March 28, 2025 • 15 mins
Candidate for Omaha Mayor: Former Nebraska State Senator Mike McDonnell
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
We like to talk about Omaha, and we're gonna not
waste any time with you. We are talking right now.
Mayor race next Tuesday is the big primary. We have
plenty of candidates, including four that we're talking to this week.
The third of those candidates joining us right here in
the studio is Mike McDonald. Mike, first of all, thank
you so much for being here and being on my
show today.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
Thank you for the invitation. I appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (00:19):
Okay, So, first thing, what I've done with Mayor Stothard
in with John Ewing this week is kind of have
them start with what got them to this position in
twenty twenty five, where you know you believe you make
the best candidate for the next mayor of the city
of Omaha.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
Yeah. I born and raised in in the city of Omaha,
and I'm very proud of that and my parents. My
father served in World War Two and when he got
out of the service, he wanted to be the first
in his family to own a home and they did
accomplish that together. They build a home in nineteen fifty
eight and all eight of us kids were raised there
and I moved four blocks from there. That's where I
live today. So I'm like a pheasand I've got only
(00:55):
two square miles in my whole life. Very proud of
that I had at Chatsiaco to say Thomas Wirre Gats
schoo and Gross High School, that I received a football scholarship,
tea University of Nebraska at Omaha and then served twenty
four years on the Oma Fart Department. After that, I
had a chance to go back to the University of
Nebraska omon and teach for three years, and then was
elected to the State Senate and represent Legislative District five
(01:18):
South Omaha for eight years. And really that was an
honor and privilege. Met a number of great people at
a chance to spend eight years on the Appropriations Committee.
And going back to when I grew up, you don't
realize this as a kid, but you know not that
we had everything we wanted, but we had everything we needed,
and that was based on the idea of public safety,
good paying jobs, and good public education. And I think
(01:39):
if we can do that in our city, and I
want to give that opportunity, the same opportunity I had
as a kid, to every kid in the city of Alma, east, west,
north and south to be the best version of themselves.
But I think we got to get back to where
we were prior and talk about the basics of city
government and that core that core issues of public safety, streets,
(02:00):
garbage parks, affordable housing. I don't think that's going on
right now. I think we have a crack in our
foundation where one hundred and twenty police officers short right now.
We've been over one hundred police officers short over the
over the last four plus years, and right now that
is affecting our public safety. And you can always take
a dangerous job and make it safer by having the
right number of people, having technology, having training, and equipment.
(02:23):
And right now we're not putting those police officers in
the best position to serve the citizens. And you can
tell by the quality of life crimes going up. Twenty
twenty three we had more motor vehicle thefts, the highest
in the history, and then twenty twenty four motor vehicle
fatalities went up to the highest ever. And I think
we should take up, for example, Aaron Hanson, Sheriff Hanson
(02:43):
had asked back in September offered that we could actually
contract out with the Sheriff's department because they had reached
their full authorrized strength, and for example, we could do
some of the traffic enforcement, and right now in the
city of almost between ten thirty pm and six am,
there's a minimal traffic enforcement going on in the city. Well,
(03:04):
it gives us a chance to go out and recruit
those police officers, get caught up and get us up
to nine hundred and six people, because right now after
we're the lowest we've been in ten years with police
officers on the street. So I think also going into
other towns and recruiting and letting people know this's a
great place to raise a family, and you can transfer
now latterly transfer as a police officer, but we don't
have to change the charter of the contract to recruit
(03:25):
the family and have them come in based on the
idea that the school year to help them move to
our city. And look at some of the other things
that are going on in the police department. We still
don't have maternity or paternity leave for the Omaha police
officers and it's twenty twenty five, so I think we
can do better there. Also with the idea of our streets.
Look at where we are right now, we've spent. We're
(03:46):
going to spend more money on a street car in
a three mile area versus forty five hundred miles of
the city of Omaha, then we've spent in twelve years.
