Things to do as new Mayor:
- Offer a suspected pedophile the top job in your administration.
- Lose your first legislative issue with the new Council.
- Tell everyone how the city is going bankrupt, that taxes will be raised, that you are cutting library hours...then blow more than two grand a year more than the previous Mayor on a brand new luxury SUV to drive you around town.
Well, that's quite the agenda the new Mayor has going.
The Mayor's new press flack, Ron Penzkowski, says Mayor Jim Suttle is trying to
What's the #1 issue facing the city (arguably)? Money problems.
So what does Suttle do right out of the chute? Blow a bunch of money.
And then he pulls an Al Gore and gets the biggest freaking thing he can find, then claims he's being "fuel efficient". What Mayor, there were no more Priuses left at the dealership?
A fuel efficient SUV is right up there with hoping to lose weight by getting the Super Size Big Mac meal with a Diet Coke.
Well hey, the Mayor will now have a nice symbol of how he is handling the city's finances EVERYWHERE HE GOES.
Next?
***
By the way, sorry to those of you who were shut out of the OWH's story above because they want you to buy a copy of paper.
That seems to be their new M.O. these days -- tease you with a paragraph from their big story then tell you to go buy a copy.
Well, that's the new strategy of the NEW Omaha.com. Our friends over at the Weird Harold have a very nice summary of the OWH's other new endeavor, Omaha.com.
The Mayor's new press flack, Ron Penzkowski, says Mayor Jim Suttle is trying to
"increase awareness of the use of other forms of technology and different ways of looking at things."Well, we'll give Penzkowski that Suttle is certainly "different".
What's the #1 issue facing the city (arguably)? Money problems.
So what does Suttle do right out of the chute? Blow a bunch of money.
And then he pulls an Al Gore and gets the biggest freaking thing he can find, then claims he's being "fuel efficient". What Mayor, there were no more Priuses left at the dealership?
A fuel efficient SUV is right up there with hoping to lose weight by getting the Super Size Big Mac meal with a Diet Coke.
Well hey, the Mayor will now have a nice symbol of how he is handling the city's finances EVERYWHERE HE GOES.
Next?
***
By the way, sorry to those of you who were shut out of the OWH's story above because they want you to buy a copy of paper.
That seems to be their new M.O. these days -- tease you with a paragraph from their big story then tell you to go buy a copy.
Well, that's the new strategy of the NEW Omaha.com. Our friends over at the Weird Harold have a very nice summary of the OWH's other new endeavor, Omaha.com.
You know things like, not being able to discern the ads from the stories, killing all the old links that web sites had to the OWH site and the curious matter of picking and choosing when you can comment on a story.
I'm sure you have your own beefs.
***
And the Kim Robak for Congress flash-in-the-pan?
A no-go, says Robak (via the LJS).
I'm sure you have your own beefs.
***
And the Kim Robak for Congress flash-in-the-pan?
A no-go, says Robak (via the LJS).
“I do not have any interest in running for Congress.”That might have been interesting. (As Team Fort unclenches, just a little.)
Posts
86 comments:
What an Idiot!!! What does a Prius Lease go for? This just shows Suttle arrogance!!!
FIRST
Matt,
Funny and clever...but we're trying to run a family-friendly blog here.
Regrettably,
SS
Point taken sweeper. I think Suttle should have had a Hum-Vee. It's a better vehicle to get around the snow with.
Suttle Diving a Hum-Vee can't picture it, a Bitchin Camero would be more appropriate.
I like Hum-Vee's too!
Gary a Hum-Vee is not very green. Suttle could have gotten a good sedan that get 30mpg. Just for the record Mike Johanns drove his own car as Mayor of Lincoln.
Good for Mike Johanns. That's what I was thinking -- why should the city even have to pay for a car for the mayor?? Why can't they use their own? Especially in economic times such as these. Sheesh.
