[INTERPOSING VOICES]
CHRIS JERRAM: Roll call.
ELIZABETH BUTLER: Harding?
BRINKER HARDING: Here.
ELIZABETH BUTLER: Melton is absent.
Pahls.
RICH PAHLS: Here
ELIZABETH BUTLER: Palermo?
VINNY PALERMO: Here.
ELIZABETH BUTLER: Festersen?
PETE FESTERSEN: Here.
ELIZABETH BUTLER: Gray?
BEN GRAY: Here.
ELIZABETH BUTLER: Mr. President?
CHRIS JERRAM: Here.
Please rise for the Pledge of
Allegiance and remain standing
for opening remarks by Council
Member Ben Gray of District 2.
AUDIENCE: I pledge allegiance to the
flag of the United States of America
and to the Republic for which
it stands, one nation under god,
indivisible, with liberty
and justice for all.
BEN GRAY: First of all, let me say--
first of all, let me say that
seems like sometimes I'm up here
and I'm talking about individuals who
have passed on who have been extremely
valuable to our community, and
in particular in this instance,
to the black community.
And I'm talking about Marshall
Taylor who passed this past Tuesday.
His funeral services are Saturday.
He was the proprietor of
the Afraamerican Bookstore.
And I don't know how many have ever been
or been to the Afraamerican Bookstore,
but that was one of the greatest
wealth's of information,
one of the best places to go to have
significant discussion about issues
that like what we're
going to have today.
Marshall was just a valuable,
valuable person in our community,
and he is going to be sorely missed.
And I wanted us to take
some time to reflect
on Marshall and his
contributions to this community.
Because today, ladies
and gentlemen, we are
going to have a discussion
about racism, and we're
going to have a serious
discussion about racism.
And I'm going to push that
discussion about racism.
So today, if you would please for
me, just for a few seconds let's
just reflect on the life
and the contributions
of this excellent
individual Marshall Taylor.
Thank you, ladies and gentlemen.
ELIZABETH BUTLER: An
affidavit of publication
is on file for the pre-council
and city council meeting.
And a current copy of
the Open Meeting Act
is posted in a white binder on East
wall of the Legislative Chambers.
CHRIS JERRAM: Good afternoon,
ladies and gentlemen.
Welcome to this meeting
of the Omaha City Council.
I see a number of you standing
and I appreciate the fact
that the space and the existing
infrastructure of chairs
is limited, in terms of
maintaining social distancing.
There are stacks of chairs on the
upper levels, if you wish to be seated.
We would encourage you to
do so in a distanced way.
We thank you again for joining us.
As a courtesy to those
in attendance, in order
to conduct and facilitate
the conduct of our business,
we ask that you turn off or silence
all electronic devices Madam Clerk?
ELIZABETH BUTLER: Item six
and seven are resolutions
to approve the implementation of
Dockless Shared Scooter Operation
agreements with Spin and Bird.
And just a reminder, the first
vote will be on the reconsideration
and then the second vote
will be to approve the items.
CHRIS JERRAM: Just as a reminder to
counsel, if the reconsideration vote
passes then the next item will be up.
The public meeting has already--
or a public hearing has
already been held on that item.
For a member of the public to testify
you would have-- a council member
would have to recognize that
person and call them to the mic.
What's the pleasure of
the council on item six?
ELIZABETH BUTLER: We already
have the motion and second.
It's just the vote.
CHRIS JERRAM: Roll call.
ELIZABETH BUTLER: Harding?
BRINKER HARDING: Yep.
ELIZABETH BUTLER: Pahls?
RICH PAHLS: No.
ELIZABETH BUTLER: Palermo?
VINNY PALERMO: Yes.
ELIZABETH BUTLER: Festersen?
PETE FESTERSEN: Yep.
ELIZABETH BUTLER: Gray?
BEN GRAY: Yep.
ELIZABETH BUTLER: Mr. President?
CHRIS JERRAM: No.
ELIZABETH BUTLER: Motion passed 4-2.
Can we get the vote on--
[INAUDIBLE]
CHRIS JERRAM: I will call.
Is there anyone who came
here today thinking that you
had a public hearing on the scooters?
Thought I saw a
constituent up there, but?
[INAUDIBLE]
OK.
Roll call.
ELIZABETH BUTLER: Harding?
BRINKER HARDING: Yes.
ELIZABETH BUTLER: Pahls?
RICH PAHLS: No.
ELIZABETH BUTLER: Palermo?
VINNY PALERMO: Yes.
ELIZABETH BUTLER: Festersen?
PETE FESTERSEN: Yes.
ELIZABETH BUTLER: Gray?
BEN GRAY: Yeah.
ELIZABETH BUTLER: Mr. President?
CHRIS JERRAM: No.
ELIZABETH BUTLER: Motion passed 4-2.
Item eight, a resolution to
provide a public platform
to engage citizens in a discussion
of positive action steps
to address racism, injustice,
inequality, economic disparities,
and police community relations.
CHRIS JERRAM: Council
Member Festersen, in lieu
of coming to the podium to
introduce your resolution,
you're recognized from
where you're seated.
PETE FESTERSEN: Thank you, Mr. President
for this moment of personal privilege.
By way of introduction
of this resolution,
I just wanted to repeat what I discussed
a few weeks ago at our meeting, which
is I think it's important to continue
this conversation we're having about
some tough issues and to engage
our residents on topics of racism
and economic disparity and inequality
and police community relations,
and to provide a forum.
In this forum, to discuss those things.
And not only discuss them and listen
about them, but develop action steps.
And I want folks to know
I'm committed to doing that.
I think my fellow
council members are too.
But today, the intent is to get
additional thoughts from folks
that I've been talking to
over the last few weeks.
And I've had the privilege of having
some conversations with several folks
involved.
For example, with 100
Black Men, Partnership
For Kids, Girls Inc,
Northstar, and Avenue Scholars,
amongst other groups that I think
are here today with representatives
to discuss and address these topics.
So I just want to give
that brief introduction
before I think those folks address us.
And I look forward to hearing
what they have to say.
CHRIS JERRAM: Thank you,
Council Member Festersen.
We'll now open the public
hearing on item number eight
for any proponents, those
in favor of this item.
And we had a sign-in process.
The first person is Linel Quinn.
If you could come to
the microphone, please
tell us your name and address
and your testimony, please.
And we'll have three
minutes per speaker.
The green light will illuminate to begin
your time after you introduce yourself,
with your name and address.
A yellow light will come on when
you have one minute remaining.
And at the red light, that
means your time has expired
and we will be enforcing that today
to allow the many people who will
have come, the opportunity to be heard.
As someone is giving
their testimony, we ask
that you respect that the
time is uniquely the speakers,
so that we may devote our attention
to that person and only the person
speaking.
So please refrain from
applause or things
that could detract from the
attention to the speakers.
Please proceed.
LINEL QUINN: Well, good morning.
Good afternoon, everyone.
My name is Linel Quinn.
And I live on 144th and Giles.
Excuse me, I have my
phone here because I
have to understand it's always
good to have your own devices when
you're going live and all of that.
Today, I want to talk to you
about peace with a twist.
But before I start, I just want
to ask everyone around this room,
just by a show of hands, how many
of you really passionately want
to see the ending of racism?
Like honestly, just how many
of you just raise your hand.
CHRIS JERRAM: Linel,
the rules of the council
require that you address your remarks
to the council and not to the audience.
LINEL QUINN: I understand that, sir.
CHRIS JERRAM: Thank you.
LINEL QUINN: But the issue is
it's not just the council's issue.
This is
CHRIS JERRAM: Thank you.
We ask that you respect the rules.
Thank you.
LINEL QUINN: Understood.
So now I know this is just
something that we all know about.
But like Councilman Gray said,
that we need to discuss this issue
and have a strong
discussion of this issue.
Now I'm not from here.
Let me make that clear.
I'm from Detroit, Michigan.
I've been here for quite some time now.
But I want you to know that I've been
to about three protests in the last week
this weekend, when it came to
injustice, no justice, no peace.
How long have we been hearing
no justice, and no peace?
It hasn't been today
that you first heard it.
It hasn't been before--
I mean, it was before I was
born, before my mother was
born, before my grandmother was born.
But why now?
Why are we looking to
address the issue now,
when they should have
been done a long time ago?
Now, this is not just
to the city council.
But this is also to every viewer that
lives in the United States of America.
For all of us that are
affected by the nasty, haunting
generation-to-generation
issue, and that's racism.
How are we going to actually
do something about this, if we
continue to have politics as usual?
Because here's the thing.
Racism makes money.
Division makes money.
It does because you have redlining.
You have these things because
we've taken out bussing,
we've taken out affirmative action.
And thank god, I do
see that back on the--
back on the agenda.
And I'm not going to be
before you long, but I just
want you to just follow me
with this for a few things.
For the same generation
our children is going
to end up having to repeat
the same cycle if we
don't make the changes that we need to.
Our grandchildren are going to end up
having the rake with the same cycle,
but we want justice, we
want peace with a twist.
Can you hear me?
Can you guys hear me up there?
I just want to make sure
I was loud and clear.
So how long and how
much more would it take?
When is enough, enough?
When would the bloodshed and tears
be charged in and we actually say--
and actually not only just
say, but do the things
that we say we're going to do?
Not just patching it up like a Band-Aid.
This is an issue that's
been going on for years.
And when are we really
going to take it serious?
How are we're going to take it serious?
Resolutions don't fix the issue.
It's what's inside that fix the issue.
And I know my time is up.
CHRIS JERRAM: Thank you,
your time's expired.
The next speaker is Jamal Hunter.
LINEL QUINN: Thank you so
much for this opportunity.
PETE FESTERSEN: Thank you.
LINEL QUINN: All right.
I am running for mayor though.
[LAUGHTER]
JAMAL HUNTER: Good afternoon, everyone.
I would like to start
with what I typed up.
On May 29, 2020, I began
protesting with my mother.
I have watched Omaha police
officers taunt to get
me to jump over the line full of
police officers with riot gear on.
The police officer that was
taunting me decided to flip me off
and continuously did it.
Then on May 30, 2020, I watched a
police officer put my mother in the back
while she was standing on the sidewalk.
BEN GRAY: Excuse me?
Can you talk up a little bit?
JAMAL HUNTER: Yeah.
Yes, sir.
Would you like me to restart or?
CHRIS JERRAM: Just raise
the mic a little bit.
We'll start your time over.
JAMAL HUNTER: OK.
[INAUDIBLE]
CHRIS JERRAM: Yeah, even though you
signed in with your name and address,
please repeat your name and address.
After you do that, then
he'll start your time.
JAMAL HUNTER: OK.
Jamal Hunter.
I live on 9935 S Plaza.
Or, yeah.
On May 29, 2020, I began
protesting with my mother.
I have watched Omaha police taunt
me to jump the line full of police
officers with riot gear.
Then the police officer that decided
to taunt me decided to flip me off
and continuously did it.
Then On May 30, 2020, I watched police
officers push my mother in the back
while she was standing on the sidewalk.
My mother has had back
surgery years ago.
I also was kicked by a police
officer while sitting on the curb.
The also shot about six to
seven tear gas canisters
toward the corner of
72nd and Cass Street
and then made the
protesters walk through it.
And when we tried to go around,
we just were pushed into it.
Then the protesters moved downtown,
where I was on my knees with my hands
up chanting, "Hands up.
Don't shoot," in front of officers
with riot shields and riot gear on.
I watched as they raised their
pepper ball and tear gas guns
and began shooting at us, which
caused chaos in the streets.
I also ran into James Scurlock, who
thanked me and my mother for standing--
sorry--
AUDIENCE: It's OK.
Take your time, man.
JAMAL HUNTER: --for standing up for
the injustice going on in this world.
We proceeded to run back backwards
and witnessed two teenagers
throw a sign into the high window.
And no, it was not James Scurlock.
We kept moving down the street,
due to police officers shooting
tear gas and pepper balls.
Then minutes later we heard gunshots.
LINEL QUINN: Here you go, brother.
Take your time [INAUDIBLE].
JAMAL HUNTER: Then minutes
later we heard gunshots.
And two teenagers running
past told us that there
was somebody got shot by a bar owner.
I didn't realize till the next day
that it was James Scurlock, who
did not deserve to die.
I will continue to stand up
for the injustice in this city.
No one in this world is perfect.
We all make mistakes, but we should
not be judged on how mistakes--
on our mistakes.
No one ever seeks to understand
why someone ever made this mistake,
or that mistake.
There is almost always
contributing factors
that cause someone to make a mistake.
CHRIS JERRAM: We're going
to need you to wrap up.
And we will make your complete written
remarks part of the record as well.
JAMAL HUNTER: OK.
I'm here as an African-American
in the city of Omaha,
who is a star football player, but
because I suffer from severe ADHD I am
not--
I can't even like sit in a classroom
that is an hour and 30 minutes long.
And I would have a target on my back
when I went to school from past years
or whatever and then the teachers
never really, really thought of, oh,
let me see what this kid is--
or did he change, or did he--
is he still that same way or anything?
They just assumed of my
records from school, if--
they just went off that.
So they just automatically
thought I was bad.
And so that would a--
sorry.
LINEL QUINN: It's OK.
JAMAL HUNTER: That would
occur and I would probably
be in the office probably
four or five times a day
just on things that should be talked
about with the student and not really,
oh, just go to the office, go
to the office, go to the office.
But that's all I have for now.
CHRIS JERRAM: Thank you.
The next proponent is Shae'Kell Butler.
[APPLAUSE]
SHAE'KELL BUTLER: Do you guys hear me?
Name and address, right?
CHRIS JERRAM: Yes.
SHAE'KELL BUTLER: OK.
Everybody, my name is Shae'Kell Butler.
I live on 2603 Irving
Court, Apartment F.
As I said, my name is Shae'Kell
Butler, and I'm here today
as a representative and product
of Partnership For Kids, as well
as a recent graduate of
the UNL Theater program.
I'm also a lifelong
resident of North Omaha,
so it goes without saying that
I've experienced firsthand
the disparities that
exist in a predominantly
black and brown community.
Disparities such as the lack
of proper revitalization,
in neighborhoods and buildings
in multiple low income areas
of North Omaha.
Buildings such as the
ones on 41st and Hamilton
through Military Avenue,
24th and Lake, and so on.
Areas that, if properly
rehabilitated, can
create jobs and generate income for
North Omaha, as well as residents
close to home.
Areas that, if properly
handled, could be
used to create recreational areas that
produce more productive or positive
community interactions and engagements.
And I'm not just talking about parks,
but tennis courts, basketball courts,
golf courses, as well as
indoor facilities that
promote family oriented activities.
And I feel this type
of inclusive thinking
would benefit our community greatly.
Now, as a black man in this
community, I would be re-missed
if I didn't mention the massive civil
unrest going on in our country today.
I, for one, believe
that Black Lives Matter.
[INAUDIBLE]
CHRIS JERRAM: Sir,
please respect the rules.
SHAE'KELL BUTLER: I, for one,
believe that black lives matter,
and that should be shown
through our justice system.
The deaths of Brianna Taylor,
George Floyd, and many others,
at the hand of hands of law
enforcement, are unacceptable
and should be addressed as such.
That being said, while I appreciate
the Omaha Police Department,
I feel that a systematic
change is long overdue.
I believe that this is possible
the more education and training,
specifically in psychology
and dismantling racial bias.
I believe this is possible by investing
in more neighborhood organizations
to positively assist with conflict
resolution within that community.
I also believe that
true healing will only
begin when there is assurance
to citizens that any police
misconduct will be handled swiftly
and with the utmost importance
to the fullest extent of the law.
Omaha has a long way to go to
solve its inequality problem.
But I'm confident that change is coming.
And I hope that we can be
a part of this problem.
Thank you.
CHRIS JERRAM: Thank you.
The next speaker is a
proponent, Michelle Butler.
MICHELLE BUTLER: Shae'Kell Butler.
Oh, sorry.
Michelle Butler.
6402 North 95th Court.
This is my son.
I came to support him.
But I just graduated with
my social work degree.
And I believe, although I didn't come
here to say anything in particular,
I believe that we have to look at
racism and the social injustices that's
going on as not a
political factor, but we
need to look at that as
just a human aspect of it.
I feel like it's getting
him to politicized.
The Black Lives Matter
movement is too politicized.
I believe that we need
to look at the behaviors
and things within the African-American
community as a mental health issue.
I work at the Center for
Holistic Development.
I work with inclusive communities.
There are ways for us
to treat this issue.
The bringing-- what is it?
Building in the news--
juvenile detention center-- is
not going to solve our problem.
We're trying to build a center
that's going to house more juveniles,
instead of look at
the issue as an issue.
And I just so like
that's one of the things
that I wanted to say because I just feel
like that is some areas that we really
need to improve on.
At my center, it's African-American
run, CEO-founded center.
And there is not enough
youth coming through there
to take advantage of the services
that's available to them.
So I just think that we need
to look at this aspect of it
and not politicize it so much.
So that's all that I wanted to say.
Thank you.
CHRIS JERRAM: Thank you.
Andra Williams?
ANDRA WILLIAMS: I am Andra Williams.
I live at 7521 Military Ave. And
I am here on behalf of NorthStar.
All I have to say is
that to the best way
to make change happen
is to inform the people
and for political leaders to
be informed by the people.
So discussions like this
need to happen more often.
These discussions are small steps, but
many small steps make a bigger step.
And-- sorry, I just
need to find my words.
So each small step is working towards
a single goal of eradicating racism.
Racism has been in the American
history since the beginning.
It's been here since slavery,
and it's still here today.
But it's not slavery, it's
just systematic racism,
and how people think of other people.
It is human nature for people
to divide themselves and see
people that are the same.
We need to break that human
nature, and find people as people.
Thank you.
CHRIS JERRAM: Thank you.
Richard Webb?
RICHARD WEBB: Hello, council members.
Richard Webb, 841 Avenue
P Carter Lake, Iowa 51510.
I stand up here today, not with
anything written but just speaking
from the heart.
I have the luxury of
serving my community
in the form of being the biggest kid
within the 100 Black Men of Omaha.
And I want to thank
Ben Gray and also Pete
for allowing the youth, these days,
to come up and have this forum
to be able to speak their truth.
I'm a firm believer
that what our mission is
to help our youth to be respectful,
responsible in the next generation
of leaders.
The only way for them to
be able to implement that
is if we continuously work
on the issues in front of us,
making sure that we address them.
Not putting patches on them
or band aids, but actually
systematically addressing them,
and improving our community.
So that when they are respectful,
responsible, and ready
to lead like Jamal was,
he doesn't have to put up
with issues that confront him as such
as officers, who serve and protect,
kicking him, officers who serve
and protect, pushing his mother.
Because specifically, in
the African-American history
or the culture, we're very firm
and protective over our mothers,
our grandmothers.
So of course, with that being said,
just like Jamal so eloquently stated,
the challenges behind that are
that we get into a defensive mode.
And, of course, when you
have a defensive mode,
as a person, but then you also
have a defensive mode as someone
trying to protect and
serve in the right manner,
those can bring up challenges that we
no longer want to see in the future.
So I didn't get up too much to
say a lot, but I did want to say,
thank you all for first of
all allowing this platform,
but also continuously
having these conversations.
And not just putting band-aids,
but systematically looking at ways
we can address our community.
So that when our youth are ready
to speak, and are ready to lead,
we give them that platform,
we take their initiatives,
we factor those into
decisions that we make,
and not only how they
impact our bottom line,
but getting out of a time of just doing
something, and actually getting it
into a time of sacrifice that will only
be beneficial for the next generations
to come.
So thank you.
CHRIS JERRAM: Thank you.
Jasmine Harris?
JASMINE HARRIS: Good afternoon,
city council members.
My name is Jasmine Harris.
I live at 5014 Pratt Street.
From the state to county
to local government
private and public businesses, we need
to eradicate the systemic, systematic,
and institutional injustices that
continue to permeate these systems.
We're talking about racism.
And a lot of people only deal with
racism at an individual level.
We have to begin to
look at the systematic,
the systemic, the institutional racism
in order to move anything forward.
This can start with
the elected leadership.
Recommendations are out there,
like I told Nebraska Legislature,
things have been mentioned all the time.
Center the voices, stories, experiences,
and expertise of people of color.
That's the first step.
Reach out to us to attain meaningful,
strategic planning meetings that
will result in action steps.
Thank you for this
platform, but let's do
this in a setting where action
versus time-limited conversations
are the end goal.
Let's start with the
models of our state.
Nebraska is not for everybody.
Self-explanatory.
Overt racism that we've endured.
The one before that, Nebraska nice.
The covert racism that
we've endured, but our gas
lighted about because majority
says, we're not racists
but do nothing to be anti-racist.
In order to address these issues
let's start here in our own backyard.
How can we expect people
to take this work seriously
when we continue to be
alienated from the top down.
Thank you.
CHRIS JERRAM: Thank you.
Jamar Dorsey?
JAMAR DORSEY: Jamar Dorsey,
2615 North 32nd Street.
Thank you for the platform and
opportunity this afternoon.
My direct day job is Director of
Community Engagement for the Avenue
Scholars Foundation.
And much like the other
nonprofits represented here today,
we work directly with students who
are impacted by racism, injustice,
inequality, economic disparities, and
police brutality throughout our city.
And on the drive over
here, I was talking
to two of our current Avenue
scholars, and they were
going through what they wanted to say.
And once we got here, they realized
that the platform wasn't one
they wanted to participate in today.
And so, I only say that
to say that modeling
what we want to see in our
community is so very important.
And that's why I decided to stand up
and model the things we want to happen.
So to make real impact
and to have real change,
first as adults, us who work with
the most vulnerable populations, us
who work with the most
influential populations,
we must model what we want
to see and we must model
what we want our city to look like.
And what is it going to take to do that?
One, having critical and
courageous conversations
about things that make
people uncomfortable
and respecting and understanding
perspective and impositions.
Two, educating all of us, both
young and old, on how we got here,
but most importantly, on what
we can do in the current moment.
And then three, no different than
what many people have said today--
what does action look like?
And we all have a role to be an active
participant in addressing these issues
and taking steps to solve these issues.
But what does that
action step look like?
What does it look like
here, on the local level?
What does it look like
in the educational realm?
What does it look like
in the non-profit realm?
And how can we take that step
together as a young man said earlier?
So the first step for me
today was simply to model
what we want our youth
and young people to do,
as we make steps towards creating
a better Omaha for everybody.
Thank you.
CHRIS JERRAM: Thank you.
The next proponent is Emma Bitterman.
Holly Lukasiewicz, you're on deck.
EMMA BITTERMAN: Hello.
Can you hear me?
OK, my name is Emma Bitterman from 11281
South 200th Street, Gretna, Nebraska.
I've had the pleasure of being a
part of the Girl Scout organization
for 10 years now.
I'm an ambassador with the Spirit of
Nebraska Council along with the Girl
Scout Advisory Group for Omaha.
Thank you for giving me
this opportunity today
to respond to the need
for racial justice.
I will first acknowledge
that I will never
understand what it's like
to be discriminated against,
based on the color of my skin.
But I'm here today, as an ally to
the Black Lives Matter movement,
explaining issues I've
witnessed in our communities.
I'd like to know address
the pledge Girl Scouts
USA has taken to stand against racism.
