May 21, 2025 • 17 mins
I talk with Omaha's next mayor about ICE, homelessness, potties, potholes, and more.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Scott VORGIEZ. We're very happy to be joined by the
mayor elect right now in the studios here at eleven
ten kfab. First time he's been here since our mayoral
debate a few weeks back. Mayor Elect John Ewing, it's
a pleasure.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
Good morning, Scott, it's a pleasure to be with you.
Thanks for having me.
Speaker 1 (00:18):
You'll excuse me if I accidentally call you Douglas County
Treasurer John Ewing, which the technically you still are. First
of all, how does that transition work.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
One of the things I'm looking at is allowing my
chief deputy to look at making the decision on whether
or not she wants the position. If she wants the position,
then I will appoint her as INTROM and then the
county board will make the decision on their process in
(00:49):
terms of if they're going to go internal or if
they are going to open up the process.
Speaker 1 (00:55):
How do you leave one job, take on this major
new job, but still not have a hand in the
job you've had for the last it's been eighteen years
that you've been Douglas kind of treasurer. Are you gonna
be calling up the office going I wouldn't have done
it that way.
Speaker 2 (01:09):
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (01:10):
You got to listen to me. I'm the mayor of Omaha.
Speaker 2 (01:12):
Absolutely not one of the things I've tried to do.
As an example with retiring from the police Department. At
a high level, I am engaged with those folks in
terms of some of the community things that we're doing.
But I never try to tell Todd Schmoderer how to
be chief. I never try to tell any of the
(01:32):
deputy chiefs how to be a deputy chief. My job
is to be a support to them. If they have
a question for me. Now as mayor, then I'll have
more conversations with Todd, but he will still be chief.
And that's how look at treasurer as well. If they
ask a question, if they have something they need my
(01:53):
assistance with, I'll be there.
Speaker 1 (01:55):
Well, you're now the mayor elect of Omaha. You still
got a few weeks here until you're sworn in. When
do you think the recall effort will start?
Speaker 2 (02:03):
Probably?
Speaker 1 (02:04):
Yeah, June tenth, Yeah, the day June tenth I'm sworn
in here. Well, I want to circle back at the
end of our conversation here in about twenty minutes or
so to election night. But let's first get into some
of the issues. Some came up, some weren't fully answered.
I think to some voters expectations during the campaign, and
(02:26):
I want to start here with a Facebook post the
day before the election, Douglas County Sheriff Aaron Hanson said,
I'm an open book. I want to know what questions
John ey Wing has about how our department works with
immigration and Customs enforcement. So we'll lay out the example
here for you. A drug pedaling, human trafficking gang member,
(02:48):
like a really, really bad guy. This guy he doesn't
pay his parking tickets, he cuts in line at the
Douglas County Treasurer's office. He's just like the worst of
the worst. He's apprehended in our community, and he's in
the country illegally. What would you like to see happen here?
I'd like to see him deport it simple enough, that's
simple you. According to Douglas County Sheriff Aaron Hanson, we're
(03:12):
talking to a community group and you said, we're going
to have a blunt conversation with the county sheriff here
about some of what has happened between whether it's Douglas
County Sheriff's Department and immigration, Customs enforcement or what have you.
What did that mean?
Speaker 2 (03:28):
What that was about for me was it appeared that
the community member was talking about some of the things
that were happening around the country and asking about that
more so than anything that Sheriff Hanson has done. So
I said, if those type of things were happening here,
we would have a blunt conversation. So it wasn't about
(03:51):
anything that I was aware of that he's done, And
it certainly wasn't about anything he's done with the homeless,
popular relations, or anything that has been done with dangerous criminals.
I don't know anybody who wants dangerous criminals in our city.
Speaker 1 (04:09):
The term sanctuary city has come up here. Some people said, oh,
since Johnny Wing's been elected mayor, we've got a Democrat
in the city, and we know what that means, going
to be a sanctuary city for Omaha.
