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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 28, 1977)
daily nebraskan monday, february 28, 1977 page 4 NU card house stacking .up slowly After last semester's exodus of ?U and UN L administrators, UNL finally can balance one more card on the card house that previously seemed to be tumbling. Richard Armstrong, the search committee's choice for UNL vice chancellor for student affairs, will anchor one of the many university positions in limbo. We won't say that he's filling a void , though, because acting vice chancellor Ron Gjerhan temporarily filled the position with dedication and the needed ability. The choice of Armstrong poses more questions about last semester's stream of resignations. At that time, some speculated that administrators were resigning because UNL Chancellor Roy Young wanted his own team. Maybe this shows Young found some talen en the second string. Meanwhile, several university positions remain open. To name a few, acting and interim admin istrators are filling in the posts of NU president, UNL dean of student development, UNL business manager, UNL vice chancellor for academic affairs and University of Nebraska Medical Center chancellor. We echo the sentiments of regents chairman Robert Simmons that the selection process was too long. ' "The office should not have been vacant so long," Simmons said. Perhaps this decision will spur the other selec tion committees into filling those administrative positions that currently are filled by men who do not know how much authority they wield in their temporary capacity. TWlEST, CCMM1E FANAT1C CASTHO r & 1 DEMOCfcACV- LOVING, JOKE-CRACKING, wsE8Au.-iuYir4G Fidel Arthur Hepps Will the real Fidel please stand up Good news from Cuba! It looks like that power-mad, bloodthirsty, Commie fanatic Castro is on his way out. He will be replaced, of course, by our friend, democracy loving, joke-cracking, baseball-playing Fidel. You remunber Fidel. We first met him in the pages of Life magazine in the 1950s. He was holed up in the mountains of Cuba with his band of merry men, taking from the rich to give to the poor and fighting to free the downtrodden peasants from the tyranny of that awful dictator; Batista. Oh, how delighted we were in January of 1959 when brave, young Fidel marched triumphantly into Havana innocent bystander Cuba was liberated at last. A new era of peace, friendship and Good Neighborliness had dawned. Unfortunately, it lasted less than a year. By 1960, kind friendly, lovable Fidel had mysterious ly vanished from the corridors of power. Whether he had been exiled or jailed we never knew. But it was to be years before we were to hear his name again. Castro replaces Fidel His place was usurped by that devious, bearded, half crazed tyrant, Castro. We knew it was he the moment he expropriated more than SI billion worth of our property without so much as a by-your-leave. Not only did this fiend in human form sit around plotting the takeover of South America, North America and all the ships at sea, but he moved the entire island of Cuba to within only 90 miles of our shores! . Nor was this as easy as it sounds. For by then ruba had grown to be larger than the United States. And there were its millions of brainwashed troops poised to overrun us in human wave attacks! ' Fortunately, President Kennedy saw the threat in time and sent 1,400 Cuban refugees to the Bay of Pigs to liberate the nine million downtrodden Cuban peasants from the tyranny of that awful dictator, Castro. But crr.rMng - God knows what went wrong. Not oily did Castro ruthlessly invade our democratic beachhead at the Bay of Pigs, but he actually accepted Russian nrssiles with which to blow up a defenseless America By merely threatening World War III, Kennedy a able to force him to give up his missiles, shrink his island nd put it back where it belonged. Uneasy decade There it stayed for an uneasy decade. In 1973, good, old Fidel showed up again to play a little ball and sign an ? : v 'jacking treaty. So familiar was he that Ford almost recogized him two years later. "Hey"' said Ford, "isn't that..." But that sneak, Castro, saw the danger in time, got rid of Fidel and sent 20,000 troops to Angola to cleverly outflank our defenses in Florida. How Fidel escaped again, no one knows. But Carter says Fidel's going to bring those 20,000 troops back to Cuba where they won't be a threat to us and then we can be friends. If so, let's do our best this time to keep that nice Fidel in power. He's a lot better neighbor than that rat, Castro. (Copyright Chronic! Publishing Co. 1S77) BsnlYccloy ' " Lincoln officials have conflicts of interest Public officials in Lincoln are no different than any-, where else. How? They have conflicts of interest. Several years ago Councilman Richard Baker was fingered for a conflict of interest when he served on the Lincoln General Hospital Board that awarded a contract to him to establish a pharmacy in Lincoln General Hospital. Councilman Steve Cook has worked on the completion of the Lincoln Comprehensive Plan while having interest in a shopping center included in the plan. A recent City Attorney's opinion has held that unless an individual has a direct financial interest in a matter, there is no conflict of interest. That may hold true for the narrowest notion of what constitutes a conflict of inter- paved paradise est, but most people would agree that there are instances when a conflict of interest exists without a direct financial interest. I offer two examples. Four of the five members of the Lincoln Zoning Appeals Board are involved in the construction industry. The board hears applications for variances that are individual suspensions of zoning laws. The board members with ties to the construction industry often do business with the persons who apply for variances with the board. Thus their attitude often is "people should be able to do pretty much what they want." Board too willing The result is that the board grants variances much too willingly. So much so that some citizens have gone to the City Council asking them to examine the operation of the board. That was a few months ago and nothing really has been done since then. Another example of a conflict of interest unchallenged is found in the Community Development Task Force. Two City Councilmen sit on the Task Force. One of them is Councilman Bob Sikyta who owns Bryant Heating and Air Conditioning in Havelock; The .Task Force decides how to. spend the annual Federal Community Grant money Lincoln receives. . . , This year Havelock was alloted $350,000. This would be fine except many other Lincoln neighborhoods have proved a "greater need for development money. The Clinton neighborhood is especially deserving of such assistance. Clinton has received grant money in the past, but work in the neighborhood is proceeding at an agonizingly slow pace. Instead of focusing on the neighborhood and finish ing the projects begun there, the Task Force wanted to spread funding over the next three years. This would delay further the completion of neighborhood projects. Lobbied for Clinton Eric Youngberg, a member of the Task Force, opposed that action and lobbied with other Task Force members to strike money tentatively allotted to Havelock and put it into Clinton to finish what they'd begun there. Young berg gained the support of at least six members and moved to make his proposed funding change. When the vote was taken, only three persons joined Youngberg in supporting the change. . . Youngberg said afterwards, the three persons who had backed down from supporting him and several others, spoke with him and apologized. He said they told him that they supported his proposed change, but were intimi dated by (you guessed it) councilman Sikyta. These sympathetic Task Force members represented agencies that had to go to the City Council for funding. To oppose Sikyta was to jeopardize their agencies funding, Young berg said he was told by those persons. Sikyta had made his position perfectly clear. His private financial interests in Havelock did not stop him in the least from speaking out in strong support for funding Havelock a hefty $350,000. Youngberg points out that a needs study for Havelock has not been completed. By following Sikyta, lhe"Task Force in effect said "use this money to study the needs of Havelock and imple ment your recommendations." Most consultants would not find such a situation difficult. f VtU.t.1 TOOTS MATS A Dm? UkE f YOU W A h'lCS t rolph ' "'JF J " i ij j 1 7011 PCX'S IV R fJICE I 5 ikLA4 Mad m ?4J i T