Speaker 1 (03:56):
Well, we'll talk street car a second. Don't worry about that.
I wanted to we're speaking with Mike McDonald here. I
want to kind of touch You mentioned the fire chief aspect.
You mentioned public safety is certainly a passion for you.
There are a lot of people that are kind of
I think there's a little confusion about what that history
is because you have such a long history of service
(04:16):
in that regard in public safety as well. How do
you best describe your time in the fire department and
kind of what you were able to elevate yourself to
versus what maybe some of the things that you've been
hearing about people questioning whether or not you know that's
everything that many people are making it out to be.
I'll let you tell the story.
Speaker 2 (04:34):
I have an opportunity to serve twenty four years on
the Oma Fire Department, and working with the people I
did that would put themselves in harm's way to help
the citizens of Omaha was special, and I'll always be
proud of being part of that team and had an
opportunity to serve twenty four years, and six of those
years where I was fire chief of the City of Omaha.
So yeah, every job I had as a firefighter I enjoyed.
(04:59):
I missed the people every day, and I'll always appreciate
the opportunity to work as a team and have that
that that opportunity to help the citizens of Omoho. And
that's that's something about going back to the neighborhood I
grew up in and really besides leaving our neighborhood for
sporting events and we had a good neighborhood. You know,
good public safety, good good good paying jobs, good good
(05:20):
public education. But when you become a firefighter, you're going
to you're going to serve throughout the city east, west, north, south,
and you're going to see some of our citizens in
some very tragic situations that you're trying to hopefully make
a positive difference on. But you're also going to live
in different parts of the city for twenty four hours
and you really do get to know the city and
(05:40):
you at that point, I really did see true poverty
and and appreciated more of everything that I had growing
up and what my parents and neighbors and friends were
willing to do for me as a kid. And I
think that's really stuck with me my whole public service
as a firefighter, teaching at you and O also serving
(06:00):
for eight years, that there's so many people out there
that don't have the opportunities, and we want to make
sure that you know, again, government sometimes should plow the way.
Sometimes government should get out of the way, but also
we should try to remove any unfair as many unfair
hurdles as possible for people to be the best version
of themselves and run their race.
Speaker 1 (06:19):
Mike McDonald joining us here a mayoral candidate here in
the city of Omaha. I know you were in charge
also of the fire union. It's kind of interesting that
the fire chief and the police union, or the police
chief and the police union here in Omaha kind of
have different endorsements for this race. And then of course
your political history deciding to get into public service in
a different way by serving in the unicamerals. So for
(06:40):
people who might be confused about kind of what your
role was as the fire union president, and then what
kind of led to your transition into more traditional politics,
what do you tell people about that kind of transition
for yourself.
Speaker 2 (06:54):
Oh, and yeah, all aspects of public service has been
very rewarding for me. And you look at right now
the endorsement we've received from the Fire Union, the seven
hundred men and women of the Fire Union, and the
Oma Police Officers Associate, the eight hundred men and women
that put on their uniform and badge every day to
go out and protect us. And then just recently the
(07:15):
endorsement of the of the Douglas County Republican Party that
we received on Tuesday night. I've met so many great
people through this process and I'm so it's motivating and
humbling for how many people have stepped forward to help
our campaign, you know, with their time, talent, and treasury.
And I felt that as a firefighter when I first
was hired in nineteen eighty nine, as a firefighter, at
(07:37):
every rank I held as a firefighter all the way
up to fire chief and also serving as union president,
it was always about first public safety and what we
could do for the public and how do you make
a dangerous job safer. As I mentioned earlier, it's about
the right number of people, It's about training, equipment, and technology,
and the better you can do that job, the better
outcome it's going to be for the citizens that are
(07:59):
calling nine to one one in some of the worst
moments of their life, or their family's life, or neighbor's life.
