Fall and rise
Boyle says mayoral
twilight has sunny side
By Jen Deselms
Senior Editor
Mike Boyle says he docsn’t dwell on the
past.
The desk in his law office at Merrill
Lynch Plaza is cluttered with the business at
hand. Only a few items remain from his time as
mayor.
A trophy from the Annual City-County Golf
Championship sits on a shell near the window,
along with several volumes of Revised Statutes
of Nebraska.
And on the wall in front of his desk, along
with his diplomas from Creighton University,
hangs a certificate inducting Mayor Mike
Boyle into the mythical Great Nebraska Navy.
It’s not much to mark one of the longest and
most controversial mayoral reigns in Omaha
history —just a few trinkets.
And yet it was just slightly more than a year
ago that Boyle was ousted from office in the
city’s first successful recall... a nasty fight,
packed with charges and countercharges.
Boyle’s opponents listed a litany of of
fenses:
• A butler-throwing incident with thcn-Gov.
Bob Kerrey.
• The arrest of two of the mayor’s sons, along
with two other youths, on suspicion of solicit
ing prostitutes.
• Accusations that Boyle warned his brother-in
law of an FBI gambling probe.
• A bevy of what were termed arbitrary City
Hall firings.
• Thinly veiled rumors about a drinking prob
lem.
May 12,1981 — Boyle defeats Veys for
mayor.
June8,1981 — Boyle takes office.
Oct. 20,1984 — Boyle suffers near-fatal
heart attack.
May 14, 1985 — Boyle defeats former
police lieutenant Bill Krejci in re-elec
tion bid.
Oct. 3, 1986 — Boyle fires Police Chief
Wadman.
Dec. 9,1986 — Police Union votes to buy
ad supporting Boyle in recall election.
Jan. 13,1987 — Boyle recalled by a vote
of 55,334 to 42,974.
Jan. 26,1987 — Boyle leaves office.
March 25,1987 — Judge rules Wadman
should be reinstated.
Tom Lauder/Daily Nebraskan
Not only were Boyle’s actions inappropri
ate, opponents said, but the mayor’s response to
any criticism was growing increasingly arro
gant, almost king-like.
Boyle says the charges were exaggerated.
They stemmed mostly from a misunderstand
ing of his brand of humor, he says, and were
unfairly reported by the local media, especially
the Omaha World-Herald.
And, he says, critics overlooked the accom
plishments of his administration — great im
provement in fire and police protection and
oincr saiety measures, Dcttcr street mainte
nance and a revitalized downtown.
Omahans listened to both sides, and on
Jan. 13, 1987, by a vote of 55,334 to
42,974, turned Boyle out of office.
Still, Boyle says he’s not bitter.
“I really believe in democracy,” he says,
“but I’m not always happy with the way things
turn out sometimes.” A youthful smile tugs at
his lips and then vanishes — hinting at why
some had called him “the boy mayor.”
But at 37, Boyle was no newcomer to poli
tics when he defeated incumbent A1 Vcys by
1,592 votes in the 1981 mayoral race. He had
served as president of Douglas County Young
Democrats, chief deputy to the Douglas County
Election Commissioner and election commis
sioner, the position fronr; which he resigned to
run for mayor.
Boyle says he’s not sure when he first be
came interested in politics but remembers put
ting that interest to work, helping put up yard
signs for local candidates.
And as a student at Omaha Cathedral High
School, Boyle was intrigued by John F. Ken
nedy — not only because they shared the same
religion but also because of their Irish heritage.
Much of the encouragement to run for mayor
came from Boyle’s wife of 23 years, Anne, and
her father, Sam Howell, longtime Douglas
County treasurer.
“My wife’s probably the biggest one — the
biggest influence,” Boyle says. “She’s not a
Nancy Reagan type or anything... she’s very
bright and she’s a good politician and hard
working and all the rest. She’s just a really good
pol itical operative. She knows what’s going on.
“It really is helpful to have, you know, a
spouse that supports what you’re doing regard
less of what it is.”
His wife’s support remained just as impor
tant, if not more, during the recall.
Anne Boyle says she encouraged her hus
band to run for office against Veys in 1981
because of his creativity, his good mind and his
“never say never” attitude.