Okay, the picture of Suttle cut and pasted from his t-bird has to be one of the funniest things I have ever seen . . .
Key to Suttle's green symbolism could be possibly be found by reviewing his campaign donor list.
I assume the mayor already owned his own car. With this city's financial problem, the responsible thing to do would have been to turn down the city paid car and drive your own. But Hey, at least he is "green".
Suttle doesn't want to drive his own car because he's tired of it getting torn up with all the potholes.
It could be that Mayor Suttle really is a tone deaf moron who will only be in office 181 days before the recall effort swings into high gear...in an evironmentally friendly way.
He's never subtle about Omaha -- or spending someone else's money.
I'd have thought he'd get something a little more feminine...say a VW bug.
Or maybe this is his way of compensating.
The new OWH's layout is as awful as its content.
I am disapointed the once mighty giant has become so irrelevant and pathetic in such a short time.
It almost makes me miss the days of Harold "Andy" Anderson.
i bet you if daub won and he did what suttle did, you guys would be saying nothing
Ah, but Anon 5:44 -- you don't get it. Hal Daub wouldn't have done what Suttle did. Any of it!
Jim Suttle is the worst person in the history of the world!
Oh My Dear Lord, how can we Omahans survive this man?
Jim Suttle will increase the cancer rates, drop a nuclear bomb, lead Omaha into a depression.
Thanks Leavenworth for showing us..now RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!! Jim Suttle is in CHarge!!!
Query? What types of cars does Jim Suttle own? Anyone know?
When did Suttle go nuclear?
Has he been supplying Kim Jong-il, or vice versa?
Something new on the horizon?
http://suttlewatch.blogspot.com/
I love Jim Suttle!!!
That's what he said.
Looks like Omahas large construction companies (like Kewit or Hawkins) got their way with the council.
Now that Omaha can not legally insist that small, minority owned business have a bite of the pie, maybe it is better that the privately operated MECA can now hire minority owned companies if the wanted to?
What rules govern the contracts MECA will give out for the big baseball stadium downtown?
None? Got that right.
ricky from omaha
Hey Comrade Ricky: Why should the taxpayers of Omaha hire higher priced contractors because they are a minority??? How about a law that treats all small businesses the same regardless of color or gender?
Suttle Watch.....lol...lol...lol Why did he do a 4 year lease? Does Pete Festerson like driving a hybrid?
Alright, alright, please tell me that Gary Gernandt does not get to became Mayor if Suttle is recalled. The only Republican that has the slightest chance would be Thompson. I personally do not want to see a University Prof as our Mayor.
No one else has the Seniority and they sure as Hell aren't going to give it to The Chuckster!
I hope I am wrong, but I think the Council gets to decide on a recalled Mayor.
Acting Mayor is the council president until the council appoints an Interim Mayor, then the election fills the seat.
Really? REALLY, Mr. Mayor? Couldn't you keep Fahey's lease and save the additional money? You couldn't just buy a vehicle outright and saved the fifty-some percent increase in total cost over 4 years? You couldn't just be reimbursed for the offical expense and used your personal vehicle, or one owned by your campaign?
Is your green politics so important that you give up the luxury of the Aspen and the additional cash just for a hybrid?
Did you have to buy and SUV that Consumer Reports has labeled for the last several years as one of the worst vehicles to own?
You bought a vehicle from a company in bankruptcy?
Did anyone give this more than two minutes of thought?
SS, you speak of the newspaper but not its true tyrannical core.
The World Herald rewrites every opinion it prints. It calls this “editing”. Yet huge percentages of words are edited out of every signed, written opinion and editors always add their own words, sometimes dozens of words invented by the World Herald, without permission from the opinion letters' authors.
Only they aren't really authors are they? Authors are paid to write. Rather, these are citizens expressing their most cogent and personal form of written political free speech.
Yet the Omaha World Herald considers the political free speech of citizens be its private property to do with as it wishes.
