Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
This week, we're really focusing on the mayoral race here
in the city of Omaha. Is we have five legitimate
candidates that are a part of it. We reached out
to all of them. We talked to current Mayor Jeans Stothard,
who's seeking reelection for the fourth time. And today we
get the chance to speak with John Ewing, who we
know as a great public servant here in Omaha. First
(00:22):
of all, mister Ewing, thanks so much for being here
in the studio with us today and for doing an
interview with me.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
Emrie, thank you very much for having me and glad
to be here.
Speaker 1 (00:31):
So, I guess the first thing that I want to
do is kind of just highlight for people who may
be unaware of the public service that you've done with
Omaha in your history here, because you're a lifelong guy
from Omaha here, so take me through kind of your
political career.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
I just completed my forty third year public service earlier
this year. Prior to being the Douglas County Treasurer, I
was a member of the Omaha Police Department for almost
twenty five years. During that time, I served as the
unit commander for the Special Victim It In one of
my assignments where we were able to get laws passed
to protect women and children from some of the things
(01:06):
I was seeing. I also got promoted to the rank
of Deputy Chief, where during that time I was able
to work with the Empowerment Network as the Crime Prevention
co Chair, which eventually led to Omaha three sixty, which
has led to a seventy percent reduction in gun violence
(01:28):
in Omaha and made us one of four model communities.
So that's my policing background in a nutshell. And then
I've been the Douglas County Treasurer for eighteen years, just
started my nineteenth year, and there I promised that I
would restore fiscal integrity, restore public trust, and utilize technology
to serve you better. And we've done those three things
(01:51):
over the eighteen years.
Speaker 1 (01:53):
When you look at the mayoral race, Jean Stouth has
been the mayor since twenty thirteen. You know, as somebody
who's also working closely here as the Douglas County Treasurer,
what has been kind of your assessment of how Omaha's
progressed or things that you have noticed under Mayor Stothard's
leadership over the last dozen years.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
Well, I think Omaha has made some progress. I think
anyone that says Omaha hasn't made any progress would be foolish.
I think the thing I look at is there are
things that we could do better. I believe we certainly
could do a better job of what I call intentional
economic development, where we have a true master plan that
(02:37):
is adhere to, everybody understands what it is, and then
we are developing the city in a coherent manner, and
I don't always see that. The other thing I look
at with that is we're a little bit too reliant
on tax increment financing. I would like to see us
be a little more creative and start looking at with
(03:01):
the legislature and the city council to find ways to
be more balanced in how we actually do our economic development,
because I think the problem with TIFF is that you
end up freezing the value of properties in terms of
(03:21):
the revenue that the city, county, school districts can receive
from that property, while the increase goes to pay off TIFF.
If you have too much of that, you could be
hurting the school districts or the city or the county
as well, and then also the people who aren't in
(03:42):
the tiff potentially have their property taxes go up, and
so you want to be very careful about how you
utilize that and make sure you're not overly reliant on it.
Speaker 1 (03:53):
We're speaking with John Ewing, candidate for mayor here in Omaha.
Next Tuesday is the primary. Top two candidate in the
voting will advance to the general election. A few weeks later,
you mentioned Tiff. That leads us to what has been
the hot button issue I think for everybody that's mentioning
this race is a project that, under the leadership of
(04:14):
Mayor Geane Stouter, as part of the revitalization of the
downtown area, has been this streetcar kind of the slow
developing streetcar project. Every time I mentioned streetcar on this show,
we end up having a debate and many listeners call
in or email in with their opinions. What's your opinion
on the streetcar project?
Speaker 2 (04:31):
I think right now the most important thing is that
it probably is so far down the road that it
can't be stopped. So I think the next mayor is
going to have to ensure that we do the very
best we can making sure it's successful, making sure we
have the economic development that we're hoping for then also,
(04:52):
I think looking at how we integrate that into the
rest of our transportation system. My reason for initially opposing
it was I believe the mayor promised that there would
be a vote. Now there's been a whole lot of
debate about if it increased taxes and different things like that,
(05:14):
And my point is that if you ask the average citizen,
they thought they were going to get an opportunity to
vote on whether or not we went forward with the streetcar.
So I think it's important that as we're talking and
as we're doing these projects as leaders, we make sure
we don't have a situation where the public bills misled.