And more than a year into his second term,
when the recall petition gained the required
signatures, she encouraged him again.
“It was something we discussed and mutu
ally agreed upon,” she says. “It was the right
thing to do.”
If her husband hadn’t run, she says, the
family and Omaha’s citizens always would
have wondered what the outcome would have
been.
She continues to believe in her husband —
in his ideas and in the good things he brought
to Omaha’s government.
Boyle says city management requires atten
tion to details. But often his intensity annoyed
city employees.
For example, when Boyle wenton business
trips he took a computer with him so he
could communicate with officials in
Omaha. At night, when he couldn’t sleep, he
would type memos that were ready and waiting
when employees came into work.
If he was driving down an Omaha street and
saw a chuckhole, he would call it in, expecting
it to be repaired within 24 hours.
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about it — absolutely drove them nuts,” he
says. ‘‘It can be seen as a compulsion. It can be
seen as a meddling. It can be seen as a lot of
things if you’re on the wrong end of it.”
Others, however, saw Boyle as a dedicated,
hard-working administrator.
Former Lincoln Mayor Helen Boosalis says
she and Boyle cooperated when issues of mu
tual interest arose.
‘‘Mike was so interested in everything about
his city,” she says. “I found him a very compe
tent, friendly person who cared about his city.”
But some saw Boyle in a different light.
During the latter part of his 5 1/2 years in
office, area newspapers and television stations
were filled with stories on investigations, accu
sations and apologies. The controversy culmi
nated with Boyle’s firing of Omaha Police
Chief Robert Wadman. A Douglas County
district judge ruled in March 1987 that Wad
man had to be reinstated.
Boyle won’t rehash the details of the con
flicts he and his family had with the police.
And despite the much-publicized argu
ments, the Omaha Police Union supported
Boyle in his fight against the recall.
At the time, United Press International re
ported union president Greg Thompson as
saying Boyle’s conflicts with police had been
exaggerated.
But the running hassle with police did play
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Leadership listed Wadman’s firing among
seven reasons why Boyle should be recalled.
James Cleary, then spokesman of Citizens
for Mature Leadership, doesn’t want to dig up
the past either.
“It’s history at this point,” the current city
councilman says.
“I never did have any personal animosity
toward him at all,” he says. “... I wish him all
the luck in the world. I really mean that.”
Boyle says his term in office certainly
wasn’t perfect. But, he adds, neither was the
news reporting.
Newspapers reported that Wadman’s firing
stemmed from an investigation into the arrest
of John Howell, Boyle’s brother-in-law, on
suspicion of driving while intoxicated. Howell
later pleaded guilty to the charge.
It was reported that top city officials said
they suspected the arrest was intended to make
Boyle take improper action.
Boyle says what started out as a story about
two policemen saying they felt bad about
improper surveillance involving Boyle’s fam
ily became twisted by the Omaha press.
“It was, I think, journalism at its worst,” he
says. “When you Te on someone’s list like that,
there’s nothing you can do when they buy their
ink by the tank car and paper by the carload.”
During his two terms in office, newspapers
and television also reported several threats on
Boyle’s life.
Two of Boyle’s major public appearances
about a week before the recall election were
disrupted by bomb threats. But that was nothing
new to Boyle, his wife or their five children.
The first death threat came in 1981 on the
night he was inaugurated.
I r \ /
Andy Manhart/Daily Nebraskan
“The first time — not that it gets any better
— but the first time is really harrowing because
you’re just not used to it,” he says. “You’re a
normal citizen doing what you want to do and
coming and going. The next thing you know,
you have people with guns around you all the
time.”
As the threats increased, so did the police
protection.
Plainclothes officers followed his sons to the
basketball courts. Officers slept in the den or sat
up all night.
“That was something that was really kind of
crazy,” he says,combing his fingers through his
brown hair. Scattered silver strands flash
briefly as the hair falls into place.
Boyle considered not runn ing for re-election
in 1985 because of the threats. At one point his
family got a call from a woman who said she
heard people saying Boyle would be shot.
“That’s pretty eerie. So those sorts of things
had me thinking, now wait a minute, you know,
I’m not really dying to be mayor....”
Boyle’s sense of humor has allowed
him to laugh about some of the tough
times. But the same humor has gotten
him into trouble.
