Latest / The KFAB Comment Line with Jean Stothert / Omaha World Herald Features Mayor Ewing's Gag Order

Transcript

Omaha World Herald Features Mayor Ewing's Gag Order · The KFAB Comment Line with Jean Stothert

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Well, Peyton, guess what This studio we're sitting in was
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: on the front page of the Omaha World Herald this morning,
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: and as they always say, above the fold, there was
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: a picture. The only thing wrong with this picture of
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: me sitting here in this studio is where are you?
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: You should be in this picture?
• 0:17
  Speaker 2: Well, did they get your good side?
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: At least? No they didn't because but I mean, I
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: wouldn't be here doing this show if you. It wasn't
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: for you, and here they didn't put you in that picture.
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: But anyway, that's okay. But they did say something about
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: KFAB being the storied Omaha news, weather and sports station. Good,
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: good comment about our show here on KFAB. But I
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: wasn't going to talk about this morning, but it showed
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: up in the World Herald, so we got to bring
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: it up again and again. The headline with this is
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: Stothart's Omaha radio show off limits to you ing staffers.
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: And so the entire article, and it's quite a long article,
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: toxic in about Mary Ewing putting a gag order on
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: all of his directors and staff and not allowing them
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: to speak on this show. I think the article was good.
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: It did a good job of saying we are here
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: to talk about all current events. It talked about some
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: of my guests, the governor, US Senator Pete Ricketts, Douglas
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: County Sheriff Aaron Hanson. We aren't just here to talk
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: about or criticize Mayor Ewing. And when they had tried
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: to talk to him about it, he declined an interview.
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: He didn't interview with them, he just gave him a statement.
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: They asked to interview Bob Steuby public works director and
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: or the chief of staff, which is Tom Warren, and
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: he would not allow them to be interviewed. And so
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: the article is just about that. And he said in
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: his statement that sending senior leaders, this is Mary Ewing,
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: which are the department directors to explained our defend my
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: administration's actions to a hardly objective host, that's me puts
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: them in an awkward and potentially compromising position. Now, as
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: we know, we did have Bob Stuby on last week.
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: He was told he could come on and talk about
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: running for a mayor of Papillion in about his career,
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: but he was not allowed to talk about city issues.
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  Speaker 1: You know, of all the guests we've had on this
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: show and all the subjects and all the topics that
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: people want to talk about. I rarely think that there
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: would be any instance at all where a department director
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: that I hired, all of them worked with them for
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  Speaker 1: twelve years, with the exception of police chief and Bob
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  Speaker 1: Stuby because he was hired by Mayor Fahey. I would
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  Speaker 1: hardly think that I would be asking any of these
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  Speaker 1: people to defend Mayor Ewing. We would be asking these
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  Speaker 1: directors that I had a great working relationship for years
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  Speaker 1: with to come on and talk about things that the
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: callers and the listeners want to talk about. What they're
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: calling us about, and they're not calling us to say,
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: bring public works on to defend Mayor Ewing. No, we're
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: saying big probably bring public works on to talk about
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: snow removal or ice removal, or the street repair, or
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: bring the new or bring the library director on, who
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: isn't even hired by the mayor, hired by the library
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  Speaker 1: Board of Trustees and reports to the Library Board of Trustees.
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: I wanted her to come on to talk about the
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: great new library at seventy second Dodge, and she had
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: to decline due to Mayor Ewing's policy and so this
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  Speaker 1: article is all about that. It's all about what we
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: are doing here, and it's what the show is all about,
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: being a comment line and a call in, and that
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: we will take anything like I say in every beginning
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: of this show. But it is hardly a show that
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: people would be asked to come on and defend Mayor Ewing. Again,
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: I would say, what are you afraid of? Mayor Ewing?
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: Because I never restricted any of my employees when I
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: was mayor any of the directors anybody. In fact, I
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: encourage them to talk to the media because they're the
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  Speaker 1: ones that are the experts with their department. If there's
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: a snowstorm, I would want to have public Works come
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: on and let our listeners understand what is going on.
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: It's not to defend a certain policy. So I think
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  Speaker 1: it's an interesting article. They did bring up that I
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  Speaker 1: did have the fire chief Kathy Bossman on before he
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: issued this gag order, and I had her on to
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  Speaker 1: talk about the fires in western Nebraska. Mary Ewing's name
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  Speaker 1: wasn't even brought up in that conversation, nor did Chief
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  Speaker 1: Bossman have to do any defense of Mary Ewing. We
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  Speaker 1: talked about fires in western Nebraska. And the brave men
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  Speaker 1: and women of the Omaha Fire Department that we're out
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  Speaker 1: there fighting the fires, and.
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  Speaker 3: So it is.
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  Speaker 1: I think it's very interesting that he has taken this position.
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  Speaker 1: It's it's pretty unprecedented for a mayor to take such
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  Speaker 1: a position and not allow staff to speak with the media.
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  Speaker 1: And usually the media doesn't like that because there is
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: freedom of the press out there. So once again, we
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: are here to try to answer your questions, to let
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: you speak, to let you sound off, and I will
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: try to get people on this show that can answer
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: your questions if we can't, or to inform you and
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: keep you informed. But I will say this, you know,
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: and maybe in business, when a new director, a new president,
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: a new CEO takes place, sometimes in business they will
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: keep staff on board. And I'm not criticizing the staff
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: at all for being on board, not at all. These
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: are great directors. Like I said, I hired most of them.
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  Speaker 1: They do a great job. I'm not criticizing them at all.
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  Speaker 1: What I said was unprecedented is that a new mayor
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: does not take the time to assemble his own team,
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  Speaker 1: just like I did, just like Jim Suttle did, just
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: like Mike fahe did, and that is something that you
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: really want to do. I want to assemble your own
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: team that shares your views, your vision, your direction, and
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  Speaker 1: that's what a new mayor generally does. After a campaign
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: of months and months of John Ewing during the campaign
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  Speaker 1: criticizing me and everything that we did, which meant all
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: the directors, then suddenly he wants them all to stay
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: on and just keep on doing things as they did
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: for the last twelve years. So it's quite an interesting
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: situation here. I'd like to hear your comments and your
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: thoughts and opinions on this. The one thing that the
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: World Herald did want to ask me is are you
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: doing this so that you're getting ready to run for
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: something else again. No, I've said that before on the air.
