- As city elections approach, John Ewing emphasizes the need for change, drawing on his 43 years of service and commitment to collaborating with the community to improve city governance.
- Ewing plans to enhance affordable housing and expand urban infrastructure in North and South Omaha while advocating for revised zoning laws to facilitate the construction of multi-unit homes like duplexes and triplexes.
- He also highlights the importance of addressing staffing shortages in the Omaha police department, promoting a culturally sensitive and well-trained force that actively listens to and engages with the community.
As city elections approach, KMTV is taking the time to talk to each of the mayoral candidates. John Ewing Jr. discusses his vision for managing the city.
During our conversation, Ewing emphasized the need for a change, highlighting his 43 years of service, characterized by integrity and collaboration with the community, and is focusing on building partnerships to improve city governance.
"It's time to bring services to the people of this community that they deserve," said Ewing.
Ewing says he has many improvement plans, some of which include affordable housing and expanding urban infrastructure plans to North and South Omaha. He believes in revising zoning laws to allow for more affordable housing options.
"We have zoning laws that require or limit you to be able to build one house on some of the lots, and I think we need to look at those and see if we can do double houses or duplexes, triplexes, those types of things to increase the density. And then what that does is that makes it more affordable per unit for a developer to be able to build and someone to be able to buy," Ewing said.
Another key area Ewing thinks needs to be addressed is staffing shortages in the Omaha police department. Advocating for a positive environment that supports both officers and the communities they serve.
"You build that brick by brick, interaction by interaction, so you have to make sure that you have a well-trained police department that's culturally sensitive to the people that they're policing with. You have to do more listening as a police department in terms of helping people address their problems," Ewing said.
On the topic of police staffing, Ewing said he would try to boost retention by revising the pension.
"One of the things I look at is that they pay 17% into their pension fund. That's a significant amount of money. While the restaurant tax was designed to strengthen the pension fund, not all of the money from the restaurant tax is actually going to do that. So I would look at a city charter change to actually have more of that money going into strengthening the pension, then you can actually reduce the amount that the officers have to pay and the firefighters as well have to pay into that pension fund which would be a great tool for retention," Ewing said.
During the interview, Ewing also put a strong emphasis on improving social structures that contribute to homelessness. Addressing issues such as homelessness and drug addiction requires a comprehensive approach, emphasizing flexible shelter options and ongoing support for individuals with mental health and addiction challenges.
"We have to increase capacity, we have to increase flexibility so we can get people in the shelters, but we also have to take care of their needs and meet them where they're at and then have continuous follow up because if someone has a mental health issue and they take their medication and then they start to feel better they may very well then go back to not taking it and end up in the same spot again same thing with drug addiction we have to make sure they're continuing to follow up with their course of treatment so that they then don't go back into the system," Ewing said.
Ewing told KMTV he’s a nuts and bolts guy, and that’s why he believes he can get the job done.