Speaker 2 (04:19):
This is not interested in that. I believe that adds
additional expenses to a city and becomes unmanageable. What I
want to ensure that we do is that we treat
people well and we follow the United States Constitution. All right.
Speaker 1 (04:34):
That's John Ey Wing here on news radio eleven ten
kfab Another issue for the city of Omaha that I'm
sure you've seen around our community, a problem that's gotten
worse and worse over the years, is homelessness. Yes, what
do we do to address this?
Speaker 2 (04:50):
Well, I think, as I said during the campaign, it's
a very comprehensive approach. We have a person in the
position right now that I believe has started to do
some good work. She just got an assistant. What I
said to her prior to the campaign camera choir, I
said that your job is going to be to look
(05:13):
at this from a comprehensive approach. Tell me what you
think you need in order for us to be successful
addressing this, and then I will help convene and give
you the support you need to develop that comprehensive approach.
We've got to look at it from a standpoint of
(05:33):
mental health, drug addiction, affordable housing. But then also two
things that I really want us to look at is
can we increase capacity in some way to help get
people off the street. Then the other thing I've seen
is that if people fit into certain categories, like someone
(05:56):
who has pets and they don't want to leave their pets,
then they choose to be homeless and unsheltered. If someone
is a man and a woman together, or maybe they
have children and they're afraid that their family is going
to be separated, then they choose to be unsheltered. What
I want to do is try to see if we
(06:18):
can increase flexibility so we don't have those rules and
we can keep families and people together, We can make
sure pets are safe. Whatever that causes people to make
that difficult decision.
Speaker 1 (06:32):
Well, Tambridgewire has been the homeless Services coordinator for a
few years. As I said, during that time, the problem
has gotten more evident around our community. I talked to
a downtown business owner in the weeks leading up to
the campaign. He said, it's just unsafe for people coming
in and out of my business down here. Now, when
(06:52):
you talk about affordable housing, I'd like to drill down
a little further into how we achieve that. Since affordability
when it comes to housing has got unaffordable, the cost
of material, the cost of labor, property taxes, or such
that any new construction is going to be unaffordable. Existing
so called affordable housing is either full, it's in squalor
(07:15):
or it's dangerous. Or all of the above. How do
we achieve affordable housing in our community.
Speaker 2 (07:20):
There's a number of things we can do. First of all,
I think we have to address zoning. We have single
residency zoning in most of our residential neighborhoods. I think
we're going to have to look at do we put
two or three units on those properties in order to
make it affordable. I've also talked to businessmen and construction
(07:43):
people who talk about the fact that there are things
that add to the cost of a house that we
need to look at in terms of our regulations. I
don't want to put people in unsafe housing, but if
we have rules in place and city government that add
to the costs but don't add to the quality, don't
(08:05):
add to the safety of the home, then we need
to look at those things. So I'm looking to address
those type of issues based on what I've been told
by people in the industry, and also looking at our
zoning and having those conversations so that we can begin
(08:26):
to look at ways to reduce those unnecessary expenses.
Speaker 1 (08:30):
There are people really living on the streets because they
can't afford housing, or because this is a choice either
they've made or due to mental health and addiction issues,
and the fact that we don't exactly criminalize homelessness by
forcefully putting someone into treatment, who's going to pay for that.
It just speaks to this issue getting worse and worse,
(08:52):
partly because people say the City of Omaha and the
Homeless Services Coordinator has allowed it by allowing tents to
be in some public and private areas in our community.
Most people drive around here, they see more and more
homeless people or panhandlers around here and say, why can't
we do something about that? Is there anything in the
(09:13):
first months of a Ewing administration to do something about
this problem?
