Learn about why the recall is happening and what you can do to help.
Signing the petition does not mean that the mayor is recalled right now, but that the city will have a chance to vote on the issue during the April primaries. The people of Lincoln should have the option to weigh in on the mayor's actions and inactions. It's better to give our community the choice than to look back and wish we had that option. Signing means choice.
Businesses are being targeted arbitrarily - crushing restaurants, bars, theatres and other venues. This is done to "show action" but is without meaning. Malls and big box stores remain open, weddings go on and DMV lines are as long as always. Selective targeting of certain businesses is entirely political and a violation of Article X of the City Charter against discrimination in ordinances.
While businesses were being closed and fined for trying to survive and keep the livelihood of their staff intact, mass protests were allowed to turn to riots that caused more than $10,000,000 in damage to our city. The mayor physically stood with those who attacked this city. Meanwhile she attacks the small businesses and their employees that are the backbone which built this city.
The council's choice to give the mayor unlimited and unending emergency power is an abandonment of their responsibility to legislate. All ordnances, rules and orders are to originate in the city council, the mayor's job is to execute on those. But today, we have only one branch of government, one not subject to the open hearings and community feedback process of the council. The mayor's administration is making law, unilaterally, in the form of mandates and measures.
The Lincoln City Charter and Lincoln Municipal Code anticipated the need, in rare situations, for a state of emergency to be used for the mayor to take immediate actions to save the city, when the legislative process couldn't take place. That is NOT how it is being used now. Until 1990 the Municipal Code defined use of emergency power only for natural disasters and that is its primary intent. It has been manipulated to now allow the mayor to legislate in place of the council - with no community input.
The mayor's administration is unfairly drafting every store owner, employee, and church leader into her battle against the citizens of Lincoln. Making them the enforcers of her mandates and punishing those who don't comply. This is wrong, it is causing irreparable social and economic harm to our city. 2020 has been hard, but Mayor Baird’s choices are driving us further and further apart.
Signing the recall petition will give the people of Lincoln the ability to vote on the question of recalling the mayor. Click below to find out where you can sign or how you can have a petition brought to you.