For a while it can escape notice among powers that be or the powers that were, the prosperous, the secure, the complacent, the overemployed.

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Sooner, rather than later, people such as Beatty Brasch notice what a dull economy is doing to the people who live below the radar screen, the typically uncounted and often unemployed.

The veteran social services administrator, now director of the Center for People in Need, was among hundreds listening intently Wednesday morning at The Cornhusker as Angelos Angelou presented his consulting company's plan for the economic renewal of Lincoln, a city he said had become complacent with its economy. Brasch was among those cheered by the new plan of action, which sets a course for the Lincoln Partnership for Economic Development, the city's public-private coalition.

"It's an exciting plan," said Brasch. "A lot of it, we knew. Now the need is for us to work together. The economic downturn has made us all the more aware of the importance of this. People started getting nervous. We gotta get new jobs in here.

"The economic downturn has had a significant effect on human resources agencies," she said. "The foundations don't have any money to give. It's very difficult."

Mayor Coleen Seng, too, in one of her first big public appearances as the city's political leader, emphasized repeatedly the need for the city's force of people to work together to accomplish the AngelouEconomics report's goal of full-employment economic growth.

One of the strongest points made in the report is that the city's factions need to resolve their differences and trust each other in organizing the pursuit of a more prosperous local economy.

A roll call of public officials stood up to be counted at The Cornhusker podium, including LPED co-chairman and former Mayor Don Wesely; LPED co-chairman Frank Hilsabeck; City Councilman Jon Camp; LES administrator Terry Bundy; Richard Meginnis, chairman of the Lincoln Independent Business Association; and Harvey Perlman, chancellor of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

"Economic development is very competitive," said Bundy. "We've got to leave behind some of our fractured ways."

The last time Angelou was in town was a month ago, the day State Farm Insurance announced it was keeping hundreds of jobs in Lincoln, Seng told the sold-out breakfast meeting. "The reason that worked was because we worked together," Seng said. "It wasn't just the chamber, or the city, state, LES or schools. It was all of us."

First on the plan's agenda is gathering consensus from the city for the enormous commitments of time to be spent organizing, volunteering, planning and adjusting the work, and getting the money that will be spent to accomplish the plan's goals.

LPED, nominated to be the focal organization of the city's economic development efforts, is where that starts, and Jim Fram, president of LPEDand the Lincoln Chamber of Commerce, has already started campaigning.

The plan's timetable reserves a month for approval of the report by the LPEDboard, still to be formalized, then sets immediate and short-term plans for one year and longer-term action for years two through four.

Angelou said the city should set a goal of sending out a marketing mission within six months.

Fram said he'll be making Angelou's recommendations into a formal LPED strategic plan that he'll present it to the City Council, the Chamber of Commerce board, the Downtown Lincoln Association board, the Lancaster County Board -- "any board that's interested in knowing what the strategic plan is about."

LPED expects to get more people into the organization by expanding its membership options, Fram said. Aside from the city government's $250,000 annual membership, in the latest year LPED collected $300,000 in two levels of private business membership, $2,500 and $7,500. Now it will be offering four to six levels of membership, ranging from $250 up to five figures, Fram said.

Asked whether the city will be expected to come up with more money, Fram said, "We're going to talk to Coleen (Seng) about any opportunities that are there."

A draft of a proposed new budget for LPED in the Angelou report shows expense of $755,600, up from about $500,000 currently, including $100,000 of what Fram called one-time costs. That still has to be formalized and approved by LPED's board. That budget includes $446,600 for administration, including salaries; $90,000 for unspecified operations; and $219,000 for marketing services.

"The dilemma we're in is we're halfway through a budget year," Fram said. "What we may do, we'll have some one-time expenses, marketing materials, printed materials. We may take the approach of raising those funds in the last half of this year. That way, from January 2004, it's just a pure operating budget."

There is no specified life cycle for the report's plan, Fram said.

"It's going to be an ever-evolving thing," he said. "If economic conditions change, it has to change a little bit."

Fram said he's had discussions with Angelou about coming back, issuing a report card in a year.

Angelou, who gave a summary version of the plan at the meeting Wednesday, encouraged people to read or download the whole thing at www.marketlincoln.com.

Lincoln's economy may not be in crisis, Angelou told his audience, but it is "underperforming," losing jobs, and that goes against the grain of most state capitals, which he said typically outperform their states.

"This community has forgotten to brag about itself or how to brag about itself,"he said. "Tell the rest of the world what you treasure about your city. Don't be shy."

Reach Dick Piersol at 473-7241 or dpiersol@journalstar.com.