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: I have been in an elected position for twenty seven years.
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  Speaker 1: Eleven on a school board, four on city council, twelve
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  Speaker 1: is mayor. I've done with running for a public office.
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  Speaker 1: I've told people I don't want to knock on another
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  Speaker 1: door or ask anybody for another dime. I think I've
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: done my duty and I love doing what we're doing here.
• 7:03
  Speaker 2: As we go to the phone lines, we're going to
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  Speaker 2: talk to Ken Ken you are live with Jean's author
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  Speaker 2: here on news radio eleven ten kfab good night, good.
• 7:11
  Speaker 4: Morning, good morning, Thanks for taking thanks for taking my call,
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  Speaker 4: and again you are a class act, my dear, thank you.
• 7:17
  Speaker 4: I think the glaring thing here is what you just
• 7:19
  Speaker 4: brought up. It is unprecedented and I've never heard it
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  Speaker 4: in the history of politics, a mayor coming in not
• 7:26
  Speaker 4: having his own staff. Yes, and here is This is
• 7:28
  Speaker 4: just my opinion and not putting words in your mouth anything.
• 7:31
  Speaker 4: I don't think the guy knows what he's doing. I
• 7:33
  Speaker 4: think he surprises hell, he won. I thought he wanted
• 7:36
  Speaker 4: to make the biggest stink that he possibly.
• 7:37
  Speaker 5: Could, and that he surprised he one and was not prepared.
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  Speaker 4: Nor does he know what he's doing. And I think
• 7:43
  Speaker 4: that he is afraid that once you get somebody in here,
• 7:46
  Speaker 4: regardless of what you're talking about, they're wanting to let
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  Speaker 4: it slip so bad that man, he doesn't know what
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  Speaker 4: he's doing. He kept us all here to make sure
• 7:54
  Speaker 4: there weren't ripples and he would embarrass himself. Now again
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  Speaker 4: that's my opinion, but I'd like to hear a couple
• 8:00
  Speaker 4: of years of why you think he kept everybody on board?
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  Speaker 4: Like you said, it's unprecedented. It is, so why didn't
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  Speaker 4: he I'll hang up and listen to you.
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  Speaker 1: But Gods, my dear, thank you, thank you for calling in,
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  Speaker 1: and thank you for sharing your opinions on that, and
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  Speaker 1: I share similar opinions. He kept them on because they
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: do a good job. They did a great job. And
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  Speaker 1: I will say, I think the job that my team
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: did for the last twelve years did a great job
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: for the city of Omaha. What was so unusual as
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: he criticized us so much during the campaign, from how
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: we took care of snow removal to the recipe that
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: we were using for concrete. I mean that was totally
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: made up. There was all of these criticisms of and
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: you know, you don't do this mayor job in a vacuum.
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  Speaker 1: I did it with the whole team, very critical, and
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  Speaker 1: then once he was mayor, it's well, we're going to
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  Speaker 1: keep everybody on and we're going to keep on doing
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  Speaker 1: it the same way that we have been doing it
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  Speaker 1: for the last twelve years. I haven't really heard except
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: a few promotions and a few new pass positions of
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: anything new and unique that anything that Mayor Ewing is
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  Speaker 1: proposing and so you know, the jobs that these department
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: directors are doing, they're good. I mean, I will tell
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  Speaker 1: you they're very good at it. And I always told
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  Speaker 1: the directors that I don't as mayor, I don't know
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  Speaker 1: how to run a fire department, or a police department,
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  Speaker 1: or a planning department or a library system. So you
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: hire the best people you possibly can, the experts, and
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: you have them run that department and you work with them.
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  Speaker 1: And that's exactly what I did. So, I mean, they
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: are a talented group of people.
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  Speaker 3: You know.
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  Speaker 1: I'm not criticizing them at all because they liked their
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: job and they wanted to keep running their department. My
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: criticism came to the mayor himself for criticizing us so
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: much and then turning around and saying, business as usual.
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: Just keep on doing what you've been doing for the
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: last twelve years. I think there is definitely I would
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: agree with you there. It's becoming more blatantly obvious that
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: there's some insecurities, and I think you know a lot
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  Speaker 1: of that is why he will not allow them to
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: come on and be interviewed. I would I that baffles me.
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: That baffles me why a mayor would say my staff
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: cannot be interviewed. Can you imagine the president saying, you know,
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: all of his people, the vice president, are the chiefs
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  Speaker 1: of different departments and directors, and think nobody can talk
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: to the media. Nobody. I mean, that's just that's unprecedented,
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: and it really makes people scratch their head and say,
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: why why would he hide behind this and not want
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: to be on the news or not want to be
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: have his great directors that he's kept on speak about
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: all the great things going on in Omaha. I don't know.
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: I mean, it's got to have a lot of I
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: think there's a lot of insecurities that are coming more
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: blatantly obvious.
• 10:54
  Speaker 2: You know the point of the show, Gene, you have
• 10:57
  Speaker 2: been the mayor for twelve years, an elected official for
• 11:00
  Speaker 2: twenty seven. There is maybe on the single hand amount
• 11:05
  Speaker 2: of people that are more qualified to talk about these
• 11:07
  Speaker 2: issues and topics in the city of Omaha. So when
• 11:09
  Speaker 2: people say, oh, this is you know, Jeane's just you know,
• 11:12
  Speaker 2: eaten sour grapes because she lost. Get over, Gene, you lost.
• 11:16
  Speaker 2: Quit talking about when you are mayor. It's over and
• 11:19
  Speaker 2: you lost. But here's the here's the fact of the matter,
• 11:21
  Speaker 2: and we know that and we know that yeah if she,
• 11:24
  Speaker 2: if she won, I should not be right.
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: I'm not out there saying I should have won that election,
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: right I said, No, I lost. Time for me to
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: move right on.