Our organization plans to form a
diversity, equity, and inclusion task
force, at the national
level, that works to include
every girl in all conversations.
Change also begins from within.
So Girl Scouts USA is committing
to strengthening hiring practices
to reflect our communities,
just as Nebraska should also.
Now, I will address some of the
current events happening nationally.
Recently, NASCAR prohibited the
display of the Confederate flag
from all events and properties.
Many other states are also taking
action to remove this symbol
from public places.
The Confederate flag is a representation
of hate, fear, and exclusion.
If we want change, all
communities need to be
aware of the pain this
symbol causes our citizens.
Nebraska must also
take action on removing
the Confederate flag, specifically
within our education systems,
to promote racial justice.
A school is supposed to be a
safe, accessible, and quality
environment that
fulfills students' needs,
leading them into the adult world.
Through the three years
I've gone to my school,
I've witnessed on many accounts
students wearing the Confederate flags
design on multiple types of clothing.
My friends have even come
to me saying that makes
them feel uncomfortable and unwelcome.
And just because our school is not
as diverse as others, and smaller,
doesn't mean we can dismiss the fact
that this flag is extremely offensive
and construes hate.
Our state's schools have
to take action on this.
Another problem that needs to be
addressed is our history classes.
For example, in school
I was never taught
about Juneteenth, and its significance.
If bias already begins
with a child's education,
it will follow them into adulthood.
History must be taught unbiased
and from all possible perspectives.
Many people stray away from
uncomfortable conversations
like these today, but we need these
to happen more and their necessity
to make change.
Lastly, these issues I mentioned
today are just the tip of the iceberg.
Our leadership cannot wait for
lives to be taken to make a change.
Sustainable change
happens when leaders take
that initiative themselves to end
racism and systematic oppression.
Black Lives Matter is
not just a phase, it's
a revolutionary movement
that needs to continue,
and we must not let these
vital voices be silenced.
Thank you.
CHRIS JERRAM: Thank you.
Holly Lukasiewics?
HOLLY LUKASIEWICZ: My name is
Holly Lukasiewicz, 4902 Cass.
Thank you all for your time and
service to the Omaha community.
I am asking for you to vote in
support of Resolutions 677 and 678.
Although these are
policy shifts that can
be made towards racial
justice in our community,
this weekend I witnessed very
concerning parts of Omaha leadership
that exemplify the work yet
to be done in this community.
The first was the rally outside
Mr. Klein's home on Saturday.
He showed a lack of respect for his
constituents, using offensive language
and aggressively approaching two members
of the crowd and yelled in their faces.
His wife even tried to pull him back.
The second was out the
Support the Blue Rally.
A less polarizing
approach to such a rally
could have been chosen
by OPD, instead choosing
to reframe it as Blue Supports
Black Lives, to acknowledge and say,
Black Lives Matter.
Many of the speakers during the rally
only told one side of the story.
With that said, I am grateful to
read about the policy and procedure
changes that are being made
to OPD beginning this month.
They are a start, but
there is more to be
done to undo Omaha's racist
institutional policies.
That is why I am urging the
city council, mayor, and OPD
to enact the "8 Can't Wait"
use of force policies.
Omaha has two that are
part of the "8 Can't Wait."
Pledge-- can you commit to
enacting these additional policies?
Number one, ban all choke
holds and strangle holds,
including carotid-restraint
control holds?
Number two, require de-escalation, hire
more for OPD's crisis response team,
so there is more than one crisis
response member at each precinct.
Number three, exhaust all
alternatives before shooting.
Or better yet, take away their guns
like Iceland, Ireland, Norway, New
Zealand, and the United Kingdom.
According to the police
shooting database and the FBI
statistics on law enforcement
officers killed in the line of duty,
for every police death the police
have shot, or otherwise killed,
approximately 20 citizens, mostly
people of color and unarmed,
each year for the past four
years at the national level.
In other words, it's way more dangerous
to be a civilian than a police
officer, especially a civilian of color.
Duty number four.
Duty to intervene.
Stop excessive force.
Have all response by OPD be met with
a trauma responsive mental health
professional.
Number five.
Ban shooting at moving vehicles.
Again, make OPD weapon list like
Iceland, Ireland, Norway, New
Zealand, and the United Kingdom.
Number six, require
comprehensive reporting.
May we all be open to knowing more
in our efforts towards racial justice
in our community.
Thank you.
CHRIS JERRAM: Thank you.
And again, with anyone, if
you have additional remarks
you may always submit them
to the clerk, and they
will be made part of the record.
Luis Jimenez?
LUIS JIMENEZ: Luis
Jimenez, 3306 Birch Street.
I'm supporting the resolution.
I think this a unique opportunity that
the council is offering the community.
And I haven't noticed something
like this in the past,
so that's why I say it's unique.
I'm assuming you're using
the public hearing that goes
with the resolution as the platform?
But there are a lot of
discussions that need to be
happening outside of city council.
And one of those things that I hope
you guys and the community talk about
is reallocating funds
from the police department
to other services that can
effectively tackle issues and conflict
resolutions that the police officers
generally do, but may be ill equipped
to handle.
For example, mental illness--
or mental health issues.
Over in Chicago they have police
officers who are social workers.
I think that's something
in the right direction,
an idea in the right direction.
So what we're doing is
having these discussions,
and we're finding language, we're
finding ways to promote ideas,
make sense of recourse.
So I appreciate that.
Defunding the police is something
that's been talked about a lot,
but I think we need to move beyond that
and talk about reallocation of funds,
so that we're not just throwing money
at the police, sending them out,
and what we get is
what we have to accept.
Thank you.
CHRIS JERRAM: Thank you.
Joy O'Connor?
Michaela Chambers, you're on deck.
JOY O'CONNER: I'm Joy O'Connor.
My address is 6017 Pacific Street.
I have been an active
participant of the Justice
for James Scurlock Movement outside
of Don Kleine's neighborhood.
I'd like to share some of the racism
I've witnessed in our beautiful city.
I was horrified.
Maybe I'm sheltered because
I live in the midtown area,
and I spend most of my
time in the midtown area
and I interact most with
midtown people, so I was
shocked by the things I saw out there.
I had a white woman pull over and
tell me that James got his justice.
I was so shocked I asked her
what she was referring to
and she smiled, laughed,
and said, he died.
I had a white older woman write a
letter to our group with no information
to respond to tell me
I should use my time
picking up trash instead
of disturbing her peace.
I had a white man tell
me, our signs would
be better if they said, hang them.
We had trucks with Blue Lives Matter,
Confederate and American flags
pull over to try and intimidate us.
Sometimes they would
yell at us to get a job.
Sometimes they would yell
at us that all lives matter.
One time they pulled over in the
neighborhood and police officers
were called and tried
to tone things down.
But they ended up staying there
the rest of the night saying
that they were visiting a friend
in the neighborhood who actually we
saw leave the neighborhood.
So none of that was true.
They made fun of us as we left,
making fun of the way we walked.
I had several white
men get so angry at us
for supporting life for
our black neighbors,
that they threw water bottles at me.
And one of these nights
I had my daughter there.
Another time, a truck drove
by while we were looking up
the license plate of another truck
that had almost run into one of us
as we crossed the street with the
walk sign, with a pedestrian sign.
Another truck slowed down and
threw a full beer can at me.
And it was popped open, so I
assume it was open in his truck,
and he threw it at me.
It was still cold.
I had women cry to us about
their peace being disturbed,
because we would get there at
6:00 in the morning and demand
justice for James from
6:00 to 8:00 every morning,
and these women were
finding it hard that they
weren't able to use their decks this
summer without hearing us protesting.
And I just really wish that
they would take the energy
that they were pointing
at us and wanting
us to be quiet and
point that towards Don
and ask him to get justice for a
murder that's still on the loose,
that he could still charge.
I heard from two older white men
that they protested this stuff back
in the '60s.
And they both insinuated
that, that was enough,
and that we needed to give up trying
to improve the state of racism
because it's good enough.
It's not good enough.
I had a white woman--
am I out of time?
CHRIS JERRAM: Yes.
JOY O'CONNER: OK.
Well, I have more I could share
with you, but I guess that's enough.
CHRIS JERRAM: Thank you.
Michaela Chambers?
Amy Casey-- or Carey, you're next.
MICHAELA CHAMBERS: I'm short.
Can you all hear me?
My name is Michaela Chambers.
I live at 9611 North 29th St.
Pete, I'm in your district.
I am in support of resolution 0677.
As we are all aware, Omaha,
Nebraska has been behind the curve
as far as being a progressive city.
When I say I'm from Omaha,
Nebraska, when I'm in a larger city,
they often ask if we shuck
corn as our main jobs here.
So we have this unique
opportunity to finally
be progressive on a
country-wide problem,
rather than being
years behind the curve,
as is historically known to Omaha.
You all have been doing
this job for many years
and are, right now, seeing for
the first time your constituents
here, showing up bravely in droves,
taking time off from their jobs
to demand change.
You all either listen to us-- who
represent large sectors of this county,
to come up with effective strategies
and solutions to combat racial injustice
against the black community, which
has perpetuated in Omaha for more than
a century, as you all know--
or we will vote you out.
North Omaha, South Omaha,
Dundee, Blackstone, and Benson
will unite to vote in council members
that passionately represent us
and to seek to combat racial
inequality and injustice.
This fight is far from over.
Thank you all so much for your time.
CHRIS JERRAM: Thank you.
Amy Carey?
AMY CAREY: Hi, I'm Amy Carey.
I live at 2129 Ridgewood Avenue.
I've spent time with the
University of Nebraska Omaha,
studying the sociology of technology.
I was sworn in last year as a Casa
Court Appointed Service Advocate,
where racial and economic disparities
are at the center of the foster care
system.
Thank you for your time today.
I'd like to start off by saying
that I'm in full support of "8
Can't Wait" initiative.
I'm in full support
of anyone representing
the importance of funding
our under-served schools
so that children all across
our city, not just parts of it,
have the same access
to technology in terms
of computers, power books,
and appropriate resources
not just for distance learning but
for conventional times as well.
We all have different
strengths and lanes
to focus on, positive action steps
to address economic disparities.
And the lane I'm here to
discuss is the digital highway
that those initiatives rely on and the
digital divide that stands in the way.
The digital divide is
an uneven distribution,
and access to use of our impact
of information and communication
technologies.
I'm here to implore that
the city council begin
creating a budget that would include
the architecture of municipal wireless
network, beginning in the
neighborhoods we systemically
deprived of economic
growth and infrastructure
through redlining practices.
The Union for Contemporary
Arts has clearly
outlined a direct correlation
between the redline neighborhoods
and the majority of those
affected by COVID-19.
Addressing the digital divide can lead
to economic growth and wage increases,
easier access to medical care,
lower cost online education,
and job opportunities.
While cell phone technology was
believed to bridge these gaps,
there are only a small
part of that solution.
Smartphone technology provides access
to content consumption and information,
but little capability
of content creation.
When did you last write out a
report, fill out a job application,
or consume volumes of text for
educational or professional purposes
solely on your phone?
Wireless infrastructure
is required to provide
the highway for successive communities
to develop and sustain themselves
economically, socially, and physically.
Can any of you identify more
important municipal capability?
Broadband infrastructure is in the
same category as electricity and water.
Not one of us here today arrived
without using it, and not one of us
will further our goals
here today without it.
To quote the Pew Research
Center, "There may
have been a time when a high speed
internet could be considered luxury.
But now it is a necessity,
an indispensable tool,
for information and communication."
Modern classrooms require students
to have internet access, hospitals
and law enforcement track and
transfer records using the internet,
businesses rely on it
for daily commerce.
While I'm not telling you things
that you don't already know,
I am asking you to acknowledge
that our city has deliberately
under-served our minority
populations and the neighborhoods
that they live in.
And I'm urging you to begin the
development of free public Wi-Fi
as a utility in those neighborhoods
first instead of last.
The United States
consistently receives a D plus
on infrastructure readiness
reports from the American Society
of Civil Engineers.
There are several examples
of cities undertaking
public, digital infrastructure
before it's too far gone and broken.
And I encourage you
to enable Omaha to be
proactive in building public,
digital infrastructure
and not failing our citizens,
our most under-served citizens,
and these reports in the future.
Thank you.
CHRIS JERRAM: Thank you.
Linel, I'm told you thought you had a
few seconds shorted, so why don't you
take another 45 seconds so that--
LINEL QUINN: OK.
Thank you.
I'll be quick.
[INAUDIBLE] my book.
But like I was saying before,
I appreciate this opportunity.
So we as citizens, you guys as
councils, our leaders, our mayors,
our representatives-- in order for us
to really make an effective change,
we really have to listen to the people
three of five minutes on oppression
that's been bleeding in her
generation's from generation
to generation, decades after decades.
A few minutes is not going to be enough.
We will like to see you all
in the community listening
to the people, unbiased, untimed.
Because these are issues
that we've been dealing with.
And you can't stop the issue by just
putting a few seconds on the clock
and saying that your time is up.
The time has been going on for years,
and if it's been addressed correctly,
we wouldn't have to be
having this as an issue.
So for the gentleman that was up
here shedding his tears up here,
I appreciate you guys
giving them more time.
But there are so many
more even before him,
before his age, before my age
that have had these same issues.
So I'm asking that the millennials,
centennials, and you all-- really
we come together to make this happen.
Like she said, we're going to have
to end up voting you guys out.
And the millennials and the
centennials and the Generation X
is going to have to work together to
end this issue because obviously you've
heard this before.
But what is it?
What is it?
What is the resolution?
I yield my time.
Thank you.
CHRIS JERRAM: We have
an opponent signed in.
Larry Storer?
BRINKER HARDING: Any
other proponents that
didn't sign in that wanted to speak?
LARRY STORER: Larry Storer, 5015
Lafayette Avenue, Omaha 68132.
I'm opposed to this resolution because
it's another resolution that we really
don't need.
Resolutions have a way of becoming law.
We already have laws.
We already have federal laws.
We already have state laws.
We have a state constitution that
says you will not make a special law.
But if it's not going to be
a law, then we don't need it.
OK, quick history lesson.
We're all related because we're
all descended from one maker,
and we all belong to what the
scientists say, the animal kingdom.
And the animal kingdom
sometimes doesn't act very good.
Sometimes they're bad actors,
sometimes they're evil.
Well, and in the world
sometimes there are evil people.
And evil people that incite
you against your government
for their political game,
for their power, are evil.
Marxism is one of those.
Black Lives Matter leaders
admit that they are Marxist,
and that they do seek the
overthrow of this government.
Now our leaders here, and
in our public schools,
have an obligation to teach the truth.
Ask yourselves, how many people,
Marxists, and authoritarians,
and people of power have killed?
A lot.
Go back to where how we were
founded, before the first flood.
There must have been people of
slaves of some sort or other.
Not everybody can be
the council president.
Somebody has to be the underlings,
somebody has to be the lawyers.
We can't all be the ruler.
Human nature creates problems.
And human nature is pinning
us against each other.
Now one of the things with Marxism
is that that's what they do.
They pit us against each other.
They turn your ideas inside
out to make them mine,
and my ideas to make them his.
Call me the hater, when he's a hater,
or him the hater when I'm a hater.
And I'm going to end with something
that might be very controversial,
and Mr. Ben Gray might storm
out like he has before.
But in September of 2018, when I went
to a public meeting on the ninth floor,
and I brought up a question--
a logical question that anybody
involved in civics has a right to do--
is there a connection
between the Juvenile Justice
Center and the Omaha Land Bank,
et cetera, et cetera, et cetera?
I heard that on the radio on
the way down that morning.
So it was already out
there in the public.
But what did Mr. Gray do?
Rather than try to reconcile with
me, he stormed out of the meeting,
he pulled one of the photographers--
I don't know, Channel 6 probably,
I've got it in my record somewhere--
and had a private little tate-to-tate
with him out in the hallway.
It wasn't sanctioned by you people.
CHRIS JERRAM: Your time has expired.
LARRY STORER: That was him.
And he called me because I brought that
up, as a citizen, called me the racist.
CHRIS JERRAM: Thank you.
LARRY STORER: Excuse me,
ladies and gentlemen.
Tit for tat.
OK?
CHRIS JERRAM: Your time's
expired, Mr. Storer.
LARRY STORER: It's not just me.
[INAUDIBLE]
CHRIS JERRAM: Thank you.
LARRY STORER: Thank you.
CHRIS JERRAM: Did anyone else miss the
sign-in sheet on item number eight?
Yes, ma'am?
Your name and address and whether
you are proponent or opponent?
HEATHER: My name is Heather
Frombe, and I live at 9935 S Plaza.
Jamal is my son.
And as he has stated before, we
have been protesting since May 29.
The things that I would
like to see addressed
is there are surrounding schools in
this Omaha, surrounding area of Omaha,
that do not have one
African-American teacher.
What do these African-American
students have to turn to for--
to speak to somebody about issues
that they're going through?
It's not OK for them to go and have
to speak to some white person that
hasn't been through some of the issues
they've been working through now.
My son has a target on his back because
he is African-American and has ADHD.
He struggles very severely in school.
His hopes is to play college football.
He's a star football player.
He's not going to make it in the
NFL, because he doesn't have--
he doesn't have it
academically, and he knows that.
But why does it have to
be that somebody has to be
academically smart to go to the NFL?
They shouldn't have to
be academically smart.
If they can play with
their heart and passion,
they can prove it out
there on that field
like he does every year in football.
But there's not opportunities for
them to even have the opportunity
to go and show what they really have.
They need more opportunities like that.
They need people that
go inside these schools
and sit and visit with the
African-American students
and listen to them on what
their issues are having.
Sometimes they can't
turn to their parents,
but they need to have
somebody to turn to and speak
to inside that school, and each
and every one of these schools,
for these kids to turn and be
able to let their voice be heard.
It may not be something
that can happen yesterday,
but my son's school has one
African-American teacher in it,
and he doesn't even get to see that
person because he teaches something
that my son doesn't take.
So there's no options
for any of these students
to go and relieve their stresses of what
they're going through on a daily basis.
So that's one thing that I
would like to see changed.
Thank you.
CHRIS JERRAM: Thank you.
The public hearing is closed. council
member Festersen, you're recognized.
PETE FESTERSEN: Thanks, Mr. President.
I just wanted to thank all those
that came down on this agenda item
today, and shared with us
their thoughts and their ideas.
I want you to know you're
always welcome here.
And as I've said from this seat
several times, Black Lives Matter.
What I see here today is a lot of anger
and frustration and justifiably so.
But I also see a lot of courage.
I see a lot of future leaders
that are here today, some of them
engaging for the first time.
And I want you to know that I look
forward to working with all of you
on these critical issues And think they
are critical to the future of Omaha,
and encourage you to stay
engaged on our weekly meetings
and in community affairs in general.
And city council meetings
in particular, including
the very next item, as we work
on our agenda and action items
take place in the city of Omaha.
By way of procedure,
this is a resolution,
and I won't go head to motion
to approve this resolution.
BEN GRAY: Second.
CHRIS JERRAM: No further lights.
Roll call.
ELIZABETH BUTLER: Harding?
BRINKER HARDING: Yes.
ELIZABETH BUTLER: Pahls?
RICH PAHLS: Yes.
ELIZABETH BUTLER: Palermo?
VINNY PALERMO: Yes.
ELIZABETH BUTLER: Festersen?
PETE FESTERSEN: Yes.
ELIZABETH BUTLER: Gray?
BEN GRAY: Yes.
ELIZABETH BUTLER: Mr. President?
CHRIS JERRAM: Yes.
ELIZABETH BUTLER: Item eight
is approved six to zero.
WOMAN: Item nine.
ELIZABETH BUTLER: Item nine-- a
resolution to urge the Nebraska State
Legislature to place a ballot
question before Nebraska voters
at a primary or general election to
repeal the ban on affirmative action
in employment and contracting in
Nebraska's political subdivisions.
CHRIS JERRAM: Public hearing on
item nine begins at this time.
We do have a sign in sheet to speak
either as a proponent or opponent.
So if you have not signed in and wish
to speak, please do so outside the door
and we will call on you.
The first proponent is Thomas Warren.
THOMAS WARREN: Good afternoon, Mr.
President, members of the city council.
My name is Thomas Warren.
I currently serve as President Chief
Executive Officer at the Urban League
in Nebraska.
3040 Lake Street.
Previously, I had the privilege
of serving with the mall police
department for 24 years as a
police officer, the last four years
as chief of police.
And I'm here to support
the resolution, to repeal
the ban on affirmative action.
Because it is a very strong
possibility that I would not
have even been hired as a police officer
if not for an affirmative action.
The question that I have is that
if discrimination of minorities
exist, what is the best way
to address the inequities?
When Ward Connerly came to
Nebraska, promoting a referendum,
he had a solution looking for a problem.
Because in my lifetime,
I could never recall
minorities being
over-represented in any sector,
whether it be public or private.
But what the referendum did do was send
a horrible message that Nebraska is not
a friendly state for minorities.
It also had a negative
effect on the number
public contracts awarded to
minority contractors, particularly
here in the city of Omaha.
And more importantly, it
sent a very negative message
to young professionals, some
of whom you heard from today.
A few years ago, the
Urban League of Nebraska,
along with Omaha Chamber
of Commerce administered
a survey of young professionals.
And the survey revealed that
African-American young professionals
were five to six times less likely
to recommend the city of Omaha
as a favorable place
to live, work, or play.
A follow up survey indicated that
overall, 80% of young professionals
felt that it was important to have a
diverse and inclusive work environment.
In order for that to occur, our
institutions, both public and private,
need to take bold steps to appeal to
the next generation of future leaders.
And the city of Omaha
can lead this effort
and by addressing the institutional
and systemic racism by voting to repeal
the ban on affirmative action.
Thank you.
CHRIS JERRAM: Thank you.
Jasmine Harris?
JASMINE HARRIS: Good afternoon.
Jasmine Harris, 5014 Pratt Street.
I was at the county commissioners
meeting this morning
and I'll say some of the
comments that I said then,
and a few that I've added recently.
All systems have disproportionately
affected black and brown bodies
specifically.
And in order to begin
moving the resolution that
was passed by the board of health,
that declares racism as a public health
crisis, this is another
step in the right direction.
So I'm asking that you all support this.
Affirmative action was yanked
out from under Nebraskans,
using deceptive language
in the petition process,
and using someone from out of state
to infiltrate communities of color
to get them to sign it.
The advocate and activist community
was slightly different then,
than it is now, and battling schemes
like this was a huge undertaking.
There is more unity than
ever before between people
who are diverse in age, race, gender,
sexual orientation, religion, and more.
Earlier, there was a
testifier that spoke
that only people who continue to talk
about this issue are the same people.
I ensure you that there
are way more people--
as of this afternoon, there's way more
people here than there was earlier--
that are ready to organize
and mobilize to ensure
that these inequities are eradicated.
Removing legislative and
organizational policy barriers
began to clear the parcel that this
work can be elevated to the next level
to create real and sustainable change.
Chief Schmaderer and Mayor
Stothert have announced efforts
to address implicit bias
with police and city staff
and to work do we increase diversity
and inclusion in the city government.
How will they do this if efforts that
are set to increase representation
of people of color, the
recruitment efforts,
are technically considered illegal?
