

I think downtown Lincoln is pretty cool, especially with the Lied Center, campus, movie theaters and restaurants.  Unlike a lot of downtown districts, Lincoln’s is still pretty vibrant.  I was in Dallas last year and it was clearly on life support, whereas Lincoln’s is doing quite well compared to that.  I enjoy coming downtown and don’t mind at all walking a block or two.  I’m one of those guys who will drive for 10 minutes (or longer) to find a meter, rather than park in a garage.  Sometimes that’s aggravating, but that’s the way I roll. 

Mr. Wilson you said,
“I hear this suggestion (or suggestions like it) relatively often. Unfortunately, your proposal requires the purchase and maintenance of twice as many buses (a full fleet of large buses for peak times, and a full fleet of small buses for off-peak times). In other words, you won’t be saving money, you’ll be increasing expenses substantially. Hardly what you were going for.”

Do you know how many small handy style buss’s Star Trans has? Do you know how many are sitting empty inside their garage downtown? The fuel mileage that these handy style buss’s gets are far better than the large buss’s. If they were to use what they have to replace at least a few of the big buss’s then there would be a savings. The replacement parts for these handy style buss’s are on average cheaper than the large buss’s. So the less that the larger buss’s are used the less the maintenance costs will be.

Mr. Wilson you said,
“Even with smaller buses, you have only just begun to address the inefficiencies in Star Tran’s operations. After all, a small bus with “only 1 or 2 people on it” is only marginally more efficient than a large bus with the same load. The real solution lies much, much deeper than something as simple as bus size. You need to look at factors like: local driving culture; affordability of Downtown parking; route design; bus frequency; street layout patterns; potential rider demographics; and so on.”

Do you know how many Miles per Gallon a big bus gets? Do you know how many Miles per Gallon the handy bus gets? Now take the difference times how many miles just one bus route travels in one year, then figure out an average of Diesel fuel in one year and you may be surprised how much would be saved. Now the handy style bus is mostly a gas engine and could use a cheaper fuel. Bio-Diesel runs around 3:50 to 4:50 per gallon while gasoline runs around 2:20 to 2:80 per gallon. Please do not get me wrong I want to save the earth but at what cost to the average Lincolnite. Sometimes you can only afford hamburgers when you want steak, but when can afford steak go for it.

Mr. Wilson you said,
“Yours may be a politically popular method of addressing a perceived problem, but it is not a solution. Any proposal that merely shrinks Star Tran’s buses without solving myriad other problems first is doomed. What Lincoln needs is a comprehensive—and I do mean comprehensive—transportation improvement package, not tiny, knee-jerk, feel-good measures.”

Is it really just a “perceived problem?” Is it ok to raise the rates on the people that have to travel by bus? (The politically popular method.) This is what is happening each year. I know some college students that ride the bus because they could not afford to travel any other way. If we could bring the cost of running these routes then we would not have to raise rates or cut down the routes.

Mat / Elliboom I agree with a lot of what you said except:

“First and foremost on my list of problems with Lincoln is the unfriendly atmosphere we have here for business.”

Lincoln is friendly towards a few select businesses, a kind of good old boy network. If you are in with them then you can have for example a monopoly on multiplex theaters.

Do you know how many small handy style buss’s Star Trans has? Do you know how many are sitting empty inside their garage downtown? ... Do you know how many Miles per Gallon a big bus gets? Do you know how many Miles per Gallon the handy bus gets?

It seems to me the more important question is: Do you?

Mike, what I’m about to say isn’t meant to be snarky, it’s just a piece of advice. If you ever want to be taken seriously as a candidate—or more generally as an agent of change, whether running for office or not—you are going to have to start answering your own questions with actual facts and figures rather than rhetorical questions and vague insinuations. Don’t expect me or anybody else to answer your questions—many of which are actually disguised accusations—for you. Make some phone calls and pull out a calculator. Make sure you understand federal rules and regulations related to municipal transportation services. Know the basics of the Transit Development Plan and meet with the Advisory Committee members. Schedule a meeting with Larry Worth and chat with him about your ideas. That’s not asking too much of a mayoral candidate.

Have you ever utilized Star Tran’s services on a regular basis? Have you relied on it to get around? Have you spoken to the drivers? To the passengers? Again, I’m not being snarky here. If you haven’t already, ride the bus for a month; it takes at least that long to really get a feel for it. You’ll be surprised what you learn in that time.

In short, if you’re going to convince folks that you have the answers, you’re going to have to actually provide a few.