page 4
daily ncbreskcn
monday, march 7, 1977
Boosalis should study
city, county labyrinth
Last Friday it was reported that City Councilman Bob
Sikyta was being removed from the Community Develop
ment Task Force because of his attendance record. You
may recall that last week I wrote about some problems
caused by Sikyta's membership to the Task Force.
My point last week was that giving Federal Community
Development Grant money to Havelock was like going to
a store and giving a salesclerk money without telling him
what you want. Sikyta supported funding Havelock a
hefty $350,000. Sikyta is a Havelock businessman. I
thought that it was a shame Sikyta, a fiscal conservative,
didn't allow his fiscal philosophy to conflict with his self
interest. Y
1 dredge this muck up again simply to suggest that
Mayor Helen Boosalis should not reappoint Sikyta to the
Task Force. In fact, Mayor Boosalis probably would be
wise to consider not appointing any member of the City
Council to the Task Force. If Sikyta took advantage of his
position to get his way, might not another member of the
council do likewise? Probably not, but this question raises
a point I would like to make.
Long, careful look
I think it is time Mayor Boosalis took a long, careful,
and complete look at the labyrinth of boards, commis
sions and committees associated with Lincoln and lan
caster County government. There are 48 such groups,
according to a December 1975 bulletin from the Govern
mental Research Institute. Approximately 500 positions
are open to citizens to serve on these groups.
Almost all of these positions are filled by appointments
from the mayor, the City Council, or both. These groups
exist to facilitate broader citizen involvement in the local
governmental decision-making processes. Some of these
groups have great power, others have almost none.
I favor involving citizens in governmental decision
making processes, but some serious questions should be
raised about the membership, power, and accountability
of this multitude of citizen advisory and administrative
boards.
Questions to be answered
Should members of the City Council be allowed to
serve on any of these groups? Are the citizens who serve
on these groups a cross-representation of the citizens of
Lincoln? Is membership on these groups dominated by a
small group of people who share a community of in
terests? What is the performance of the citizens who serve
on the . groups? Do they attend? Do they do their home
work? Di they have a conflict of interest? Should the
concept of a conflict of interest be broadened so as to
better serve the public interest? Does the existence of so
many groups decentralize decision-making so that Lin
coln is run by a government of commissions and commit
tees? I can see it now. The formation of an Advisory Com
mittee to Investigate Advisory Committees. Oh Well.
Another issue which more directly involves students is
a problem that has pinched many a student's pocketbook.
Where is our BEOG money? BEOG is the Basic Edu
cational Opportunity Grant, a federal student aid pro
gram. Don Macke, and some fellow students, raised this
issue. .
According to Macke, in the last part of December, the
US. Department of Health, Education and Welfare trans
fers to state treasurers, funds for the BEOG program. In
early January the state treasurer transfers the appropriate
funds to universities and colleges in the state. Two or
three weeks after receiving the funds from the state
treasurer, a college or university distributes BEOG money
to the student recipients. That would be in late January.
That, supposedly, is the way the BEOG program
operates. That is how the BEOG program worked this
year at Kearney State. That is not how the BEOG
program worked this year at UNL. UNL students still have
not received their BEOG money this semester. That is a
delay of well over a month. Where is our BEOG money?
Students have been put in a bad financial situation be
cause of this delay. Some students have been delinquent
on paying their rent, others have had to borrow money,
from roommates to pay their bills. At 1 1 30 this Wed
nesday in the Nebraska Union Colonial Room there will ,
be a meeting to discuss this problem. Stop by if you have
been 'asking yourself, where is our BEOG money? It's
time we got some answers.
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Arthur Hooso
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Water, water everywhere for a price
Out here in the West where men are men and persons
are persons we have been grimly enduring shortages of
not only energy and coffee, but water as well.
It was only a question of time before we began to
crack. The first to go was Milton Haberdash. For 27 days
in a row, Haberdash arose in his frigid house to face
another chilly day without benefit of a cup of coffee or a
hot shower.
After listening to the usual news on the radio while
riding to work in his five-man car pool at 6 a.m., he sat
down at the office and with a strange look in his eye
composed the following letter:
Dear President Carter: As you know, the big utilities
companies are sitting on vast deposits of natural water
innocent bystander
waiting for the price to climb sky-high so they can make a
killing off the thirst of little children.
Water stored
I personally have been told that our local water
company has more than 323 billion gallons of water
stored behind the Leona B. Fritchee Dam in the high
Sierra which it refuses in its greed to put on the market.
(This is enough to fuel an average-sized steam iron for
23,242 miles!)
Oh, I've heard the flimsy excuses given by officials
of the Water Producing and Exporting Counties (WPEC)
cartel for this shortage that's driving prices up. But
nobody's falling for the patently bogus story that a big
freeze at the higher elevations has made their current
crop of mountain-grown water undeliverable.
And I've watched dozens of those slick television
commercials in which the big corporations show off
their giant new million-dollar dowsing rods and tell me
they're doing their utmost to discover new sources of
water for me. Hogwash!
But what bothers me most, Mr. President, is that I've
done everything a good citizen should in this crisis. I
turned down the thermostat on my hot water heater
to 65 degrees; I stopped every drip coffee pot in the house
from dripping; I bought a new compact washing machine
that gets 24 socks to the gallon; and in the evening I
boycott water in favor of an alternative supply of liquid
which, I must say, makes me feel much better.
Self-sufficient -
I don't even ask what happened to "Project Independ
ence." Remember that? Mr. Nixon vowed to make
America self-sufficient when it came to water so that we'd
never have to knuckle under to a bunch of bearded
heathen. Hah!
And now, after all my sacrifices, I find the grasping
water, barons have been holding back vast reservoirs of
natural water to put the squeeze on us consumers. And
what did you have to say about that, Mr. President? You
told a press conference that this was certainly "under
standable." -
Well, all I can say is. . is. . is. . .
Haberdash's letter tapers off at this point. Doctors
at The Daffodil Dell Happy Farm say he should recover
fully in a warm room after a cup of coffee and a hot
shower. We jly piay that some day this cure will be
found.
(Copyright Chronic! Publishing Co. 1377)
UJ SEGNO THOUGHT... J
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