And so having an opportunity to come in there and
again work as a team on every level of the
fire department, and also have a chance to represent the
fire union and then again represent the people of Nebraska
as a state center to then recently earn the firefighters
(08:19):
and police officers, the men and women that are out
there doing the work every day, their endorsement, and then
just recently the Douglas County Republican Party's endorsement on Tuesdays.
This has been a great four months. I've learned so much,
and I've met so many great people, and so many
people have come forward with their ideas, concerns and criticisms.
And there's an old saying, if you're pleasing everyone, you're
lying to someone. So we're not going to always agree,
(08:40):
but we can we can disagree without becoming disagreeable. But
it's not about me, and that's what our Campaign's not
about me. It's about we. It's about this is about
our city and what do we want to have our
city look like for the current generation and the next generation.
Speaker 1 (08:54):
When it came to I'm speaking with Mike McDonald here, mayor,
old candidate, and I wish I could dig into this
a little deeper. I'm going to go to the streetcar
now and then we'll talk maybe a little bit about
the politics. I just want to make sure we have
ample time for your side of this. I see the
big signs. You're really, you know, nailing the streetcar on
your signage, you know, stop the streetcar, and that is
(09:14):
a thing that a lot of people are either confused
about or they just don't quite understand the project. And
you've made it clear that the voice of the people
just has not been heard on this. So from your angle,
what is at this juncture the right thing to do
with the streetcar as it pertains to what you can
do as maybe the mayor of Omaha.
Speaker 2 (09:34):
If you elect me as mayor. The first thing I'm
going to do is let the people vote on the streetcar. Now.
I believe seventy plus percent of the people I've talked
to do not want the streetcar. And I'm for public transportation,
but I think it should be for the public. It
should be for going to work, going to school, going
to get the groceries, going to see the doctor. So
I think that's what we should approach public public transportation.
(09:54):
But with the idea of spending a half a billion
dollars on one hundred and fifty year old technology. I
agree with State Auditor Mike Foley when he said this
is going to be the largest diversion of property tax
dollars in the history of Nebraska, and it's going to
be anything but free for the taxpayers of Omaha that
they think about that. I'm not opposed to tax incremental financing,
and I voted to move it from fifteen years to
(10:15):
twenty years based on blighted versus extremely blighted. But if
you think about that tax incremental financing, it's an increase
in your taxes, and that's what we're doing. We're taking
that dollar and instead of spending it on Now the
base dollar continues to stay there and that goes towards
schools and public safety and roads, but the other dollar
goes towards paying off that project. I think we can
(10:35):
do better. We have four five hundred miles of roads
in the city of Omaha. We're going to spend more
on a street car than the Mayor Stoders has spent
in the last twelve years repairing our roads on the
four five hundred miles of roads. And then right now
you look at where we've gone with the budget. Mayor
Stoder's budget went up in her Mayor's office budget by
(10:56):
forty percent. The overall budget went up by eleven point three.
When we're about eight years on appropriations. We said we're
going to keep spending at three, and we kept it
at three. We have double digitspan. We have a spending
problem in the City of Omaha right now. And the
amount of dollars that actually we've gone up in the
last three years of four hundred and sixty four million dollars,
our budget's gone up, and we're going to spend another
(11:18):
half a billion dollars on the street car that I
don't think is going to be successful. Again. I want
to look at technology, I want to look at the
future and how we're going to move our people around
with public transportation in our city. But I think this
is a mistake and we're digging a financial hole for
the citizens of Omah, for this generation in the next.
And there's an old saying, if you're digging a hole,
stop digging. And I think we have to let the
(11:38):
people vote now. If I'm wrong and the people of
Oma say no, we really want this street car, I'll
work night and day to make it successful. But I
don't believe this is the direction the people of Omah
want to go, and I want to hear their voice
at the ballot box.
Speaker 1 (11:50):
What's interesting about this is we had Mayor south on
and she said it's so far down the line at
this point that it would also it would be more
detrimental to end it. And it's something that was echoed
by John Youing earlier. I have had people in my
email and my inbox kind of mentioned what would be
the plan if we stopped it at this point? If
that's the case, what would be the plan if you
(12:10):
are able to get that vote, and then you have
the opinion vote people say they don't want the streetcar,
what would then be kind of the next steps of
action on that front.
