List of mayors of Lincoln, Nebraska

The Mayor of Lincoln, Nebraska is the head of the government of Lincoln, a city located in the State of Nebraska in the United States. The mayor is vested with the executive and administrative power of the city of Lincoln and is the ceremonial head of its government.

The Lincoln mayor is elected every four years on the first Tuesday in May of every other odd-numbered year. The mayor, along with newly elected city council members, takes office on the second Monday after the first Tuesday in May (election day). Due to an amendment of the Lincoln City Charter passed by the voters in November 2018, the Lincoln mayor is limited to only serve a maximum of three consecutive terms in office. To date, Chris Beutler is Lincoln's longest serving mayor, having held the office for 12 years. As happened last in 1998, if a vacancy occurs in the mayoral office, the vacancy is filled by majority vote of the Lincoln City Council.

Among the powers and responsibilities of the mayor as specified by the Lincoln City Charter are these: to supervise all city departments and agencies, to enforce the city charter and ordinances, to submit an annual city budget to the city council and approve large purchases, to promote the commercial and industrial growth of the city, and to appoint the heads of all city departments with the approval of the city council and appoint other city officers, employees, and members of boards and commissions.

History


Lincoln, Nebraska, was officially incorporated as a town on April 7, 1869, by the commissioners of Lancaster County. Interim trustees were chosen for its Board of Trustees, which functioned as its city council. Permanent trustees were then officially elected by the citizens of Lincoln on May 3, 1869. A chairman was chosen by the trustees, and although there was no official title of "mayor" of Lincoln at this time, the chairman of the Board of Trustees was effectively the mayor of Lincoln. Lincoln's first chairman of the board of trustees was Humphrey D. Gilbert, elected in 1869, and Lincoln's second chairman of the board of trustees was Charles H. Gere, elected in 1870.

Lincoln was later incorporated as a city of the second class by the Legislature of Nebraska on March 18, 1871, which allowed its citizens to directly elect a mayor. The first mayor elected by the citizens of Lincoln was William F. Chapin, a lawyer and former Speaker of the Nebraska House of Representatives, who was elected on April 4, 1871. Lincoln continued to elect mayors in April of every year to one-year terms until 1883, when the Nebraska Legislature passed a bill stipulating that the mayors of all second-class cities would be elected to two-year terms on the first Tuesday in April. Thus, from 1883 to 1911, the mayor was elected directly by the citizens of Lincoln for a term of two years. In 1912, the Nebraska Legislature amended the state's laws to give cities the option to adopt a "commission" form of government, which Lincoln adopted for its government in a special election in 1912. This meant that the Lincoln mayor was now to be chosen by the city council from among the council membership instead of elected directly by the voters. This system of Lincoln city government persisted through the election of 1935.

In 1935, the voters of Lincoln adopted an amendment to its city charter increasing the number of city council members from five to seven and creating a system where the mayor was once again directly elected by the voters. However, though no longer chosen by fellow council members, the mayor remained a member of the Lincoln city council. The mayor was still elected to a two-year term while all other council members' terms were increased to four years under the new plan. The first mayor to take office under this new system was Oren S. Copeland in 1937. In the election of 1962, the voters of Lincoln adopted an amendment to the city charter that made the mayor's office separate from the city council and extended the mayor's term to four years. This made the mayor's job a "full-time position" since the mayor was no longer a member of the council. Dean H. Petersen was the first mayor elected in 1963 under this system, which remains the current system of Lincoln's city government.

In 1975, after serving for 16 years on the Lincoln City Council, Helen Boosalis made history by becoming the first woman to serve as mayor of the city of Lincoln. In 1998, Mike Johanns became the first Lincoln mayor to be elected Governor of Nebraska while still in office, though he is not the only Lincoln mayor to be elected governor, as Charles W. Bryan and Victor E. Anderson also served as governor.

List
This is a list of mayors of Lincoln, Nebraska.