Creating community advisory and
employee advisory committees along
with hiring a diversity and
inclusion manager with no authority
to use the tools that work because
they haven't been given that power,
due to legislation and policy.
These are gestures and we want more.
We don't want something
that makes you feel good,
but something with substance.
There are many analogies
that talk about--
to illustrate the issue at
hand with systemic, systematic,
and institutional racism.
And the most recent I've
seen talks about groundwater.
If you have one fish dead in a lake
then that's a problem with the fish.
If half the fish in the lake die,
then you have a problem with the lake.
You can address the
lake repair, but then
if you have more fish that die
then there's something else wrong.
The groundwater has been contaminated
and toxicity has seeped into that,
and that's what racism is not just in
our city, in our state and our country.
And that is what needs to be treated.
And affirmative action, repealing
that ban on affirmative action,
is just one step in that direction.
No it won't answer the whole issue
with racism and we know that,
and we just hope that
you all understand that.
Thank you.
CHRIS JERRAM: Thank you.
Kemara Snipe?
KEMARA SNIPE: Hello.
Kemara Snipe.
I resided at 5415 South 30th street.
Thank you, President Jerram and
members of the Omaha City Council.
Again, Kemara Snipe--
I am the proud President of
South Omaha Neighborhood Alliance
and also serve on the
Omaha Public School Board
representing sub district 8.
Home of the Omaha Bryan Bears.
We just had a discussion about a
need for a discussion on racism.
And, to me, this resolution
is a part of that discussion.
I stand before you today in support of
the resolution that the city of Omaha
will use to urge the Nebraska
State Legislature to place a ballot
question before the
voters, us, to repeal
the ban on affirmative
action in employment.
Please bear with me.
It's been a long day.
I rushed over here for a funeral.
Some of you may have known Miss Eleanor
Luckey, but her home going service
was today.
And it really resonates
with me because I
think about numerous conversations
I've had with this woman.
You couldn't go over there and she
wasn't watching CNN just period.
And it's amazing to me how
many things have not changed.
And I apologize for my emotion today,
but it's been an emotional day.
It's been an emotional year.
As a nation we've come a long way
when it comes to being inclusive.
I mean, we've even
had a black president.
But our work is far from done.
It's important that as
a country we continue
to expand opportunities-- excuse me.
Expand opportunities for
all to ensure that we
are giving everyone a fair shot.
And I say why not let Omaha, a city I
love but yet most of my family leaves,
why not let Omaha set
a positive example.
Having a background in workforce
and an interest in education,
I'll speak to that.
The city of Omaha isn't what
it was when I was a child.
Our communities of color are a
large part of the future of Omaha,
and we have to be prepared
for our workforce,
especially taking into consideration
recovery from COVID-19.
It's in our best interest--
it's in your best interest--
as a city to make this investment
into our workforce and our economy.
People of color make up nearly
40% of the workforce nationally.
By 2050, one in two workers will be
a person of color across the nation.
As a nation becomes more
diverse, so does our city.
And as the city becomes more
diverse, so does our workforce.
Diversity in our workforce fosters
innovation and competitiveness
in business.
Studies consistently show that
diversity drives innovation and fosters
creativity, which brings
the business here.
And yes it's true that as communities
of color, we've made strides.
Disparities are still
extremely prevalent.
And if you have not seen that,
then take off your filters.
The implication of race
neutral policies are
detrimental to all of
our future generations.
Policies that do not
consider race will decrease
representation of people of color.
It is necessary.
I stress it is necessary that we
create a fair process for expanding
opportunities for everyone.
Thank you.
CHRIS JERRAM: Thank you.
Jamar Dorsey?
Clarice Dombeck, you're next.
JAMAR DORSEY: Jamal Dorsey,
2615 North 32nd Street.
I stand before you again today.
These two issues are intertwined, right?
You talk about equality and you
talk about affirmative action.
I'm a proponent of both.
But I'll tell you why I'm a proponent of
affirmative action in the current work
that we do now, that I do now.
It's about providing opportunity
for people who normally
wouldn't have those opportunities.
And oftentimes you don't know the
opportunities that are in front of you,
if you're not exposed to them.
And so, when I think about
employment opportunities
and I think about
contracting opportunities,
oftentimes I would like to believe
that people just don't know
the options that are available to them.
And it is incumbent upon
us to force that hand.
Not to make a selection, but just to
broaden the pool, the opportunity,
and the network of whatever the
employment agency is looking for,
or whatever the contracting
agency is looking for.
And so I'm in favor
of affirmative action
that it should be placed back on the
ballot for the citizens of Nebraska
to vote for.
But it's just not for me.
It's for that next generation.
That they have opportunities to
be employed and run businesses.
That they have opportunities
for big and small contracts
to build infrastructure in our city.
If they don't know we exist,
if you don't know something
exist, then it's your responsibility.
And it should be to find out
what is available to you.
And so, from our lens, we can
continue to educate folks.
We can continue to push practices
and employment in contracting,
but we need to make sure that this isn't
something that gets swept under the rug
again, and it's not
right out in front of us.
It can't be a secret that there
are qualified people of color who
can take these jobs.
It can't be a secret that they are a
minority business owners who can handle
and can do the contracting
work in our city.
Thank you for your time.
CHRIS JERRAM: Thank you.
Clarice Dombeck?
Sheena Glover, you're up next.
CLARICE DOMBECK: Can you
hear me with the mask on?
OK.
Clarice Dombeck, 1618 Emmet Street.
The conceptualization of affirmative
action by the Nebraska Civil Rights
Initiative 424 was wrong.
Affirmative action is not
preferential treatment
on the basis of race, gender,
color, ethnicity, or nationality.
Affirmative action is restitution.
Restitution for 400 years of wrongs.
Restitution for York, the
slave of Lewis and Clark.
Restitution for the Omaha tribe and
their four million acres of land
that was stolen for them for
less than $0.22 per acre.
Restitution for all the enslaved
people who toiled in Nebraska
despite it being a free state.
For the lynching of Joe Cole
and 1891, for the police murder
of J A Smith in 1899, restitution
for the brutal lynching of Will Brown
in 1919.
For the race riots for
redlining for every,
"we don't serve any colored race here"
signs, posted in the city of Omaha.
For the Omaha and council
Bluffs Street Railway company's
policy of not hiring black drivers.
Restitution for Vivian Strong, for
David Rice, and Ed Poindexter--
free him.
Restitution for the police
killing of Marvin Amens.
Restitution for my mother,
who was fired from Vickers
Hydraulics plant for being
an outspoken black woman.
Restitution for all the other
acts of discrimination, racism,
racist violence, and systemic
oppression against black, indigenous,
and people of color in Nebraska.
Nebraska civil rights initiative 424,
Conceptualization of Affirmative Action
was wrong.
It is not preferential treatment based
on race, gender, color, ethnicity,
or nationality.
Affirmative action is restitution to
begin to write all of these wrongs.
And since I have more
time, I would like to say
that my professor, one of my
professors, Preston Love Junior is here.
And he is one of the people
in my life that gave me
the words to come and speak today.
Thank you.
CHRIS JERRAM: Thank you.
Sheena Glover?
Shalise Oliver, you're next.
SHALISE OLIVER: Good afternoon.
I'm going to-- can you
here me through my mask.
So my name is Sheena Glover.
I can't do this.
My name is Sheena Glover.
I live at 5426 Reynolds Street.
I am also a firefighter, paramedic
with the Omaha Fire Department.
I thought that it was very
important that I come and speak
in support of the
affirmative action ban being
removed because I am the fourth black
female in the history of our fire
department.
The fire department, as we
know, was established in 1860.
And I am one of two black
females currently standing.
I was told by a fire captain
once, early in my career,
that because I was black I would
have to work 10 times harder
than everybody else, and I still
wouldn't be on the same playing field.
Which spoke volumes to me.
Because I've always
been an honor student,
I've always been someone who strive
for excellence in everything that I do.
I currently work as a community safety
specialist for our fire department,
and I try to go above and
beyond to do everything
that I can to keep our community safe.
I believe that having more
minorities within departments,
it actually helps the city.
It is a plus for the things that we do.
I can speak firsthand from
being on the front lines,
and coming in as a person
of color, and actually
that being the de-escalation point.
I have been told, from the
promotional standpoint of the process,
that the fire department hasn't
had a female captain since 2008.
I am on the captain's list
and I asked about that.
And I was told that to promote
a female, out of order,
would be affirmative action
and we no longer have that.
Even though my resume
is three pages long.
Even though I have more certifications
than many people on this job
and in this department.
I have a bachelors in EMS.
I have associates of Fire Science.
And I'm close to finishing a second
bachelors in Fire Administration
and Arson Investigation.
I believe that sometimes
we are quick to say no
because it doesn't affect us directly.
But understand the
power in having people
that don't look like us,
every day, on the front lines,
in different facets of our city.
So thank you.
CHRIS JERRAM: Thank you.
Thank you for your service.
Shalise Oliver?
Luis Jimenez is next.
SHALISE OLIVER: Hi.
Shalise Oliver.
5132 North 116th Street.
So I came here part of,
What Youth Could Do.
So we are speaking
with OPS school board.
And a couple of things that
we would like to see changed
is an increase in counselors of color.
So OPS is one of the
most diverse schools,
within the state of Nebraska, yet
the people who are teaching us,
the people who are counseling
us do not look like us.
They do not represent the mass
minority that are inside those schools.
As we stated earlier,
during the first resolution,
how do you expect us to get help who
are going through all these traumas?
Who are losing community members?
Who are constantly dealing with
negative effects from the police
and from authority figures to
get help to want to do better,
to want to be a part of
everything else Omaha is going on,
if we do not have any help, if we don't
feel comfortable talking to someone
because they may not have gone
through the experiences we have?
And so, in order for OPS to
be able to do that and hire
more counselors of color, we first
need this Affirmative Act to pass.
So I am for a proponent of it.
And I just really hope that
if you guys do pass this,
you guys are on full support and that
you guys will also get out and vote
so we can actually see it happen.
Thank you.
CHRIS JERRAM: Thank you.
Luis?
Sarah Smolen, you're next.
LUIS JIMENEZ: Luis
Jimenez, 3306 Birch Street.
I'm going to try not to repeat a lot--
what has been said.
One thing though I told
the commissioners today was
that I didn't realize, in 2008,
the concept of affirmative action
was banned in 2008.
A lot of things happened in 2008.
I missed that.
But anyway, to oppose
affirmative action seems to me
that you would not want to give somebody
an opportunity, a fair opportunity.
And that has giving
opportunity the right thing--
right course-- doing the right thing.
That's something that was tried to
do in the inception of this country.
Affirmative action, the first
step to affirmative action
took place in the committee of five.
Who wrote the Declaration
of Independence?
And in that first draft by
the committee they took out--
or excuse me-- they required
the colonies to end slavery.
That's what the committee of five did
in the Declaration of Independence.
When it went to the full body,
that verbiage was taken out.
And so a few years later,
we all know what happened.
That coalition got passed.
A few years later this is how
Thomas Jefferson's described it.
The class two, re-probating, the
enslaving, the inhabitants of Africa
was struck out in complacence
to South Carolina and Georgia,
who had never attempted to
restrain the importation of slaves,
and who are the contrary
still wished to continue it.
Our northern brethrens, also I
believe, felt a little tender
under these censors.
For though their people had
very few slaves themselves,
yet they had been pretty considerably
carriers of them to others.
Thank you.
CHRIS JERRAM: Thank you.
Sarah Smolen?
Chris Rodgers,
Commissioner, you're next.
SARAH SMOLEN: Little short.
My name is Sarah Smolen.
I live at 3015 Spring Street.
And I'm here to-- organize my notes--
and I'm here because I'm for resolution
0678 for affirmative action.
Before COVID-19 broke out, I
worked at the Starbucks inside
of the Mutual of Omaha building.
Which was-- most of the
customers that we served,
worked in one of those buildings.
And I saw a decent amount of
diversity among the workforce
there, but mostly what I saw was there
were people who were work buddies.
Everybody has friends that they've
made because they're co-workers.
And I saw lots of pairs of
crossed racial boundaries,
I think specifically
of a young Indian woman
named Rohea and an older white man named
Joe who came down every day together
to get coffee.
And they were friends.
And there were many other people
like Rohea and Joe, who were friends.
And I remember watching
them and thinking,
this is what affirmative action is for.
This is for people to
interact with people
that perhaps they would not have.
If you've had a homogeneous upbringing
like me, or many people here
in Nebraska, you wouldn't interact
with people who didn't look like you.
But I didn't even realize at that point,
and I didn't know until a few days ago,
that affirmative action has
been banned in Nebraska,
which is frankly embarrassing.
And so, Mutual of Obama
had took that opportunity
to add diversity to the workforce.
And I think that's important.
But I think we need it because it
does foster friendships and empathy
and compassion for people.
So when things like the murderer
of George Floyd takes place,
it's no longer, that's their problem
or that happened to that community.
It happened to us, it
happened to our friends,
it happened to people
that we care about.
And we need that kind of compassion
and empathy in our work forces
and across our legislative bodies, in
order that we understand one another
and build a stronger sense of community.
Thank you.
CHRIS JERRAM: Thank you.
Commissioner Rodgers?
Jackie Kappas, you're next.
CHRIS RODGERS: Good afternoon,
President, members of the council.
I'm giving out to you a
diagram that I gave out
today at the county board
meeting, just to try
to make this point a little simple.
It's pretty direct.
And I'd like to start by saying,
immediately after George Floyd
incident, I can't recall
a time where I was
overwhelmed by messages
coming from groups
that had rarely talked in this space.
Four to five messages from
groups coming in emails
from organizations that had never really
been on a record like that before.
Putting words into groups lexicon
like, white privilege, white supremacy,
structural inequity, structural racism.
One of the first things that I
saw when this was really coming
is this graph that I gave you, and
I thought it put that in perspective
pretty well.
One of my colleagues, over
the weekend, shared with me
an email that was sent to him
from one of his constituents.
And at the heart of the
email, the email asks
him to vote against
this because it would
be discrimination against white people.
So I had to step back,
and I just told him this
is where we're trying to get to when
these conversations were happening.
When all of this was
going, people said people
would be uncomfortable
in these conversations,
and it would be some education
that would have to happen.
So simply put, you see
in that first graph--
CHRIS JERRAM: Can you [INAUDIBLE]
straight down on top of the--
CHRIS RODGERS: OK, sorry.
I thought it was there.
I don't know where to lay it out.
OK.
From this point that I'm making to
you-- the point I'd like to make--
CHRIS JERRAM: There you go.
CHRIS RODGERS: OK-- is, when all the
protests were at the heart of it,
this is what they were talking about.
The system is set up within equity.
And when affirmative action was--
when the constitutional
amendment was passed
to get rid of affirmative action, this
is basically what they were saying.
You want to take this year
to these years of inequality
and then all of a sudden make it equal.
But because of the structure
that's already been set up,
there's no way to get there.
What I think we're advocating
for now, and everybody
saying that you want to change
the structural piece to make room
to get at this, is equity.
The term that affirmative
action basically evolved of.
I mean, people were
saying affirmative action.
Then went to diversity inclusion.
Now the term is equity.
And I think what we need,
and what everybody's
been trying to do is get here.
To me, affirmative action is
these pieces and this ladder.
It's intentional.
It's not discrimination.
Is basically leveling it.
And we've been talking about race
for the last six to eight weeks.
So why is it bad that we not talk
about it when we talk about policy?
Because the point I'm
trying to move is that we're
going to have to be intentional.
And we all, in the aftermath of this,
is committed to be an intentional
to do this, and you're going to
have to have a policy that does it.
And for us, as the
government, entities to be
able to do that you can't
use the full authority
and be creative of what we can do
without having this off the books.
So with that, I'd like to actually
put you approval of the resolution.
Thank you.
CHRIS JERRAM: Thank you,
Commissioner Rodgers.
Jackie Kappas?
Candace your next,
followed by Nathan Scott.
JACKIE KAPPES: My name is Jackie Kappas,
5007 Western Ave. I speak here today,
as a concerned human, educator,
and mental health provider.
I very recently moved back to Omaha
and felt some confusion this morning
when I woke up and read about a
motion to repeal affirmative action?
And then I read it again,
and it was a motion
to repeal a ban on affirmative action.
A ban on affirmative action?
While my story about
affirmative action is
nowhere near the most
important or dire story here,
I think it is important that
we hear many voices speak
because it is so important.
So from a personal
perspective, I can speak
to the first time I saw a female
leader at work speak truth to power
and felt my throat open up
and my voice get louder.
I can speak to the
student who I supported,
who came to me crying that
the school had finally
hired the first teacher of color,
a teacher that looked like him,
and that teacher was
teaching real history.
Furthermore, as someone who supports
students in dreaming, as a teacher
and as a therapist I can tell you that
it is much easier to dream of something
if you have seen it.
We all deserve to see
ourselves represented.
And those that represent,
should represent Omaha.
Which means more leadership that is
black, indigenous, people of color,
that are LGBTQ, that are women,
that are transgender expansive, that
are differently abled.
Which means we need affirmative
action in the hiring
and contracting of Nebraska.
And which means more
public platforms to talk
about race and issues of racial
justice also need to exist.
I encourage you to vote in
support of resolution 8 and 9,
and that we work to make the language
and anything on the ballot very clear.
Because as I read it this
morning, it was not clear
and I think it needs to be really
clear on the ballot what people are
voting for so that everyone who votes
is actually voting for what they want.
Me those that represent
us, represent us.
CHRIS JERRAM: Thank you.
Candice Price?
Nathan Scott, you're
next and Brenda Council.
CANDICE PRICE: Good afternoon.
My name is Candice Price,
5132 North 116th Street.
I'm here for a proponent of this
bill to ban affirmative action,
the repeal of affirmative action.
I think that it is amazing
that we would have to take
a stance on such a thing in 2020.
I understand fully that we have to.
And if I didn't know
that before today, I
attended this morning's session of
the County Board of Commissioners
where there were two commissioners
that voted against it.
Their stance for voting
against it was the fact
that they felt that they needed to
have more conversation on the matter,
actually asking someone who
was here, Miss Brenda Council,
would she take the time to
talk with them about it?
Here's what I'm going
to tell you to that.
If, in 2020, and you're
over the age of 40,
you need to have
conversations to understand
the disproportionate inequality that
has happened against African-Americans
and people of color, then that is
your own wilful and willful ignorance.
That is you using your own white
privilege to not help but to hurt.
If you are over the age of 15 in
this country, and a person of color,
you understand this issue.
That means, as a child,
you understand this issue.
I'll give you a quick for instance.
My daughter spoke earlier--
Shalise.
She went to Saddlebrook
Elementary School.
In third grade, she was the
only black person in her class.
There was another class
next door that actually had
five black children mixed in the class.
Had there been any black staff
or any black administrator,
someone probably would
have noticed that.
To at least mix it up a little bit
so no child felt uncomfortable.
I also, as a parent,
could have actually asked
for her to be removed from that
class and put into the other.
But why would I make it where there
is one class with only white children,
no person of color, and
then why would I teach
my daughter something that was not a
lesson that she did not need to learn?
She was going to continue
to experience that.
And she has, and she's continued
to experience that because she
has been in all honors and AP
courses at her school, where
she is one of very few black faces
that you find in those classes.
That is part of the issue.
The issue was that she did not
have her first black teacher
until seventh grade.
She did not have her first black
administrator until high school.
She just now has her first black teacher
for a core course, a core curriculum
course--
it's engineering.
And that's because she's now
attending North Carolina Anti-State
University, a historically
black college and university.
For her to have someone
to look up to, that
looks like her, that is
what we have had to do.
Shalise Oliver has turned
down a full-ride scholarship
to the University of Nebraska Lincoln,
for their College of Engineering,
so that she can be surrounded
by high achieving, high learning
individuals that also look like
her and understand her plight,
and understand what
she's been dealing with.
Another thing that I'd
like to mention here,
when it deal with affirmative
action and what persons of color
have to consider that
you guys may not, even
have to consider things as small
as how we name our children.
What will we name our children
because 18 years from now,
they'll need to be applying to jobs?
What if we accidentally give them
a name that's meaningful to us,
but it alerts people ahead of time
that, oh, my goodness, they're black.
What will we do when they get shut
down from jobs because of this?
These are some of the issues.
I appreciate the time.
Thank you.
CHRIS JERRAM: Thank you.
Nathan Scott?
Brenda Council, you're next,
followed by Vicki Young.
NATHAN SCOTT: Nathan
Scott, 9280 Z Street.
The last speaker struck a cord with
me because I named my son DeMarcus.
In '94 shortly after he was
born, I read in the paper
that studies were sent out that
people with names like DeMarcus
were not getting jobs at the
same rate that people named John
and Josh and more white sounding names.
Applications sent out with
the same qualifications.
And I've seen this play
out in my son's life
when he went to apply for his first job.
I didn't plan on saying that, but she
really struck a chord with me on that.
There is no debate that
there is inequality
when it comes between white
and/or Caucasian and black people.
Inequality in wealth, economic
inequality, educational opportunities,
inequality in the criminal
justice system, so on and so on.
So I would ask you, do
you believe that this
is because black people are inferior?
Do we believe that?
I don't believe that.
I hope no one up here believes that.
A quick story.
I got my CDL and going into my first job
interview, a black man was coming out.
I went to CDL school with him.
I knew he was more qualified than I was.
I knew that had experience in
the field that we were going for,
that I did not have.
I got the job.
I chalked it up to a struck a
good rapport with the interviewer.
A few months into the
job, I asked a co-worker,
I told him the story
about this black man.
He said, do you really
think we would hire a--
fill in the blank.
You know what I'm saying.
And at that point, even
though I had been--
thought I was anti-racist, it occurred
to me, looking around this company,
there were no black people there.
That did not even occur to me
until this racist remark was given.
the Civil Rights movement was 50
years ago-- over 50 years ago.
Do we want to be having this
fight 50 years from now?
Affirmative action is a small,
tangible first step that we can make,
that you can make today.
It's a small thing.
But it's time.
CHRIS JERRAM: Thank you.
Brenda Council?
Vickie Young your next,
followed by Keegan Korf.
BRENDA COUNCIL: Good
afternoon, Mr. President,
members of the Omaha City Council.
My name is Brenda Council.
I reside a 1615 Wirt Street.
And I'm here today in
support of this resolution,
urging the city council
to urge the Nebraska
Legislature to advance a
ballot initiative to repeal
the ban on affirmative action.
Recent events in our nation,
in our city, in our state
have illuminated this country's shameful
history of racial injustice and racism,
systemic racism.
And when we look at systemic
racism, we who study it
know that it is a reflection of public
policies and institutional practices
that work in various and
often reinforcing ways
to perpetuate racial group inequity.
I stand before you as a
product of affirmative action.
You heard my brother speak
to the fact that he probably
wouldn't have been hired on the
OPD but for affirmative action.
I would not have attended law school but
for an Affirmative Action Scholarship
program that overcame the deprivation
of an opportunity for my father.
My father, a black man, who came
to Omaha Nebraska in around 1923.
A few years after our government, in
fact, but white supremacists in Tulsa,
Oklahoma bombed the Black Wall Street.
My father came here
from Okmulgee, Oklahoma,
a small town just south of Tulsa.
