2 weeks Ago
Not long ago, Bennie Shobe attended an open house on road improvements and ran into an area resident he’d met about five years earlier at a different public meeting. The man is a lifelong Republican — unlike Shobe, a Democrat seeking his third term as an at-large member of the City Council — and now, every time they run into each other, they have a conversation, Shobe said. At the latest meeting, that lifelong Republican asked if he could put one of Shobe’s campaign signs in his yard.
Shobe said he’s proud of that — and that he goes to at least one community event a day, where he meets new people with differing views. “I’ve built a lot of friends on both sides of most issues, and I’ve learned from them, and I bring that to the conversation every time,” said Shobe, 64. People are also reading.
.. Authorities identify 3 men who died in small plane crash in Platte River near Fremont Lincoln police investigating assault of 17-year-old girl after fender bender Matt Rhule explains why punter Jack McCallister left; Husker Games to include 'live football' At defamation trial, Nebraska GOP defends flyers in heated 2020 legislative race Nebraska faculty call for 'mutual academic defense compact' among Big Ten members 63-year-old man dies in northeast Lincoln in early morning crash As many as 6 tornadoes touched down in eastern Nebraska and Iowa, leaving damage Boys basketball: The Journal Star's Super-State, all-state and honorable mentions from '24-25 Southeast Nebraska city without any electrical workers after linemen quit en masse 'She's going to win this thing': Lincoln's Jadyn Olesen advances to playoffs on 'The Voice' New downtown Lincoln bar trying a bit of everything to fill gaps on O Street Nebraska State Patrol arrests man for alleged sexual assault of fellow inmate 'A lot of work' still remains for Lincoln Public Schools shared athletic sites Beaver Crossing man jailed on suspicion of attempted sexual assault of a child 2 arrested after nearly $1 million worth of fentanyl pills seized in Lincoln First elected in 2017 to one of three at-large seats on the council, Shobe said the reason he wants to run for a third term isn’t much different than it was eight years ago.
“I still think there’s a disconnect between people who live in our community and how the city government functions and what it does,” he said. “I’m finishing my eighth year and I’ve gained a better handle on how to make those things work.” He’s got a better relationship with department heads, he said, and he’s learned how to work better with the mayor and how to be more proactive.
“When someone from the public asks me a question, I know who to go to to get the correct answer." On May 6, voters will choose three at-large City Council members from among six candidates. The three incumbents are running and were the top vote-getters in the April 8 primary.
They are Democrats who help make up a 6-1 Democrat majority on the officially nonpartisan council, which also has four members chosen by districts. Their challengers are all Republicans. Because the council is a nonpartisan office, no party labels appear on the ballot, though the two parties do recruit and support candidates.
Council members serve four-year terms and are paid $24,000 a year. Here's who is running and the votes they received in the April 8 primary: The incumbents: Sändra Washington (22,495), seeking her second full term after being appointed to fill an at-large seat in 2019; Tom Beckius (21,787), seeking a second term; and Bennie Shobe (20,085), seeking a third term. The challengers : Jerry Shoecraft (19,269), who served two terms as an at-large member on the City Council in the 1990s; Stan Parker (18,311), who made an unsuccessful bid for mayor in 2022; Maher Aurang Zeb (6,666), who ran for an at-large council seat in 2021 and for Lincoln Airport Authority in 2019.
To read profiles of the other candidates and more election coverage, see Journalstar.com . Given that Lincoln has a strong mayoral form of government, he’s learned that when he wants to get something accomplished, it’s best to start with the mayor, find out if her office is working on the issue he’s interested in, and go from there.
Trying to work collaboratively with his fellow council members and the mayor works best, he said. A native of Kentucky, Shobe moved to Nebraska in 1998 to earn his doctorate in sociology at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. He’d worked for a grocery store chain in Kentucky for 20 years and during that time earned his undergraduate and master’s degrees.
He finished his coursework but not his dissertation at UNL, taught at Doane University and landed at the Nebraska Department of Labor in 2008, where he is still a program analyst. Early on, he got involved with community organizations in Lincoln, where he began to notice that disconnect between city government and its residents — and he's spent the past eight years trying to bridge that gap, he said. He got a heat pump incentive program started for residents, an idea he got from environmental advocates.
He took the idea to the mayor, met for a few months with the advocates and city department heads and got a pilot program started. It was renewed in the latest budget. Research on changes the council recently approved to help police crack down on drivers who race down O Street and other arterials began some years ago, he said, after he had a conversation with northeast Capt.
Mayde McGuire. It took a few years, but a new city ordinance, which allows police to impound vehicles of drivers who have been cited for various offenses, was unanimously supported by the council. It was a collaborative effort, he said.
“I don’t think about the things that I’ve done,” he said. “I think about the things the city’s done.” He’s got a running list of resident concerns — 35 issues people have raised repeatedly, and he carries it with him to community meetings to update those who have questions.
The need for affordable housing is on there, he said, and he believes the city should “stay the course” on its efforts to increase affordable housing stock. A number of those projects have used tax-increment financing, a proper use of that financing tool, he said. He's interested in a low-barrier homeless shelter for those who can't or won't stay at the mission, an effort underway by the county.
He said he and the mayor couldn't come to an agreement about appropriating money during the last budget cycle, but he wants to continue working toward that. Public safety is a priority, he said. The Lincoln Police Department is working on making changes related to issues raised by discrimination and harassment lawsuits filed by several former and current police officers, he said.
Lincoln police face the same recruiting issues as departments across the country do, but increasing staffing levels at both the fire and police departments are important, he said. Lincoln police are still below the average national officer-to-population ratio. He's not yet sure how close Lincoln should come to meeting those national staffing averages because of budget constraints and other policing issues.
“My goal is to start the conversation, make sure I have good facts,” he said. He’s learned as a council member it’s best to listen, he said. “It's just good for the city and it’s kind of fun.
I like doing that. I want to keep doing that.”.