Speaker 1 (05:37):
In terms of the opinion. And I asked Mayor Stuthor
about this, and she said, it would cost you know,
over fifty thousand dollars a tax para money just to
get an opinion on this if that was something that
we wanted to do at this point. But she believes
in the projects, and she's already talking about all of
the development that has been done with the project kind
of being promised in this area. Is that a sustainable number?
(06:00):
Do you think with you know, a lot of people
are saying, well, I'm not sure who would use it.
I'm not sure that this actually makes sense for Omaha,
but when you talk dollars with Mayor Stothard and you
look at other communities that may have similar public transportation,
it does seem to increase development dollars in economics in
the area where the tracks are.
Speaker 2 (06:19):
Do you agree with that? Yeah, I agree that it's
going to increase economic development. That is not my issue
at all. My issue is if you say it, and
maybe it would cost fifty thousand dollars, but if you
say it, then you should do it. And if you
don't want to spend fifty thousand dollars or you don't
think it's worth having that vote, then you should be
(06:42):
more clear with the people of this community. And I
believe that when you're in public office and you have
something that you're trying to accomplish, it's your responsibility to
sell that to the people of this community and ensure
that they're with you as you go forward.
Speaker 1 (07:02):
John Ewing, candidate for mayor joining us here also Douglas
County Treasurer. He said, nineteen years now, Yes, this is
my nineteenth year, nineteen years of being a part of
kind of fiscal responsibility. You mentioned Tiff, You mentioned all
of that as well. My next question is going to
relate to all of the parts of Omaha. We focus,
you know, streetcar at downtown where all the development is happening,
(07:25):
but a lot of people want to know that their
neighborhood that they're living in is being thought about as well.
What can you say about the current status of places
like North Omaha, South Omaha places maybe a little bit
on the western side of the city limits, and how
you would approach iss mayor Sure.
Speaker 2 (07:40):
When I talk about intentional development, that's what I'm talking about.
I'm talking about the opportunity to develop a city that
works for everyone, where you can live, work and play
in your neighborhood, where you have opportunity for high pain
living ways, jobs in your neighborhood. You have the opportunity
to have retail in your neighborhood, a grocery store in
(08:04):
your neighborhood. All of those things then lead to a
city where we're more of a walkable, bike lable city
and makes it much more convenient for everyone involved. And
really it's one of those things too that I think
will help retain young people in this community. When you
(08:25):
look at the brain drain that is happening across the
state of Nebraska. We've got to make this city that's
more friendly to people who don't necessarily own a car
or don't want to own a car. So if we
look at economic development from that perspective and create those
type of developments and neighborhoods across the city, then we
(08:47):
have an opportunity to have what I call very intentional
economic development that empowers the whole city and the whole community.
Speaker 1 (08:58):
What's the number one thing that you would like to
change about Omaha.
Speaker 2 (09:02):
The number one thing I would like to change about
Omaha is the ability to retain our young people. I
think that's everybody talks about that being the future, but
I truly believe that's the future. One of the great
things I had an opportunity to do this weekend is
I was at a house party talking to some folks
(09:23):
and we started talking about retaining young people. And then
I looked around and we had a couple young people there,
and I said, well, let's quit talking about young people,
let's quit talking at them, and let's ask these two
young people what they want to see. And those were
the types of things they were talking about. More opportunity,
(09:45):
decent affordable housing, having the ability to not own a car,
be able to walk places, bike places, those type of things.
So we've got to kind of transform Omaha into a
city that is more attractive to young people.
Speaker 1 (10:02):
When you look at young people specifically. We have a
couple of institutions of higher learning that are very in
very good spots. You have Creighton in the downtown area,
have the University of Rascomaha and kind of that Elmwood
Park and Xarbon area, and there's a lot of people that,
you know, I think we kind of forget a little
bit about how important that higher learning is as well.
(10:24):
Both institutions kind of known for their own things. What
role do they play as you know, major pieces of
the puzzle here in Omaha.
Speaker 2 (10:32):
Perfect One of the things I believe is that Omaha
always has a mismatch between the people without high paying
jobs and the high paying jobs that are available. And
I just saw this sign on seventieth and Dodge, so
I'm going to claim it as a word now, but
(10:53):
Uno has a sign that says upscale and talking about
opportunities for people to get certificates in those type of things.
And one of the things I talk about when it
comes to young people and even people who may be
transitioning from one career to the other, is we need
to upscale them. We need to get them the skills
(11:16):
that they need to get the jobs that are available.