As he thinks about the pranks he played as
mayor, he presses his fingers against his cheek
— as he often does — and chuckles.
At ground breakings, Boyle says, he would
sometimes take a shovelful of dirt and throw it
on the feet of a TV cameraman.
“And I used to do it to other dignitaries who
I thought were a little huffy, you know,” he
says. “They really kind of thought they were
pretty important stuff. It’d be fun and I knew
them. They were nice people, but they were
taking themselves too seriously. So I’d get a
bunch of dirt and throw it on the shoe of the guy
standing next to me.”
‘I imagine in the years
to come you’ll hear
from him again.’
“Veys
Sometimes, when a joke got into print, itjust
didn’t sound funny, he says.
“You can get in trouble for your sense of
humor,” Boyle says. “Sometimes it’s mis
placed and other times, the way it sounds,
people just don’t understand it.”
Boyle says he realized his sense of humor
was not funny to some Omahans and he made
himself stop throwing one-liners during news
conferences.
“I share some of the responsibility for what
happened,” he says. “I mean, it didn’t drop out
of the sky. They weren’t totally right and I
wasn’t totally wrong.”
Cpparcntly it’s not an easy task pleasing
Omaha voters. No Omaha mayor has
served two full terms under thecity’s 31 -
year-old charter. Boyle says several mayors
who could have been re-elected simply didn’t
run.
Former Mayor Veys says Boyle, like many
other elected officials, forgot where he came
from and where he was going back to.
“The hat size should remain the same,” Veys
says. “His personal attitude was what got him in
trouble.”
“I imagine in the years to come you’ll hear
from him again,” he says.
Ceys categorizes Boyle as “a very
vindictive guy.” But, he adds, the
employees’ fear of losing their jobs
made the Public Works Department snap to
attention.
Boyle says some people just don’t like him,
although he’s unsure why.
“I really do invoke a — and maybe it’s
because of the sense of humor that’s misunder
stood, I don’t know — but I do invoke a certain
degree of feeling. There’s some people that
really don’t like me, you know, they really
don’t.”
That’s not to say Boyle has no strong sup
porters. Even this Christmas, nearly a year after
the recall, hundreds of Omahans still sent let
ters of support to Boyle and his family —
despite his unlisted address.
People still stop him, encouraging him torun
for an officeagain.
Boyle says nice people, religion and support
from his family have helped him heal.
Boyle says it was difficult after 20 years to
leave politics. But, he says, the; recall didn’t
make him seriously consider leaving Omaha.
He and his wife did think briefly about moving
to Lincoln, but decided there was no reason to
leave.
“If I had, you know, stolen a half a million
dollars or something,” he says, “.. . I’d have
something to be ashamed of. I don’t have
anything to be ashamed of. It was almost hys
teria and a whole lot of things. In football they
call it piling on.
I aid a good job. And even the detractors
said that. But they didn’t like my style —
whatever that is.
“It’s one of those things. When you start
making decisions . . . someone’s going to be
unhappy.
“I mean, to do otherwise, why be in office?”
Boyle says he has learned from the events in
the last couple of years. In addition to about 40
pounds he put on while in office, Boyle says he
has gained a new focus on what’s important.
Since the recall, he says, he has spent more time
with his wife and family.
“A crisis in a family — and to some degree
it was for all of us—again, it pulls you apart or
makes you stronger. It made us stronger. And a
lot closer. A lot more caring.”
A heart problem — Boyle suffered a near
fatal heart attack in October 1984 — apparently
is under control and Boyle, the private citizen,
still speaks at political gatherings.
Boyle says he is taking that life one day at a
time — with no plans about his future.
“You can fret about what’s going to happen
next week,” Boyle says. “But I think it’s better
just to take one day at a lime and handle w hat
you’ve got.”
Boyle leans his 6-foot frame back in his
high-backed chair, hazel eyes gazing at some
point beyond the walls, beyond the window.
Perhaps he’s thinking about the names,
numbers and dales on his desk and another
stack in a drawer.
Or maybe he’s going over his plans to take
the afternoon off with his wife. Or just ponder
ing the unusually warm January day.
Near the office window — an opening to the
clear sky — sits a mounted slogan:
“Our greatest glory
in life, consists not in
never failing
but in rising
every time we fail ”