A mix of praise, criticism by third ward Beatrice City Council candidates

BEATRICE – There is a runoff for one of the Beatrice City Council positions up for election this May, and the three candidates expressed their views at a Beatrice Area Chamber candidate forum Thursday night.

Mike McLain is the incumbent running for reelection. He was elected Council President his year. He’s an agronomist and Regional Manager for Farmers Co-Op.
"Throughout my years in Beatrice, I've come to believe in this community and I've seen incredible potential in this city of ours. Our community has many great attributes, great city parks, recreational trail system, strong schools, Southeast Community College and Homestead National Historical Park. There will be hard decisions to be made that will impact our city for years to come. I will continue to bring a fresh perspective and help with those decisions, while keeping a Beatrice tradition of community and spirit, intact."

One of the challengers in the race is Paul Fanning, who is a University of Nebraska-Lincoln Police Officer…and has lived in Beatrice since 2018.
"I started to pay attention to local politics when I saw our city's response to the pandemic. The restrictions that were put in place struck me as a prime example of government overreach and micro-management of our lives. Since then, I've seen other areas in which our local government is getting involved in things it doesn't need to be involved in. So, I'm running for city council because I want to keep local government from over-regulating and meddling in things that are not government's business."

Candidate Caleb Sabatka, who works in home improvement, is running for the third ward position after an unsuccessful try for council against the other third ward representative on the body.  "The reason I'm running is I believe the money is being spent in many ways which is beyond ridiculous. We are building things for generations but are not thinking about the next generation. I'm an average blue-collar guy...I'm not some guy that's going to dress in a suit. I'm not gonna come here and b__sh..t you.  I'm just gonna tell you how it is. The way I see it, we are spending money in ways that are beyond ridiculous."

As to what the candidates would change about city government, McLain said the city is a well-run operation. "I think we have extremely good department heads overseeing stuff....our snow removal, our electrical department. I think we've done an excellent job. The city has provided good managers in those areas and I honestly don't see any department as as huge, major problem."

Fanning questions the city starting its own garbage company, which he says competes with private business. "That's one area I would like to look into, and find out what can be done...and if it's really worth the city's effort to keep running the garbage company, when historically, government has never done as good a job in running business as the private sector has."

Candidate Sabatka feels a lot of people aren’t qualified for the department jobs they do in Beatrice. "We have city inspectors who have never worked a lick of construction in their life, but yet they want to come on a job site and tell us how to do our jobs. We have other officials who are just given a job because nobody wants it. There's a lot of stuff that needs to be recalculated and reformed."

Two of the three candidates will move on from the May Primary to November’s General election.