Logan County Alliance speaks publicly to debunk myths and assumptions
Part two: Unified Organizations Committee moves forward with only four groups, then drops to three

[March 07, 2016]  LINCOLN - With only four groups involved, the Unified Organizations Committee (UOC) continued to move forward, and by the end of January 2015, the new organization had been named the Logan County Alliance (LCA), the board of directors had been established, and Chamber Director Andi Hake had been named as the chief executive officer and president of the new organization.

On the last weekend in January 2015, the Chamber held its annual dinner, and there, the new board of directors was announced for the Logan County Alliance. They were Sal Pollice, Tom O’Donohue, Greg Basford, Michael Gowin, Jean Bruner-Jachino and Frank Adubato.

Controversy over the new organization began almost on day one, as some believed the LCA was responsible for the division of the Balloon Festival into three separate festivals. Others felt that the Alliance was responsible for dissolving the Main Street Lincoln organization. There was also concern that the chair of the new board, Tom O’Donohue would be the puppet-master and that his board or council, as it is now called, would consist of people who would blindly do whatever O’Donohue told them.

At the meeting on Friday, the Alliance Council members addressed all three public opinions in an effort to debunk the myths and refute statements that have been made in the press regarding a clandestine little group led by Tom O’Donohue and “his underlings.”

On Friday, O’Donohue noted that of the many things that had been said over the past year, the above was among the most disturbing. The council membership, he said, is made up of intelligent, caring people who want to see the Alliance succeed in its mission because ultimately the success of the LCA will be the success of everyone in the county.

“My issue is how (another news source) handles information. (The writer) doesn’t have to back up anything said (with fact), it is an opinion printed as news. I’m tired of everyone pretending he is not part of a greater political agenda, and we are the current target.”

Who is the Alliance and what is its purpose?

Keith Snyder explained that it goes back to the desire to see six economic based groups work together, and become stronger in representation of Logan County on the whole. “All six groups had at one point agreed to this. We were going to move forward and try to make it work, because what we had before, simply was not working for Lincoln and Logan County,” he said.

Snyder said that the Alliance respected the decision of the Logan County Board and the Development Partnership to remove themselves from the group, and he didn’t feel that any moves made by the Alliance since that time have been done with malice toward the county or the DP.

With those two withdrawals, the Alliance then became a group of four that included Main Street Lincoln.

Why did Main Street Lincoln dissolve?

When Main Street Lincoln was dissolved, some were led to believe that the decision was by the Alliance. Greg Basford said that at the time the Main Street Board announced its coming dissolution, that entity was not a part of the Alliance, they had not officially joined.

O’Donohue said that Main Street was involved in the UOC and represented by Tracy Welch and Jessica Hanson. O’Donohue also said that these same two were elected to be on the Alliance Board, but then later pulled out and it was announced that Main Street would dissolve.

Snyder, who was very active in the UOC’s development of the Alliance, recalled the scenarios that might have led up to the final decision by Main Street. He noted a planning meeting held in July of 2014 with a professional facilitator. In that meeting, the duties of each of the six entities were listed and reviewed. The goal was to identify duplication of services and determine how to merge the groups and work toward eliminating those duplications.

Snyder said, “One of the exercises we did with the UOC, everybody put on a white board what their responsibilities were with their organizations. Main Street's responsibilities were all overlapped with other organizations. It became pretty obvious at that time to everybody in the room that Main Street was a duplication of other efforts. I think even the Main Street people noticed that and felt that.”

Did the Alliance take Main Street's assets?

O’Donohue said no, the assets of the organization were given over to the city of Lincoln. Snyder, who was the mayor of Lincoln at that time, explained that at the dissolution there were no liquid or cash assets to take over. The organization was out of money completely.

Snyder resigned as mayor, shortly after the first of the year 2015. He said that after he had left office, the city did visit the Main Street office to collect any physical assets (furniture and equipment), but he had no idea what was absorbed into the city’s holdings from that office.

Snyder also explained how it could have been possible that Main Street was out of money. It went back to the Art and Balloon Festival. One of Main Street’s biggest fundraisers each year was the Taste of Wine at the Art and Balloon Festival. Snyder said that in 2014, the Taste of Wine fared poorly, (as did the entire festival) and consequently, they did not make the money they needed to survive the year. “They were out of money before the end of the calendar year. They didn’t even have the funds to pay their Executive Director.”

[Nila Smith]

Logan County Alliance speaks publicly to debunk myths and assumptions

• Part one: What is the Alliance and its purpose?