• 11:31
  Speaker 2: But these issues that we discussed, your guys's questions and
• 11:34
  Speaker 2: concerns and comments, you address them because you have so
• 11:37
  Speaker 2: much experience and knowledge. And what we've tried to do,
• 11:41
  Speaker 2: what you've tried to do Gene on this show is
• 11:43
  Speaker 2: reach out to the people that you worked with the
• 11:46
  Speaker 2: office to say, Okay, I'm not there anymore. I lost
• 11:50
  Speaker 2: and that's okay, and I know it, but now let's
• 11:52
  Speaker 2: hear from you what's going on currently right right now? Absolutely,
• 11:55
  Speaker 2: and that's what we're missing.
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: Absolutely, And you know I, like I said, I know
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: these people well. I still see quite a bit of
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: them socially too. And so to say no, you cannot
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: talk anymore to this radio station because she won't be
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: objective is really quite absurd. And like I said, if
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: you gave the example that I gave a chief fire
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: chief Kathy Bossman, Mary Ewing's name wasn't even brought up.
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: We were talking about our firefighters out in western Nebraska
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: fighting fires, and it would be the same with any
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: issue too. The one that really baffled me was the
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: library director because she does not report to the mayor
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: and she is not hired by the mayor, and she
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: was not allowed to come on this show and talk
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: about the new library at seventy second Dodge. I worked
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: on that library for over a decade, you know, I
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: did a lot with that and not to have not
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: to be able to have the director come on and
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: speak is very puzzling.
• 12:51
  Speaker 2: There is no better time to talk to the library
• 12:54
  Speaker 2: director of Omaha than right after the grand opening of
• 12:56
  Speaker 2: a new library.
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: No kidding. And again I worked with her. I didn't
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: hire her, but I worked with her on this from
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: the very beginning, and I know a lot about that library.
• 13:06
  Speaker 1: But to your point Peyton too, you know I was
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: mayor for twelve years and then on city council full
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: four be before that. I should know what's going on exactly,
• 13:15
  Speaker 1: and if I don't, I shouldn't have been reelected. You know,
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: three times say terms for mayor mir Ewing has been
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: in there for ten months. When I was mayor for
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: ten months, I didn't know everything about every department. So
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: why not take advantage and let your directors get on
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: the air and be interviewed by the media and let
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: everybody know what's still going on there and all the
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: good things that are going on, but they're not allowed.
• 13:40
  Speaker 2: We're gonna cut to some now real issues of Omaha,
• 13:43
  Speaker 2: here we go. We're gonna go to the phone lines.
• 13:45
  Speaker 2: We'd still love to hear from you guys. Four zero, two, five, five, eight,
• 13:47
  Speaker 2: eleven ten Questions, comments, concerns, opinions. Here we go, Jake,
• 13:51
  Speaker 2: you aren live here on news Radio eleven ten KFAB
• 13:54
  Speaker 2: with Jeans do author.
• 13:56
  Speaker 5: Hi, so very interesting. I've worked at a on the
• 14:01
  Speaker 5: topic of transparency.
• 14:02
  Speaker 6: I've worked at a.
• 14:03
  Speaker 5: Couple area of large hospitals and the research departments, and
• 14:08
  Speaker 5: I have found that if you're trying to stop people
• 14:12
  Speaker 5: from looking at things or don't want people to talk
• 14:16
  Speaker 5: to certain people, you're definitely trying to hide something. Because
• 14:20
  Speaker 5: I've been on both sides of the coins, and if
• 14:24
  Speaker 5: you give everyone all the information of what you're doing,
• 14:27
  Speaker 5: and this is what, this is, how we're doing this,
• 14:29
  Speaker 5: this is the findings that we found, this is what
• 14:32
  Speaker 5: the other people have found. You know, the research gets
• 14:37
  Speaker 5: way way way better. And if you're on the opposite
• 14:40
  Speaker 5: side of the coin where it's like, oh, you only
• 14:42
  Speaker 5: get to look at this certain specific thing, or you
• 14:46
  Speaker 5: can't look at all these other things. You're trying to
• 14:50
  Speaker 5: hide something under the guise of oh, it's a double
• 14:52
  Speaker 5: blind study, and I just I don't believe that.
• 14:58
  Speaker 1: But to your comment, I agree with you on that,
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: because even if you're not trying to hide something, it
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: gives the appearance that you are. If you're if you.
• 15:07
  Speaker 3: Have lack of transparency, you can you can have very
• 15:12
  Speaker 3: unbiased people like under the like when you're straight out
• 15:17
  Speaker 3: saying like it's you know, I understand the bias that
• 15:21
  Speaker 3: could be present in understanding these other results, but you
• 15:26
  Speaker 3: know you like you can totally monitor yourself on that absolutely.
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: And you know that the lack of transparency. I would
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: go back to when Mary Eyuing was first mayor and
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: he put up an official Facebook, but he wouldn't allow comments,
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: I mean, my my communication direct. Yeah, yeah, Carrie, and
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: I I mean, whether it was the good, the bad,
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: and the ugly. We were on social media every single
• 15:51
  Speaker 1: day trying to keep people informed and keeping them up
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: to date on current issues that we think they needed
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: to know about. Until there was a lawsuit filed Mary
• 15:59
  Speaker 1: you would not allow comments on his public Facebook. You know,
• 16:04
  Speaker 1: just an example I'll give you about how much I
• 16:08
  Speaker 1: valued transparency is I'm the first mayor that put the
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: entire budget online. The entire budget is online, and I
• 16:15
  Speaker 1: also put the city's checkbook online. Anybody could go online
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: anytime I wanted anybody to be able to see whatever
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: they wanted, where's my tax dollars going? Well, you could
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: go online and you could follow every single penny. We're
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: not hiding anything, and I think people appreciate that. And so,
• 16:31
  Speaker 1: you know, again, it's a bit baffling for me why
• 16:35
  Speaker 1: he has taken this position. When this article says that
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: Mary Ewing said the directors or some directors, were relieved
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: when he told them that they were not to come
• 16:46
  Speaker 1: on my show. You know what, I have a hard
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: time believe in that because I let them have so
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: much freedom when I was mayor of saying, you know,
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: if the media calls you, whether it's the World Herald
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: or the TV station or the radio station, and they
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: want to talk to you about something, you go ahead
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: and talk to them.
• 17:02
  Speaker 5: So it is it is ye, why can't the library
• 17:07
  Speaker 5: director go on the radio?