We all worry about having Daub or Suttle run the city. Yet the city is under the thumb of a paper that considers itself, as all tyrants do, to be fair-minded, when in fact it is a biased monopoly that suppresses and alters the real voices of free citizens.
If you want a better Omaha, put the partisan politics on the back burner for a while and focus on how to give Omaha another newspaper. As long as the Omaha World Herald has no competition, its terrible effect will always be beyond the ability of voters to repair.
PaulR:
Interesting and some valid points but...
1) In case you haven't noticed, newspapers are going OUT of business. Don't look for any new ones (except online versions) to sprout up.
2) We will ALWAYS talk politics here on Leavenworth Street. Note that the second line of our title is "the talk of Nebraska politics". We're fairly up front about that.
Always has been and always will be politics. You are welcome here to talk about it.
SS
Anybody know how I can get into the business of leasing cars to the city of Omaha? Seriously. Getting over 60 large for a $45,000 piece of crap is very attractive to me. I would be willing to finance that POS for only $55,000, a savings to the city of Omaha of over $5000!
When did recall become a knee jerk response. Even a highly successful recall could get someone that wouldn't satisfy others. What then another recall? Why not hold the elected leaders, Osborn, Suttle or whoever, accountable. Call their offices. Send letters asking questions that are respectful and demand answers. Show up at city council meetings or gatherings to actively voice your position.
Point? Get actively involved and
use your smarts to make these people less arrogant, because Mayor Suttle isn't the first in a long list of those who have seemingly forgotten the pecking order of reprsentative government.
3rd Floor Watcher...
Suttle owns a red t-bird convertable with plates that say BRDSTER.
Thanks Insider...Hmmm a Ford V-8 T-Bird with an older calculated 17 MPG in the city (now under the new standard 15mpg) That seems like a Non-Green decision!!! Wait, when its the taxpayers money and car he can go green...Right.
Jim Suttle you are a pandering Jerk!!!!
If Suttle wants to be so green, then maybe we should too. We can recylcle him with recall petitions and ballots made of recycled paper. We'll be "leading by example".
Poly-ticks = More than one blood sucking pest.
LOL. Hadn't heard that one.
It looks like Suttle got his head out of his ass. OWH online is reporting that the payments changed and now tehy are basically identical to Fahey's car payments.
SS-
Do you know why the city leases instead of purchases the vehicle?
Is there some sort of requirement?
It does not seem to make sense to lease a vehicle for more than the value of the vehicle and not even own it at the end.
Um, Nate, except:
"Mickey Anderson, president of Baxter, said that after seeing a World-Herald article Wednesday about the lease, Baxter called the financing company to ask if other options were available."
It seems that Mayor Suttle didn't even care. It was Mickey Anderson who took it upon himself to try and save the city some money. Suttle would have stayed with the original lease if it was left up to him.
You really think Suttle is the one negotiating the lease of a car?
I'd assume this would fall under the responsibility of one of his staff members.
If anything it goes more to show that Samp (as former co-chief of staff responsible for choosing Suttle appointees to work in the administration) hired his share of idiots. Now that he's gone, maybe Suttle (or the remaining co-chief of staff) should reevaluate who is left standing and if they should be there at all.
Whoever negotiated it got taken. $1100 a month for a $45,000 car? Are you kidding me? Does a driver, free car washes, and all scheduled maintenance come with it?
I'm guessing the 24 yr old negotiated it. After all, he likely has never bought a car in his life, just being out of college and all.... Perhaps Daddy had been letting him use the family car all this time.
I'd bet the reason the lease is so high is because it is front-loading the entire cost of the vehicle so that at the end of the lease, it can be bought for a $1. It will be interesting to see if Suttle or somebody close to him gets it for a $1, once the tax-payers have paid it off for him.
I find it more likely that Suttle had it changed when he realized how bad this looked, than a car dealer, of their own idea, renegotiated a lease to get them less money.
