City Council members concerned about overly broad language blocked an amendment aimed at modernizing the city's protocol for who leads Lincoln when the mayor leaves town.
As proposed, the charter amendment would have only mandated an acting mayor be appointed when the elected mayor was unable to serve, not just out of town.
The current charter language dates back to a time when people traveled by train, but Lincoln's mayor now can sign documents electronically and can easily be reached via cellphone while away, city administrative officials said.Â
Don Stading, who chairs the city's Charter Revision Commission, said the group recommended the change to align with technological realities.Â
"With today's cellphones and automobiles and everything like this, to go to Seward doesn't necessarily put you out of connection to be able to perform and make a decision on behalf of the city," Stading said.Â
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Jennifer Brinkman, the mayor's chief of staff, said earlier this month charter language doesn't specify what the protocol is.Â
In the charter, the chair of the City Council becomes acting mayor.Â
Councilwoman Tammy Ward sought a delay of the vote because she wanted more clarity upfront about what "unable to serve" meant.Â
Her experience working in the governor's office impressed on her the importance of having a clear chain of command, particularly in times of crisis when the "CEO of any level of government is out of town," Ward said.
She couldn't delay the vote, City Attorney Jeff Kirkpatrick said, because Monday's meeting marked the last opportunity the council could forward the change in time to be printed on the May 7 primary ballot.
"There’s not an abuse that calls for it to be placed on the electorate," Kirkpatrick said.
The commission could consider letting voters during the November general election decide the question.
Only Councilmen Roy Christensen and Bennie Shobe voted to put the amendment on the ballot.Â
The defeated proposal would have also made the charter section on the role of acting mayor gender-neutral by replacing references to the council chairman with council chair.
But the council unanimously advanced two other charter amendments Monday.
One proposal simply cleans up a typo and the other increases the threshold requiring bids for city purchases from $25,000 to $50,000. The change accounts for inflation and aligns with the purchasing rules used by the state, University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Lancaster County.