Speaker 2 (12:19):
So, yeah, if the people chose to not to vote
against the street crew, first thing we would do is
look at all nineteen contracts. And I've got experience negotiating
contracts and the idea of actually honoring that labor that's
been done. For example, the Harney Street Bridge, that labor
is being done, and we're going to honor that that dollar.
But for the second dollar, based on the labor that
(12:39):
hasn't been done, we can change the scope of the contract.
Think about that, we're going to spend the half a
billion dollars on three miles of the city of Omaha,
where we have forty five hundred miles for example, Skyline Ranches.
Look what's going on right now, right now out there
with their streets. We could look at some of these
contracts and say, you're not no longer going to be
putting track down in this area because the peace people spoke,
(13:01):
but we are going to go ahead and give you
work and we're going to finally get our streets repaired
up to where they should be. And that hasn't been
going on for the last twelve years. So the idea
of honoring a contract and labor done. We're always going
to honor a legally binding contract, but there's also ways
to change the scope and language of a contract where
people still have that ability to get a contract and
do work. It just might be different work. Instead of
(13:22):
concentrate on three miles of the city, We're going to
concentrate on all forty five hundred miles and repair the
roads like they should be. So I believe where there's
a will, there's a way, and also I have the ability.
So right now, I don't think Mayor Stother definitely has
the will, and I don't think she has the ability
to negotiate out of those nineteen contracts. I think if
you elect me as your next mayor, I will get
the job done.
Speaker 1 (13:43):
There's definitely a lot of moving parts with that, in
certainly Tuesdays the first of those. You want people in
the city of Omaha to be is well informed as
possible before they narrow this race down to two candidates.
Sixty seconds, Mike McDonald, what would you want the voters
who are listening to our show today to know about
your candidacy and why you should be the next mayor
of this city.
Speaker 2 (14:03):
This campaign is not about me, It's about we. It's
about your ideas, concerns, and criticisms, and we're listening, We're
working hard, and we're going to tell you the truth.
It's about public safety always number one. It's about your
tax dollar, and we have to make sure we're more
transparent with your tax dollars. And I think you know,
as a legislator, I introduced we're not only talking about
the streetcar. Any project over eighty million dollars should be
(14:25):
voted on by the people. Now Prior to that, a
lower amount should be voted by the legislative branch of
the city council. But if you elect me as your mayor,
we're not going to do things the way we've been
doing though. We're going to concentrate on the core of
the city. That's public safeties, treats, garbage parks, and affordable housing.
And we're going to take that core mission seriously. Now.
I want people to dream big, and I want to
dream big, but we have to fix our foundation of
(14:46):
our city first and get things back in order and
make sure that we're listening to the taxpayers because it
is their money, it's not our money. We're going to
make sure that they have a voice in that process
and we want them to dream big, but also we
want to make sure that you perform the basics of
city government and we control spending every day. That's why
we're going to zero out the budget. The first day,
(15:06):
I'm I'm mayor of Omaha. If you elect me, I
we're gonna do performance space budget and I'm gonna cut
the mayor's budget in half because she increased at forty
percent this last year. And I'm going to reduce the
mayor's salary by ten percent to show leadership amongst elected officials.
And I'm going to ask every one of the department heads.
We're going to start doing performance space budgeing. We're gonna
measure every dollar and we're going to let the citizens
(15:26):
know how their money is being spent. And we're gonna
always concentrate on public safety, streets, garbage parks, and affordable housing.
Speaker 1 (15:33):
Mike McDonald he is a candidate for mayor and the
primary is next Tuesday, April the first, Sarah, thank you
so much for coming in and sharing this with me.
Good luck, and if we get past Tuesday, we might
be seeing and talking to you again.