He came here looking for opportunity.
A black man in 1923, with one year
of college, who only job he could get
was working in the packing houses,
where he worked for 42 years
to provide for our family.
But he couldn't provide what he
needed to provide to our family
to enable me to go to Law School
without an affirmative action program
because he'd been deprived of that
because of the color of his skin.
I was reminded, and I reminded
my brother this afternoon,
after 42 years my father received
a monthly pension of $36.20,
Something that he would
not have received.
He would have received much more
had he been accorded the kind of job
commiserate with his education.
But he was deprived of that.
And that's why we're here today.
Because we must make one thing clear.
As Professor and author
Ibram Kendi has written,
"Racial inequity is a problem
of bad policy, not bad people."
And I have to emphasize that.
Because I think the county commissioners
who voted against the resolution
this morning, think that if you are
not supportive of affirmative action,
that you're somehow a bad person.
Now, what we're saying to you
is it's the policy that is bad,
and that you have to change the policy.
And if you look at the
constitutional amendment,
prohibiting affirmative action--
it actually is a glaring
example of a public policy
that entrenches inequity in our state.
It entrenches the equitable
distribution of opportunities, rights,
and privileges.
Now if, as the mayor
has announced, this city
is serious about developing a strategic
resolution to improve diversity,
inclusion, and equity we
must do away with structures
that serve to uphold and perpetuate a
system of disproportionate opportunity,
based solely on the color of one's skin.
A step in that direction is
to adopt this resolution,
urging the Nebraska
legislature to support a ballot
initiative to repeal the constitutional
ban on affirmative action.
Doing that removes a
policy structure that
prevents us to achieving what
this diagram shows as equity.
Understand what affirmative action is.
Read this.
Equity, custom tools that
identify and address inequality.
That's what affirmative
action is, a custom tool.
Thank you.
CHRIS JERRAM: Thank you.
Vicky Young, followed by, Keegan Korf.
And then Matthew Lemar.
VICKIE YOUNG: Good afternoon.
I'm Vicki Young, President of
the Omaha Branch of the NAACP.
2221 North 24th Street, 68110.
Thank you for this opportunity.
The Omaha Branch of
the NAACP, our mission
is to secure the political, educational,
social, and economic equality of rights
in order to eliminate
race-based discrimination,
and ensure the health and
well-being of all persons.
In 2008, the Nebraska State
Legislature adopted a ban
on affirmative action related
to employment and contracting,
in Nebraska, political bodies.
The ban has perpetuated disparities,
racial injustice, and systemic racism
in our state, and represents a barrier
to improving diversity, inclusion,
and equity at local government
and community levels.
As part of the commitment to racial
justice and active engagement
in anti-racism, rejecting the
hierarchy of racist policy,
the Omaha branch of the NAACP and the
Omaha Community Council for Racial
Justice and Reconciliation, we
support efforts to repeal the ban
on affirmative action, which
would be a step towards progress--
step towards progress in doing away with
structures upholding and perpetuating
systemic racism.
Yes we support today's resolution.
And during this critical
moment in the movement,
the Omaha Branch of the NAACP and
OCCRJR will not only work with
co-collaborators to engage and lobby
state legislature until the repeal is
made, but we will also educate
the community on the significance
of today's resolution and the repeal
of the ban on affirmative action--
excuse me.
And so on behalf of the
Omaha NAACP, I ask that you
vote in support of this resolution.
Thank you.
CHRIS JERRAM: Thank you.
Keegan Korf.
Matthew Lemar is next.
Then Eduardo Quintero.
KEEGAN KORF: Good afternoon, President
Jerram, members of the council.
My name's Keegan Korf.
I reside at 1936 South 37th
Street, Omaha, Nebraska 68105.
I'm here today as a constituent
of President Jerram, and as
a public school advocate to speak as a
proponent for resolution number nine,
supporting efforts of
the Omaha City Council
to urge the Nebraska State
Legislature to place a ballot
question before Nebraska voters to
repeal the ban on affirmative action.
Over the course of
the last two months, I
have personally participated in
and witnessed organized action
by young black community leaders
speaking up against injustice
in our communities and in our schools.
I've witnessed the 36-day long protest
outside of Douglas County Attorney Don
Kleine's gated community.
I've seen teachers stand
up for Black Lives,
and I've seen the students
of Omaha public schools
organize an impactful rally
and engage in public comment
at their local school board meeting.
At that school board meeting,
which was just last night,
I witnessed white supremacy
firsthand and saw youth peacefully
push back against a system
that has treated them unfairly
and provided fewer opportunities
for them for far too long.
I envision a city that is
safe and representative
for all our youth in the future.
I want black, brown, and those
who identify as BIPOC teachers
and doctors and lawyers and
city government officials,
and I want them intentionally
placed in those roles
because their voice is critical
and wanted in our community.
I want them to see themselves
reflected in the leaders that
serve their communities.
It is clear that our city is hungry
for anti-racist policy change.
The repeal of the ban
on affirmative action
is an important step
in the right direction.
Thank you.
CHRIS JERRAM: Thank you.
Matthew?
Eduardo Quintero's next.
Followed by, Michelle O. Sutton.
MATTHEW LEMAR: My name is Matthew Lemar.
I reside at 4827 Pierce
Street, in Omaha.
I'm speaking today as a recent high
school graduate, class of 2020.
And over my 13 years of
education I spent seven years
in Omaha public schools and six years
in the Omaha Catholic school system.
And in those 13 years, I never
once had a teacher of color
at all, from kindergarten all
the way through 12th grade.
And while I feel that I was academically
prepared for life after high school,
I feel like I was robbed
of the experience of having
someone, an educator, to look
up to who does not look like me,
who is not of the same culture as me.
I think if there's one thing
that this summer has taught us,
it's that the experiences
of white Americans
and people of color in America,
especially black Americans,
are not the same.
And I think perhaps one of
the reasons that the events
of this summer and the
issues, which have arisen,
have been so shocking to
me and many of my peers
is that we have not been
exposed to these issues
because our educators are
all white, all look like us.
I feel like without that
diversity in our school system,
within our educators, we are
forced to remain in our fish bowls.
I am not exposed to other
issues, which I can never
expect to understand as
a white male in America--
issues which I will
never have to deal with.
And especially after the resurgence
of the Black Lives Matter movement
this summer, as we have all committed
to really addressing these issues,
especially within our
schools, the only way
we can effectively address these
issues is if we have people of color
in positions to teach these issues.
That's one thing that I really
had to work on this summer,
as these issues have arisen, is
just stepping back and listening.
Listening to the people who
these issues affect directly.
And when we have a school where
there are no black teachers, how can
we expect people with
white privilege, us,
to listen to these people
whose experiences are
at the core of this
movement, if they're not
in the positions in which to do that?
So, for that reason, I'm
in support of this measure
and would urge you to
also support this measure.
CHRIS JERRAM: Thank you.
Eduardo?
Michell O Sutton's next,
followed by, Preston Love.
And if you wish to speak on this
item, and have not signed in,
please do so outside the doors.
EDUARDO QUINTERO: My
name's Eduardo Quintero.
I live at 96th and Q. I wanted
to speak on the item earlier,
but I'll just intersect it as well.
It doesn't make sense
that we're here, in 2020.
I'm part of the working class.
I'm sure as many of
these people are too.
And we have to use a lot of our
time and energy for other things.
We shouldn't be here
speaking to you all.
This shouldn't be anything
that we should be discussing.
But nonetheless, dialogue
is important right?
So it's important for
our voices to be heard.
I think the thought behind
opposing affirmative action
is that people should
be hired and included
in organizations, based on their merit.
And if that were true, we wouldn't
see only the second or perhaps
fourth historical woman of
color firefighter here in Omaha.
That should speak volumes already.
That's a perfect example, a
direct example, in our community.
Let alone things like people
with the same exact resumes,
submitting it under the name
DeMarcus, not getting interviews.
Yet people with Judeo
Christian names getting
calls back for the same exact resumes.
It's deeply problematic.
And the least you can do is ensure this
small little tidbit of inclusivity.
With that being said, I don't think
that hiring more black police officers
or women of color into
policing is the solution.
I don't believe that placing more
money and resources into the police,
directly, is beneficial.
The amount of money that is poured
into policing over the years,
you would think that us, as a leader
of the world, the United States,
would not have over on
average over 1,000 deaths,
and the next industrial nation
doesn't even have triple digits.
So I think the solution there is to
essentially defund and then abolish.
If you look at the case
with, Rayshard Brooks--
please raise your hand if
you're familiar with that case?
Are you-- one hand?
Two?
So in that case, the officer
that did murder Rayshard Brooks,
he had over 2000 hours of training.
I don't know if you've
ever put in 2000 hours
into a specific skill
or activity, but that
would be four hours every day for a year
that you'd practice that skill or hobby
or activity or even your profession.
So that's over 2000 hours he had.
And in April, just two months prior,
he had received extensive training
in how to de-escalate.
That's just one example of
hundreds that you could research.
I also ask you, if you have
done any research, on to how
to defund and abolish the police?
If you read any sort of academic
journals, articles, books?
I'm asking you by hands, or head nod if
it's too difficult to raise your hand.
CHRIS JERRAM: The rules
of the debate, do not
allow questioning of the council.
EDUARDO QUINTERO: Oh, OK.
I didn't realize it was a debate.
My apology.
Yeah, so anyway if you
haven't I definitely
implore you to look into that.
Yeah, that's just not
the avenue to take.
And, yeah.
Thanks.
CHRIS JERRAM: Thank you.
Michelle O Sutton?
Preston Love?
MICHELLE BUTLER: Does it say, Butler?
My handwriting might be terrible.
Butler?
OK, I'm sorry.
CHRIS JERRAM: They had been--
go ahead, Michelle.
Come on up.
PRESTON LOVE: I'll stand with her.
CHRIS JERRAM: Preston, he'll wait.
He'd love to wait.
Oh, by the way, after Preston Love we
have Ben Swan and then Mahamed Jimali.
MICHELLE BUTLER: Michelle
Butler, 6402 North 95th Court.
I'm coming here personally, as an
African-American woman, 40 plus years
old.
I had to go through my stages of loving
myself as African-American woman.
With that being said, I don't
necessarily believe anymore that this--
I'm a proponent of this for sure.
But I also don't believe that
I want to sit at the table,
if someone does not
want me at the table.
I believe I start
believing more of Wakanda.
Everybody seen Black Panther?
Wakanda.
I just feel like this battle
has gone on far too long.
My name is Michelle.
I named my son, Shaquille.
He's probably not been able to get--
he just graduated, but he may not
be able to get in the door for him
to sit at the table,
for you to understand
that he's an awesome black young
man that will be able to represent
whatever job he's trying to apply for.
Michelle Butler has
gotten in the door, I've
went through stages with
my hair and everything.
Colors-- I love my colors.
I love-- in our culture
it's about expression.
And any person who is excluded,
it's about expression.
The LGBTQ community is about expression.
So when we go into these
spaces, we cannot be ourselves.
I used to go and flat iron my hair and
dress a certain way to get the job.
I don't always feel that is necessary.
I feel like we should be
able to come as we are.
So, to me, I just feel
as a personal testimony,
I know there's many
people who missed out.
But I also go for places that I
know I'm going to be comfortable.
I work at a black organization.
I'm totally comfortable there.
I don't want to go--
I graduated from Nebraska
Wesleyan University.
I spoke at the inauguration
of our president
about inequality, racism,
all of this stuff.
I spoke in those classes.
I didn't want to read anything
else about white privilege.
I don't want to read
anything about that stuff.
I'm like, why are we
still talking about this?
I want to learn more than--
I don't want to go to
college or learn about MLK.
I don't want to go to college
you hear about slavery.
We-- this is just an agenda I feel
like it's just being pushed on us.
I'm choosing to homeschool my daughter
now because of affirmative action
of not been in the schools.
I want my daughter to have
a African-American teacher,
a female teacher.
So I just feel like
these are reasons that it
needs to be really pushed, like they
said, change the wording so people
understand.
Some people may not
know what repeal means.
So change it and make
it possible for people--
because this is the way
the world needs to be.
But also, at some point, like
now it's getting to the point
to where it's detrimental to
society the way things are going.
So thank you.
CHRIS JERRAM: Thank you.
Preston Love, followed by
Ben Swan and Mahamed Jimali.
PRESTON LOVE: My name is Preston love.
My address is 6021 Villa [INAUDIBLE].
I hope that you notice that I
came before you without any notes.
I don't need any notes to
talk about affirmative action.
I stand before you as a victim
of the lack of affirmative action
and a victor of affirmative action.
I don't need notes.
I need you to know that
I'm tired of standing
before boards and commissions and
people talking about the same things
over and over.
We talked about and argued
the same case in the '60s--
the '60s.
Affirmative action comes from
1961 as an executive order.
Here we are in 2020 talking
about affirmative action.
And not only that, we're talking
about it for the same reasons
that it was executed in the '60s.
Disparities in the '60s
are still here in 2020.
I'm tired of arguing these cases, but
I know that if some of us who have
lived through it and have
the memory of redlining.
I lived in a redline
community right here in Omaha.
And I was discriminated against and
lived and went to segregated schools
right here in Omaha.
When I went to the
University of Nebraska,
there were seven African-Americans
in the whole school,
with the exception of the athletes.
When I went and worked for IBM, in a
division that had 200,000 employees,
eight of us were hired
into professional jobs.
Oh, my goodness.
This is deja vu.
And so I say, and I really came to speak
as it relates to black contractors,
before the affirmative action
was started at the federal level
and then became part of the
way in which we did business
in America, black business
and contractors in Omaha,
Nebraska were failing and did
not, to a large degree, exist.
After the affirmative action in
'61 we had an 80, I'll use 80,
we had over 150 to 160 very
successful black contractors
because of affirmative action.
We had some of them who
were doing so well that they
began to accumulate wealth and they
brought wealth to our community.
And then, after the ban that came
from the public vote of Nebraskans,
we now have a handful of very--
the contractors are failing.
We wouldn't have to do this if
cities and counties and states
would buy and use our contractors
without any affirmative action,
but you're not.
So we need affirmative action.
So I stand before you as a witness of a
long memory of over and over and over.
And I respectfully say
to you, enough is enough.
Go ahead and I urge you
to pass this resolution
and help us all as we try to get
the state to do the right thing.
Thank you so very much.
CHRIS JERRAM: Thank you.
Ben Swan followed by, Mahamed Jimali.
BEN SWAN: Good afternoon
honorable city council.
Came here on a different item
today, and just stumbled into this,
and found that I had to speak
as a proponent of this as well.
I'm a new father this year and
it's been a year for everyone.
And I'm a small business owner.
I have 10 commercial tenants
that we've built from nothing.
And the majority of my tenants
are small business owners
that are actually woman owned,
but there's no people of color
who I do business with right now.
And I had no people of
color who taught me.
And I went to public school and I
went to private school about 50-50.
And I'm not quite 40, but if I'm
honest with myself, a lot of it
is just willful ignorance.
I have been given a lot of chances.
And I am very grateful
for those chances and I
try to contribute to our
community because of the chances
that I've been given
because I've made mistakes.
I've listened to a lot of this
conversation that's been going on,
and I've been fortunate enough
to have a lot of people of color
who have shared their stories with me.
And I've come up before
you many times, and I'm
intimidated when I come up before you.
And I lose my words.
And I just can't--
with all my privilege, with everything
that I've been given, I just--
this is just one of hundreds things
that is just so important in our culture
right now.
Because I look at my
child as, do I want him
to grow up in a world of
animosity and hatred and division
where the businesses
that I have to board up
because of these protests and
these riots, and the callousness
and the lack of compassion for
the underlying causes, that's
what I attribute it to.
Just, I mean, cards face up.
And so there's-- do I want to see
that perpetuation of willful ignorance
and the callousness and the pain and the
deprivation that that's going to cause?
It's not a world that my--
in Omaha, that my son grows up in.
I don't want that to be his Omaha.
And so that's why I'd ask that you guys
repeal this ban on affirmative action.
Thank you very much.
CHRIS JERRAM: Thank you.
Mahamed?
Cole Christensen, you're next,
followed by Michaela Chambers.
MAHAMED JIMALI: Good afternoon.
I'm just appreciative for
the Omaha City Councilors.
They doing-- a great job.
I'm supportive for this
suggestion about equal--
equal [INAUDIBLE] to our employment.
Let's face another beautiful community.
CHRIS JERRAM: Would you lift
the microphone up closer?
MAHAMED JIMALI: Yeah.
CHRIS JERRAM: Just raise
it up a little bit.
There you go.
MAHAMED JIMALI: So the issue
about employment and equality,
we just supporting that idea.
And we just saying it is
good for the community,
and people can get more benefit.
Because we face enough people
who would complain about--
some people, they apply the job.
Where I come from, I'm president of the
East African Development Association
of Nebraska.
We mostly came to Nebraska as a refugee.
Although our people, now have
become a citizen of Nebraska
on especially on Omaha accounting.
So some people are
very professional jobs.
They have a degree.
Some they have a bachelor's degree.
Sometimes when they apply to higher
jobs, they disqualify somehow.
We don't know that is your
discrimination or not,
but we supporting for this idea--
this thing today.
I believe in the city.
We just say thank you for
that, and we will continue
to encourage people to get a job.
And also, we thank you so much for--
July 1, we had some
[INAUDIBLE] national day.
We just request that the Omaha City to
change the light bulb to [INAUDIBLE]..
They did a good job.
They changed the light.
Our community, they went for
9:00 to 11:00 that night.
They celebrated.
They everybody see that they
are [INAUDIBLE] of the city
because the light was blue and white.
And everyone were very
appreciative of the city,
and we say thank you so much for that.
I'm saying I'm glad to be here in Omaha.
Thank you.
CHRIS JERRAM: Thank you.
Cole Christensen, followed by
Michaela Chambers with LaCedric Gipson
after that.
COLE CHRISTENSEN: Cole-- sorry.
Cole Christensen, 5906
South 140th Ave 68137.
First off, I was going to
apologize for the way I'm dressed,
but I was coming from work.
And then I realized that's a
point is that these things being
held in the middle of
the day and not at lunch
really limits the accessibility
of everyday citizens
who are affected by these issues
to come here and speak on it.
So in the future, this
is not even the first one
I've been to where this
has been the scenario.
I understand you guys
have a lot going on,
but it seems like
accessibility needs to be
addressed so that the voices that need
to be here have the ability to do so.
I also wanted to echo some of the things
that other people have mentioned today
about the importance of knowing
people of color and black people,
and how it really affects.
I've grown up out west.
I had a neighbor growing up that,
if it would not have been for them,
I would have had no exposure
to anybody that was not white.
Like the younger man
mentioned just a minute ago,
that graduated recently, that he
had not had a single person of color
as a teacher any of his time.
I can second that.
But the reason that I got involved in
this and started learning more about it
and combating my ignorance
as much as I possibly could,
is because of these friends I
had and what that did for me.
And I look at the people that I
work with in a very predominantly--
actually all white position.
And I see their ignorance.
I don't know how to address it.
We need-- we need a helping hand in that
and that's why I am here supporting.
And the wording--
I'm going to screw it up right
now, just like I did when we were
doing the repeal of the death penalty.
In 2015, we are having the same issue.
And I feel like the wording is
often intentionally misleading,
so that people have
trouble understanding what
exactly it is they're voting
on or just go, you know what?
This too confusing.
I'll go to the next thing that I know,
that I've seen the commercials for.
These are issues that affect
people every single day.
And I feel like we need to make it easy
for an average citizen who doesn't have
a whole lot of free time to come
do research and all of this stuff
still contribute.
And the last thing, and I know I've
jumped around a lot but I apologize,
is that I would like to
second what Joey said earlier.
That I was at the client protest,
and I witnessed some what I knew
was predictable having
grown up out there,
but some nightmarishly disgusting
behavior on the part of some
of our Omaha citizens.
And I also watched the Omaha
police department literally
help a man who had just
run into a protester.
Going slow, mind you,
but still ran into him.
The guy fell against his hood.
And the cop said, go home sir.
We saw multiple
different occasions where
they took the side of the aggressor.
They tried to get me to delete pictures
off my phone of these five pickups
with multiple Confederate flags and
Blue Lives Matter trucks that came in.
And it was me, my gay ass,
and a bunch of young girls
and they were going to stomp
us, and specifically me.
And the cops came and were mad that I
took pictures of their license plates.
Like what?
I don't know.
That's completely unacceptable to me.
And I know it's unrelated
to the issue, but I just
want you to know that
there are people now
who have been brought into the fold
in this, and we're not going anywhere.
I'm not going anywhere.
And I am persistent and annoying,
so get used to seeing me.
Thank you.
CHRIS JERRAM: Thank you, Cole.
Michaela Chambers followed
by, LaCedric Gipson.
Then Willie Barney.
Remind people, if you wish to
speak, please sign in outside
and they'll get us your information.
MICHAELA CHAMBERS:
Michaela Chambers again.
9611 North 29th Street,
Omaha, Nebraska 68112.
I am in support to repeal the ban on
affirmative action resolution 0678.
The tech industry is the
future of this country.
How many tech startups are
currently based in Omaha, Nebraska?
Large corporations, over
the last several weeks,
have been taking a firm stand
against racism and systemic issues
within their own businesses.
In order to bring economic growth,
which is a large part of y'all's job,
to Omaha such as these
tech corporations,
which are historically based in much
more liberal and progressive cities,
we must start getting ahead of the curve
on social issues instead of remaining
years behind.
The resolution is a very small
step in the right direction,
but I hope to see more profound
and extensive legislative changes
to the city of Omaha that will bring
expansive wealth and economic growth
to the city of Omaha,
due to what we could
be as a deemed as a forward-thinking
city on issues such as racism.
Thank you again for your time.
CHRIS JERRAM: Thank you.
LaCedric Gipson.
Willie Barney I have you
as the last proponent
so is there anyone we
missed as proponents?
I'm calling for additional proponents.
Go ahead.
LACEDRIC GIPSON: Yeah, my
name is LaCedric Gipson.
I live at 1314 North 70th Avenue.
I'm a proponent for this
bill because there's
a bill going around Congress
right now as HR40 is
for reparations for African-Americans.
And I feel like as
long it passed anyways.
So maybe this is one
step to get towards that.
Because I feel like we need
resources within the communities
that are asking for
it, mainly black ones.
And here is some information I
compiled to just see how resources
are spread out throughout the city.
So let's see.
This says, reported by Channel 3 News.
Of Omaha's 1.1 billion budget
for 2020, 15% goes to the police.
We have a uniformed patrol
bureau that has five precincts,
a Criminal Investigation
Bureau has three precincts,
Professional Oversight Bureau
has one internal affairs unit,
Police Services Bureau has an
administrator, support services,
and those two administrative
and support services section.
And then the Executive
Services Bureau has training
and I believe commentators maybe?
And then I also found that the budget
hasn't appropriated $44,000 in benefits
with $142,000 in compensation.
And then from the same
website I found that,
and just looking at
libraries around town,
the library department has two
directors and five branches.
That's it.
Compare those two.
And then the Florence
Library, which is obviously
around more black people, that has
a budget of $288,000 compensation
expert dentures compared to $1,112,000
at the Miller Public Library.