Nate, You don't know Mickey Anderson or his family very well then, do you?
Not everyone is as dishonest as you must think. Don't take down the owner of the dealership, Suttle is the one at fault here.
So, who picked out the color? The Suttle cars always seem to be reds. I guess red is a sign of his flashiness (arrogance). And, who all gets to drive the city paid for vehicle? Do the family members? And, who pays for the insurance? The city? And, what if family members driving it has an accident - who would get sued - if it's a city owned vehicle - and the title is city owned? The city?
I mean the taxpayers !!!
And, what is it with Suttle always wanting his picture taken laying across the hood of his vehicles? Geez, I haven't seen that since back in highschool !!!
Suttle's a spend thrift alright !
Or, is that thief ?
I thought he's supposed to be a public servant (not the other way around). The public serving him !
Just wait until he feathers his nest over and over again... people may wake up. It's just his way, you can't change the stripes on a zebra !
There'll be a conflict of interest later too. He'll be wanting to build all sorts of things under contract with HDR of course, which feathers nest having retired from HDR and stock in the company.
We're probably about to watch him play this all the way out, with him coming out smelling like a rose at everybody's expense. That's just the type of person he appears to be, keep your eyes open. We've got 4 years of serving him yet !
When mayor Kookie said Omaha's headed for bankruptcy - was that a warning - that he is going to bankrupt Omaha? lol
Hey for Halloween we could all go out in costume as Mayor Suttle. Everyone would think it's a Freddy Cougar costume because they look one in the same. Has anyone else ever noticed that Suttle looks like Freddy Cougar? Ewe that's scary and put that with his crazy actions. Or will he be recalled by then?
The only good think about Suttle "feathering his nest" with HDR doing a lot of the work? HDR is a solid company with a great reputation. Maybe if they give us a volume discount they can bid to be low bid.
Nothing is more dangerous in a politican than stupidity. You can calculate for any amount of ego and ambition as long as it comes with sufficient intelligence to preserve the city that is the base of a mayor's power.
A stupid mayor is a danger to himself and the city.
Freddy Cougar! LOL!
Did he sing "Jack and Diane" before donning the fedora and striped sweater?
Freddy Cougar Mellencamp! Best thing I've read on this blog in a while.
Thanks, I needed that laugh in this trying time.
Hey 1:49 - I think it's a photoshop picture. You can see the fuzzy outlines and everything. You might want to get your eyes checked.
I think they meant Freddy Krueger from Nightmare on Elm Street.
FYI,
It is indeed a Photoshopped pic.
From the one of him laying (or is it "lying"?) across the T-Bird.
-SS
Yaaaaaawwwwwwwwnnnnnnnnn.
Alright already! We get it! Jim Suttle got elected as Mayor of Omaha and some of you are pissed about it. Life goes on.
Sweeper! Isn't there ANYTHING going on in Nebraska that you can use to change the topic. LS is starting to be like a broken record. The same hatred spewed over, and over, and over, and over, and over . . .
Leavenworth Blog: Jim Suttle is human.
Jim Suttle is Mayor for the next four years.
I am sure he will do some good and some bad things. Hold him accountable for the bad and praise him for the good.
Your life will be fine either way.
Stop the name calling and personal attacks.
Don't bitch at Sweeper anonymous, the guys at Suttle Watch are beating up your boy...lol
What is a Suttle Watch? Is it contagious?
Of course, in the OWH yesterday, the heads of the local Democrats were already trying to tamp down expectations of Suttle. Look, only Suttle thought he was the end-all and be-all of Omaha, but trying to spin his dismal performance on the lack of his two top advisors? Give me a break. Suttle looks mature enough to know how to run something. If he can't do it, then the fault is on him. Quit trying to make excuses.
That Suttle Watch blog is funny. Not as good as Sweepers!!!!
So is Suttle Watch a Festerson or Vokal site???
Interesting that Don Walton called Suttle a "wounded" mayor in his column this a.m. Hmmm...