Speaker 2 (15:44):
Thank you for the invitation. I appreciate it. And d
We like to talk about Omaha, and we're gonna not
waste any time with you. We are talking right now.
Mayor race next Tuesday is the big primary. We have
plenty of candidates, including four that we're talking to this week.
The third of those candidates joining us right here in
the studio is Mike McDonald. Mike, first of all, thank
you so much for being here and being on my
show today.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
Thank you for the invitation. I appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (00:19):
Okay, So, first thing, what I've done with Mayor Stothard
in with John Ewing this week is kind of have
them start with what got them to this position in
twenty twenty five, where you know you believe you make
the best candidate for the next mayor of the city
of Omaha.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
Yeah. I born and raised in in the city of Omaha,
and I'm very proud of that and my parents. My
father served in World War Two and when he got
out of the service, he wanted to be the first
in his family to own a home and they did
accomplish that together. They build a home in nineteen fifty
eight and all eight of us kids were raised there
and I moved four blocks from there. That's where I
live today. So I'm like a pheasand I've got only
(00:55):
two square miles in my whole life. Very proud of
that I had at Chatsiaco to say Thomas Wirre Gats
schoo and Gross High School, that I received a football scholarship,
tea University of Nebraska at Omaha and then served twenty
four years on the Oma Fart Department. After that, I
had a chance to go back to the University of
Nebraska omon and teach for three years, and then was
elected to the State Senate and represent Legislative District five
(01:18):
South Omaha for eight years. And really that was an
honor and privilege. Met a number of great people at
a chance to spend eight years on the Appropriations Committee.
And going back to when I grew up, you don't
realize this as a kid, but you know not that
we had everything we wanted, but we had everything we needed,
and that was based on the idea of public safety,
good paying jobs, and good public education. And I think
(01:39):
if we can do that in our city, and I
want to give that opportunity, the same opportunity I had
as a kid, to every kid in the city of Alma, east, west,
north and south to be the best version of themselves.
But I think we got to get back to where
we were prior and talk about the basics of city
government and that core that core issues of public safety, streets,
(02:00):
garbage parks, affordable housing. I don't think that's going on
right now. I think we have a crack in our
foundation where one hundred and twenty police officers short right now.
We've been over one hundred police officers short over the
over the last four plus years, and right now that
is affecting our public safety. And you can always take
a dangerous job and make it safer by having the
right number of people, having technology, having training, and equipment.
(02:23):
And right now we're not putting those police officers in
the best position to serve the citizens. And you can
tell by the quality of life crimes going up. Twenty
twenty three we had more motor vehicle thefts, the highest
in the history, and then twenty twenty four motor vehicle
fatalities went up to the highest ever. And I think
we should take up, for example, Aaron Hanson, Sheriff Hanson
(02:43):
had asked back in September offered that we could actually
contract out with the Sheriff's department because they had reached
their full authorrized strength, and for example, we could do
some of the traffic enforcement, and right now in the
city of almost between ten thirty pm and six am,
there's a minimal traffic enforcement going on in the city. Well,
(03:04):
it gives us a chance to go out and recruit
those police officers, get caught up and get us up
to nine hundred and six people, because right now after
we're the lowest we've been in ten years with police
officers on the street. So I think also going into
other towns and recruiting and letting people know this's a
great place to raise a family, and you can transfer
now latterly transfer as a police officer, but we don't
have to change the charter of the contract to recruit
(03:25):
the family and have them come in based on the
idea that the school year to help them move to
our city. And look at some of the other things
that are going on in the police department. We still
don't have maternity or paternity leave for the Omaha police
officers and it's twenty twenty five, so I think we
can do better there. Also with the idea of our streets.
Look at where we are right now, we've spent. We're
(03:46):
going to spend more money on a street car in
a three mile area versus forty five hundred miles of
the city of Omaha, then we've spent in twelve years.
Speaker 1 (03:56):
Well, we'll talk street car a second. Don't worry about that.