And then the Washington, I think
it's a Washington library on Ames,
I'm going to name it wrong.
Sorry, but that has $554,000.
So that's a vast difference.
And just moving along, the human
rights and relations department
has nine board members, one director,
one assistant director, and then I
commerce and education outreach branch.
Projects centered in compliance--
sorry my handwriting is bad--
and one branch and then a Civil
Rights and Support Service branch.
That's it.
And I also found that there is a pie
chart of just how funds are split up
in the city.
And for public works is 39%.
And then like I said, police is 14%.
And in the budget, we only have $2
million for community service programs.
We have $12 dollars for a
county jail and emergencies.
So that's like $10 million
difference just right there.
And then from there, just
another thing in the budget.
The hotel convention-- the hotel
construction was at $758,000 in 2019.
In 2020, we have $150,000
in neighborhood grants.
MENTOR Nebraska is at $10,000.
Pace is at
Douglas County Jail
has $5 million, which
is a $2,000 increase from last year.
The Deputy City Department
has $633,000 in funding,
which is $5,000 more than what was
recommended in the first place.
And we have $403,000 left in the
grant for Cops Stop School Violence.
I mean, why does a cop have to be
in a school in the first place?
The Justice and Mental Health
Collab fund started with $75,000
and it's now down to
$36,000 in grant money.
I got one more here.
I'm pretty sure I'm out of time.
CHRIS JERRAM: No, go ahead The
microphone was cutting you off.
LACEDRIC GIPSON: This
says, how do we get
a grant of one million dollars
for explosive detection canines,
and a team there, and
there's people who came
and get a $500 loan from businesses?
So the resources aren't spread out
in an effective way, in my opinion.
So maybe we can get people in
these jobs, do some legislation.
Thank you.
CHRIS JERRAM: Thank you.
And I would like to encourage anyone
with comments on the public budget,
we will have a public budget hearing
at 6:30 PM on August 11, right here.
Next speaker is Willie Barney.
WILLIE BARNEY: Good afternoon.
Willy Barney, 12333 Cuming Street.
I was here earlier for the county.
I've just been listening
to our community.
I've been to the council over the
last 12, 14 years a number of times.
It's powerful to hear the
community speaking for themselves.
I thought twice about
saying something, but I
wanted to echo some of what I've heard.
This is a historic day.
One way or the other,
it's a historic day.
Unfortunately, as my friend
Preston said, in some cases
we're reliving history, having to
fight a battle that we've already won.
Having to bring it back to
the council, to the county,
and to the state to
re-fight the same battle.
You look at the data.
You can go through the data.
We know employment, education,
housing, incarceration, every stat
that you can look at--
traditionally, African-Americans
and also people of color, Hispanic,
Native American--
we can look at the data that you have,
that we have, that the county has,
the state has.
We see it at the school district.
The data says we have a race issue.
Affirmative action is not about giving
someone, unqualified, an opportunity.
It's giving someone that is
qualified the opportunity.
The thing I want to bring
back to you is that there's
data that says with a
region that is equitable,
it would add $4 billion dollars to
the economic activity of this region.
Diversity is not something to fight
against, it's something to fight for.
Diversity, in this community,
would add another $4 billion
of economic activity.
So for those that potentially might be
against this, whether here at the city,
at the county, or the state level
we're fighting against ourselves
to fight against having diverse
businesses, public institutions.
Since this affirmative ban has been
enacted, we have people that say, well,
we can't provide certain
information by race now.
We can't focus on
African-American young men
to address that issue
because we can't fund that.
We can't do certain things
because this ban is in place.
So I'm challenging you today, and
encouraging you, and prayerfully
that you'll take the leadership
example of the county and also set--
and set a standard for the state
that this state is for everyone,
that this city is for everyone.
And we finally address centuries,
250 years of free labor,
150 years of systemic oppression, that
this is a statement, this is a day,
this is a time that
the city, the county,
send a message to the entire state that
we are going to finally solve this.
Let Omaha be the city on the hill.
Let Omaha be the place that
other cities across this country
look to across Republican, Democrat,
and Independent, across every race,
across every geography
that this is our moment.
We have to re-fight this
battle, but I can tell you
that we have people of every color
that are ready to fight this battle.
God bless you.
Thank you, Councilman Gray
for bringing this forward.
Thank you city council for
sending the message to the state.
Thank you.
CHRIS JERRAM: Thank you.
We'll now hear from the
opponent, Larry Storer.
LARRY STORER: Thank you.
Larry Storer.
5015 Lafayette Avenue.
Omaha 68132.
I hope you guys will take my
bill for parking and tow bill
for keeping me here so
long this afternoon.
I'm wondering under
the Open Meetings act,
whether 25 proponents is maybe a
little bit unreasonable for a rule.
Do they get to come back
for five minutes more each?
That's one of the rules, I think?
I don't think people
want to stay for that.
But anyway, let's have
some more history.
Our nation was not founded in 1619.
I believe 1776 is the date.
1619 was one of the colonies, Jamestown.
But Jamestown actually was there in
1609, so the New York Times is a liar.
And we didn't bring slaves over in 1609.
I believe, later on when slaves did--
oh, 1609-- I'm sorry.
Indentured servants.
My ancestors might have been an
indentured servant, a form of slavery.
I don't think there were any
blacks on that particular voyage.
And maybe not on the Mayflower.
Yes there was later in Jamestown.
And Jamestown failed because
of a socialist experiment.
Socialist is somewhat
equated with Democrat.
Democrat as somewhat associated
with southern states.
And in today's economy
today's United States
a lot of the major cities that
are having extremely bad problems
are controlled by Democrats.
And gee whiz, North Omaha has
a shooting about every day.
I don't hear a shooting every
day in Dundee or west of Omaha.
So let's be careful with the facts.
Now, I do agree with Brenda
Council and Preston Love.
I'm damn tired of it too.
I started working in 1960--
well, part time as a
school student before 1961.
I've never had an employer
encourage me to be racist.
I've never had anyone tell me it was OK.
I've had a lot of people
say be careful what you say.
You may be interpreted wrong.
And I've had a lot of employers
say you're out of here
if you say anything like that.
This is this has gone on for so
long but why hasn't it been solved?
Maybe it's human nature?
We're not all good actors are we?
So let's quit pitting each
other against each other,
and don't let these people they're being
used by Marxists tell you otherwise.
Black Lives Matter, yes.
Words matter.
Laws matter.
And by the way, the threatened
illusion that the ban on--
how did somebody ban
affirmative action if it was--
was that an unconstitutional act?
Was affirmative action unconstitutional?
Did it only apply to employers
with 25 or more employees?
Maybe the lawyers in the
501(c)(3) peoples have it wrong.
Maybe they're part of the problem.
Maybe part of the
problem is outsiders, not
from Omaha, that have a written agenda.
CHRIS JERRAM: Your time's expired.
LARRY STORER: Black Lives
Matter is one of those.
Let's get them out of
Omaha and teach our kids--
CHRIS JERRAM: Thank you.
LARRY STORER: What Marxism is.
CHRIS JERRAM: OK.
Public hearing is closed.
Council Member Gray, you're recognized.
BEN GRAY: Thank you, Mr. President.
Thank you, Mr. President and I'm
going to try and go as fast as I can,
but I'm going to be a few minutes.
so I'm letting you know
that right now, that I'm
going to be a few minutes here.
First of all, those who are opposed to
affirmative action, the main thing they
say when they talk about their
being opposed to affirmative action
is that it is reversed discrimination.
So I'm trying to figure out the words
on that because what you're saying to me
is that, OK, discrimination is OK
but reverse discrimination is not OK.
I don't I don't know what that means.
So I'm going to have to have somebody
explain that to me at some point.
But one of the things
I want to do today is
I want to give somebody some
history that people don't talk about
and young people always talk
about, and rightfully so.
That the history books are not
reflective of the condition
or the contributions or
a number of other things
that are related to black
people specifically.
And that's what I'm going to talk about
today, is black people specifically.
And the history that I'm going to
give is going to share with you.
And I want to--
I want to preface my remarks by
saying I'm a strong Union man.
I'm a strong Union supporter.
I was a Union president
when I was at channel 7.
I was a regional president of Union.
So what I'm going to say is
going to be talking about unions,
but it's going to be
talking about the history.
For example, if we're talking
about affirmative action,
and if we're talking
about people and we're
using the definition
that are used by those
who are opposed to affirmative
action, then white people
have had affirmative action
since Reconstruction.
And the reason that is
accurate is because when
you look at history, when
you look at, for example,
and I'm going to take
horse racing for a minute.
Between Reconstruction
and 1890, the majority
of jockeys who rode in the Kentucky
Derby, the Preakness, and a number
of other things were black jockeys.
During those days, nine
of the 10 individuals
who raced in the Kentucky Derby,
or any other horse racing event,
were black people.
Then unions came in, and they began
to move people, move black people out,
so that by 1930, there
was one black jockey.
Hasn't been one since.
I want to talk about the
Davi-Bacon Act for a minute
because people talk about it from the
perspective of the wages that are made.
And people can make a good living
and I agree with all that stuff.
But the fact of the matter
is, is that when Davis-Bacon
was introduced in 1930 in 1931,
the preamble in that document said,
no black or other
itinerant workers shall
game contracts with
the federal government.
So you began to move blacks
out of the construction trades
till by 1930, there
were very few in there.
And because of the unions and
the structure that they set up,
it was impossible for
blacks to even get in
to gain training or anything like that.
And this went on for
decades and decades.
So to say that individuals, that we
were not-- and what's ironic about this
is that black people
built the White House.
Well, let we back up.
Black people built
the White House twice.
Because the first time it burned
down during, The War of 1812.
And then it was reconstructed
again by blacks, as well as other--
black workers built other
edifices in Washington DC.
But all of a sudden in 1930,
when the Depression came,
and people in the North were
calling for these black contractors
to build up North and
others couldn't get them--
and whites couldn't get contracts
because blacks were charging less money
and doing more credible
work, we had to create
a law that eliminated
what black people could do
and what black people
could be involved in.
That happened in 1930.
I have a book.
It's called, Sundown Towns.
If you are serious
about addressing this,
whether you're black or white, if you
are serious you need to read this book.
Because it talks about, among
other things, fair housing.
And it talks about the fair housing
administration, specifically.
During this time called, Sundown Towns.
And let me tell you
what a Sundown Town was.
A Sundown Town was a town that started
off with that despicable "n" word.
And in most towns it
had a sign that said,
"n" don't let the sun set
on your head in this town.
In Millard and Elkhorn, there
were more black people in 1930
than there are today.
One individual, his
name was W J Lockwood,
who was the Assistant
Director of Fair Housing.
Because Fair Housing Administration
was the primary organization
that made sure that suburbs and other
areas of town, outside of major cities,
were going to make sure that
those suburbs stayed white.
In fact, he said, and I quote, "W J
Lockwood, the FHA has never insured
a housing project of mixed occupancy."
That was 1968.
And President Obama had
to come in and create
another entity called, Affirmative
Fair Housing that this city just
went through recently.
Because to this day, the
Fair Housing Administration
has not moved on correcting the
wrong that it did to black people
for decades.
They didn't do it.
And they still haven't done it.
And it forced the Obama
administration to have
to come up with an affirmative
fair housing effort
to try and get fair housing going again.
There have been a number--
I just wanted to give you
all a couple of instances.
Because I can give you
literally hundreds where
when black people were part of something
and white people saw investment in it,
blacks were moved out,
whites were moved in.
And they primarily use unions, the
Congress, the Senate, legislatures,
city councils, and county
boards to do this dirt.
All of them were engaged in this.
So what are we going to
do now to address this?
If we're going to have fair,
decent, honest conversation--
hurtful, sometimes
hurtful, conversation.
If we're going to heal,
these things have to occur.
I want people to be informed.
I want you to know the
history of this country.
And I want you to know the things
that happened that were legislated,
things that happened that were
forced by lynchings and other things.
I want people to understand our history.
Not to run from it--
and this is not a blame game.
And I understand that this is going to
be a challenge for some of our elected
officials.
But if people are not in favor
of this affirmative action ban,
eliminating this ban on affirmative
action, don't just tell me, no.
Tell me what you're for.
Because if you're for the status
quo, then I know you're not for us
and I know you're not for this country.
Because you can't be for this
country, as Mr. Barney pointed out,
you can't be for this city when we
know that diversity brings dollars,
if that's all we were interested in.
Diversity brings dollars.
But we have to understand that we
have an obligation to each other
to correct the wrongs that have been
done in this community for centuries.
And if we don't correct it--
and don't listen to the
people that tell you.
I don't even know a Marxist.
So this is not about Marxism
or any of these other things
that people try to
throw at you to make you
think that somehow this movement
has somehow been infiltrated.
What this is about is finally and
hopefully bringing about equity.
But the only time that's
going to happen is
if we have honest, deep,
thorough conversation.
Some of it's going to hurt.
What I shared with you today,
most whites don't even know that.
They don't even know that, based
on what was done in the past,
they have reaped the benefit
just in terms of housing alone.
Over 300 trillion dollars
of property, as a result
of fair housing and FHA and VA
programs that we, I, even as a veteran,
couldn't take part in for
a long period of time.
So understand what I'm saying here.
Hopefully you do.
We have to have honest, decent,
thoughtful conversation.
But in order to address the wrongs
that have been done in this society
to specifically black people, for
as long as our sojourn has been
in this country, we need to recognize
that if we're going to save our country
and not destroy it from within.
And we look at societies--
we have looked at societies
all the way back to Babylon.
And they fail because
the internal strife
created the opportunity for outsiders
to come in and conquer those nations.
Are we going to be next?
The question is up to us.
But for me, it starts with
eliminating the structure of racism,
eliminating those barriers that cause
us to have these kinds of discussions.
We've got to get at the structure,
and part of that structure
is this ban on affirmative action.
I know it's going to be
a tough fight, but we
got to be committed to it if we're
going to be successful as a nation,
as a country, as a city, as a state.
I believe strongly in our
ability to come together.
But if we can't, time will tell.
With that, Mr. President,
I thank you for the time,
and I make a motion to
approve this resolution.
PETE FESTERSEN: Second.
CHRIS JERRAM: Thank you.
Council Member, Festersen
you're recognized.
PETE FESTERSEN: Thanks, Mr. President.
I'm supportive of this measure as well.
Thank Councilman Gray for
putting it on our agenda
and just seconded the resolution.
I opposed the ban of affirmative
action in 2008 as well.
And when we were elected in
2009, three of us at that time,
about six months later--
Councilman Jerram,
Councilman Gray, and myself--
we sought about-- we went
about addressing that issue
as it impacted city government.
Because what it did was it no longer
allowed affirmative action in hiring.
And I do think it's important that our
city workforce reflects our community,
and especially as that impacts
our police and firefighters.
We went about scrutinizing the testing
process and the hiring process.
And I think we have made
progress in that since then.
But to Chief Warren's comments
and to Sheena Glover's comments
from the firefighter department,
it's still way too hard to get there.
It's a struggle to get there every
day without affirmative action.
We took a look at what used to
be the city's female and minority
owned business program that did
seek to engage female and minority
owned businesses in city
contracting opportunities,
something I worked on
in the mayor's office.
In fact, with Commissioner
Rodgers, if he is still here.
That could no longer be
implemented in the city government
due to the ban that
was approved by voters.
So we went about restructuring something
different, which is now called,
The Small Emerging Business
Program that is now an ordinance
and has been effective
at city contracting
to small emerging businesses,
especially businesses in areas
of disadvantage within the city.
But that's not enough either, and
we'd like it to be doing more.
We also funded things like, for
the first time, Heartland Workforce
Solutions, that did engage in workforce
training to help address this issue.
And we're committed to that
ongoing funding of that program,
and it has been
effective over the years.
We also funded a program
called, The Reach Program, that
seeks to help minority owned businesses
and small emerging businesses
grow and engage these
opportunities and be effective.
And we're committed to that as well.
But I think that's not enough either.
And I have to believe that
had 424 not been successful,
and had affirmative action
not had been repealed,
it would've been much more successful
in these areas as we sit here today.
So I do think it's a major opportunity
for us to re-establish that
and to ask the legislature to
put that back on the ballot.
And I think especially
with what's happened
just recently, which is the
voters approved a $200 million
bond issue for our streets.
Huge opportunity there
for work and employment.
We have a $2 billion sewer
program, 2/3 of which, by the way,
has not even been spent yet
for the next 10 to 15 years.
Another huge opportunity for
employment and diversity and inclusion.
So I am in support of
this today, and I think
it will help us address many
of the issues we were just
talking about in the previous item,
when we talk about economic disparities
and we talk about poverty and
certainly equal opportunity.
And I think it's important for
us to demonstrate that here today
with this vote.
Thank you.
CHRIS JERRAM: Thank you,
Council Member Festersen.
Council Member Pahls, you're recognized.
RICH PAHLS: Thank you, Mr. President.
As you can see, there are two or three
people up here have been really at work
even though there has been a ban.
And if you had the opportunity to sit in
some of the community meetings as I do,
you'd hear Ben--
I call him Ben because
that's who he is--
how he's fighting all the time
trying to make things better.
I mean, I'm thoroughly impressed.
And same way with Pete.
The thing today, I would have felt
a little bit more comfortable,
to be honest with you, if I would've
seen some people from the business
world down here talking to us, from the
mayor's office down here talking to us.
I know this is your platform
and I understand that.
But to make this work you
need the whole ballgame.
There's just one thing
before I end-- or two things.
I know a lot of people were concerned
about the not having teachers of color
in their classroom.
Well I'm a retired principal
from the Millard schools.
And I can tell, you over the
years they sent some of us
all over the country trying
to find teachers of color.
They didn't want to come here.
I don't know if it's
because of the culture?
Could've been?
But a lot of it was
because of the money.
They could get-- make much
more money some other places.
So I'm just being honest with you.
I had some nice little
jaunts looking for teachers,
and almost begging for them to come.
But they just-- a few would come, but it
just didn't seem to be their ball game.
So for those of you who did not have--
you had teachers who look
like me, some schools I'm sure
may have made that decision.
But we tried hard.
A number of us tried hard.
And if we tried hard in Millard, I
know OPS had to be trying very hard.
I know there had to be.
But you know, one
thing, and I appreciate
giving everybody the opportunity to get
to speak today, but you don't need us.
You may need our support.
You need to find--
what we're doing here, we're going to
urge the legislature to take this up.
All you need is one
senator to carry a bill.
If he or she carries
that bill, it is heard.
Any bill that a senator will
take, they will bring forth
and it will be discussed.
And you know that Brenda.
So you don't need us.
You need us to say, yes,
this is a great idea.
But talk about some of your state
senators, who you know in your areas,
and this should be something that
they say, hey, I'm going to try this.
Now, I'll be honest, I think
it's going to be a difficult
task because you indicated you
may try to do it this summer,
but with what the legislature is
dealing with this summer on property tax
and business incentives, I don't
if there will be time for this.
But at least you'll get it going.
But all you need is a state
senator to say, I want to do this.
Of course, it's unbelievable if you'd
have the council or the commission
and the mayor saying, this is
great, plus all of the people
who spoke to us today.
You just need to talk to one
state senator, to carry this.
And that's the way it works.
Thank you.
CHRIS JERRAM: Thank you,
Council Member Pahls.
Council member Harding,
you're recognized.
BRINKER HARDING: Thank
you, Mr. President.
I'm first going to start out by--
as you'll notice, I
usually don't sit here.
I'm a little further--
it's not because of they're trying
to distance me and Vinny some more.
But so Council Member Melton is not
here today, but she sent me an email
and asked me to read
the following statement.
So I'm going to start with that for the
record, and I'll give it to the clerk
as well.
It starts, "I'm sorry I'm missing the
meeting today as I'm not feeling well.
However, I'm watching
you all by Livestream.
It is important that we as elected
officials, and as a community,
listen and attempt to
understand each other
and seek resolutions that
eliminate discriminatory practices,
keep all citizens safe, and allow
every person an equal opportunity
for economic stability
and achieving any dream.
As the only female on
our council, I'm very
fortunate that each and
every male colleague
has always treated me with respect.
We all share one common
goal of making Omaha a place
where every person in the
community feels welcome and loved.
We strive for economic growth
in all areas of our city
and have worked together to increase
funding for Heartland Workforce, StepUp
Program, Reach, and other programming
that assists and encourages
entrepreneurship, job training, and
providing the opportunity to all
who seek a better life.
Although we share a common goal, we
do often differ on how to achieve it.
The intent of affirmative
action to increase opportunities
for women and minorities is good,
but the employment implementation
does not always foster the intended
result of inclusion and unification.
I will continue to work
with you in our quest
to have a city where everyone has equal
opportunity, education, protection
regardless of race, gender, or creed.
But I do not support preferences
or discrimination of any kind.
Again, I'm sorry I could
not be with you today.
I look forward to
continuing this discussion
and finding solutions to
achieve our common goal."
And that was from, Amy Melton.
So then I wanted to bring up some
other points too, to consider.
It as has been mentioned by some.
The citizens did overwhelmingly vote
for initiative 424 some 12 years ago.
I think the gap was 58 to 42,
which effectively did away
with affirmative action
in the state of Nebraska.
But the actual language
of the amendment--
I'm sorry, Preston.
I'm not as good as you, so I am
going to refer to some notes.
The actual amendment stated
that the state shall not
discriminate against or
grant preferential treatment
to any individual or group on the
basis of race, sex, color, ethnicity,
or national origin in the operation of
public employment, public education,
or public contracting.
In essence, it codified that
all are to be treated equally.
Another point to
consider is the arguments
that have been made that
affirmative action is actually
a form of discrimination.
So if the goal was to
remedy a disadvantage,
the award would be granted on
the basis of that disadvantage,
not on the basis of race, sex,
color, ethnicity, or national origin.
Another point to consider is the
concept or underlying assumption
that only minorities can add certain
ideas or perspectives is worrisome,
for it implies that all minorities
think a certain or the same way.
To make that assumption
is actually racist.
Meritocracy is also
another point to consider.
And meritocracy is a social
system that advancement
should be based on an individual's
capabilities and merits.
Not on nepotism-- which we've seen
in some of our city employment--
not on family wealth,
social status, or the like.
According to an article
in the Stanford Magazine,
merit should be an
individual achievement.
Not just grades or test scores, but
a broad range of accomplishments
in areas such as athletics,
or music, or drama,
or social clubs, or other
extracurricular activities.
However race, ethnicity,
gender, or sexual preferences
are traits and not achievements.
Since the adoption of 424 and
pre-COVID, Nebraska's unemployment rate
for the black population
were at all time lows.
One other point to consider is-- and I
had this conversation actually with--
I'll apologize to the
electronic media that's here.
But I had a conversation with the
print media, over the weekend,
about an article that ran about the Back
the Blues Support protest or gathering
at the Memorial Park.
And Aaron Sanderford was
the author of that article.
And he sent it to me.
I was actually out of
town with my family.
And I read it and I respond--
he asked me what I thought about it?
And I responded, Aaron, this is
how all articles should be written.
And this is the reason
why I said that to him.
Not once in that article, not once--
except for, I think there was one--
a positive that had where it mentioned
the James Scurlock and Gardner
being Scurlock black and Gardner white.