And I think the universities, the five school districts that
we have all play a role in that, as well
as the other institutions that we have in this community
as well. So it should be a partnership between our community,
(11:36):
the business community, and our educational institutions. One of the
things I talked with the young people about on Saturday
was looking at how we could have a resource center
so young people and their parents know what opportunities are available,
what scholarships are available, what majors are available, what jobs
(12:00):
are available, so that instead of having to figure this
thing out on their own, we help people be able
to be in a position to compete. Because if we
can put our people in a position to compete, then
we as a city can compete against the other Midwest
cities like Denver, Minneapolis, Des Moines, Kansas City. So they
(12:24):
play a critical role, and a lot of times we
just have different groups off on their own and everybody's
working in their silo doing great work, but we don't
get then the greatest results. And I mentioned earlier the
Crime Prevention Covenant, and I'll give you an example with that,
(12:45):
so you understand what I mean when I talk about
working in silos. There was a lot of good work
being done in the criminal justice arena, and what happened
with the Crime Prevention Covenant is all of those organizations
started coming together and meeting on Wednesdays as well as
meeting with the community and hearing what the community had
(13:07):
to say, and there was an even greater focus on
community policing. And that collaborative effort is what has helped
reduce gun violence by seventy percent in this city. So
it's all those organizations were already doing good work, but
when you bring them together and you start bridging the
(13:29):
gap between those silos, then you get a synergy. And
that's what we need in education and employment as well.
Speaker 1 (13:37):
Sixty seconds, sure, John Ewing with us. You have sixty
seconds with the voters here that are listening here in
the city of Omaha. What do you want them to
know about John Ewing and why he should be the
next match?
Speaker 2 (13:47):
Sure? I want them to know that John Ewing has
served them with dignity. John Ewing has served them with excellence.
And if they like what I've done as treasurer, they
are going to love what I'm going to do as
next mayor.
Speaker 1 (14:01):
It's very simple, John Ewing, again, very appreciative for you
to come in here on a very busy time, one
week away from primary day. We really appreciate the time
and good luck next week. Well, thank you very much
for having me. I love being able to have the
opportunity to talk to people in this community. John Ewing.
He is one of the candidates for mayor primary again
(14:21):
next Tuesday, the first of April.
Speaker 2 (14:24):
Emery sung on news radio eleven ten kfab
This week, we're really focusing on the mayoral race here
in the city of Omaha. Is we have five legitimate
candidates that are a part of it. We reached out
to all of them. We talked to current Mayor Jeans Stothard,
who's seeking reelection for the fourth time. And today we
get the chance to speak with John Ewing, who we
know as a great public servant here in Omaha. First
(00:22):
of all, mister Ewing, thanks so much for being here
in the studio with us today and for doing an
interview with me.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
Emrie, thank you very much for having me and glad
to be here.
Speaker 1 (00:31):
So, I guess the first thing that I want to
do is kind of just highlight for people who may
be unaware of the public service that you've done with
Omaha in your history here, because you're a lifelong guy
from Omaha here, so take me through kind of your
political career.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
I just completed my forty third year public service earlier
this year. Prior to being the Douglas County Treasurer, I
was a member of the Omaha Police Department for almost
twenty five years. During that time, I served as the
unit commander for the Special Victim It In one of
my assignments where we were able to get laws passed
to protect women and children from some of the things
(01:06):
I was seeing. I also got promoted to the rank
of Deputy Chief, where during that time I was able
to work with the Empowerment Network as the Crime Prevention
co Chair, which eventually led to Omaha three sixty, which
has led to a seventy percent reduction in gun violence
(01:28):
in Omaha and made us one of four model communities.
So that's my policing background in a nutshell. And then
I've been the Douglas County Treasurer for eighteen years, just
started my nineteenth year, and there I promised that I
would restore fiscal integrity, restore public trust, and utilize technology
to serve you better. And we've done those three things
(01:51):
over the eighteen years.
Speaker 1 (01:53):
When you look at the mayoral race, Jean Stouth has
been the mayor since twenty thirteen. You know, as somebody
who's also working closely here as the Douglas County Treasurer,
what has been kind of your assessment of how Omaha's
progressed or things that you have noticed under Mayor Stothard's
leadership over the last dozen years.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
Well, I think Omaha has made some progress. I think
anyone that says Omaha hasn't made any progress would be foolish.