I wanted to we're speaking with Mike McDonald here. I
want to kind of touch You mentioned the fire chief aspect.
You mentioned public safety is certainly a passion for you.
There are a lot of people that are kind of
I think there's a little confusion about what that history
is because you have such a long history of service
(04:16):
in that regard in public safety as well. How do
you best describe your time in the fire department and
kind of what you were able to elevate yourself to
versus what maybe some of the things that you've been
hearing about people questioning whether or not you know that's
everything that many people are making it out to be.
I'll let you tell the story.
Speaker 2 (04:34):
I have an opportunity to serve twenty four years on
the Oma Fire Department, and working with the people I
did that would put themselves in harm's way to help
the citizens of Omaha was special, and I'll always be
proud of being part of that team and had an
opportunity to serve twenty four years, and six of those
years where I was fire chief of the City of Omaha.
So yeah, every job I had as a firefighter I enjoyed.
(04:59):
I missed the people every day, and I'll always appreciate
the opportunity to work as a team and have that
that that opportunity to help the citizens of Omoho. And
that's that's something about going back to the neighborhood I
grew up in and really besides leaving our neighborhood for
sporting events and we had a good neighborhood. You know,
good public safety, good good good paying jobs, good good
(05:20):
public education. But when you become a firefighter, you're going
to you're going to serve throughout the city east, west, north, south,
and you're going to see some of our citizens in
some very tragic situations that you're trying to hopefully make
a positive difference on. But you're also going to live
in different parts of the city for twenty four hours
and you really do get to know the city and
(05:40):
you at that point, I really did see true poverty
and and appreciated more of everything that I had growing
up and what my parents and neighbors and friends were
willing to do for me as a kid. And I
think that's really stuck with me my whole public service
as a firefighter, teaching at you and O also serving
(06:00):
for eight years, that there's so many people out there
that don't have the opportunities, and we want to make
sure that you know, again, government sometimes should plow the way.
Sometimes government should get out of the way, but also
we should try to remove any unfair as many unfair
hurdles as possible for people to be the best version
of themselves and run their race.
Speaker 1 (06:19):
Mike McDonald joining us here a mayoral candidate here in
the city of Omaha. I know you were in charge
also of the fire union. It's kind of interesting that
the fire chief and the police union, or the police
chief and the police union here in Omaha kind of
have different endorsements for this race. And then of course
your political history deciding to get into public service in
a different way by serving in the unicamerals. So for
(06:40):
people who might be confused about kind of what your
role was as the fire union president, and then what
kind of led to your transition into more traditional politics,
what do you tell people about that kind of transition
for yourself.
Speaker 2 (06:54):
Oh, and yeah, all aspects of public service has been
very rewarding for me. And you look at right now
the endorsement we've received from the Fire Union, the seven
hundred men and women of the Fire Union, and the
Oma Police Officers Associate, the eight hundred men and women
that put on their uniform and badge every day to
go out and protect us. And then just recently the
(07:15):
endorsement of the of the Douglas County Republican Party that
we received on Tuesday night. I've met so many great
people through this process and I'm so it's motivating and
humbling for how many people have stepped forward to help
our campaign, you know, with their time, talent, and treasury.
And I felt that as a firefighter when I first
was hired in nineteen eighty nine, as a firefighter, at
(07:37):
every rank I held as a firefighter all the way
up to fire chief and also serving as union president,
it was always about first public safety and what we
could do for the public and how do you make
a dangerous job safer. As I mentioned earlier, it's about
the right number of people, It's about training, equipment, and technology,
and the better you can do that job, the better
outcome it's going to be for the citizens that are
(07:59):
calling nine to one one in some of the worst
moments of their life, or their family's life, or neighbor's life.
And so having an opportunity to come in there and
again work as a team on every level of the
fire department, and also have a chance to represent the
fire union and then again represent the people of Nebraska
as a state center to then recently earn the firefighters
(08:19):
and police officers, the men and women that are out
there doing the work every day, their endorsement, and then
just recently the Douglas County Republican Party's endorsement on Tuesdays.
