All three sitting Republicans on the Omaha City Council will be running for reelection this year. Aimee Melton, Brinker Harding, and Don Rowe spoke at the Pachyderm luncheon on Monday to discuss the state of the city and what they hope to accomplish in another term.
Moving Elections?
The first question came from Hal Daub on a bill proposed by John Cavanaugh (LB19) to move the election of city council members to the same date as the Presidential election every four years. All three council members were opposed to this idea.
“One of the reasons I oppose it, if we’re going to do that, it should be done by the city charter and it should be decided by the citizens of Omaha,” Melton said. “I believe in local control, and I don’t think the senators in Lincoln and senators from Western Nebraska should be dictating how we hold our elections.”
Harding was concerned about city council members getting “lost” if pushed down-ballot in a Presidential election and suggested consolidating other local issues — like school boards, utility boards, and bond issues — into the gubernatorial election cycle.
Infrastructure
Harding, who was a staffer for Hal Daub between 1995 and 2000, praised the former mayor for the work he did during that time, particularly for efforts revitalizing the downtown corridor.
“His mantra was, you can’t have a strong city if you don’t have a strong, solid downtown,” Harding said. “Remember when you drove in from the airport? You went past the Union Pacific Rail Yard stock guards. You went past the Aaron Ferer scrap iron facility. You looked at the ASARCO smelting plant. That wasn’t good enough. We had to put you up on a 60-foot viaduct as you drove in, so you got the bird’s-eye view of all that, rather than being at grade. And look what it is coming into Omaha today — you have a string of pearls. You have First National Bank Tower. You have Union Pacific. You have the Museum of Omaha’s tower going up. Look at all the things that have happened on the riverfront. And again, I think those building blocks are in large part still quite evident in the momentum of Omaha today.”
One guest commented on the new library building constructed at the intersection of 72nd and Dodge. “It’s a beautiful building — from a distance,” he said. “But when you get up close, it’s quite a mess.”
“I’m on that library committee,” Rowe said. “I’m going to tell you, the public-private partnerships that we have in Omaha allow us to do some incredible things, and the library at 72nd and Dodge will be world-class. … It’s going to be one of the best libraries in the world. It’s going to be on par with libraries in Stockholm, Sweden, all over the globe. And it’s going to be right here in Omaha. The city has a minimal investment in that. That’s almost entirely funded by private dollars.”
Tiff over TIF
Much of the discussion was on Tax Increment Financing (TIF) funding in Omaha, a tax incentive for private developers to invest in areas primarily designated as “blighted.”
State Auditor Mike Foley issued a 26-page advisory letter last September expressing concern over the “loose and inconsistent” interpretations of TIF statutes, specifically highlighting the Omaha streetcar project as the “largest diversion of property tax dollars for an economic development project in Nebraska history.”
Melton told the group that she believed Foley “actually kind of changed his mind as well after meeting with the Mayor and going through how it all works.” She also emphasized that the streetcar project would not be taken off the table without significant cost to the taxpayers.
“There’s somebody that’s running for mayor, and I’ve heard people say, ‘Well, do you think we can stop the streetcar?’” Melton said, referring to former state senator Mike McDonnell. “I suppose the new city council could vote to violate all the agreements that we’ve already entered into, but as a lawyer, I can tell you, we will get sued, and we won’t have a defense. So if we were to do that, we would probably incur anywhere from $250 to $350 million in liability. And that would have to be paid for by the taxpayer.”
Housing Affordability
Rowe cited a recently published report at withinreach.com, which analyzed the needs of Omaha under three pillars — mental health, education, and housing.
“There’s no such thing as housing, affordable housing … it’s $400,000 a door for these developers to produce housing in the city of Omaha,” Rowe said. “Up to 23 plus percent of the cost of housing goes toward fees and permits, and we need to be looking at those.”
Harding had a counterpoint and criticized a recently passed climate action and resiliency plan, which Rowe voted for but Harding and Melton did not.
“One of the requirements is that for new housing construction, you have to prewire the house for an EV charging station. That’s about at least $3,000 per door,” Harding said. “So if you ask Pete Festersen, or Ron Hug, or Danny Begley, or Anita Johnson about affordable housing — and I don’t speak for the Omaha Board of Realtors, but I do know enough of the people on the board to say if they ever hear any of those talk about affordable housing again, that’s the end of the conversation.”
Check and Balance
While none of the candidates yet have a Democrat challenger, Harding says that they all expect to have one, and they are campaigning as if they are already running. Democrats have a one-seat majority on the seven-seat city council, but the three Republican members are able to keep them in check with Republican Mayor Jean Stothert.
“If you didn’t have these three there, no veto the mayor would cast would be sustained,” Hal Daub pointed out. “So that’s our check and balance — to make sure that what our fine mayor does, and what the council members wish to do together, equals four instead of three.”