 He told the council that he loved this community, that
Lincoln was his hometown, and that it wasn't growing. He said the
city was stagnant. He told the council he has made hundreds of calls
and has several ideas of what to do about this.O'Neill said he
wanted to introduce the idea of a city-county manager. This would be
a paid position, with both the city of Lincoln and the county paying
the wages. In return, the manager would work for the city and county
in tandem.
O'Neill said this person would work for the good of both entities
on economic development. He noted this position would be in place of
a development partnership director.
The Lincoln & Logan County Development Partnership recently lost
its executive director, Mike Maniscalso. There is currently a search
under way for a new director, but nothing regarding this has been
announced by the partnership.
Marty Neitzel immediately spoke out against the idea presented,
saying she was not in favor of one person working for the city and
county both. She said there are already problems with the two boards
working together, and with one person working for both, there would
be a lot of bumping of the heads.
She said instead, the city and county each need a manager, and
those two people should work together.
O'Neill countered by saying he thought that if there were one
person representing both entities, it would actually make things run
more smoothly.
He also said he'd heard many comments that the development
partnership director should be eliminated and replaced with a city
manager and a county manager.
Mayor Keith Snyder reconfirmed what O'Neill was saying when he
asked if O'Neill was proposing to do away with economic development.
O'Neill said if a city-county manager was hired, the "EDC" would
not be needed. He also noted that in the last five years there have
been three partnership directors. He said now he goes out there and
the doors are locked because no one is there.
He told the council he'd like for them to think outside the box.
He said there was no need to spend taxpayer dollars on a director
for the partnership. He also implied that he didn't believe the
partnership had done all that much.
Snyder countered that statement, saying he felt like Mike
Maniscalco had done a great deal for the city and the county in his
time here.
O'Neill had also offered some definition of what the job duties
of this new position would be. He had included a statement that this
person would follow the two boards' instructions in the day-to-day
operations of the city and county.
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Tom O'Donohue spoke up, saying that the city is currently hoping to
hire someone as a city administrator who will take some of those
day-to-day burdens off the council. He said it sounded like
O'Neill's suggestion would not permit that to happen.
O'Neill said what the city was looking for was an administrator,
and there was a difference between an administrator and a manager.
It was then questioned if O'Neill was proposing the city hire two
people, an administrator and half of a manager position. O'Neill
said it was just an idea.
He also said the county needed a manager and an administrator and
a GIS manager. He said right now they had money in too many wells.
Snyder said he thought the county had a GIS manager in Will
D'Andrea, but O'Neill said he was just doing the job as part of his
other jobs with the county.
O'Neill was asked if he had taken his idea to the county board
and what they had to say about it.
O'Neill said five county board members were in favor of the idea,
and then named four. He said they had talked about it and had told
him to take it to the city first and see what they had to say.
On Wednesday, LDN emailed those four board members for confirmation
that they were behind this plan. Only one of the four responded and
said that he had seen a rough draft on something like this, but had
not put his endorsement on it.
While at the podium O'Neill also offered handouts on two other
suggestions: a "New Resident Incentive Package" and a "Home
Improvement Program Incentive."
The incentives for new residents included suggestions for
attracting homebuyers into the community and rewarding them with
retail and service discounts such as for garbage pickup, sewer and
insurance. He also suggested free months on phone service, free
installation of services and percentages off purchases.
The home improvement incentives included placing a "hold" on
property values for tax purposes if homeowners did upgrades on the
exteriors of their homes.
O'Neill said these were just a few of his ideas that would help
the city attract and retain residents.
[By NILA
SMITH]
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