• 17:09
  Speaker 1: Good question?
• 17:09
  Speaker 5: That is just that is a seriously messed up thing.
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: It is, And I asked her right now. Her response
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: to me was, as Premier Ewing's policy, I must decline,
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: so his policy obviously, you know it's it's spread out
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: more than just the directors. It's other city employees and
• 17:29
  Speaker 1: staff too, which that is just wild, it is. But
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: thank you so much for your call. I really appreciate it. Really,
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: I appreciate your comments and others. I would love to
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: hear what people think. Then once again, you know we're
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: not This is not sour grapes on my on my part.
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: You know, I got to be the only three term
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: mayor in the history of the City of Omaha. That's
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: twelve years. And I've said this before. I easily could
• 17:55
  Speaker 1: have done another four because I knew what I was doing.
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: But now in hindsight, I almost think, good lord woman,
• 18:00
  Speaker 1: what were you thinking here? Sixteen sixteen years is mayor.
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: That's that's a long time. So I didn't win. I'm fine,
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: it was a fair election. I lost it. I'm moving on,
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: but I don't understand this going on at city Hall
• 18:14
  Speaker 1: right now.
• 18:15
  Speaker 2: This is on the radio talk back of Mike here
• 18:18
  Speaker 2: on the iHeartRadio app.
• 18:21
  Speaker 7: Good morning, Jean, Hey, I just wanted to share with
• 18:24
  Speaker 7: you our recipe for concrete secret ingredient, A couple dashes
• 18:32
  Speaker 7: of paprika.
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: Are you kidding? You're a kidding me? Thanks Mike. But
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: you know that that was something said. I heard it
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: in many many debates and forums, and John Ewing at
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: the time he wasn't marry yet, would have like a
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: whole crowd around him saying, Oh, that's the problem. I
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: get it, it's the recipe they use. And he kept
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: on telling people that and he was going to come
• 18:57
  Speaker 1: up with a different recipe. Well, no, that was not
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: the case. The City of Omaha, they are the ones
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: that describe or prescribe. I would say, what the recipe is.
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: They have the experts go through it every two years,
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: from the users to suppliers to to a chemist at
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: University of Iowa. They look at the recipe that we
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: are using and they are always trying to make it
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: more durable. Now there are there is material that I've
• 19:29
  Speaker 1: seen and heard about they use, for example in some
• 19:33
  Speaker 1: places in Europe and in France that they have more
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: of composite material that goes in concrete. But you know what,
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: then you have to talk about the cost, because concrete
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: is twice as expensive as asphalt as it is, and
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: if you start talking about redoing all the roads in
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: some sort of composite, the price would be unaffordable or
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: it would result in huge tax increases. So you've got
• 19:58
  Speaker 1: to balance that out. You got to balance out what
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: the product that you are using. And we use a
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: very very good product, and like I said, we're always
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: looking at ways to make it more durable. But that
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: doesn't come from the mayor. I mean when I was mayor,
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: I didn't come up with that. I didn't bring my
• 20:13
  Speaker 1: little recipe card in and say, okay, guys, we're going
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: to redo Dodge today, and here's the recipe. They have
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: a standard recipe that they use. They are the ones
• 20:23
  Speaker 1: that determined what that recipe is. I will tell you
• 20:27
  Speaker 1: the only thing you're guaranteed with concrete is that it
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: will crack. You are guaranteed with that. So people will say, well,
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: that street was put in two years ago and there's
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: cracks in it already. That's what concrete does. But I mean,
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: if you drive West Omaha, look at one hundred and
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: sixty eighth Street, for example, that's one of my areas
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: I'm so proud of because that area from Pacific down
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: to Center, if you recall it was two lanes, it
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: was a mess. There were no sidewalks. I mean it
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: was a mess. Look at that area now. And then
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: we went from Center Street one hundred and sixty eighth
• 20:59
  Speaker 1: all the way down to Q through where Zarinsky is
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: in the lake. That looks fantastic now. And Hawkins did that.
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: Who I've said many times I love working with Hawkins Construction.
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: They do such a good job. But look at that
• 21:12
  Speaker 1: what we've done, and how different it is and how
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: improved it is. But again, we have five thousand lane
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: miles of road in Omaha, so we have a lot
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: more money going into the budget for roads. But the
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: recipe is not the issue. Let me bring up a
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: couple more roads real quick though. El Street I drive
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: on almost every day from like one hundred and twenty
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: West Dodge Street, Maple Street. Those are state roads and
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: so those if they are resurfaced, which L Street needs
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: it terribly, the State of Nebraska, the DOT, the Department
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: of Transportation, needs to do that. The City of Omaha
• 21:52
  Speaker 1: on those state roads, they maintain them so they will
• 21:55
  Speaker 1: plow snow, They will fill potholes, they will maintain the
• 21:59
  Speaker 1: road to actually resurface it. That is the state's job
• 22:03
  Speaker 1: to do that on these state roads. And why would
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: we use Omaha taxpayer money when it's up to the
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: state to pay.
• 22:08
  Speaker 2: For those just for the sake of transparency. What are
• 22:10
  Speaker 2: the three biggest mistakes that you made as mayor? This
• 22:13
  Speaker 2: was sent to the email comment at kfab dot com.
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: I have plenty, but I could three just pop into
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: my mind immediately. And one is a call that a
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: police officer made at ninetieth in Dodge in rush hour
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: doing a snowstorm. And I got a call and said
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: that that police officer shut down the entire intersection, and
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: I called him out on it. And that was a
• 22:36
  Speaker 1: big mistake because I was thinking, oh my gosh, ninetieth
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: and Dodge closed down. Can you imagine the traffic jams
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: there in the middle of a blizzard. And I called
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: that police officer down and called him out on it,
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: and I should never have done that, And I ended
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: up apologizing because he was there. I wasn't there. He
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: made the decision for people's safety. That was a big mistake.