Speaker 2 (09:17):
Well, the first thing I want to say, Scott is
I don't want to villainize a city employee. So anyone
that's saying things about Camera Dwyer, I wish they would
stop that part of it because I don't think that's
helpful to addressing the issue. What we need to do
is we need to look at this from her perspective,
(09:41):
having lived that experience, and then take that expertise and
develop a program. But I certainly don't want to see
tense cities all over our community, especially in public right
of ways and things of that nature. So I will
have a conversation with city leaders goal as well as
(10:02):
the police department to see what we can do to
address those things, understanding that that's not what I want
to see, that's not what the people of this community
want to see. So if there's a way to address it, we.
Speaker 1 (10:16):
Will talking here with Omaha Mayor elect John Ewing. The
political mail got interesting in this race, John. One political
ad saw you surrounded by men in drag. Another one
showed Mayor Stouth appearing underneath the bathroom stall to see
what was going on in there. I think we can
both agree that neither of these political mailings elevated the
(10:40):
level of discourse in our community. Now, whether the mayor
of Omaha even makes any decisions on who goes and
what restroom, or plays on what youth sports team, or
allows what procedure on what aged kid, it does come
down to judgment. You said you weren't going to answer
a hypothetical in this campaign leading up to election day,
(11:00):
So a question for you in your judgment, can a
man walk into a woman's restroom on city owned property
in the city of Omaha.
Speaker 2 (11:08):
I don't believe that's the case today, and I'm not
willing to change anything for the purposes of allowing that
to happen.
Speaker 1 (11:18):
We have a situation here on both sides of the
political spectrum. If you criticize even one little thing that
Donald Trump might say or do, you might as well
be a Democrat. You're a rhino if you decide to
in some instances maybe not allow someone to live their
authentic selves, or put some sort of timeline on abortion
(11:40):
or whatever. You got some people on the political left
in this country that say you're an enemy, you might
as well not be a Democrat. Do you think your
answer there will sit well with that side of the
political spectrum on the left.
Speaker 2 (11:52):
I'm not trying to appease people. I'm always going to
be honest, so I have I've said very clearly that
I'm going to be inclusive, that I'm going to be
mayor for everybody in this city. Sometimes people are going
to like my answer, sometime they're not. That is for
(12:14):
them to make that decision, not me, because I'm going
to give you an honest answer.
Speaker 1 (12:19):
Unfortunately, there's been a groundswell in this country too often
on the political left against law enforcement. You were a
longtime Omaha police officer when you saw what happened in
Omaha in this last term, maristother in the summer of
twenty twenty, we had riots downtown. You had protests against
law enforcement, against cops in this community who had nothing
(12:43):
to do with what happened in Minneapolis with George Floyd.
How did that make you feel, especially seeing a lot
of that demonization of law enforcement by members of your
own political party.
Speaker 2 (12:55):
I don't believe that that is ever the answer. But
I also don't believe that if we just assume police
officers always right, that's the answer either. One of the
things I have very clearly said is that I am
in support of good policing and I will always be
in support of good policing. And that is where the
(13:16):
police departments are working with the people of their community
to address their priorities, and they're having discussions and the
citizens have an opportunity to share their thoughts with them,
and then we design policing to address their issues, and
then we report back to them what we're doing, and
(13:36):
then we continue to have discussions to try and make
sure that people are not seeing the police department as
the enemy, but seeing them as a partner and keeping
their community safe.
Speaker 1 (13:49):
Do you want Chief toad Schmoder to stay on in
that role.
Speaker 2 (13:52):
I have talked to Chief Smaterer and I have every
indication that he wants to stay, So he is welcome
to stay.
Speaker 1 (14:00):
More minutes here with marilect John Ewing. A big part
of this campaign did have to do with potholes. It's
so interesting every city election campaigning from the late winter
into the early spring. We're gonna have potholes in Omaha.
We always have potholes in Omaha. It's very easy for
a challenger to look at the mayor during pothole season
ago the mayor has not done enough on potholes. In
(14:21):
four years from now, that's gonna be you. We're gonna
have potholes at that time, aren't we.
Speaker 2 (14:26):
I believe we always will. That wasn't the issue for me.