This has been a great four months. I've learned so much,
and I've met so many great people, and so many
people have come forward with their ideas, concerns and criticisms.
And there's an old saying, if you're pleasing everyone, you're
lying to someone. So we're not going to always agree,
(08:40):
but we can we can disagree without becoming disagreeable. But
it's not about me, and that's what our Campaign's not
about me. It's about we. It's about this is about
our city and what do we want to have our
city look like for the current generation and the next generation.
Speaker 1 (08:54):
When it came to I'm speaking with Mike McDonald here, mayor,
old candidate, and I wish I could dig into this
a little deeper. I'm going to go to the streetcar
now and then we'll talk maybe a little bit about
the politics. I just want to make sure we have
ample time for your side of this. I see the
big signs. You're really, you know, nailing the streetcar on
your signage, you know, stop the streetcar, and that is
(09:14):
a thing that a lot of people are either confused
about or they just don't quite understand the project. And
you've made it clear that the voice of the people
just has not been heard on this. So from your angle,
what is at this juncture the right thing to do
with the streetcar as it pertains to what you can
do as maybe the mayor of Omaha.
Speaker 2 (09:34):
If you elect me as mayor. The first thing I'm
going to do is let the people vote on the streetcar. Now.
I believe seventy plus percent of the people I've talked
to do not want the streetcar. And I'm for public transportation,
but I think it should be for the public. It
should be for going to work, going to school, going
to get the groceries, going to see the doctor. So
I think that's what we should approach public public transportation.
(09:54):
But with the idea of spending a half a billion
dollars on one hundred and fifty year old technology. I
agree with State Auditor Mike Foley when he said this
is going to be the largest diversion of property tax
dollars in the history of Nebraska, and it's going to
be anything but free for the taxpayers of Omaha that
they think about that. I'm not opposed to tax incremental financing,
and I voted to move it from fifteen years to
(10:15):
twenty years based on blighted versus extremely blighted. But if
you think about that tax incremental financing, it's an increase
in your taxes, and that's what we're doing. We're taking
that dollar and instead of spending it on Now the
base dollar continues to stay there and that goes towards
schools and public safety and roads, but the other dollar
goes towards paying off that project. I think we can
(10:35):
do better. We have four five hundred miles of roads
in the city of Omaha. We're going to spend more
on a street car than the Mayor Stoders has spent
in the last twelve years repairing our roads on the
four five hundred miles of roads. And then right now
you look at where we've gone with the budget. Mayor
Stoder's budget went up in her Mayor's office budget by
(10:56):
forty percent. The overall budget went up by eleven point three.
When we're about eight years on appropriations. We said we're
going to keep spending at three, and we kept it
at three. We have double digitspan. We have a spending
problem in the City of Omaha right now. And the
amount of dollars that actually we've gone up in the
last three years of four hundred and sixty four million dollars,
our budget's gone up, and we're going to spend another
(11:18):
half a billion dollars on the street car that I
don't think is going to be successful. Again. I want
to look at technology, I want to look at the
future and how we're going to move our people around
with public transportation in our city. But I think this
is a mistake and we're digging a financial hole for
the citizens of Omah, for this generation in the next.
And there's an old saying, if you're digging a hole,
stop digging. And I think we have to let the
(11:38):
people vote now. If I'm wrong and the people of
Oma say no, we really want this street car, I'll
work night and day to make it successful. But I
don't believe this is the direction the people of Omah
want to go, and I want to hear their voice
at the ballot box.
Speaker 1 (11:50):
What's interesting about this is we had Mayor south on
and she said it's so far down the line at
this point that it would also it would be more
detrimental to end it. And it's something that was echoed
by John Youing earlier. I have had people in my
email and my inbox kind of mentioned what would be
the plan if we stopped it at this point? If
that's the case, what would be the plan if you
(12:10):
are able to get that vote, and then you have
the opinion vote people say they don't want the streetcar,
what would then be kind of the next steps of
action on that front.