• 22:59
  Speaker 1: And I've learned my lesson about doing something like that
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: without knowing all the information. Another thing, I boy, thanks,
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: but just popping my mind my mistakes right away. But
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: another thing is I did right off the bat. Is
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: I reduced When I was elected mayor, I was still
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: in the council and I was able to bring the
• 23:17
  Speaker 1: ordinance back that the city Council had already set the
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: mayor's salary and the council's salary for four years the
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: next four years. So when I became mayor, I was
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: still on the council for a month, and I reduced
• 23:28
  Speaker 1: the mayor's salary, my salary by ten percent, and I
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: froze it for four years. And I thought that was
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: a good move, and it was showing that if I
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: had to reduce people's budgets and I had to make
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: some budget cuts, and I needed to lead by example.
• 23:43
  Speaker 1: One woman that was an executive at one of our
• 23:47
  Speaker 1: fortune five hundred companies called me immediately and said, Gene,
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: you just set a bad example for women, because you
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: are setting the example that women don't deserve the same
• 23:59
  Speaker 1: amount of salary as the man who served in the
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: same position before you. And I thought, oh, good lord,
• 24:05
  Speaker 1: I never thought about that. And because I did that,
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: the mayor today makes less money than they should have
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: made if I wouldn't have done that, and because it
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: was all based on what I was making at the end.
• 24:16
  Speaker 1: And then another one I did is I decided I
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: did not need to drive around in my first term
• 24:23
  Speaker 1: in a city owned car. Every mayor before me had
• 24:26
  Speaker 1: a city owned car. Every mayor before me had a
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: driver that they drove them around doing official business. And
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: I said, now I'm not going to do that. I'll
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: drive my own car. That was a mistake because I
• 24:36
  Speaker 1: had multiple drivers. I had police officers driving it. They
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: were they wrecked my car a lot, and I mean
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: they were away's dating and police officers are not the
• 24:45
  Speaker 1: best drivers. I'm just gonna say sorry to the men
• 24:48
  Speaker 1: and women in the police department, but it is true,
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: and you know, it was just a mistake that I
• 24:53
  Speaker 1: did that. And so on my second term I went
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: ahead and had it was a Ford. It was no
• 24:59
  Speaker 1: big luxury car that they with the city purchased for
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: me to drive around in to do official business with
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: a driver. And people were angry. They were saying, we
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: should not be paying for your car, when indeed they
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: did for every mayor before me. So I you know,
• 25:15
  Speaker 1: I thought I was setting a good example, but obviously
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: those things backfired on me, and I admitted it not
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: a good decision that I made.
• 25:21
  Speaker 7: There.
• 25:22
  Speaker 2: The phone lines are hot, so we're gonna we're gonna
• 25:24
  Speaker 2: rip through these pretty quickly. Here we have John John,
• 25:26
  Speaker 2: you are live with Jean's stauthor here on news radio
• 25:28
  Speaker 2: eleven ten kfab Good morning, Oh, good morning.
• 25:33
  Speaker 8: I'd just like to say that, you know, I really
• 25:35
  Speaker 8: like you and what you did for us for all
• 25:37
  Speaker 8: these years, and I was just sick when you lost
• 25:40
  Speaker 8: the election. You know, you were such a good representative
• 25:43
  Speaker 8: of the city. But my complaint is that I think
• 25:48
  Speaker 8: you need to change the name of your talk show
• 25:51
  Speaker 8: to the Bash Mayor Ewing Show.
• 25:54
  Speaker 9: Now.
• 25:55
  Speaker 8: You know, I like everything you did, but you know,
• 25:59
  Speaker 8: it gets old. It could have been a lot worse.
• 26:03
  Speaker 8: You know, he could have lost chief schmater, He could
• 26:06
  Speaker 8: have appointed a bunch of incompetence to the city department heads.
• 26:12
  Speaker 8: But he didn't, you know, so at least that's okay.
• 26:15
  Speaker 8: But I like listening to your show, but I think
• 26:17
  Speaker 8: it's getting stale already because every day it's bash Mayor Ewing.
• 26:23
  Speaker 1: Well, thank you for your comment, but you know, when
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: they asked me to do this show, and Scott voorh
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: he's asked me about it, I said, I will do this,
• 26:30
  Speaker 1: but I am not going to go on the air
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: to bash ma Or Ewing every day. That is not
• 26:34
  Speaker 1: what I want to do. That's not good for the city.
• 26:37
  Speaker 1: And if you listen to the show every day, there's
• 26:40
  Speaker 1: many many shows that he's not even mentioned. What I
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: do is I take my lead from the callers and
• 26:46
  Speaker 1: the listeners, and if they call in and they have
• 26:49
  Speaker 1: a question or a statement or something about what Mayor
• 26:52
  Speaker 1: Ewing is doing, then I will respond to it. Today
• 26:55
  Speaker 1: we brought it back because it's on the front page
• 26:57
  Speaker 1: of the Omaha World Herald, and that's why I brought
• 27:00
  Speaker 1: it back today. And I think it's important people know.
• 27:03
  Speaker 1: It's important that people know these things because transparency is
• 27:08
  Speaker 1: my thing. Whether our mayor are doing this show, but
• 27:11
  Speaker 1: it's not our topic of conversation every day by far.
• 27:15
  Speaker 1: And if we have had numerous guests from the governor
• 27:18
  Speaker 1: to the US Senator, to congressman to developers, you know,
• 27:24
  Speaker 1: we've had all sorts of guests on this show, legislative candidates,
• 27:29
  Speaker 1: and we will continue to do that and maryor ewing
• 27:31
  Speaker 1: isn't even brought up, or isn't even a topic.
• 27:35
  Speaker 2: We got another caller here, Sheila, you are live with
• 27:37
  Speaker 2: jean'st author here on news radio eleven ten kfab.
• 27:41
  Speaker 1: By Mayor, Good morning.
• 27:44
  Speaker 9: I was just calling to say I think it's really
• 27:47
  Speaker 9: very strange and my opinion is incompetence, excuse me, incompetence, jealous,
• 27:58
  Speaker 9: maybe the inferior and you don't Hardy see he's very
• 28:04
  Speaker 9: He's not visible. I mean you were constantly either on
• 28:07
  Speaker 9: a TV or some radio or whatever, and I just
• 28:11
  Speaker 9: think maybe interior. Secondly, can you never have any problem
• 28:17
  Speaker 9: in this city council on I mean you had bringer Artie.
• 28:22
  Speaker 9: Is the city council off limits to.