The issue for me was street repair in general. And
I just got an opportunity to look at the most
recent complaints that came into the Mayor's hotline, and the
vast majority of them were about the conditions of streets,
and so that is an issue for the people of
(14:48):
this community. What I am going to look at is
making sure that we have a very strategic plan to
address street resurfacing, and that we make that plan available
to the people of this community and they can then
know what the plan is and then hold us accountable.
Speaker 1 (15:10):
Here on news radio eleven ten KFAB the station of
record for our community for one hundred years. We look
forward to working with your administration for the next four
years potentially beyond for the betterment of our community. Absolutely,
and I wish you the best in this. This is
our hometown. Absolutely, and this is going to be a
very interesting time forward, whether it's good times, bad times,
(15:33):
snow whatever. Let's keep the conversation going. I want to
bring it back to one last thing here. For some
people in our community, they never thought that they would
see a mayor elected in Omaha who look like them.
You're the first elected black mayor in Omaha. What does
that mean for you and for your family and that
part of our community.
Speaker 2 (15:54):
Sure? So for me, first of all, it means that people,
young people in particular, regardless of what they look like,
see someone they can aspire to be, see someone that
they maybe see as an underdog. I've been an underdog
all my life, and so I want young people to
(16:16):
understand that their dreams are possible no matter where they start.
And it's not where they start, but where they finish.
So I want to be a great mayor that inspires
our young people. I want to be a great mayor
that gets things done for all of the people of
this community. My family and I are thrilled with this
(16:38):
opportunity because this is my hometown. We want to ensure
that every person in this community believes that they belong,
that they have an opportunity to have a great life.
So I hope it does inspire people in the Black community.
I hope it does inspire people in the Latino community.
(17:01):
I hope it does inspire people in the Caucasian community
across this city to believe that we are going to
do things the right way and we are going to
create opportunity.
Speaker 1 (17:14):
Mary Elect John Ewing. I look forward to many more
conversations to come, and once again, congratulations, well, thank you
very much. Scott Voices Mornings nine to eleven, Our News
Radio eleven ten KFAB
Scott VORGIEZ. We're very happy to be joined by the
mayor elect right now in the studios here at eleven
ten kfab. First time he's been here since our mayoral
debate a few weeks back. Mayor Elect John Ewing, it's
a pleasure.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
Good morning, Scott, it's a pleasure to be with you.
Thanks for having me.
Speaker 1 (00:18):
You'll excuse me if I accidentally call you Douglas County
Treasurer John Ewing, which the technically you still are. First
of all, how does that transition work.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
One of the things I'm looking at is allowing my
chief deputy to look at making the decision on whether
or not she wants the position. If she wants the position,
then I will appoint her as INTROM and then the
county board will make the decision on their process in
(00:49):
terms of if they're going to go internal or if
they are going to open up the process.
Speaker 1 (00:55):
How do you leave one job, take on this major
new job, but still not have a hand in the
job you've had for the last it's been eighteen years
that you've been Douglas kind of treasurer. Are you gonna
be calling up the office going I wouldn't have done
it that way.
Speaker 2 (01:09):
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (01:10):
You got to listen to me. I'm the mayor of Omaha.
Speaker 2 (01:12):
Absolutely not one of the things I've tried to do.
As an example with retiring from the police Department. At
a high level, I am engaged with those folks in
terms of some of the community things that we're doing.
But I never try to tell Todd Schmoderer how to
be chief. I never try to tell any of the
(01:32):
deputy chiefs how to be a deputy chief. My job
is to be a support to them. If they have
a question for me. Now as mayor, then I'll have
more conversations with Todd, but he will still be chief.
And that's how look at treasurer as well. If they
ask a question, if they have something they need my
(01:53):
assistance with, I'll be there.
Speaker 1 (01:55):
Well, you're now the mayor elect of Omaha. You still
got a few weeks here until you're sworn in. When
do you think the recall effort will start?
Speaker 2 (02:03):
Probably?