Not once it mentioned anything about
the ethnicity, the gender, the race
of any of the speakers at the event.
And I said to Aaron,
I think that's great.
Not once did it matter the color,
the ethnicity, the race, the gender,
the sexual preference of
those that were speaking.
I think that's something
we should all strive for.
Finally, racism unfortunately
is a part of the past,
and unfortunate it's also a
problem that exists today.
And sadly, it will probably exist
for some level in the future.
But the racist past cannot
be undone with more racism.
And again, I'm referring to
the Stanford Magazine article
that race conscious programs
betray Martin Luther King's
dream of a colorblind society and
the heightened racial sensitivity
they cause is a source of acrimony
and tension instead of healing.
Thank you.
CHRIS JERRAM: Thank you,
Council Member Harding.
Council Member, Pahls?
RICH PAHLS: To be honest
with you, Councilor Harding,
you had some very
stimulating ideas there.
But I think we're at
the point now that I'm
willing to say, let's
talk about this some more.
Not us, but having
the state legislature.
There will be some discussion
and it may go up or down,
but instead of just stopping,
let's let the dialogue continue.
Because I've heard a number of
people said, we want to talk
and we want you to listen to us.
Now that's beyond us, so I'm willing
to say, let's move it on and--
because we're not going to make the
decision whether it's going up or down.
I mean, asking or requesting
for somebody else--
they're going to be making the decision.
Thank you.
CHRIS JERRAM: Thank you.
Council Member Gray, you're recognized.
BEN GRAY: Thank you, Mr. President.
In the discussion when
we're talking about race,
and we're talking about if we create
some sort of a mechanism that--
let me back up.
COVID-19 is affecting most of
the-- in most of the country
it's affecting more
black people than it is
anyone else because we
don't have health care,
and we don't have the
access to health care.
Most of us-- most
African-Americans are going
to lose their jobs because they
were in the service industry
because they couldn't get
other employment anywhere else,
or were never trained for it, or
never had the education for it.
My question is going to
always be, if we're not
going to do this, if we're not
going to address it this way,
how do we address it?
Because you're not going
to be able to address it
without saying, to some
extent, that people
who have been disadvantaged and
disenfranchised for 400 years,
that somehow we don't have-- that
there is no mechanism available for us
to catch up?
I mean or to even be on
a level playing field?
And we're talking about equity,
as Commissioner Rodgers talked
about earlier, we're not
talking about equality.
Equity means that there
are other tools that
need to be available for those who have
been discriminated against in the past,
to catch up.
Or if not catch up, at least
their future generations
have a better chance of some of the
American dream that most whites live.
So I guess I could continue to ask
the question, if not this then what?
If we're not going to do
this, what are we going to do?
To me it starts with this and we
can continue to have conversation
and so forth after we do this.
But the fact of the matter is,
the reason why this was done--
and let's not be--
let's not mince words.
The reason that was done
because of racism in this state.
That's why it was done.
No other reason.
No other reason.
And the language that was used
confused people to the extent,
that a number of black folks voted
for something that they thought was
one thing and found out it was another.
They got tricked.
That's what happened.
So if we're going to address it, we need
to address it through this mechanism.
And if we don't have this mechanism,
tell me what mechanism you want to use.
I'm open.
I'm open to anything but the status quo.
If that's what we're
going to do then we're
going to continue to have problems
in this country, and in this state,
and in this city.
Thank you, Mr. President.
CHRIS JERRAM: Thank you.
Council Member Vice President Palermo.
You're recognized.
VINNY PALERMO: Thank you, Mr. President.
And I'll be honest, I just found out
about this resolution on Thursday,
or maybe it was the day
after when I got to it,
when we normally see the
agenda that's sent out.
So this isn't something we've
had a lot of time to prepare for,
but we didn't need that much time.
I mean, let's be honest.
We're here where we are because
a change needs to be made.
I ran into Council
Member Gray in the hall,
and usually we'll have
agenda items and we'll--
and forgive me.
I'm going to be all
over the place because I
don't have anything wrote down.
So just bear with me.
And I ran into him in
the hall and I said, hey,
usually what we do on items is, hey, how
come I didn't hear anything about this?
And he said, Vinny, I want you
to listen what I have to say
and I want you to make a decision.
But little did he know, I
already know my decision.
And you'll find out when we vote.
But we sit here, week after week,
like sponges taking all this in,
all this information that's being said.
And there comes a time--
just like a sponge, what it
does you have to squeeze it,
and the water has to come out, right?
That's where we're at.
There's a time for change and it's now.
We can keep talking about what
we're going to do, and I hear all--
and no disrespect for those
who came and showed up.
And I appreciate
everybody for being here.
But some of the comments,
they need to be heard,
but they need to be heard
at your school board
or whoever else would
make those decisions.
I agree with you, but this
isn't the forum for that.
And when you talk about
schools, maybe it's
because I grew up in
a high-poverty area.
I had diversity in my school.
It was always a strength.
As a matter of fact, Mrs. Irwin
in second, third grade both
because we had a small
school, was my school teacher.
And it continued on with
different teachers that I had.
So I guess, to each person
on how you're raised
and where you're raised
on how you look at things.
But it doesn't mean that you can't take
everything in and make the decision
to make the right decision
on where we need to be.
So I want to thank Pete and
Ben both for where we're at.
There's a lot of speakers I heard
today, that you sit here like the sponge
again, and you hear it.
And I don't know if Brenda
Council is still here?
Maybe?
And I don't want to call
you out, but every time
I hear you speak in public
over the last few years,
I like want to charge
behind the door after you
because what comes out of your
mouth is the absolute truth.
So thank you for that.
And Chief Warren, I mean, we've
talked out of this setting before.
And to hear you say that
affirmative action possibly
gave you the opportunity to be where you
achieved in the police department, that
really sets in because your name is
mentioned as some of the greatest
police chiefs that Omaha has ever had.
So if you think about
that, and you think
about all the different
departments we have
in this city, and all those people
that we work with that we approve
to get a job here, if they had that
opportunity in every department,
in every position that they would
get, to know that they could
be the best that we could possibly--
and mentioned that we could ever have,
I mean, I don't need to say anymore.
That's where I'm at.
So Ben, thank you as always.
You're always on the
right track on stuff.
Well, I take that back.
I shouldn't say always.
Most of the time.
I want you to be able to leave
the room at the end of the day.
So thank you, Mr. President.
CHRIS JERRAM: Thank you,
Vice President Palermo.
I'd just like to add a
different perspective.
Certainly, I'm not one who grew up in
a predominantly minority community.
Just the opposite.
Although the first 12 years in
my life, I lived about a half
an hour south of the
George Washington Bridge,
and it was a pretty diverse community.
And I'd like to think that the lessons
I learned, in that part of the country,
I carry with me today in how I
interact with people and treat people.
When, for a variety of
circumstances, my family
moved to the north side of New
York City into Connecticut,
what a different world that is.
And there was one African-American
in my class, high school class,
of about 200 people.
Same with Steve.
And Steve was an extraordinary
athlete and was a friend of mine.
And something happened our senior year.
Not uncommon with high school kids
is that they sometimes make mistakes.
And Steve went to our Homecoming
dance, as I believe, with some friends.
And in their car there
were some bottles of beer.
There's one-- one student got suspended.
It was Steve.
And one person was
kicked off of the sports
teams because of that as a consequence.
It was Steve.
Steve was a resilient,
exceptional person.
Still is.
He lives in Atlanta today.
Proudly served our country for
a couple of decades in the army,
and went to combat for our country,
notwithstanding his experiences.
And I've carried with me that
memory, vividly today as it was then.
Thinking there's just so much more the
people who don't come from privilege
have to overcome in their lives.
And the most basic need in life is to
provide for yourself and your loved
ones through working.
And the playing field in government
and the government sector,
which is what this affirmative
action program was all about,
was as many people here said, was not
basically to give someone advantage.
It's just the opposite, really.
In so many respects, and I
don't need to repeat why here.
But as a lawyer, and
having had experience
working on some ballot
issues in this state,
I am all too familiar
with the wordsmithing
that is done by highly-paid attorneys
on how ballot initiatives are worded.
And if you read this one, you can't help
but know that people were, in my mind
as I view it, duped into
thinking they were voting
for the opposite of what they wanted.
Ben Gray and I talked about this
shortly after we got elected.
I remember vividly.
I come into this
courthouse very regularly,
although not so much since COVID
because a lot of the court's things
are being done on video conferencing.
But there was an African-American
man collecting signatures
to place this ballot
initiative up for a vote.
And I stopped on my way
in, and I asked him.
I said, do you really know
what you're doing here?
And what a telltale situation it was.
He said, man this was
the only job I could get.
So here was a person
working, because that's
the only job he could get, to
place a ballot initiative on that
was so contrary to his economic
interests and that of so many others,
I just thought what
a horrible situation.
We have done some good
things in this council.
But as one of our speakers pointed
out, if you look at the budget,
yeah, it's great that we
do the StepUp Program--
we didn't have that before 2009,
when a number of us got elected--
or Reach or Heartland
Workforce Solutions.
But when we have examples of people that
I have met because my good friend Ben
Gray and I have driven about
the community together,
just a few blocks north and west of
24th and Lake, on one of those drives
I met a African-American
man sitting on his porch
watching the Sewer Separation
Project Construction.
And we stopped and talk to him
because Ben is so friendly.
He just-- he wondered why
he couldn't get a job?
He asked.
And he was told, they didn't need him.
So here's someone looking
at a government contract
job, who had no employment, who wanted
a job, needed a job, asked about a job,
couldn't get a job.
And then I couldn't
imagine the indignity
of what he had to suffer
by watching people
do government work in his community,
who didn't look like his community.
So we passed the ordinance, in the
aftermath of this initiative 424
to create the Small and Emerging
Small Business Ordinance.
And it's had some positive
impact, but like our budgeting
that one speaker pointed out, it's so--
it's pittance compared to what's needed.
The Emerging Small and
Small Business Ordinance
is a fraction of what is needed.
The history of our city in
this area is not pretty.
It is not.
You wonder why there's
no minorities, or there's
been so few in command positions?
Because there'd been
lawsuits to stop it.
Imagine that.
Our city has changed its
policy over the years
on the promotion process that
has resulted, in my opinion,
in the very situation we're in.
And how do we get out of those things?
How do we begin to address them,
if we don't change the wrongs
that I see were done when 424 passed?
And it's wrong because, in
my view, it tricked people.
They really didn't understand it.
And Preston Love said he didn't want
to be here and another 50 or 60 years.
We'll be here another 100, 200, 300
years talking about the same things,
or the people who follow us, because
we're not getting at the core problems.
We're not.
And on August 11, you're going
to hear the mayor propose
and introduce for budget next week.
And under our city charter, the
mayor proposes the budget and then,
for some things, it takes
four votes to change
if we want to amend the budget,
five votes for other things.
And if you want more funding
to go into the programs
to help address the
wrongs, your voices need
to be heard August 11,
right here at 6:30.
But what happens if this
resolution passes here today?
We have to find a state senator
who's willing to introduce
the legislative resolution to place
the ballot initiative on their agenda,
and I don't imagine that's
going to be any small task.
So your voices can't stop here.
We have to let our state senators
know, in Lincoln, how important this
is that this wrong be
addressed again, and corrected.
And I hope it passes.
There's been a motion.
There's been a second.
I'm happy to support it.
I think it's the right thing to do.
It's the least we can do is to let
the legislature know that the largest
community of its state, with
almost a half a million people,
believe this important enough
that they take, under their rules,
a little bit of their time this
year, to let the people vote on this.
With that-- roll call.
ELIZABETH BUTLER: Harding?
BRINKER HARDING: No.
ELIZABETH BUTLER: Pahls?
RICH PAHLS: Yep.
ELIZABETH BUTLER: Palermo?
VINNY PALERMO: Yes.
ELIZABETH BUTLER: Festersen?
PETE FESTERSEN: Yes.
ELIZABETH BUTLER: Gray?
BEN GRAY: Yes
ELIZABETH BUTLER: Mr. President?
CHRIS JERRAM: Yes.
Motion passes 5 to 1.
[APPLAUSE]
ELIZABETH BUTLER: Item 10, a resolution
to approve the preliminary plant
for Heartwood Estates, located
Northwest of 151st and Pine Street.
Planning board and planning
department recommend approval.
B is communication opposition.
CHRIS JERRAM: The public hearing
on item 10 begins at this time.
Are there any proponents?
JOE: Yes, my name's Joe
[INAUDIBLE] with Lamp Rynearson.
14710 West Dodge Road.
On behalf of the applicant, we're
here today answering questions
on this preliminary plat.
We have received the planning
board's recommendation.
In comments, we've been
actively working with them
and will continue to work with
them, as we approach final plat
for the continued resolution of those.
And we have received the
communication in opposition
about a neighboring homeowner
dispute between some trees
on our property line, Bart Emmanuel
with Applied Underwriters, the owner
developer on this property is here
to answer any questions there,
but they are working through a
resolution with that property owner.
Thank you.
CHRIS JERRAM: Thank you.
Are there any other proponents?
Are there any opponents?
JASON HARRE: Good afternoon.
My name is Jason Harre.
I am the homeowner at
14412 Shirley Circle.
I hope everybody had the
opportunity to review my opposition
email that I'd sent.
I think I'll just go through my
opposition email and maybe the concerns
I address within that email.
Number one, city application dated April
29, application page four of seven,
section 2, special information
environmental Tree Canopy Mitigation.
The previously approved tree mitigation
plan for the south farm development
showed no mitigation plan was required.
The trees within this portion of
the subdivision were to be retained.
However, the newly submitted
materials indicated
the canopy of the subject
site is now to be removed.
Based on this information provided,
577 trees will need to be planted.
Furthermore, it continues on.
Concerning number one, a, the applicant,
through the applied underwriters,
contracted with Meddco-Henne
Contracting Inc, and sub-contractor,
through S&N Landscaping, under
the direction of Bart Emanuel,
to begin removing trees and brush
cleanup on the entry of 144th Street,
the contractor crossed my property
line and ruined 27 various trees
on my property parcel.
All of those photos are
attached within the email.
Concern one, b, the applicant's ability
to contract/control subcontracting
execution through S&N
Landscaping, currently
to my knowledge this contractor is
not a holder of an arbors license,
as a city of Omaha requirement,
for any tree removal project.
I haven't read the
Tree Mitigation Plans,
so I'm not sure if that is, in fact,
a requirement of the Tree Mitigation
Plan.
I assume it is, based
as a city requirement.
One, c, photos of this contractor within
the tree without proper OSHA safety
requirements, safety equipment
rather, on the property parcel.
One, d, concern of the
Redheaded Woodpecker home
that was destroyed within
one of the oak trees
that were demolished by
the contractor, and which
is protected under federal law.
Part two, city application
dated April 29,
application page 5 of 7, section two,
special information, the land use
and planning, paragraph 3.
The applicant was encouraged to submit
a consistent planning or, excuse me,
fencing plan for the lot and the
frontage is along Pine/151st streets.
Obviously it is not in
regards to my property parcel.
However, I have a
concern with the account
the applicant's inability
to establish property lines
and coordinate requirements the
individual homeowners requiring
fencing placement or the
chapter 55 zoning requirements.
Reference my incident, one, a, where
no property lines were completed
prior to the contractor beginning
work and coming onto the property
in cutting down trees.
And in closing, I'd like
to speak from the meeting
minutes that was held on May 6.
I was not here during that time.
I read the meeting minutes that
were attached to the agenda.
Mr. Bart Emanuel, from
Applied Underwriters,
appeared before this board
on behalf of the developer.
Mr. Emanuel stressed that they
are committed to preserving
as many trees as possible on this site.
Mr. Emanuel stated that he
understands how important it is,
and that he is responsible
for the development.
And he welcomes anyone to come to
him with questions or concerns.
However, I now have a question.
Why if, on May 6, this board
sat and heard, you and your team
commit to the preserving of trees,
and less than two weeks later you're
cutting down several
trees to, some of which
were not even on the
property parcel development?
And that none of my answers
and none of my concerns
have been addressed via phone or email?
I ask the city of Omaha
and this city council
to review the concerns
that I have outlined today,
prior to the approval of zoning request.
CHRIS JERRAM: Thank you.
Now just so-- if you could come
back to mic, I had a question.
JASON HARRE: Yes, sir?
CHRIS JERRAM: Was your
concern that there
were trees cut down on your property?
JASON HARRE: I'm concerned that
the applicant cannot complete
the requirements of the applicant, of
the application that state of the Tree
Mitigation Plan.
They have not followed through
with that Tree Mitigation Plan.
CHRIS JERRAM: Oh, OK.
JASON HARRE: Yes, the property damaged
with us has been had on my property
is a separate issue.
However, it's an example
of their inability
to perform per the application that
they submitted to the city council.
CHRIS JERRAM: Thank you
for clarifying that.
Are there any other opponents?
Did you want it addressed?
JOE: Yeah, so--
CHRIS JERRAM: I mean, we're here
on the preliminary plat, right?
JOE: Yes.
CHRIS JERRAM: Yeah, so I
know you'll continue to meet.
This has to come back
again for the final plat.
JOE: That's correct.
So one thing Mr. Harre brought
up was the Tree Mitigation Plan.
That was something that was of
discussion at planning board.
At the time when we made our
planning board application,
for a preliminary plat, our grading
extents for this Heartwood Estates
Residential Project was larger than it
is currently proposed, in the meantime,
since that planning board hearing
in May to us being here today.
We have, along with Bart and his
team, refined those grading limits,
pulled those in more.
And we provided an updated tree canopy
disturbance calculation to the planning
department, that shows that the scaled
back impacts to the existing tree
canopy is not a--
Tree Mitigation Plan is not required
due to the minimization of the impacts,
I should say.
Obviously, that's a separate issue
than the tree removal dispute
through relation to the other
property owners property.
But I just wanted to touch
on that tree mitigation
because it has been something
that's evolved since the May 6 plan.
Thanks.
CHRIS JERRAM: Thank you.
Yeah, we can't get into if there was
some trespass or something and trees
on his property.
I was just going to say, we can't
handle that here in this forum.
JOE: Sure.
CHRIS JERRAM: OK.
Council Member Hardening,
you're recognized.
Public hearings closed.
BRINKER HARDING: Thank
you, Mr. President.
So I was going to address
a couple of those.
One, that you just brought up too, about
the tree removal being a civil issue.
And I think Jason also
acknowledged that one.
And Jason, I'm sorry I didn't
get a chance to respond to you.
As I mentioned earlier, I was
out of town until late on Sunday,
and I think this email
came in last Thursday.
And I had some conversations with
the planning director about this.
So I want to make sure that some of
these issues were brought up today.
And so that's why we're here today.
Also, the president of the council
just mentioned a minute ago, this
is for the preliminary plat.
It will still have to go back through
planning board for final plat,
and then back to us.
And so these concerns will be worked
out through those processes too.
I guess-- I just have one
question out of curiosity.
I apologize for asking questions
without knowing the answers,
but I see the planning
director back there.
I don't see the parks
director here, and I
think it's probably more a parks issue.
But are you required to
have an arborist license
in order to be able to remove tree--
actually I should ask you, Vinny.
Is that a requirement?
VINNY PALERMO: [INAUDIBLE]
BRINKER HARDING: OK.
And I would say maybe, Bart, if that's--
you might want to check
with your contractor
to make sure that they have the
proper licenses and things like that.
But again, I think these issues
will be answered and addressed
after preliminary plat-- or
before final plat's approved.
So with that, I'll move for the
approval, the preliminary plat.
CHRIS JERRAM: Thank you.
Council Member, Palermo?
VINNY PALERMO: Thank you, Mr. President.
So, I mean, I did want to bring this
up because obviously when we have--
whether it's the preliminary
plat or what it is.
But when we have sides telling us
one thing-- and I'll be honest,
I did not go back
through to see if that's
exactly what was discussed on if
this mitigation was necessary or not.
But I will.
And if that's what was said here on the
record and that isn't what happened,
I understand this is a
different part of it.
But you see how you're
setting up to now be
a good neighbor in this
position, where what
is being told either to
us on the record or maybe
the neighbors or future neighbors
that you are going to have
some stiff questions movement forward.
Fair enough?
Thank you.
CHRIS JERRAM: Thank you.
Council Member, Harding?
[INAUDIBLE]
BRINKER HARDING: Thank you.
Bart, if you want to
come up and address--
I know this was brought up at planning
board, the Tree Mitigation, and there
some conversation about that, and
some representations as to what
the developer was going to commit to.
And it seemed like the--
and I know not all the
neighbors probably who could be,
who wanted to be there, could be there.
But I think there were
representations made.
And yeah, please.
If you'd like?
Representations made and
commitments that you made as well.
BART EMANUEL: Oh, absolutely.
Bart Emanuel with Applied
Underwriters, 10805 Old Mill Road.
Yes, we are committed as I've
stated before, for tree mitigation.
We don't want to cut out any trees
that we don't feel are viable to that
the canopy.
We did have people go in
there and we were cleaning up
dead trees, dead limbs.
I was trying to clean up that tree line
between Harvey Oaks and the development
just as an aesthetic
thing for not only us,
but also for the neighbors
that back up to that tree
line that runs down across there.
And the folks that I
had come in there to do
that, they cut out some mulberry
trees I know of for a fact.
And I'm not going to get
into Mr. Harre's property.
That's on the other
end of the development.
We'll deal with that accordingly.
But as far as the tree mitigation, and
as Joe alluded to, we did resubmit.
Because we weren't taking
out a lot of trees there.
And that isn't our goal.
We want to keep as many trees in
the estate lots, due to the fact
that these are very high price lots that
these folks are going to be purchasing
in the estate portion here.
And we want as many trees as
we can possibly have there.
There's no reason to be
taking these things out.
So if anybody does have any
questions or concerns, again,
I'm available to have a
conversation about that.
BRINKER HARDING: OK, thank you.
BART EMANUEL: That good?
BRINKER HARDING: Yeah.
BART EMANUEL: OK.
BRINKER HARDING: Thanks.
CHRIS JERRAM: Was there
a emotion to second?
ELIZABETH BUTLER: There
is a motion to second.
CHRIS JERRAM: Roll call.
ELIZABETH BUTLER: Harding?
BRINKER HARDING: Yes.
ELIZABETH BUTLER: Pahls?
RICH PAHLS: Yes.
ELIZABETH BUTLER: Palermo?
VINNY PALERMO: Yes.
ELIZABETH BUTLER: Festersen?
PETE FESTERSEN: Yes.
ELIZABETH BUTLER: Gray?
BEN GRAY: Yes.
ELIZABETH BUTLER: Mr. President?
CHRIS JERRAM: Yes.
ELIZABETH BUTLER: Motion passed 6 to 0.
Next, I'm not sure if city council wants
to waive city council liquor rule six
on items 11 to 16?
CHRIS JERRAM: Hearing no motion.
BRINKER HARDING: [INAUDIBLE]
ELIZABETH BUTLER: To
waive that liquor rule.
BRINKER HARDING: [INAUDIBLE]
ELIZABETH BUTLER: We haven't.
BRINKER HARDING: Then maybe [INAUDIBLE].
ELIZABETH BUTLER: OK.
CHRIS JERRAM: All right.