• 28:24
  Speaker 1: I would definitely hope not. And I think, well, I
• 28:30
  Speaker 1: know the mayor would not have the ability to put
• 28:33
  Speaker 1: a gag order on another elected official. I mean they
• 28:36
  Speaker 1: are elected by the people to represent the people, and
• 28:40
  Speaker 1: he cannot. A mayor does not have the authority to
• 28:43
  Speaker 1: say city council members, you can't talk to the media.
• 28:46
  Speaker 1: You have to go through me. He doesn't have the
• 28:48
  Speaker 1: ability to do that. But I appreciate your comments. Thank you,
• 28:53
  Speaker 1: all right, thanks for calling.
• 28:56
  Speaker 2: Let's go to our next thing here. Very interesting. I'm
• 29:01
  Speaker 2: getting a lot of comments, questions, concerns here. As I
• 29:04
  Speaker 2: look through these, someone said, is it live or is
• 29:06
  Speaker 2: this a repeat today?
• 29:08
  Speaker 1: Are you kidding? This is live? This is a this
• 29:12
  Speaker 1: is a live show. I mean, we're we're flying by
• 29:14
  Speaker 1: the seat of our pants right here. But yeah, it's
• 29:17
  Speaker 1: it's live. And all of these calls are I mean,
• 29:20
  Speaker 1: these are these are real calls, these are real emails.
• 29:22
  Speaker 1: And I have told Peyton many times, don't you know.
• 29:26
  Speaker 1: I don't even ask him what they are. I don't
• 29:28
  Speaker 1: know what he's putting on next. But I said take
• 29:30
  Speaker 1: the good to bad and the ugly, because if we
• 29:32
  Speaker 1: only had positive callers call in, I mean, it just
• 29:36
  Speaker 1: appears staged and this is not. These are live calls
• 29:39
  Speaker 1: and these are emails coming in from you all, and
• 29:42
  Speaker 1: that's that's how we take them. And like I said,
• 29:44
  Speaker 1: you'll get you'll get opinions from me. But I really
• 29:47
  Speaker 1: want people to be able to speak up and sound off,
• 29:50
  Speaker 1: and I say that at the beginning of every show.
• 29:52
  Speaker 2: Last question here before we wrap up the show at
• 29:54
  Speaker 2: a few minutes. This one is in regards to the
• 29:56
  Speaker 2: Parks Director Mayor stouthor can you on the fact that
• 30:01
  Speaker 2: one change that was made was the park director. Yes,
• 30:04
  Speaker 2: let go immediately. I mean, and now the taxpayers have
• 30:07
  Speaker 2: to spend forty or fifty thousand dollars to try and
• 30:09
  Speaker 2: find a new one. I don't know how truthful that is.
• 30:11
  Speaker 2: You can let us note it is.
• 30:13
  Speaker 1: And it's actually a cost of more than that, more
• 30:15
  Speaker 1: than The parks director that I hired after a national
• 30:19
  Speaker 1: search was named Matt Kalsovich, and I thought he was
• 30:22
  Speaker 1: doing a great job. I really liked him. He was
• 30:25
  Speaker 1: the most enthusiastic person I've ever worked with. He had
• 30:28
  Speaker 1: so many ideas for the parks, and it was like
• 30:31
  Speaker 1: he loved coming to work every day. And I really
• 30:34
  Speaker 1: liked Matt a lot. He was let go immediately. It was,
• 30:38
  Speaker 1: you know, a case of he was given the option
• 30:40
  Speaker 1: to resign or be terminated. I don't know what the
• 30:43
  Speaker 1: conversation was between the mayor and the chief of staff
• 30:46
  Speaker 1: and Matt Kalsovich, but he was let go right away.
• 30:50
  Speaker 1: The Mary Ewing has already done a national search once
• 30:53
  Speaker 1: that costs the taxpayers a lot of money. They did
• 30:56
  Speaker 1: not find somebody that he wanted to hire, so they
• 31:00
  Speaker 1: have gone for ten months now without a parks director.
• 31:03
  Speaker 1: And this time of year is when it's really important
• 31:06
  Speaker 1: because you know, the summer camps are opening up, the
• 31:09
  Speaker 1: swimming pools are opening up, you got to hire lifeguards,
• 31:11
  Speaker 1: you got to train them. All these things are going
• 31:14
  Speaker 1: on now. You know, the golf courses are opening up.
• 31:16
  Speaker 1: That's all under the parks department, and there is not
• 31:19
  Speaker 1: a parks director. He said in his state of the city.
• 31:22
  Speaker 1: He's doing another national search, he said, I will be
• 31:24
  Speaker 1: doing a national search and be picking a new parks director.
• 31:27
  Speaker 1: So I this is the second one now, national search,
• 31:30
  Speaker 1: and they're very expensive. They can be one hundred thousand
• 31:34
  Speaker 1: dollars to do a national search. I hope they get
• 31:36
  Speaker 1: somebody in that position really soon, and somebody really good,
• 31:40
  Speaker 1: because it is really important for the city of Omaha.
• 31:42
  Speaker 1: We have two hundred and fifty six parks in the
• 31:45
  Speaker 1: city of Omaha, and it takes somebody that's a real
• 31:49
  Speaker 1: leader and good staff. Great staff. The golf pro Bob Baber,
• 31:54
  Speaker 1: also great guy. I really liked him. He even tried
• 31:57
  Speaker 1: to teach me how to swing a golf club. So
• 31:59
  Speaker 1: he he's got to be a very patient man. But
• 32:02
  Speaker 1: he has retired. I am not sure that they found
• 32:05
  Speaker 1: a new golf pro either for our eight golf courses
• 32:08
  Speaker 1: we have, so I hope they find somebody soon.
• 32:10
  Speaker 2: You said two hundred and fifty six parks.
• 32:12
  Speaker 1: Two hundred and I knew every one of them, Peyton.
• 32:15
  Speaker 2: That's pretty satisfying. I mean that's a square number.
• 32:18
  Speaker 1: I know, two hundred and fifty six parks. Of course,
• 32:20
  Speaker 1: some are big like Memorial are Elmwood, and some are
• 32:24
  Speaker 1: very little pocket parks, but they are still under the
• 32:27
  Speaker 1: control of the City of Omaha, and the City of
• 32:29
  Speaker 1: Omaha maintains them. And that's how many parks we have.