Speaker 1 (02:04):
Yeah, June tenth, Yeah, the day June tenth I'm sworn
in here. Well, I want to circle back at the
end of our conversation here in about twenty minutes or
so to election night. But let's first get into some
of the issues. Some came up, some weren't fully answered.
I think to some voters expectations during the campaign, and
(02:26):
I want to start here with a Facebook post the
day before the election, Douglas County Sheriff Aaron Hanson said,
I'm an open book. I want to know what questions
John ey Wing has about how our department works with
immigration and Customs enforcement. So we'll lay out the example
here for you. A drug pedaling, human trafficking gang member,
(02:48):
like a really, really bad guy. This guy he doesn't
pay his parking tickets, he cuts in line at the
Douglas County Treasurer's office. He's just like the worst of
the worst. He's apprehended in our community, and he's in
the country illegally. What would you like to see happen here?
I'd like to see him deport it simple enough, that's
simple you. According to Douglas County Sheriff Aaron Hanson, we're
(03:12):
talking to a community group and you said, we're going
to have a blunt conversation with the county sheriff here
about some of what has happened between whether it's Douglas
County Sheriff's Department and immigration, Customs enforcement or what have you.
What did that mean?
Speaker 2 (03:28):
What that was about for me was it appeared that
the community member was talking about some of the things
that were happening around the country and asking about that
more so than anything that Sheriff Hanson has done. So
I said, if those type of things were happening here,
we would have a blunt conversation. So it wasn't about
(03:51):
anything that I was aware of that he's done, And
it certainly wasn't about anything he's done with the homeless,
popular relations, or anything that has been done with dangerous criminals.
I don't know anybody who wants dangerous criminals in our city.
Speaker 1 (04:09):
The term sanctuary city has come up here. Some people said, oh,
since Johnny Wing's been elected mayor, we've got a Democrat
in the city, and we know what that means, going
to be a sanctuary city for Omaha.
Speaker 2 (04:19):
This is not interested in that. I believe that adds
additional expenses to a city and becomes unmanageable. What I
want to ensure that we do is that we treat
people well and we follow the United States Constitution. All right.
Speaker 1 (04:34):
That's John Ey Wing here on news radio eleven ten
kfab Another issue for the city of Omaha that I'm
sure you've seen around our community, a problem that's gotten
worse and worse over the years, is homelessness. Yes, what
do we do to address this?
Speaker 2 (04:50):
Well, I think, as I said during the campaign, it's
a very comprehensive approach. We have a person in the
position right now that I believe has started to do
some good work. She just got an assistant. What I
said to her prior to the campaign camera choir, I
said that your job is going to be to look
(05:13):
at this from a comprehensive approach. Tell me what you
think you need in order for us to be successful
addressing this, and then I will help convene and give
you the support you need to develop that comprehensive approach.
We've got to look at it from a standpoint of
(05:33):
mental health, drug addiction, affordable housing. But then also two
things that I really want us to look at is
can we increase capacity in some way to help get
people off the street. Then the other thing I've seen
is that if people fit into certain categories, like someone
(05:56):
who has pets and they don't want to leave their pets,
then they choose to be homeless and unsheltered. If someone
is a man and a woman together, or maybe they
have children and they're afraid that their family is going
to be separated, then they choose to be unsheltered. What
I want to do is try to see if we
(06:18):
can increase flexibility so we don't have those rules and
we can keep families and people together, We can make
sure pets are safe. Whatever that causes people to make
that difficult decision.
Speaker 1 (06:32):
Well, Tambridgewire has been the homeless Services coordinator for a
few years. As I said, during that time, the problem
has gotten more evident around our community. I talked to
a downtown business owner in the weeks leading up to
the campaign. He said, it's just unsafe for people coming
in and out of my business down here. Now, when
(06:52):
you talk about affordable housing, I'd like to drill down
a little further into how we achieve that. Since affordability
when it comes to housing has got unaffordable, the cost
of material, the cost of labor, property taxes, or such
that any new construction is going to be unaffordable. Existing
so called affordable housing is either full, it's in squalor
(07:15):
or it's dangerous. Or all of the above. How do
we achieve affordable housing in our community.