Speaker 2 (12:19):
So, yeah, if the people chose to not to vote
against the street crew, first thing we would do is
look at all nineteen contracts. And I've got experience negotiating
contracts and the idea of actually honoring that labor that's
been done. For example, the Harney Street Bridge, that labor
is being done, and we're going to honor that that dollar.
But for the second dollar, based on the labor that
(12:39):
hasn't been done, we can change the scope of the contract.
Think about that, we're going to spend the half a
billion dollars on three miles of the city of Omaha,
where we have forty five hundred miles for example, Skyline Ranches.
Look what's going on right now, right now out there
with their streets. We could look at some of these
contracts and say, you're not no longer going to be
putting track down in this area because the peace people spoke,
(13:01):
but we are going to go ahead and give you
work and we're going to finally get our streets repaired
up to where they should be. And that hasn't been
going on for the last twelve years. So the idea
of honoring a contract and labor done. We're always going
to honor a legally binding contract, but there's also ways
to change the scope and language of a contract where
people still have that ability to get a contract and
do work. It just might be different work. Instead of
(13:22):
concentrate on three miles of the city, We're going to
concentrate on all forty five hundred miles and repair the
roads like they should be. So I believe where there's
a will, there's a way, and also I have the ability.
So right now, I don't think Mayor Stother definitely has
the will, and I don't think she has the ability
to negotiate out of those nineteen contracts. I think if
you elect me as your next mayor, I will get
the job done.
Speaker 1 (13:43):
There's definitely a lot of moving parts with that, in
certainly Tuesdays the first of those. You want people in
the city of Omaha to be is well informed as
possible before they narrow this race down to two candidates.
Sixty seconds, Mike McDonald, what would you want the voters
who are listening to our show today to know about
your candidacy and why you should be the next mayor
of this city.
Speaker 2 (14:03):
This campaign is not about me, It's about we. It's
about your ideas, concerns, and criticisms, and we're listening, We're
working hard, and we're going to tell you the truth.
It's about public safety always number one. It's about your
tax dollar, and we have to make sure we're more
transparent with your tax dollars. And I think you know,
as a legislator, I introduced we're not only talking about
the streetcar. Any project over eighty million dollars should be
(14:25):
voted on by the people. Now Prior to that, a
lower amount should be voted by the legislative branch of
the city council. But if you elect me as your mayor,
we're not going to do things the way we've been
doing though. We're going to concentrate on the core of
the city. That's public safeties, treats, garbage parks, and affordable housing.
And we're going to take that core mission seriously. Now.
I want people to dream big, and I want to
dream big, but we have to fix our foundation of
(14:46):
our city first and get things back in order and
make sure that we're listening to the taxpayers because it
is their money, it's not our money. We're going to
make sure that they have a voice in that process
and we want them to dream big, but also we
want to make sure that you perform the basics of
city government and we control spending every day. That's why
we're going to zero out the budget. The first day,
(15:06):
I'm I'm mayor of Omaha. If you elect me, I
we're gonna do performance space budget and I'm gonna cut
the mayor's budget in half because she increased at forty
percent this last year. And I'm going to reduce the
mayor's salary by ten percent to show leadership amongst elected officials.
And I'm going to ask every one of the department heads.
We're going to start doing performance space budgeing. We're gonna
measure every dollar and we're going to let the citizens
(15:26):
know how their money is being spent. And we're gonna
always concentrate on public safety, streets, garbage parks, and affordable housing.
Speaker 1 (15:33):
Mike McDonald he is a candidate for mayor and the
primary is next Tuesday, April the first, Sarah, thank you
so much for coming in and sharing this with me.
Good luck, and if we get past Tuesday, we might
be seeing and talking to you again.
Speaker 2 (15:44):
Thank you for the invitation. I appreciate it. And d
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