And let's just let the
applicants know, they'll
probably be expected to [INAUDIBLE].
ELIZABETH BUTLER: Sounds good.
CHRIS JERRAM: Roll call.
ELIZABETH BUTLER: Harding?
BRINKER HARDING: Yes.
ELIZABETH BUTLER: Pahls?
RICH PAHLS: Yes.
ELIZABETH BUTLER: Palermo?
VINNY PALERMO: Yes.
ELIZABETH BUTLER: Festersen?
PETE FESTERSEN: Yes.
ELIZABETH BUTLER: Gray?
BEN GRAY: Yes.
ELIZABETH BUTLER: Mr. President?
CHRIS JERRAM: Yes.
ELIZABETH BUTLER: Motion passed 6 to 0.
Items 11 and 12 can
be considered together
to consider applications
for class CG liquor licenses
for Old Chicago Pizza & Tap Room,
located at 13110 Birch Drive, Bay 180.
And 2643 S 144th Street.
CHRIS JERRAM: The public hearings on
items 11 and 12 begin at this time.
Are there any proponents?
Are there any opponents?
Public hearing is closed.
We have a motion to approve.
BEN GRAY: Second.
CHRIS JERRAM: Roll call.
ELIZABETH BUTLER: Harding?
BRINKER HARDING: Yes.
ELIZABETH BUTLER: Pahls?
RICH PAHLS: Yes.
ELIZABETH BUTLER: Palermo?
VINNY PALERMO: Yes.
ELIZABETH BUTLER: Festersen?
PETE FESTERSEN: Yes.
ELIZABETH BUTLER: Gray?
BEN GRAY: Yes.
ELIZABETH BUTLER: Mr. president
CHRIS JERRAM: Yes.
ELIZABETH BUTLER: Motion passed 6 to 0.
Item 13, an application to
consider a Class D liquor
license for Made in Omaha
located at 1012 Howard Street.
CHRIS JERRAM: Public hearing
on item 13 begins at this time.
Are there any proponents?
Are there any opponents?
Public 's closed.
Roll call.
ELIZABETH BUTLER: Harding?
BRINKER HARDING: Yes.
ELIZABETH BUTLER: Pahls?
RICH PAHLS: Yes.
ELIZABETH BUTLER: Palermo?
VINNY PALERMO: Yes.
ELIZABETH BUTLER: Festersen?
PETE FESTERSEN: Yes.
ELIZABETH BUTLER: Gray?
BEN GRAY: Yes.
ELIZABETH BUTLER: Mr. President?
CHRIS JERRAM: Yes.
ELIZABETH BUTLER: Motion passed 6 to 0.
One public hearing can be held
for items 14 and 15, applications
to consider class D liquor licenses
for Moe's Mart 5 located at 8242 Maple
Street, and Moe's Mart 6,
located at 720 North 108th Court
is communication opposition.
CHRIS JERRAM: The public hearing on
items 14 or 15 begin at this time.
Are there any proponents?
Or are there any opponents?
The public hearing is closed.
Council Member Festersen,
you're recognized.
PETE FESTERSEN: Thank
you, Mr. Festersen.
Given our conversation about
waiving the rules there,
I didn't expect that the
applicant from number 14
would be here at 88nd and Maple.
MARY HERR: I'm the one
representing Moe's Mart right now.
PETE FESTERSEN: OK.
Maybe you can come down
to the podium then.
And just your name and address, and
then I have a few questions for you.
MARY HERR: I hope I can answer them.
OK.
My name is Mary Herr.
11936 Wakeley Plaza, Omaha.
I'm representing Imperial
Reliance Moe's Mart.
PETE FESTERSEN: Great.
Thank you for being here.
MARY HERR: Mm-hmm.
PETE FESTERSEN: So this
isn't the first time
we've seen this application, in terms
of new ownership at 88nd and Maple,
which had previously
have a liquor license.
But I did have a few communications
and opposition to it,
as noted here on the agenda.
And then had some concern when
representatives were here previously,
that it really didn't feel like
those individuals at least understood
their responsibilities in terms of
having not having a liquor license
and all of that, I mean, all that
entails, as well as the responsibility
the neighborhood that does
have some concerns right there.
Especially as it applies to trash
and litter and things of that nature.
And I think there were some back
issues, as I recall, financially
with either the city or the state
with that particular individual.
So I'll first give you an
opportunity address those issues.
I assume those have all--
MARY HERR: I'm not sure.
I mean, I manage the one on
the Old Mill or whatever.
And we have considerably
cleaned it up and both of them.
And I know that previously it was owned
by White Oak Station, which now it
is Imperial Reliance.
So it's a totally different--
we're trying to re-brand and trying
to get everything put back together.
Make them neighborhood
gas stations again.
PETE FESTERSEN: OK.
So it's totally new ownership?
Are there any of the
previous individuals still
involved with that new LLC?
MARY HERR: I'm not--
I really can't answer
that for you right now.
They're totally separate is the
way I look at it or whatever.
PETE FESTERSEN: OK.
And it sounds like you're most
familiar with the Old Mill
location rather than the 88nd one?
MARY HERR: Yeah, I'm really
familiar with the Old Mill one.
PETE FESTERSEN: OK.
MARY HERR: I am taking the
other one over though too.
PETE FESTERSEN: OK.
So you'll be responsible for
the 88nd and Maple as well?
MARY HERR: Yes.
I'm going to be the manager there too.
PETE FESTERSEN: OK.
I would just ask you to be
sensitive to those issues.
MARY HERR: Definitely.
PETE FESTERSEN: And be a good
operator and respond to the concerns
that the neighbors have
expressed about litter
and making sure the site is clean.
MARY HERR: It's already been
cleaned up once or twice already,
so I guarantee that.
PETE FESTERSEN: I
appreciate you doing that.
Thank you for that.
And maybe just a question
to the clerk and city law
It's my understanding that we have
checked the previous application
and those issues are resolved, and
we feel this is a different LLC.
That is presenting a responsive
application to us here today.
ELIZABETH BUTLER: Correct.
PETE FESTERSEN: All right.
Thank you.
With that, I don't see [INAUDIBLE].
So I'll motion to approve
number 14 and number 15.
BEN GRAY: Second.
CHRIS JERRAM: Roll call.
ELIZABETH BUTLER: Harding?
BRINKER HARDING: Yes.
ELIZABETH BUTLER: Pahls?
RICH PAHLS: Yes.
ELIZABETH BUTLER: Palermo?
VINNY PALERMO: Yes.
ELIZABETH BUTLER: Festersen?
PETE FESTERSEN: Yes.
ELIZABETH BUTLER: Gray?
BEN GRAY: Yes.
ELIZABETH BUTLER: Mr. President?
CHRIS JERRAM: Yes.
ELIZABETH BUTLER: Motion passed 6 to 0.
Item 16 to consider an addition
application for the Green Rooms Class
I liqueur license located at 306
South 16th street, unit 102 and 103,
to add an outdoor area
approximately 30 feet by 14 feet,
is communication from the planning
department regarding permits, b,
is communication and support,
c, is communication opposition.
CHRIS JERRAM: Public hearing
on item 16 begins at this time.
Are there any proponents?
JIM HENDERSON: Hello my
name is Jim Henderson.
I am at 1144 North 11th street,
is where my office is located.
I'm a licensed commercial general
contractor representing these owners.
And I am a proponent on this in
regards to every aspect of it.
Taking into consideration
all the dimensions on this
and thinking about the
neighbors, the city sidewalk,
we did submit an architect
stamp drawing for permit review,
which has been approved and released.
And again, it is a 14
and 1/2 foot by 30 feet,
leaving another 16 to 18
feet for pedestrian traffic.
So we've kept everyone in mind.
And we think it's going to be a
great addition and for everyone, all
the neighbors, and everyone involved.
CHRIS JERRAM: Stay close by.
Are there any other proponents?
Are there any opponent?
Public hearing's closed.
Do you have a member of
the-- your client here today?
JIM HENDERSON: Yes.
CHRIS JERRAM: The
Green Room, its owners?
JIM HENDERSON: Sure.
CHRIS JERRAM: Come on up, guys.
ANDREW MEADE: How we doing today, guys?
NATHAN VERZAL: Good to see you again.
CHRIS JERRAM: Names and addresses?
ANDREW MEADE: Andrew Meade, 168
Cresmont Drive, Council Bluffs.
NATHAN VERZAL: Nathan Verzal,
11065 North Lakeshore Drive, Blair.
CHRIS JERRAM: You're doing a good job.
There has been concerns previously
in that neighborhood as you know.
NATHAN VERZAL: Oh, yeah.
CHRIS JERRAM: Things-- people worried
about getting out of control again
and not wanting to go
back to those days.
So a couple questions I have for
you, in terms of the outdoor area.
First you understand that it's subject
to you getting permits and the lease.
And then second, do you have plans
for outdoor music, either amplified
or live?
ANDREW MEADE: No, I doubt we do.
NATHAN VERZAL: Other
than what we've had.
We do have a speaker on
the front of a building,
just to liven up the neighborhood.
We keep that volume--
CHRIS JERRAM: I know you do.
I know.
NATHAN VERZAL: Oh, you've been down?
OK.
CHRIS JERRAM: Oh, yeah.
NATHAN VERZAL: Good.
And I figured after you dropped
our class, you'd do a class eye.
You'd come check us out.
CHRIS JERRAM: Right.
NATHAN VERZAL: I hope we've done a good
job being members of the communities.
CHRIS JERRAM: A secret shopper.
It's easy to do with masks.
NATHAN VERZAL: Yeah, well
we're pretty close, right?
CHRIS JERRAM: All right.
Well, you've answered my concerns
and keep up the good work.
NATHAN VERZAL: Appreciate it.
CHRIS JERRAM: Subject to the permits?
Second.
Row call.
ELIZABETH BUTLER: Harding?
BRINKER HARDING: Yes.
ELIZABETH BUTLER: Pahls?
RICH PAHLS: Yes.
ELIZABETH BUTLER: Palermo?
VINNY PALERMO: Yes.
ELIZABETH BUTLER: Festersen?
PETE FESTERSEN: Yes.
ELIZABETH BUTLER: Gray?
BEN GRAY: Yes.
ELIZABETH BUTLER: Mr. President?
CHRIS JERRAM: Yes.
ELIZABETH BUTLER: Motion passed 6 to 0.
NATHAN VERZAL: Thank you.
ELIZABETH BUTLER: Consent agenda.
Any member of the city council may cause
any item placed on the consent agenda
to be removed.
And if it's removed
from the consent agenda,
shall be taken up by the
city council immediately
following the consent agenda
and the order in which they
were removed, unless otherwise provided
by the city council rules of order.
CHRIS JERRAM: The public hearing on an
agenda item 17 was held June 23, 2020.
Roll call.
ELIZABETH BUTLER: Harding?
BRINKER HARDING: Yes.
ELIZABETH BUTLER: Pahls?
RICH PAHLS: Yes.
ELIZABETH BUTLER: Palermo?
VINNY PALERMO: Yes.
ELIZABETH BUTLER: Festersen?
PETE FESTERSEN: Yes.
ELIZABETH BUTLER: Gray?
BEN GRAY: Yes.
ELIZABETH BUTLER: Mr. President?
CHRIS JERRAM: Yes.
ELIZABETH BUTLER: Motion passed 6 to 0.
CHRIS JERRAM: The public hearings on
agenda items 18 through 54 are today.
If you wish to address the city
council regarding these items,
please come to the microphone,
indicate the agenda item number
you wish to address, identify
yourself by your name,
address, who you represent, and if
you are a proponent or opponent.
KEVIN REDDICK: Good evening.
How is everybody?
PETE FESTERSEN: Good.
KEVIN REDDICK: Good.
It's been a long day, hasn't it?
I would just like to say, first
of all, my name is Kevin Reddick.
I'm the owner of Husker Tree and
Landscaping, Reddick Management
Corporation, and I'm here
for agenda item number 44.
CHRIS JERRAM: And your address?
KEVIN REDDICK: My address is 5417
North 50th Street, Omaha, Nebraska.
And I have a couple things
I'd like to put on display.
How do I do that?
CHRIS JERRAM: You just put them
face up on that Elmo there,
and it'll broadcast
them onto the screen.
KEVIN REDDICK: OK, I'm going to
try to make as quick as possible.
CHRIS JERRAM: Just lay them down.
There you go.
And then if you want to zoom in or
zoom out, it's on top of the device.
It's the arm that sticks up.
You'll see the button.
You just push it one way or the other.
KEVIN REDDICK: This should be good.
This is a copy of a print
for site removal plan.
Highlander East Site
Demolition that's coming up.
OK, so this is one area
here, Parker Street
between 29th and Parker and Blondo.
This is number one.
Number two, this is a picture of
Highlander Tree Removal, the project
that I had bid on last year.
I'm pretty sure you remember
that one, don't you sir?
OK, good.
This is some of the same
work area, scope of work,
and replicate the tree
removal here, on number two.
Highlander Tree Removal Phase Two.
Husker Tree and Landscaping, a
lot of identification number.
This area here.
29th Parker, Blondo area, right there.
This is number four.
Block number 2827.
Similar area there.
There's a tree right there.
Number five.
Block a, lot 63H, 64H,
65H, 66H, 67H and 68D.
This is block.
Block a, lot 71 and 72.
This was what the bid was last year.
CHRIS JERRAM: Could you [INAUDIBLE]?
KEVIN REDDICK: Oh, OK.
CHRIS JERRAM: Other way.
There you go.
KEVIN REDDICK: OK.
Yeah.
OK.
This right here was last year.
Reddick Management Corp. dba
Husker Tree and Landscaping
was the low bidder on that particular
project at $383,000 down to $50.
And we had other people that bid.
Blade Master was the high
bidder on that project.
This is the intent to award notification
of intent to a war to Blademaster.
And this is the intent to award
letter for Blademaster Grounds
and Maintenance.
The reason why I'm here today--
and it's really not by
happenstance that I'm here today.
Because what I've heard on
items number eight and nine
is a prime example of why I'm here.
I'm a section three business entity.
I'm a veteran-owned business.
I'm a tier one contractor.
And I had bid that project
to 100% self-perform.
The main issue is that
when I came to city council
to deal with the appeal on
the rejection of my bid,
it was because of the recipient of
the HUD funds to do the outreach.
Well, based upon that experience,
the city planning department,
one of the lady's name is Elisa,
she sent me an email on May the 13,
doing an outreach, as well
as Christian Espinoza.
And when I was here, Councilman Ben
Gray tried to explain to the council
that it wasn't my responsibility
because at that time,
I was not a recipient of any
funds on that particular project.
However, on this project they did.
And it also has some of
the same scope of work
that was under that particular project.
So what the city planning
department is doing
is they are subjugating some of that
same scope of work on that project,
under this project here.
I have a HUD complaint
that has not been resolved,
and I'm pretty sure the
city is aware of that.
There has not been a final decision
on that particular complaint.
So to award a project
to a contractor that
has some of that same scope work on
it that has not been resolved yet,
is not right.
It's not.
That's my issue.
CHRIS JERRAM: Thank you.
KEVIN REDDICK: OK.
President Jerram?
That day-- do you remember
that day when I was here?
CHRIS JERRAM: The council
doesn't entertain questions
during public hearing.
KEVIN REDDICK: Oh, OK.
CHRIS JERRAM: I might comment later.
KEVIN REDDICK: All right.
I really would appreciate that because
the main issue for the rejection
of my appeal was because
Christian Espinoza, Ed Dancellor,
they didn't have an exact answer.
They went off your answer, what
your decision was, for my appeal
to be rejected.
And now the city planning
department, human rights simulation,
is doing outreach on
this particular project.
So on that ground I oppose
this particular project.
I just wanted to have
public record of that.
CHRIS JERRAM: Thank you.
KEVIN REDDICK: Yes, sir.
CHRIS JERRAM: Council member--
anyone else wishing to testify on
any items on the consent agenda?
JUANITA JOHNSON: Good
afternoon President
of the board and city council members.
My name is Juanita Johnson.
CHRIS JERRAM: Can you pull
the mic a little closer?
There you go.
JUANITA JOHNSON: My
name is Juanita Johnson.
I am the Chairman of the Board
for 24Th street Corridor Alliance.
I'm also the President of Long
School Neighborhood Association.
I stand here today in
opposition to item number 41.
The neighborhood association,
perhaps due to COVID,
simply has not been engaged
enough, with Holy Name,
to discuss what's going on here.
So I'd ask that we have more time to
have an informed discussion about what
the intent is here.
We're not saying there is
something wrong with Holy Name.
We're saying that the
neighborhood association--
we have an active
neighborhood association that
has been around for a long time.
We're in the--
CHRIS JERRAM: You are in the directory?
JUANITA JOHNSON: We're in the directory.
I've been the president
for over five years.
My number has been the same.
I haven't been hiding.
CHRIS JERRAM: What's your
address again, just--
JUANITA JOHNSON: 2520 Franklin Street.
CHRIS JERRAM: Thank you.
OK.
JUANITA JOHNSON: The
neighborhood association
needs more time to have meaningful
dialogue with Holy Name,
so that we have a good
understanding what their intent is.
Thank you.
CHRIS JERRAM: Thank you.
Does anyone else wish to testify
on any of the items on the agenda?
The public hearing is closed.
Council Member Gray, you're recognized.
BEN GRAY: Thank you, Mr. President.
And I'm not going to take very long here
because I've spoken more than I usually
do at these council meetings.
But I didn't want to
take the opportunity
to recognize and be in full
support of Thomas Warren,
as the new member to the Meca Board.
I think he's an excellent addition.
And my congratulations to him.
But more than that, I
think he's an excellent--
excellent for this job.
I think he will also work hard.
And he brings expertise and he
brings credibility to this community,
and he always has.
And I just want to take the
opportunity to thank him
for even wanting to be considered.
And appreciate him and I look forward
to you and having some really good luck
and doing some things that--
during some really tough
times at Meca right now.
But I hope that you
will do-- well, I know
that you will do an admirable job
as you always done as police chief
and as executive director
of the Urban League.
I know that you will
do a great job at this.
And I know you, personally, won't accept
anything less than doing a good job.
So thank you and congratulations.
CHRIS JERRAM: Thank you.
Council Member, Gray.
Council Member, Festersen?
PETE FESTERSEN: Thanks, Mr. President.
Two, maybe three items
I would just address.
One also was number 54.
I support that as well, appointing
Chief Warren to the Meca Board.
He's actually replacing a person
I nominated five years ago, who's
outgoing, who did a great job too.
But I think he'll be a
great addition to the board.
I've always been impressed
with him as our police chief,
and now President of Other Urban League.
And have appreciated his
leadership in recent weeks too,
and being so visible in the community.
I don't know where he has all
the time to do all these things,
but I know he will, and dedicate
the necessary time to Meca too.
So I look forward to having
him on there as well.
I want to address number
49 just for a minute too.
And appreciated Council Member Palermo's
questions about it this morning
at our pre-council meeting.
This would be the national
search for new parks director.
And just a couple of comments.
Being on the parks committee and not
having known about this was not helpful
prior to our questions this morning.
It would've been nice to have had
that conversation in our committee.
But I realize this was happening
pretty quickly with Mr. Benches
recent decision to accept
a different employment.
I do have some experience with this.
When the Commission and Visitors
Bureau first became a city entity,
it was my job to find that new director.
And we did do a national
search for that position.
And I would tell you, it was not easy.
And I think, part of the timing
concern, as it is with this item,
is that regardless of who the mayor is,
if there is a upcoming city election,
it's pretty difficult to find
anyone of national interest
to would come to this particular spot.
Because unlike most
CVBs, our director does
serve at the pleasure of the mayor.
It is not a civil service position.
So that was one of the first
things that conjure my concern.
In addition to what could be a
substantial cost to place this person.
But having said that, to
Councilman Palermo's questions,
I think that they did clarify
things enough for me this morning
that I could see this through today.
In that, the only thing
this contract guarantees
is the expenses of this contractor.
Only if the person is placed,
are they then compensated 30%
as described in this measure.
And if placed, and if that
person leaves within six months,
the company is still obligated to
find and replace that director.
So having had that
clarification this morning,
that made me feel better about
having this on our agenda today.
And I do think it's a very important
position in city government,
especially we have some really
exceptional assets coming in
to play for our city in coming years.
And then lastly, I had
intended to speak on this,
but do you appreciate the testimony
that was given a number 41.
And while that's not my district, it
sure seems like a reasonable request.
If you weren't informed of what seems
to be a fairly substantial housing
project there, that I'd be
open to laying that over
until that communication
does take place.
CHRIS JERRAM: Yeah, there's
already been a request
to take 41 off the consent agenda.
PETE FESTERSEN: Great.
Thank you.
CHRIS JERRAM: Council Member,
Harding, you're recognized.
BRINKER HARDING: I was going
to say something on 41 too.
So let me ask this.
If someone is going to
take that off, are we
going to continue the
public hearing on that?
Do you want me to address that now,
or should I wait till it's pulled off.
Why don't I wait till it's pulled off.
CHRIS JERRAM: It's already off.
The motion it would be to lay over
and continue the public hearing.
You could accomplish the same thing.
BRINKER HARDING: OK.
Let me make my comments now, and
then we can take the vote on it then.
I do know that at planning board,
I think Mrs. Johnson also appeared
at that planning board, or had some
conversations also with members
of the planning department.
I think there has been
some communication.
There were neighborhood
meetings that were held.
So I guess I'm at a loss to understand
that there's a lack of communication
there.
But if it's going to be the pleasure
of the board or someone wants
to make the motion
delay it over, I guess
if that's what a member of this
board wants, I'll go along with that.
But I'm at a loss, I guess, at to
the conversation or the mention
that there's a lack of communication.
The other one I was going to--
I'm just going to pile on your Chief.
I think, I got to know the chief
and his sister a little bit
too, over the years.
And I think you'll be a
great addition to Meca,
and I know that the board and
the operation and Roger Dixon
look forward to working with you.
And I appreciate you taking on the task,
and as Council Member Festersen said,
I don't know where you find the time.
But thank you for your service,
your past service to the city,
and I appreciate the service you're
going to be continuing with Meca.
Thanks.
CHRIS JERRAM: Thank you
Council Member, Harding.
Council Member Gray, you're recognized.
BEN GRAY: Yeah, this is one
question [INAUDIBLE] then
and that's one item number 44.
That's for our attorney.
If we have-- was it was it appropriate
at this point to place this
on the agenda, if there is a
dispute on this, or what in your--
give us some guidance on this.
What would be the--
I mean, can we vote on this today?
Should we vote on this today?
And if there is a
dispute, should we have--
BERNARD: And I don't--
Bernard, in den Bosch
Deputy City Attorney.
I don't know all the details
about the nature of the dispute,
but what I will tell
you is I don't believe
there is anything about him filing an
appeal on that issue, that in any way
forecloses your ability to
consider and take action today.
Now whether you want to wait for that
to be resolved before you move forward,
that's certainly something
that you could choose to do,
but there isn't any
legal obligation to wait.
BEN GRAY: I think, if there is a--
Mr. President, if the
council would indulge,
I would like to take 44
off your agenda as well.
CHRIS JERRAM: That's fine.
