Lincoln City Council candidate profile: Wayne Reinwald

LINCOLN, Neb. (KOLN) - The election to fill the Lincoln City Council District 4 seat representing downtown and northwest Lincoln, will be among four people in the April 4 primary. Democrats Kay Siebler, Brodey B. Weber and Maggie Mae Squires will appear alongside Republican Wayne Reinwald.

Two candidates will advance to the May 2 general election. The winner will fill the seat of council chair Tammy Ward, who declined to run for a second term.

10/11 NOW sent a questionnaire to all candidates and we did not edit responses. Read Wayne Reinwald’s below and view other candidate profiles here.

Occupation: Retired

Public Service History: This is my first time running for public office. I have been president of my HOA and currently serve on the board.

Briefly explain why you’re running for Lincoln City Council. I am running for three main reasons. The first reason is to increase public safety. Crime is a big issue in the 4th District (northwest Lincoln) and we need more police officers to deal with it. The second reason is to make city government more responsive to the citizens’ needs. The third reason is to improve our streets and roads to make transportation easier and safer for citizens and businesses.

As a city council member, you’ll be tasked with approving a city budget. Explain any experience you have handling budgets. What are your priorities when it comes to budget negotiations and how do you achieve them? We need to set priorities to deal with the City’s needs and not necessarily “wants.” I worked in sales for several years and know how to work well with people. Public safety and streets will be priorities.

What can be done by the city council to improve housing affordability? One thing we can do is study our regulations and determine if there is a bigger regulatory burden in Lincoln for builders of new houses. If we can pare down some unnecessary regulations on builders that could help reduce the cost of housing.

What are your thoughts on using Tax Increment Financing (TIF) for development? In certain instances TIF is an appropriate development tool and necessary for some projects to move forward. There have been some questionable uses of TIF where it may not have been necessary to use to complete a project, but it should be available as a development tool.

How should Lincoln work to attract new business and support and increase the number of small businesses? Lowering the tax burden and lessening regulations would help bring new businesses to Lincoln. We also need to develop an available workforce to make sure our city can provide employees for new businesses

When should Lincoln’s COVID-19 health emergency expire? I think it could have expired quite a while ago when the number of cases dropped way down. Certainly it should expire when the federal government declares its emergency will end.

Would you support an LGBTQ fairness ordinance ballot initiative? I think it should be voted on by the citizens of Lincoln.

A handful of Nebraska municipalities have outlawed abortion by local ordinance. Would you support a such a move in Lincoln? It is my understanding that state law supersedes local law on issues such as this, so this is a state issue in my view.

Copyright 2023 KOLN. All rights reserved.