Speaker 2 (07:20):
There's a number of things we can do. First of all,
I think we have to address zoning. We have single
residency zoning in most of our residential neighborhoods. I think
we're going to have to look at do we put
two or three units on those properties in order to
make it affordable. I've also talked to businessmen and construction
(07:43):
people who talk about the fact that there are things
that add to the cost of a house that we
need to look at in terms of our regulations. I
don't want to put people in unsafe housing, but if
we have rules in place and city government that add
to the costs but don't add to the quality, don't
(08:05):
add to the safety of the home, then we need
to look at those things. So I'm looking to address
those type of issues based on what I've been told
by people in the industry, and also looking at our
zoning and having those conversations so that we can begin
(08:26):
to look at ways to reduce those unnecessary expenses.
Speaker 1 (08:30):
There are people really living on the streets because they
can't afford housing, or because this is a choice either
they've made or due to mental health and addiction issues,
and the fact that we don't exactly criminalize homelessness by
forcefully putting someone into treatment, who's going to pay for that.
It just speaks to this issue getting worse and worse,
(08:52):
partly because people say the City of Omaha and the
Homeless Services Coordinator has allowed it by allowing tents to
be in some public and private areas in our community.
Most people drive around here, they see more and more
homeless people or panhandlers around here and say, why can't
we do something about that? Is there anything in the
(09:13):
first months of a Ewing administration to do something about
this problem?
Speaker 2 (09:17):
Well, the first thing I want to say, Scott is
I don't want to villainize a city employee. So anyone
that's saying things about Camera Dwyer, I wish they would
stop that part of it because I don't think that's
helpful to addressing the issue. What we need to do
is we need to look at this from her perspective,
(09:41):
having lived that experience, and then take that expertise and
develop a program. But I certainly don't want to see
tense cities all over our community, especially in public right
of ways and things of that nature. So I will
have a conversation with city leaders goal as well as
(10:02):
the police department to see what we can do to
address those things, understanding that that's not what I want
to see, that's not what the people of this community
want to see. So if there's a way to address it, we.
Speaker 1 (10:16):
Will talking here with Omaha Mayor elect John Ewing. The
political mail got interesting in this race, John. One political
ad saw you surrounded by men in drag. Another one
showed Mayor Stouth appearing underneath the bathroom stall to see
what was going on in there. I think we can
both agree that neither of these political mailings elevated the
(10:40):
level of discourse in our community. Now, whether the mayor
of Omaha even makes any decisions on who goes and
what restroom, or plays on what youth sports team, or
allows what procedure on what aged kid, it does come
down to judgment. You said you weren't going to answer
a hypothetical in this campaign leading up to election day,
(11:00):
So a question for you in your judgment, can a
man walk into a woman's restroom on city owned property
in the city of Omaha.
Speaker 2 (11:08):
I don't believe that's the case today, and I'm not
willing to change anything for the purposes of allowing that
to happen.
Speaker 1 (11:18):
We have a situation here on both sides of the
political spectrum. If you criticize even one little thing that
Donald Trump might say or do, you might as well
be a Democrat. You're a rhino if you decide to
in some instances maybe not allow someone to live their
authentic selves, or put some sort of timeline on abortion
(11:40):
or whatever. You got some people on the political left
in this country that say you're an enemy, you might
as well not be a Democrat. Do you think your
answer there will sit well with that side of the
political spectrum on the left.
Speaker 2 (11:52):
I'm not trying to appease people. I'm always going to
be honest, so I have I've said very clearly that
I'm going to be inclusive, that I'm going to be
mayor for everybody in this city. Sometimes people are going
to like my answer, sometime they're not. That is for
(12:14):
them to make that decision, not me, because I'm going
to give you an honest answer.