• 32:33
  Speaker 1: But you know, you add community centers that's under parks,
• 32:36
  Speaker 1: You add swimming pools, you add the golf courses. I
• 32:39
  Speaker 1: mean there's a lot they do. There's a whole lot
• 32:42
  Speaker 1: that parks do, and parks are really important to people.
• 32:44
  Speaker 1: When I received the COVID money from the federal government,
• 32:48
  Speaker 1: one of the biggest areas that I gave COVID money
• 32:51
  Speaker 1: too was our parks. We gave over ten million dollars
• 32:54
  Speaker 1: to our parks and they had about twelve different projects
• 32:57
  Speaker 1: that they really wanted to focus on. In matt kelsivit
• 33:00
  Speaker 1: help with all of that and really did some upgrades
• 33:03
  Speaker 1: that were sorely needed. You know, one other thing before
• 33:06
  Speaker 1: we take some more of your calls. On the front
• 33:08
  Speaker 1: page of the World Herald on the top headline today,
• 33:12
  Speaker 1: it's something I just have to mention. It says City
• 33:14
  Speaker 1: Council Okay's wastewater plant upgrades. I know that doesn't sound
• 33:17
  Speaker 1: real interesting to a lot of you, but this has
• 33:19
  Speaker 1: been talked about quite a bit in the news, and
• 33:22
  Speaker 1: there's been about six weeks of layovers. Another very lengthy
• 33:26
  Speaker 1: discussion at the city council meeting on Tuesday. But here's
• 33:29
  Speaker 1: one thing I just have to say that concerns me.
• 33:32
  Speaker 1: They went ahead and approved to authorize a contract for
• 33:36
  Speaker 1: four hundred and eleven million dollars expansions and upgrade at
• 33:40
  Speaker 1: the City of Omaha's Papio Creek Water Resource Recovery facility
• 33:44
  Speaker 1: four hundred million. But on a four to three vote.
• 33:47
  Speaker 1: This is something I just all the time I was mayor,
• 33:49
  Speaker 1: I hated to see because it passed by one vote
• 33:52
  Speaker 1: four to three. So there was there was three city
• 33:55
  Speaker 1: council members that were opposed to moving forward with this
• 33:58
  Speaker 1: or to approve it. Yesterday, they had a lot of
• 34:01
  Speaker 1: questions that weren't answered. But I really do hate to
• 34:04
  Speaker 1: see a four to three vote something of this value
• 34:08
  Speaker 1: four hundred and eleven million pass. So there's a good
• 34:11
  Speaker 1: article if you want to know more about that. But
• 34:13
  Speaker 1: I just had to bring that.
• 34:14
  Speaker 2: Up, and that could be something that we dive into
• 34:16
  Speaker 2: as well, if you guys have any questions or concerns.
• 34:19
  Speaker 2: As we go to the phone lines here, we have
• 34:20
  Speaker 2: a couple questions. Let's see how many we can get
• 34:22
  Speaker 2: before we wrap up the show. First things first, we
• 34:24
  Speaker 2: have Ray or sorry, excuse me, we have Tom. Tom
• 34:27
  Speaker 2: you are alive on news Radio eleven ten kfab.
• 34:31
  Speaker 6: Hi jeene hiks kind a quick question. Can you tell
• 34:35
  Speaker 6: me why the city of Omaha uses steel plow blades
• 34:41
  Speaker 6: on the pavement rather than plow blade rubber on the pavement?
• 34:46
  Speaker 6: It seems the steel tears up throads and makes potholes
• 34:50
  Speaker 6: even worse.
• 34:52
  Speaker 1: That's a that's a good question, and you know, I'm
• 34:55
  Speaker 1: not really one hundred percent accurate are sure with this answer,
• 35:00
  Speaker 1: but I think that the steel blades that they use
• 35:02
  Speaker 1: are pretty standard in the industry, not only for cities,
• 35:06
  Speaker 1: but also for the dot and for the state. You
• 35:10
  Speaker 1: see those huge plows on the interstate that are I
• 35:14
  Speaker 1: don't know how those those drivers manipulate those things, but
• 35:18
  Speaker 1: I think they are pretty much standard steel. I don't
• 35:22
  Speaker 1: know of people that have used rubber that are on
• 35:27
  Speaker 1: major and secondary streets in a big city like we have,
• 35:30
  Speaker 1: because you know, on the major and secondary streets, our
• 35:33
  Speaker 1: goal is we call it running water, curb to curb.
• 35:37
  Speaker 1: We want them clean, curb to curb, and the residential
• 35:40
  Speaker 1: areas it's just passable, and so it's just so that
• 35:43
  Speaker 1: you could get in and out the neighborhood and it's
• 35:45
  Speaker 1: not like you see on the major roads and the
• 35:48
  Speaker 1: secondary roads. But I think, and I will maybe I
• 35:51
  Speaker 1: should do a little research on this that the steel
• 35:54
  Speaker 1: blades last longer and they're just pretty much industry standard.
• 36:00
  Speaker 2: One more caller here coming from Mark Mark you are
• 36:02
  Speaker 2: alive with Jean Stauthord on eleven KFA.
• 36:07
  Speaker 10: Hey, Jean, this Mark. My wife and I really appreciated
• 36:11
  Speaker 10: the work that you did while you were a mayor
• 36:12
  Speaker 10: about the world, and I think the city probably messages.
• 36:16
  Speaker 6: Your hard work. But I got a question.
• 36:19
  Speaker 10: Basically with the with the parks department and the and
• 36:21
  Speaker 10: the golf courses of the city. I know of courses
• 36:24
  Speaker 10: like Johnny Gibman. You know, they create a lot of
• 36:26
  Speaker 10: revenue for the city. Uh is that money but back
• 36:30
  Speaker 10: into the courses?
• 36:32
  Speaker 6: Yeah, And I have one other questions.
• 36:34
  Speaker 10: There's no uh, there's no courses really in Westport. No
• 36:38
  Speaker 10: public golf courses pretty much. Johnny Gibman has kind of
• 36:42
  Speaker 10: hit it. Ninety sixth Street and the one, I guess
• 36:45
  Speaker 10: on Maple Street on twentieth there's nothing out west Are
• 36:49
  Speaker 10: there any plans to you know, get a golf course
• 36:53
  Speaker 10: in that area?