I think the thing I look at is there are
things that we could do better. I believe we certainly
could do a better job of what I call intentional
economic development, where we have a true master plan that
(02:37):
is adhere to, everybody understands what it is, and then
we are developing the city in a coherent manner, and
I don't always see that. The other thing I look
at with that is we're a little bit too reliant
on tax increment financing. I would like to see us
be a little more creative and start looking at with
(03:01):
the legislature and the city council to find ways to
be more balanced in how we actually do our economic development,
because I think the problem with TIFF is that you
end up freezing the value of properties in terms of
(03:21):
the revenue that the city, county, school districts can receive
from that property, while the increase goes to pay off TIFF.
If you have too much of that, you could be
hurting the school districts or the city or the county
as well, and then also the people who aren't in
(03:42):
the tiff potentially have their property taxes go up, and
so you want to be very careful about how you
utilize that and make sure you're not overly reliant on it.
Speaker 1 (03:53):
We're speaking with John Ewing, candidate for mayor here in Omaha.
Next Tuesday is the primary. Top two candidate in the
voting will advance to the general election. A few weeks later,
you mentioned Tiff. That leads us to what has been
the hot button issue I think for everybody that's mentioning
this race is a project that, under the leadership of
(04:14):
Mayor Geane Stouter, as part of the revitalization of the
downtown area, has been this streetcar kind of the slow
developing streetcar project. Every time I mentioned streetcar on this show,
we end up having a debate and many listeners call
in or email in with their opinions. What's your opinion
on the streetcar project?
Speaker 2 (04:31):
I think right now the most important thing is that
it probably is so far down the road that it
can't be stopped. So I think the next mayor is
going to have to ensure that we do the very
best we can making sure it's successful, making sure we
have the economic development that we're hoping for then also,
(04:52):
I think looking at how we integrate that into the
rest of our transportation system. My reason for initially opposing
it was I believe the mayor promised that there would
be a vote. Now there's been a whole lot of
debate about if it increased taxes and different things like that,
(05:14):
And my point is that if you ask the average citizen,
they thought they were going to get an opportunity to
vote on whether or not we went forward with the streetcar.
So I think it's important that as we're talking and
as we're doing these projects as leaders, we make sure
we don't have a situation where the public bills misled.
Speaker 1 (05:37):
In terms of the opinion. And I asked Mayor Stuthor
about this, and she said, it would cost you know,
over fifty thousand dollars a tax para money just to
get an opinion on this if that was something that
we wanted to do at this point. But she believes
in the projects, and she's already talking about all of
the development that has been done with the project kind
of being promised in this area. Is that a sustainable number?
(06:00):
Do you think with you know, a lot of people
are saying, well, I'm not sure who would use it.
I'm not sure that this actually makes sense for Omaha,
but when you talk dollars with Mayor Stothard and you
look at other communities that may have similar public transportation,
it does seem to increase development dollars in economics in
the area where the tracks are.
Speaker 2 (06:19):
Do you agree with that? Yeah, I agree that it's
going to increase economic development. That is not my issue
at all. My issue is if you say it, and
maybe it would cost fifty thousand dollars, but if you
say it, then you should do it. And if you
don't want to spend fifty thousand dollars or you don't
think it's worth having that vote, then you should be
(06:42):
more clear with the people of this community. And I
believe that when you're in public office and you have
something that you're trying to accomplish, it's your responsibility to
sell that to the people of this community and ensure
that they're with you as you go forward.
Speaker 1 (07:02):
John Ewing, candidate for mayor joining us here also Douglas
County Treasurer. He said, nineteen years now, Yes, this is
my nineteenth year, nineteen years of being a part of
kind of fiscal responsibility. You mentioned Tiff, You mentioned all
of that as well. My next question is going to
relate to all of the parts of Omaha. We focus,
you know, streetcar at downtown where all the development is happening,
(07:25):
but a lot of people want to know that their
neighborhood that they're living in is being thought about as well.
What can you say about the current status of places
like North Omaha, South Omaha places maybe a little bit
on the western side of the city limits, and how
you would approach iss mayor Sure.
Speaker 2 (07:40):
When I talk about intentional development, that's what I'm talking about.
I'm talking about the opportunity to develop a city that
works for everyone, where you can live, work and play
in your neighborhood, where you have opportunity for high pain
living ways, jobs in your neighborhood. You have the opportunity
to have retail in your neighborhood, a grocery store in
(08:04):
your neighborhood. All of those things then lead to a
city where we're more of a walkable, bike lable city
and makes it much more convenient for everyone involved. And
really it's one of those things too that I think
will help retain young people in this community. When you
(08:25):
look at the brain drain that is happening across the
state of Nebraska. We've got to make this city that's
more friendly to people who don't necessarily own a car
or don't want to own a car. So if we
look at economic development from that perspective and create those
type of developments and neighborhoods across the city, then we
(08:47):
have an opportunity to have what I call very intentional
economic development that empowers the whole city and the whole community.
