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.
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