• 36:54
  Speaker 1: No plans, Yeah, no plans that I am actually aware
• 36:58
  Speaker 1: of it this time. You know, there's always questions should
• 37:01
  Speaker 1: the city of Omaha, with all of these private golf courses,
• 37:04
  Speaker 1: should they be even in the golf course business. But
• 37:09
  Speaker 1: what we did with the golf courses years ago is
• 37:13
  Speaker 1: we created an enterprise for the golf courses. Because it
• 37:16
  Speaker 1: used to be any revenue that they would make would
• 37:19
  Speaker 1: be like revenue that would come from you know, the
• 37:23
  Speaker 1: summer camps, are the swimming pools or whatever, and they
• 37:26
  Speaker 1: would all get dumped back into basically the general fund.
• 37:30
  Speaker 1: We created an enterprise so that any golf revenue stays
• 37:35
  Speaker 1: within golf and that has made such a big difference
• 37:39
  Speaker 1: because that has allowed them to upgrade. You know, the
• 37:42
  Speaker 1: sprinkler systems keep the courses in good shape. And as
• 37:46
  Speaker 1: you probably know if you're a golfer, the city of
• 37:48
  Speaker 1: Omaha owns four eighteen holes and four nine holes. Once
• 37:53
  Speaker 1: a golf course is considered a park and once you
• 37:57
  Speaker 1: are considered our designated parkland, you can't change it. You
• 38:01
  Speaker 1: can't come in and develop a golf course. I know
• 38:04
  Speaker 1: when Mayor Subtle was mayor, he was looking into developing
• 38:09
  Speaker 1: Westwood golf Course, which is off a center, which is
• 38:12
  Speaker 1: an eight hole or nine hole excuse me, nine hole
• 38:16
  Speaker 1: golf course, and you know, was told you cannot do
• 38:19
  Speaker 1: that because it's designated as parkland. It always has to
• 38:21
  Speaker 1: stay parkland. So yes, it is an enterprise. I think
• 38:24
  Speaker 1: the furthest West is the one one hundred and twentieth
• 38:27
  Speaker 1: which is the Knowles, which used to be a private
• 38:29
  Speaker 1: course and it was pretty run down and then the
• 38:32
  Speaker 1: city took it over and it's a really nice course now.
• 38:35
  Speaker 1: But I like Johnny Goodman, I think, you know, they
• 38:38
  Speaker 1: have some really nice courses for being public city courses,
• 38:41
  Speaker 1: and to play around a golf in the public courses
• 38:44
  Speaker 1: is really inexpensive thing too.
• 38:46
  Speaker 2: Yeah. And I know my little brother, he gets the
• 38:49
  Speaker 2: Junior so he's under eight or he was for a
• 38:53
  Speaker 2: while under eighteen, and he would go play all the
• 38:54
  Speaker 2: public courses for five dollars.
• 38:56
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 38:56
  Speaker 1: I mean it's really inexpensive to do that.
• 38:59
  Speaker 2: They you know, they have youth on courses. What it's
• 39:01
  Speaker 2: called youth on course.
• 39:02
  Speaker 1: Great, and they don't have the dress code. I don't
• 39:06
  Speaker 1: want to say, don't come to our city course.
• 39:09
  Speaker 2: The shorts and maybe a little caller. Even then, it's
• 39:11
  Speaker 2: like the presentability is fine.
• 39:13
  Speaker 1: Right, but it's not as strict as the private courses.
• 39:15
  Speaker 2: But what a belt and golf shoes if you're a.
• 39:18
  Speaker 1: Golfer in Omaha, you got it made between our private
• 39:21
  Speaker 1: courses and our city courses.
• 39:22
  Speaker 2: As we wrap up the show here, I just wanted
• 39:24
  Speaker 2: to read this email from Todd. Great show and very informative. However,
• 39:28
  Speaker 2: hearing over and over and over about Mayor Ewing placing
• 39:31
  Speaker 2: restrictions on his staff from being a guest on your
• 39:34
  Speaker 2: show is about to make the dial turn to something else.
• 39:37
  Speaker 2: I get that it was in the Omaha World Herald,
• 39:40
  Speaker 2: but give it a rest, please, And you know, the
• 39:42
  Speaker 2: beautiful thing about this comment line is it's guided by
• 39:44
  Speaker 2: our listeners, absolutely by you guys, and so every single day,
• 39:48
  Speaker 2: you guys have the chance to call in, send an
• 39:50
  Speaker 2: email to guide this conversation and we would love to
• 39:52
  Speaker 2: hear from you.
• 39:53
  Speaker 1: And the reason that we I brought it up this
• 39:55
  Speaker 1: morning is it is on the front page of the
• 39:56
  Speaker 1: World Herald. Now tomorrow, tune in. I have a very
• 39:59
  Speaker 1: interest guests tomorrow. Chris Anderson will be on and he
• 40:02
  Speaker 1: is a candidate for Legislative District twenty. He is a
• 40:06
  Speaker 1: Republican candidate. And John Fredrickson, who is a Democrat who
• 40:10
  Speaker 1: is the incumbent, is somebody that I said I supported,
• 40:14
  Speaker 1: and I'm going to talk about why I said I
• 40:16
  Speaker 1: supported John Fredrickson. He's done a really good job in
• 40:19
  Speaker 1: the legislature and he's been very good to work for
• 40:22
  Speaker 1: me to work with. But there is another really good
• 40:25
  Speaker 1: candidate that is going to come on the show tomorrow
• 40:28
  Speaker 1: and he's going to talk to us about why he
• 40:31
  Speaker 1: is running. And he's a great guy. I've met him already.
• 40:33
  Speaker 1: So thank you again for being with us. Like I said,
• 40:36
  Speaker 1: this show, Peyton and I, we are guided by what
• 40:39
  Speaker 1: you want to talk about. Thanks for being with us
• 40:42
  Speaker 1: and thanks for listening. I'm Jean Stothard and this is
• 40:44
  Speaker 1: kfab