Speaker 1 (08:58):
What's the number one thing that you would like to
change about Omaha.
Speaker 2 (09:02):
The number one thing I would like to change about
Omaha is the ability to retain our young people. I
think that's everybody talks about that being the future, but
I truly believe that's the future. One of the great
things I had an opportunity to do this weekend is
I was at a house party talking to some folks
(09:23):
and we started talking about retaining young people. And then
I looked around and we had a couple young people there,
and I said, well, let's quit talking about young people,
let's quit talking at them, and let's ask these two
young people what they want to see. And those were
the types of things they were talking about. More opportunity,
(09:45):
decent affordable housing, having the ability to not own a car,
be able to walk places, bike places, those type of things.
So we've got to kind of transform Omaha into a
city that is more attractive to young people.
Speaker 1 (10:02):
When you look at young people specifically. We have a
couple of institutions of higher learning that are very in
very good spots. You have Creighton in the downtown area,
have the University of Rascomaha and kind of that Elmwood
Park and Xarbon area, and there's a lot of people that,
you know, I think we kind of forget a little
bit about how important that higher learning is as well.
(10:24):
Both institutions kind of known for their own things. What
role do they play as you know, major pieces of
the puzzle here in Omaha.
Speaker 2 (10:32):
Perfect One of the things I believe is that Omaha
always has a mismatch between the people without high paying
jobs and the high paying jobs that are available. And
I just saw this sign on seventieth and Dodge, so
I'm going to claim it as a word now, but
(10:53):
Uno has a sign that says upscale and talking about
opportunities for people to get certificates in those type of things.
And one of the things I talk about when it
comes to young people and even people who may be
transitioning from one career to the other, is we need
to upscale them. We need to get them the skills
(11:16):
that they need to get the jobs that are available.
And I think the universities, the five school districts that
we have all play a role in that, as well
as the other institutions that we have in this community
as well. So it should be a partnership between our community,
(11:36):
the business community, and our educational institutions. One of the
things I talked with the young people about on Saturday
was looking at how we could have a resource center
so young people and their parents know what opportunities are available,
what scholarships are available, what majors are available, what jobs
(12:00):
are available, so that instead of having to figure this
thing out on their own, we help people be able
to be in a position to compete. Because if we
can put our people in a position to compete, then
we as a city can compete against the other Midwest
cities like Denver, Minneapolis, Des Moines, Kansas City. So they
(12:24):
play a critical role, and a lot of times we
just have different groups off on their own and everybody's
working in their silo doing great work, but we don't
get then the greatest results. And I mentioned earlier the
Crime Prevention Covenant, and I'll give you an example with that,
(12:45):
so you understand what I mean when I talk about
working in silos. There was a lot of good work
being done in the criminal justice arena, and what happened
with the Crime Prevention Covenant is all of those organizations
started coming together and meeting on Wednesdays as well as
meeting with the community and hearing what the community had
(13:07):
to say, and there was an even greater focus on
community policing. And that collaborative effort is what has helped
reduce gun violence by seventy percent in this city. So
it's all those organizations were already doing good work, but
when you bring them together and you start bridging the
(13:29):
gap between those silos, then you get a synergy. And
that's what we need in education and employment as well.
Speaker 1 (13:37):
Sixty seconds, sure, John Ewing with us. You have sixty
seconds with the voters here that are listening here in
the city of Omaha. What do you want them to
know about John Ewing and why he should be the
next match?
Speaker 2 (13:47):
Sure? I want them to know that John Ewing has
served them with dignity. John Ewing has served them with excellence.
And if they like what I've done as treasurer, they
are going to love what I'm going to do as
next mayor.
Speaker 1 (14:01):
It's very simple, John Ewing, again, very appreciative for you
to come in here on a very busy time, one
week away from primary day. We really appreciate the time
and good luck next week. Well, thank you very much
for having me. I love being able to have the
opportunity to talk to people in this community. John Ewing.
He is one of the candidates for mayor primary again
(14:21):
next Tuesday, the first of April.
Speaker 2 (14:24):
Emery sung on news radio eleven ten kfab
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