Speaker 1 (12:19):
Unfortunately, there's been a groundswell in this country too often
on the political left against law enforcement. You were a
longtime Omaha police officer when you saw what happened in
Omaha in this last term, maristother in the summer of
twenty twenty, we had riots downtown. You had protests against
law enforcement, against cops in this community who had nothing
(12:43):
to do with what happened in Minneapolis with George Floyd.
How did that make you feel, especially seeing a lot
of that demonization of law enforcement by members of your
own political party.
Speaker 2 (12:55):
I don't believe that that is ever the answer. But
I also don't believe that if we just assume police
officers always right, that's the answer either. One of the
things I have very clearly said is that I am
in support of good policing and I will always be
in support of good policing. And that is where the
(13:16):
police departments are working with the people of their community
to address their priorities, and they're having discussions and the
citizens have an opportunity to share their thoughts with them,
and then we design policing to address their issues, and
then we report back to them what we're doing, and
(13:36):
then we continue to have discussions to try and make
sure that people are not seeing the police department as
the enemy, but seeing them as a partner and keeping
their community safe.
Speaker 1 (13:49):
Do you want Chief toad Schmoder to stay on in
that role.
Speaker 2 (13:52):
I have talked to Chief Smaterer and I have every
indication that he wants to stay, So he is welcome
to stay.
Speaker 1 (14:00):
More minutes here with marilect John Ewing. A big part
of this campaign did have to do with potholes. It's
so interesting every city election campaigning from the late winter
into the early spring. We're gonna have potholes in Omaha.
We always have potholes in Omaha. It's very easy for
a challenger to look at the mayor during pothole season
ago the mayor has not done enough on potholes. In
(14:21):
four years from now, that's gonna be you. We're gonna
have potholes at that time, aren't we.
Speaker 2 (14:26):
I believe we always will. That wasn't the issue for me.
The issue for me was street repair in general. And
I just got an opportunity to look at the most
recent complaints that came into the Mayor's hotline, and the
vast majority of them were about the conditions of streets,
and so that is an issue for the people of
(14:48):
this community. What I am going to look at is
making sure that we have a very strategic plan to
address street resurfacing, and that we make that plan available
to the people of this community and they can then
know what the plan is and then hold us accountable.
Speaker 1 (15:10):
Here on news radio eleven ten KFAB the station of
record for our community for one hundred years. We look
forward to working with your administration for the next four
years potentially beyond for the betterment of our community. Absolutely,
and I wish you the best in this. This is
our hometown. Absolutely, and this is going to be a
very interesting time forward, whether it's good times, bad times,
(15:33):
snow whatever. Let's keep the conversation going. I want to
bring it back to one last thing here. For some
people in our community, they never thought that they would
see a mayor elected in Omaha who look like them.
You're the first elected black mayor in Omaha. What does
that mean for you and for your family and that
part of our community.
Speaker 2 (15:54):
Sure? So for me, first of all, it means that people,
young people in particular, regardless of what they look like,
see someone they can aspire to be, see someone that
they maybe see as an underdog. I've been an underdog
all my life, and so I want young people to
(16:16):
understand that their dreams are possible no matter where they start.
And it's not where they start, but where they finish.
So I want to be a great mayor that inspires
our young people. I want to be a great mayor
that gets things done for all of the people of
this community. My family and I are thrilled with this
(16:38):
opportunity because this is my hometown. We want to ensure
that every person in this community believes that they belong,
that they have an opportunity to have a great life.
So I hope it does inspire people in the Black community.
I hope it does inspire people in the Latino community.
(17:01):
I hope it does inspire people in the Caucasian community
across this city to believe that we are going to
do things the right way and we are going to
create opportunity.
Speaker 1 (17:14):
Mary Elect John Ewing. I look forward to many more
conversations to come, and once again, congratulations, well, thank you
very much. Scott Voices Mornings nine to eleven, Our News
Radio eleven ten KFAB
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