Pete Festersen vs Jim Vokal for Mayor in 2012
Why not Pete Festersen vs Jim Vokal in early 2010?
Deb Suttle vs Maxine Moul???
I'll put 10 dollars on Maxine!!
If it's a dishonesty contest, my money is on Deb.
Deb Suttle and Maxine Moul.....lol...lol...lol
WOUNDED....lol Our mayor is politically wounded. 9 days in office and he is toast
Get this--the Democrats have come up with their first crack at health care reform. CBO says it would cost $1 trillion over 10 years. Of the 46 million now uninsured, 30 million will still be uninsured even when it is fully implemented. Nice program. Maybe that's one reason Robak is taking a pass at running for Congress as a Democrat.
When did the city council approve the contract (lease) for Suttle's new ride? Seriously, the city council must approve all contracts by the city.
Also, I challenge anyone to find any justification for the city providing the mayor with his own car.
Do we know how much Oltman makes yet?
The tax payers deserve answers.
That's what I asked a couple of days ago -- WHY do we have to buy the mayor a new car? Why can't he drive his own? I suppose we could reimburse him for mileage or something if he's on official business, but a brand new suv??
Suttle's car is all about liability. You don't want your mayor to be personally liable if something happens on the road. That's why Fahey always had a driver on official business. It's cheaper to buy the car and provide a driver than it is to allow your mayor to be sued if something goes wrong. Calm down people - and try to worry about something that matters.
Worry about something that matters? He's never given us anything of substance to "worry about." All through his campaign and now the first how ever many days of his Administration, we've got nothin'! He won't tell us what he wants to do, plans to do, etc. He just gives us "little things" like the car and Matt Samp to talk about.
Worry about something that matters? We have a huge shortfall and Suttle needs a NEW SUV on our dime? We are going to ask police and fire to drive their units for a few extra years to save replacement costs...and suttle needs a new SUV?
Then there is the matter of by-passing the city charter by NOT having the council appove the contract (lease). What other matters is he by-passing our elected representatives and ignoring the city charter? Staff payroll maybe???
Why does the new SUV come from the general fund, and not the mayor's budget? Where is the accountability??
Suttle has realized he can take money from the general fund to pay for mayoral items and no one will ever know about where the funds are actually going.
There should be a complete disclosure and accounting for every last dime going to Suttle's staff.
The Suttle/SUV centerfold is yawnful. What we need is a good old fashioned in-the-street protest like the Iranian people.
Let the payoffs begin...
The city has an interest in seeing the Crossroads mall property redeveoped by a public/private partnership as a mixed use development consistent with the city's master plan.
How about letting the private sector decide what to do with private property instead of the local pols tapping the taxpayers again to benefit their construction/developer/union contributors??? Think Pete Festersen and look at his campaign's finance reports...then you'll understand why this is an "issue" now.
SS
Blah, Blah, Blah:
This site is getting extremely boring and I am loosing the fun and interest with it, now I may have to get a real life...
Thanks Alot !!!
Yeah, Pete Festersen for MAYOR, I would imagine John Lund would agree
Let's go for it !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Or, better yet John Lund for Mayor
I do know he would be more knowledgeable of Omaha, business WISE, plus CABABLE, easily moreso than Suttle. Actually, who is Suttle??? And, where did he come from??? Nowhere's ville!!! And, I know that sounds DUMB, BUT, no dumber than HIS campaigns!!!!!!!!
Just think about it. It's an easy answer. John Lund for Mayor !!!!
A mastered man that know business and Omaha, who better could we have to run the city. He does basically anyway. And, he may refuse but here goes:
I, nominate, John Lund, as our Mayor, he is abviously capable of bringing Omaha up to our potential.
i think the mayor should work with MUD and put in the natty gas converter in a honda civic/accord. that'll save on gas and set a good example for the rest of us to follow...
Post a Comment