I would just note it does
not appear that there
was an appeal on this agenda item by--
BEN GRAY: Oh, there wasn't?
CHRIS JERRAM: No.
But I-- there's already
been a request to take
that item off consent for a vote.
BEN GRAY: OK.
Thank you.
CHRIS JERRAM: OK.
Thank you.
Council Member Harding, did
you want to speak again?
BRINKER HARDING: I don't, thanks.
CHRIS JERRAM: OK.
There you go.
Council Member Festersen, you
indicated you were thinking
about our emotional layover on item 41.
I don't know if you intended
to make that motion or not?
PETE FESTERSEN: Yes, thanks.
Mr. Fanslau, if you could
come down just for a moment.
I believe this would be in the
planning department's jurisdiction.
I guess my question to you is,
is there any credible time frame
here what would be a
reasonable layover time to make
sure the neighborhood is engaged?
DAVE FANSLAU: Dave
Fanslau, City Planning.
Out of the blue on this one.
So we didn't talk about it
pre- counsel and I didn't
know that there is any opposition.
Shortest time possible, if
you're going to lay it over.
I can't answer if it's going to
cause any delay, but I doubt it.
And if it's a week or two, wouldn't
probably be the end of the world.
PETE FESTERSEN: OK.
That seem reasonable to me, but
maybe I'll defer it to Mr. Gray,
since his district, to get his thoughts.
BEN GRAY: I think we go
ahead and lay it over.
I mean, I don't know that--
I don't know that there
hasn't been any-- no
one is here, so I don't know that
there hasn't been any communication.
So I just think, for purposes
of keeping the record clear
and making sure that the is engaged,
that maybe we just lay it over a week.
No more than a week.
CHRIS JERRAM: Motion delay of one week?
DAVE FANSLAU: Just the lay
over, not the public hearing?
BEN GRAY: No, not the public hearing.
We just lay it over one week.
CHRIS JERRAM: Roll call.
OK, so the clerk has
pointing out, let's take
the remainder of the agenda, other
than 41 and 44 for the consent.
BRINKER HARDING: So we're taking 44 out?
CHRIS JERRAM: Yeah.
VINNY PALERMO: [INAUDIBLE]
CHRIS JERRAM: Roll call.
ELIZABETH BUTLER: Harding?
BRINKER HARDING: Yes.
ELIZABETH BUTLER: Pahls?
RICH PAHLS: Yes.
ELIZABETH BUTLER: Palermo?
VINNY PALERMO: Yes.
ELIZABETH BUTLER: Festersen?
PETE FESTERSEN: Yes.
ELIZABETH BUTLER: Gray?
BEN GRAY: Yes.
ELIZABETH BUTLER: Mr. President?
CHRIS JERRAM: Yes.
ELIZABETH BUTLER: Motion passed 6 to 0.
CHRIS JERRAM: Item 41 is on the floor.
Is that with the understanding
that the planning department
is going to be reaching out to the
neighborhood to provide a briefing?
BEN GRAY: Yes.
CHRIS JERRAM: OK.
We have a motion to [INAUDIBLE].
Vice President, Palermo, [INAUDIBLE]?
OK.
Roll call.
ELIZABETH BUTLER: Harding?
BRINKER HARDING: Yes.
ELIZABETH BUTLER: Pahls?
RICH PAHLS: Yes.
ELIZABETH BUTLER: Palermo?
VINNY PALERMO: Yes.
ELIZABETH BUTLER: Festersen?
PETE FESTERSEN: Yes.
ELIZABETH BUTLER: Gray?
BEN GRAY: Yes.
ELIZABETH BUTLER: Mr. President?
CHRIS JERRAM: Yes.
ELIZABETH BUTLER: Motion passed 6 to 0.
CHRIS JERRAM: OK, we're now on item 44.
I do have a couple questions.
I don't know, Bernard,
it doesn't appear that--
can you come down for us?
Yeah.
Did your company bid on this, this time?
KEVIN REDDICK: No sir.
CHRIS JERRAM: On 44?
Because I was looking at the bidders.
I didn't see the companies name.
KEVIN REDDICK: No, Sir.
CHRIS JERRAM: OK, so you didn't bid.
You haven't appealed the
bid because you didn't bid.
KEVIN REDDICK: Well, actually--
CHRIS JERRAM: You're just
pointing out your position
as to the project in terms of what
happened when you bid it, and that--
a part of what you
bid on is in this bid?
KEVIN REDDICK: Yes, Sir.
CHRIS JERRAM: OK.
KEVIN REDDICK: Yes, Sir.
They had the same type
of misunderstanding,
in reference to the language
in the bid document,
in reference to the outreach because
that's why they rebid the project.
Because the contractors, they
didn't do the same thing either.
However, at the time that I
bid the project last year,
I did make a good faith effort.
Matter of fact, Thomas Warren was
one of the people that I emailed.
He was on that email list.
And I pointed that out when we talked
about when I came to the city council
to appeal on the rejection.
CHRIS JERRAM: Why didn't
you bid on this one?
KEVIN REDDICK: To be honest
with you, Sir, I just
am not right now in that position
to bid that whole scope of work.
Some of the contractors, they did do
the outreach thing via email with me,
as well as the city planning department,
human rights relations department,
but my mom, she has Alzheimer's.
And I've been dealing with that.
CHRIS JERRAM: Well, I'm sorry
for what you're going through.
My mother went through that, myself.
I know all too well.
KEVIN REDDICK: You know what it's like.
CHRIS JERRAM: Yeah.
KEVIN REDDICK: Yeah.
So I'm just doing what I need
to do to still stay in business
and I would like to continue to
grow and develop my business.
CHRIS JERRAM: Thank you.
Council Member Gray?
BEN GRAY: Yeah.
Let me just be real quick.
Kevin, I took it off because I didn't
recognize that you had not bid on it.
So I don't, I guess, and I
don't want to be a lawyer here,
but I don't think that the appeal
that you have into the courts--
is that where it is?
KEVIN REDDICK: No.
No, Sir.
It's through HUD.
BEN GRAY: Through HUD.
OK.
KEVIN REDDICK: It's through HUD.
HUD is the ones that funded the project.
BEN GRAY: OK.
KEVIN REDDICK: OK, and we have
not yet received a final decision
from the regional office in
Kansas City on the complaint
that I submitted with them.
And that's all I'm
asking, is that at least
wait until we get a final
answer from them before you
begin to disperse some of the scope
of work out, which is part of the work
that I had originally been on.
Because if they do make a
decision in my favor, then what?
BEN GRAY: Then you can get damages.
Yeah, that's what I think.
And so I originally was going to vote
no on this, but I think I will vote yes.
Only because you didn't
bet on it, number one.
And number two, if they
make a ruling and the work
is started, whatever that work is, you
can gain damages from that through HUD.
So understanding that
better now, I just wanted
you to understand what my
vote is going to be and why.
Because I originally was going to
vote no and wait until it was over.
But if there is possibility
for you to gain damages
as a result of your complaint,
I think that would probably
be the best mechanism for you
and probably the best way to go.
CHRIS JERRAM: Thank you,
Council Member Gray.
Council Member Harding?
BRINKER HARDING: I think I was
going to make some similar comments
about since you didn't bid on it.
Knowing that now, I'd go ahead--
I don't know if you want
to make the motion or?
BEN GRAY: Yeah, I'll
make a motion to approve.
BRINKER HARDING: I'll second it.
BEN GRAY: I'll make a motion
to approve because I think,
I'm confident that
when you get with HUD,
and HUD makes his ruling, if
there is a very substantial
or if there are any violations, you
will be compensated for the damages.
CHRIS JERRAM: Thank you.
Council Member Vice President, Palermo.
VINNY PALERMO: Thank you, Mr. President.
And I think too, before we knew that.
So quickly looking through the
pictures that you put up there,
doesn't seem like the bidders
on item 44 were in your bid.
And the bidders in
this, or vice versa, it
seems that yours was for the
tree, brush, clearing out part.
But this might be for a greater scope?
Is that what's your gathering from--
KEVIN REDDICK: Well, it has
clearing and grubbing on it
that's part of the scope of
work, as well as I guess,
digging up different areas that
had been demolition previously,
to get that area prepped for whatever
development is going to go there.
But clearing and grubbing is
part of the scope of work.
And the scope of work that was on
the project, that I bid on last year,
this is also part of that same section.
VINNY PALERMO: So you
bid on the tree part.
This bid is the tree part
and some, so it's technically
a different bid that went out?
KEVIN REDDICK: It's a different bid, but
some of the same area and scope of work
is under this particular project.
Yes, sir.
VINNY PALERMO: So I know
you have a complaint.
I know them can last a while.
So let me ask law, Bernard,
I'm trying to think here
what I'm even trying to ask you.
So a bid was put in
for part of a project,
and had the bid been
awarded to whatever company,
with this bid that went out
in 44, be less than money
wise what he would have got?
Are you not the right person to ask?
BERNARD: Well, I can try
to answer your question.
Certainly, I don't have--
somebody in planning might be
familiar with the scope of the work.
But it appears that the first
project had a scope of work, the one
that he bid for and
ultimately didn't receive.
And then it appears that there
might be some overlap between that,
which in and of itself, I don't
think is problematic at all.
If the work wasn't done
previously, then it
can certainly bid as part of a
subsequent bid that he did not bid for.
And as Mr. Gray points
out, he has a complaint.
Obviously, it sounds like we're waiting
for HUD to consider that complaint.
And they have the
potential to award damages.
And I think he also has
the potential, if he
doesn't like the result of what
HUD disposes of his complaint,
to bring an action in
the courts as well.
So the action, as far as what
occurred with the last bid,
may very well not be resolved for
some time to be honest with you.
VINNY PALERMO: OK, thank you.
So thinking out loud, had
the process worked itself out
and you got awarded the tree part
of this bid, you would have got it
and this would have been
separate, obviously, far less.
But I guess it's something
for us to keep an eye on that
if a bid does fall through, because
it seems like that bid should
have went back out to the bidders.
But instead it seems like he got
swallowed up in a bigger bid.
And I guess the planning
director is here.
And I just don't want to see
that to happen because then we're
working backwards on why we
have small companies bidding
on these big projects.
KEVIN REDDICK: Can I
respond to that, sir?
VINNY PALERMO: Absolutely.
KEVIN REDDICK: OK.
This is my opinion.
OK, the bid last year that I
submitted on, I was a low bidder on.
There was an issue with the
outreach, so they rejected my bid.
I appealed their decision, came
to the city council, communicated
why I felt that my bed
should be accepted,
and it wasn't because of terminology,
the understanding of what
a recipient is, bidder,
vendor, et cetera, et cetera.
However, the city planning department,
they did not award the bid.
There was an intent to
award to Blademaster,
which hasn't been completed yet.
But there was a letter
sent out to Blademaster
for this particular project.
But because of my HUD complaint,
and HUD getting involved,
the city planning department--
they squashed the project.
They didn't awarded
to anybody as of yet.
However, some of that same scope of work
has now been put on another project.
Not all of it, but some of it.
And as I said, it was the
section from 29th in Parker,
over the Blondo 28th
Street, right in there.
And that's part of the job.
So to me, as a contractor,
when I see that based
upon what I had in my complaint,
the city planning department,
they still have those
funds there but they
have a certain time to use those funds.
And they're getting some of that
work done on this particular project,
Highlander East Demolition.
Some of the clearing and grubbing.
And the reason why I'm
here to oppose that
is because that's part of the
scope of work that I had bid on
and it's in the complaint.
And there hasn't been a decision
made through HUD to finalize that.
If HUD had made a decision in the
city's favor, I wouldn't be here.
I would have to go through appeal
process, if I did not like the decision
or whatever.
However, a decision
has not been made yet.
And that's the most important thing.
If they had made a decision on it, fine.
But if they don't, if they
haven't made one yet--
and from what I understand a
decision is coming forth right.
Hopefully, by the end
of the month or August.
So just the table this particular
project until the answer is made,
why not?
I think that's fair.
VINNY PALERMO: And I appreciate it.
And I think we're on the same page.
KEVIN REDDICK: Yes, sir.
VINNY PALERMO: Looking back
had it been done correctly
in the beginning we wouldn't
be here, fortunately.
KEVIN REDDICK: We wouldn't be here.
VINNY PALERMO: And
census is a separate bid.
I was willing to lay it over,
but you didn't bid on it.
So I think we'll be looking at these
and hopefully the smaller projects do
go to the companies that deserve them.
And the bigger projects,
go to the bigger companies
or whoever wants to get them.
So I wish you luck in
your HUD complaint.
KEVIN REDDICK: I was in a position
100% to perform that whole project.
And if you go back and if
you want to take the time,
sir to look at all the
scope of work, it was a lot
of trees on this particular project.
It covered a lot of area from last year.
VINNY PALERMO: I can
tell from the bid amount.
So thank you.
CHRIS JERRAM: And I would just
echo a little bit about what
was said by Vice President Palermo.
Fortunately, we have three of us
here that serve on the city council's
planning committee.
So the chairman is Council Member
Festersen and Council Member Harding
and I sit on it.
And we know the Bill [INAUDIBLE]
Cash and his group and the good work
that they do.
And I'm sure he'll give us
his accounting for why they
put this bid together the way they did.
And if you want to follow
up with us in a month.
Because we'll be meeting
later this month won't we?
Next month, we'll have met
with him and get an explanation
from planning department.
He's not here today.
I don't think it's fair to ask Mr.
Fanslough the planning director,
unless he's intimately familiar
with how this bid was put together.
He's not going to know the answer.
But we can get the answer.
And I too wish you luck
with your HUD complaint.
But today, since you
didn't bid, I think we're
going to be supporting the motion.
OK?
KEVIN REDDICK: OK.
Well, I certainly appreciate your input.
Mr. Gray I understand why you feel
that you have to vote that way.
And as you said maybe through the
final decision I'll get damages.
Which is hard to get from the state.
CHRIS JERRAM: Yeah,
but there's something.
I think your inclination of this
isn't right, leads me to say,
well we shouldn't be in a position where
people doing business with the city
or wanting to do business with the
city have these fundamental questions
of fairness and how they're treated.
They should know the playing
field is level for everybody.
And so we'll get you the answers.
KEVIN REDDICK: If it hadn't
had been in reference
to the issue with the
outreach last year,
as Mr. Gray tried to
explain to the city council,
but the final decision, Mr.
Jerram was your decision.
And that's what it went by.
CHRIS JERRAM: Well, with all
due respect, I'm one of seven.
KEVIN REDDICK: Say what now?
CHRIS JERRAM: I'm one
of seven on the council.
KEVIN REDDICK: There was a
lady that was on the council.
She's not here today.
But she spoke with me after that and
she felt that I should have won that.
She told me that face to face.
CHRIS JERRAM: Well, thanks.
KEVIN REDDICK: OK.
CHRIS JERRAM: OK.
Roll call.
ELIZABETH BUTLER: Harding?
BRINKER HARDING: This is to approve?
ELIZABETH BUTLER: Approve.
BRINKER HARDING: Yes.
ELIZABETH BUTLER: Pahls?
RICH PAHLS: Yes.
ELIZABETH BUTLER: Palermo?
VINNY PALERMO: Yes.
ELIZABETH BUTLER: Festersen?
PETE FESTERSEN: Yes.
ELIZABETH BUTLER: Gray?
BEN GRAY: Yes.
ELIZABETH BUTLER: Mr. President?
CHRIS JERRAM: Yes.
ELIZABETH BUTLER: Motion passed 6 to 0.
CHRIS JERRAM: I think
we're on annexation now.
ELIZABETH BUTLER: Yes.
Item 55 to 62 relate to the
2020 annexation package.
Ordinances extending
limits on the city of Omaha
to incorporate SID 421, 451,
468, 489, 495 502, 539, 538
is an item of the hall by the
Planning Department for SID 538.
Planning board and planning
department recommend approval.
CHRIS JERRAM: So we can vote on
all of them up to 61 in one vote?
ELIZABETH BUTLER: Correct.
BEN GRAY: So moved.
BRINKER HARDING: Second.
CHRIS JERRAM: Roll call.
Oh, Mr. Festersen.
PETE FESTERSEN: Yeah, thanks.
Troy, can you come down please?
I want us to reiterate our conversation
we had this morning on these items.
I do think the annexation
program being proposed this year
demonstrates a measured
annexation approach.
It is a financial positive to the city
and it is continuous for city services.
The one remaining concern I
had though was about trash.
Since that is a big issue
for all citizens right now,
and delays for current
citizens, so I want
to make sure that if
these are adopted today,
that doesn't create additional
burden on our waste management
contract in the meantime
and suffer potentially
the service of current residents,
let alone the new residents.
So we talked about
this, this morning and I
think you have addressed that issue in
the three SIDs where that is an issue.
But if you could just
summarize that for us?
TROY ANDERSON: Yeah, so the issue
is that as we typically annex SIDs,
the SIDs will terminate
their solid waste contract
and move over to taking advantage of
and using the city's solid waste removal
program.
What that generally entails though
is homeowners going out and buying
trash cans or buying bags, so that waste
management can collect solid waste.
Since we're moving to the new
solid waste contract in 2021, that
would require those folks to go
out and purchase those trash cans,
purchase those trash bags, and
they would ultimately almost
have three solid waste
haulers within one year.
We wanted to try to
alleviate that this year.
And so there were three SIDs that we
identified had a SID wide solid waste
removal contracts.
SID 495, 502, and 539.
SID 495 requested that they pay the
contract in full, prior to annexation,
using some of their cash on hand.
We did authorize that, so that
check the box for SID 495.
The other two SID 502 and 539, we've
been working with the law department.
We'll have resolutions
to you next week, which
will authorize the city
to extend and continue
those contracts through
the end of the year,
so that those residents will not
be impacted by the annexation,
as it relates to solid waste.
They'll be able to go from
their current waste hauler
straight into the new
solid waste contract
that the city will offer for 2021.
PETE FESTERSEN: OK, thank you.
Can you confirm that this is
in fact a financial positive
to this city both next year and
over the 10 year time frame?
Right?
TROY ANDERSON: That's correct.
PETE FESTERSEN: OK.
Thank you.
CHRIS JERRAM: Vice president,
Palermo, you're recognized.
VINNY PALERMO: Thank you, Mr. President.
So for the next issues, I just
wanted to, again like usual,
thank Mr. Anderson for his hard work
on putting together these packages,
even though some of
SIDs might be negative.
He groups them together and somehow gets
every director to say it's possible.
So thank you for that.
And I know why we do it right,
we all know why we do it.
But like I brought up in pre-council
last week or a couple of weeks ago,
there's some underlying
issues this year,
which I'm usually against
annexation, that really
justifies me being against annexation.
One of them is COVID has
set back police classes,
therefore there is an
exodus on police officers.
Being on the police
and fire pension board,
I'm seeing more and more retire,
which means there's more openings.
And that class isn't going
to happen, or didn't happen,
and we're behind a
class, which means we're
going to be lacking police officers that
we desperately need during these times.
And again, we got a new contract
moving forward with FCC,
where they're going to be asked
to take on even more customers
with the rollout that's heading our way.
We have more parks to mow we have so
many more lane miles to take care of.
With all that being said, with
where we're at, like usual,
I'm going to be against it.
So thank you.
CHRIS JERRAM: There's a motion
and a second on items 56 to 61.
ELIZABETH BUTLER: 55.
CHRIS JERRAM: Excuse me, 55 to 61.
Roll call.
ELIZABETH BUTLER: Harding?
BRINKER HARDING: Yes.
ELIZABETH BUTLER: Pahls?
RICH PAHLS: Yes.
ELIZABETH BUTLER: Palermo?
VINNY PALERMO: No.
ELIZABETH BUTLER: Festersen?
PETE FESTERSEN: Yes.
ELIZABETH BUTLER: Gray?
BEN GRAY: Yes.
ELIZABETH BUTLER: Mr. President?
CHRIS JERRAM: Yes.
ELIZABETH BUTLER: Motion passed 5 to 1.
[INAUDIBLE]
CHRIS JERRAM: Amendment of the whole?
BEN GRAY: Yes.
COUNCILMAN Sir.
CHRIS JERRAM: Roll call.
ELIZABETH BUTLER: Harding?
BRINKER HARDING: Yes.
ELIZABETH BUTLER: Pahls?
RICH PAHLS: Yes.
ELIZABETH BUTLER: Palermo?
VINNY PALERMO: No.
ELIZABETH BUTLER: Festersen?
PETE FESTERSEN: Yes.
ELIZABETH BUTLER: Gray?
BEN GRAY: Yes.
ELIZABETH BUTLER: Mr. President?
CHRIS JERRAM: Yes.
ELIZABETH BUTLER: Motion passed 5 to1.
CHRIS JERRAM: That was under the
ordinance of some public hearing.
[LAUGHS]
Seems like the thing to do around 6:00.
ELIZABETH BUTLER: Item 63, an ordinance
to amend Omaha municipal code, section
34-57 to create a penalty for
those who commence excavation
in city right of way without a permit.
CHRIS JERRAM: The public hearing
on item 63 begins at this time.
Are there any proponents or opponents?
The a public hearing is closed.
ELIZABETH BUTLER: Item 64 an audience
levying a special tax assessment
for cutting and clearing weeds,
grass, and worthless vegetation
on certain lots in the city
of Omaha group 2020-08.
CHRIS JERRAM: The public hearing
on item 64 begins at this time.
Are there are any
proponents or opponents?
The public hearing is closed.
ELIZABETH BUTLER: At 65, an ordinance
levying a special tax assessment
for litter removal on certain lots
in the city of Omaha group 2020-09.
CHRIS JERRAM: The public hearing
on item 65 begins at this time.
Are there any proponents or opponents?
Public hearing is closed.
ELIZABETH BUTLER: Item 66 an ordinance
to approve a service agreement
with IDEMIA for a digital
fingerprinting for a term of five years
and the amount of $13,028.
CHRIS JERRAM: The public hearing
on items 66 begins at this time.
Are there any proponents or opponents?
The public hearing is closed.
ELIZABETH BUTLER: Item 67, an ordinance
to prove the Nebraska crime commission
fiscal year 2019 stop violence against
women grand award in the amount
of $246,115.45.
During the project period of
July 1, 2020, to June 30 2021.
CHRIS JERRAM: The public hearing
on item 67 begins at this time.
Are there any proponents or opponents?
The public hearing is closed
ELIZABETH BUTLER: Non-action items.
Item 63 thru 100 do not require a public
hearing or city council consideration
at this meeting but will be placed
on a future agenda for public hearing
and/or a vote.
The reason for non action is noted
after the item on the agenda,
as well as the date the
item is expected to appear
on the agenda for consideration.
CHRIS JERRAM: Roll call.
ELIZABETH BUTLER: Harding?
BRINKER HARDING: Yes.
ELIZABETH BUTLER: Pahls?
RICH PAHLS: Yes.
ELIZABETH BUTLER: Palermo?
VINNY PALERMO: Yes.
ELIZABETH BUTLER: Festersen?
PETE FESTERSEN: Yes.
ELIZABETH BUTLER: Gray?
BEN GRAY: Yes.
ELIZABETH BUTLER: Mr. President?
CHRIS JERRAM: Yes.
ELIZABETH BUTLER: The
motion passed 6 to 0.
Meeting is adjourned at 6:09.
