Latest / The KFAB Comment Line with Jean Stothert / Sherriff Aaron Hanson Joins

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Sherriff Aaron Hanson Joins · The KFAB Comment Line with Jean Stothert

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Speaker 1: And this morning, I have a special guest and he's
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Speaker 1: on the line now, and we have Douglas County Sheriff
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Speaker 1: Aaron Hanson, Sheriff.
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Speaker 2: Good morning, well, good morning.
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Speaker 1: How are you.
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Speaker 3: I'm good. I'm good. I'm navigating the slippery roads of
0:17
Speaker 3: central Douglas County here we had this drizzle coming down.
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Speaker 3: I'm excited to see more rain, though I hope I
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Speaker 3: gotta get prepped from my garden. So I love seeing
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Speaker 3: this rain.
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Speaker 1: And I do love seeing the things you post on
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Speaker 1: your Facebook about your dogs and your garden, et cetera,
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Speaker 1: et cetera. I've made a few comments, you know, like.
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Speaker 3: My goats, like my goats, and like please.
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Speaker 1: Don't invite me over to dinner. Ever, Sheriff.
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Speaker 3: Johnson ranches full of fluffy and animals.
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Speaker 1: You sure do so. Anyway, the thing I really wanted
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Speaker 1: to talk to you about this morning is something that
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Speaker 1: has been on the air before yesterday they started talking
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Speaker 1: about it. But there was an event, a kickoff event
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Speaker 1: this week on Tuesday evening for Mark Martinez, who is
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Speaker 1: running for Douglas County Sheriff mayor. Ewing at that event
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Speaker 1: spoke who has endorsed Mark Martinez and accused you, the
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Speaker 1: sheriff of Douglas County, of leading an occupying army, and
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Speaker 1: he said that with his endorsement of your challenger at
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Speaker 1: this event, I would say the usual suspects were there.
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Speaker 1: Tony Vargas, Ron hug Crystal Rhodes, the mayor, his wife,
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Speaker 1: the First Lady which she prefers to be called, But
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Speaker 1: apparently Ewing, who helped recruit Martinez to run, really sharply
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Speaker 1: criticized your current administration under you and described this as
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Speaker 1: this occupying army. So I wanted to give you a
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Speaker 1: chance to respond and also just ask you. We'll ask
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Speaker 1: you to respond, but is there a contentious relationship that
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Speaker 1: has developed between the city are the mayor and the
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Speaker 1: Douglas County Sheriff's Department. Just to give you the opportunity
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Speaker 1: to talk about that accusation, and then I've got a
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Speaker 1: lot of questions too about about the role of the
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Speaker 1: sheriff of Douglas County, because I think we all know
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Speaker 1: the city of Omaha is in Douglas County.
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Speaker 3: Sure, yeah, well thanks for thanks for the opportunity, and yeah,
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Speaker 3: you know, I think it's important for people to put
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Speaker 3: in context. You know, you have politics, and a politics
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Speaker 3: comes political statements, political rhetoric, and then we have reality,
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Speaker 3: you know, after elections is you know, when the rhetoric
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Speaker 3: kind of campers down a little bit and we get
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Speaker 3: back to business and people work with each other again
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Speaker 3: and until until the next election cycle comes around. But
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Speaker 3: you know, I think one thing that really wears people
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Speaker 3: out today is the divisive political speech that we see
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Speaker 3: too often both you know, especially on the national level,
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Speaker 3: but even sometimes on the local level. And to you know,
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Speaker 3: that's one thing. If somebody wants to be critical with
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Speaker 3: me and my style or who I am as a sheriff,
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Speaker 3: you know, that's their game. But I don't think it's
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Speaker 3: not fair, it's not accurate, and it's not nice, quite frankly,
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Speaker 3: to paint with a broad brush the hard working men
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Speaker 3: of women of the Dougas County Sheriff's Office by calling
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Speaker 3: them an occupying hanney when it comes to sheriffs sheriff's
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Speaker 3: offices at countywide jurisdiction, and they work directly for the people.
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Speaker 3: And so if somebody is going to call and ask
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Speaker 3: for help, if to the extent that we have the
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Speaker 3: ability to help, we want to be responsive and help
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Speaker 3: protect our bosses. Now here's the other thing. When it
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Speaker 3: comes to our relationship with the Oma Police Department, the
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Speaker 3: Dogs Couinty Shriff's Office has a fantastic relationship with the
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Speaker 3: Oma Police Department. How people were working together every day
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Speaker 3: to keep all of our shared constituents safe. The nice
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Speaker 3: thing about that.
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Speaker 1: Excuse me, but you always have had a good relationship, correct, Yes,
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Speaker 1: I mean at twelve that's twelve years I was mayor.
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Speaker 3: You did the two agencies work together very well. You know,
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Speaker 3: let's say OPD is one of the best, if not
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Speaker 3: the best police department in the nation. Under Chiefs matyrs leadership,
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Speaker 3: we've seen incredible reductions in violence. There's been a lot
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Speaker 3: of positive public safety headway to be done. And also
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Speaker 3: the Dougast County Shriff's Office, in my opinion, is one
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Speaker 3: of the best major county sheriff's office in the nation.
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Speaker 3: And luckily we both served some of the best people,
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Speaker 3: some of the best citizens, the best community in the nation.
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Speaker 3: And so I think this county is big enough to
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Speaker 3: be able to have the best police department, the best
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Speaker 3: sheriff's office serving and protecting one of the best communities
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Speaker 3: in the nation.
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Speaker 1: Absolutely, and you know. I mean when you think about it,
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Speaker 1: and I know people know this, but Marory Ewing is
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Speaker 1: a former OPD police officer. So is Tom Warren former chief.
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Speaker 1: You are You spent what over twenty how many years
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Speaker 1: with the Omaha Police Department before you became sheriff, many
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Speaker 1: many years, and you had many roles too. I remember
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Speaker 1: when I first met you, you were on canine and
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Speaker 1: I would drive down the interstate and see your cruiser
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Speaker 1: parked on the side of the road and your dog
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Speaker 1: out and your leg's sticking out from under somebody's car
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Speaker 1: when you were looking for drugs. I mean, you had many,
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Speaker 1: many roles. You were the president of OPOA Omaha Police
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Speaker 1: Officers Association for a while too, and now you're the
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Speaker 1: Douglas County Sheriff. So in my opinion, there should be
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Speaker 1: no reason why the two law enforcement agencies can't and
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Speaker 1: should not get along very very well. Then where do
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Speaker 1: you think this came from? Do you think it's just
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Speaker 1: just some political language to help try to get your
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Speaker 1: opponent elected. I just don't know where this came from.
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Speaker 3: Well, I think it's again it's politics versus reality. And
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Speaker 3: I can tell you that I received a lot of
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Speaker 3: feedback from a lot of members of the Omah Police Department.
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Speaker 3: Definitely at the members of the Douglas County Sheriff's Office
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Speaker 3: that were you know, they were, they were surprised, they
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Speaker 3: were shocked and disappointed to hear those comments broad breaststroking,
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Speaker 3: you know, the men and women of the Douglas Kinny
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Speaker 3: Shriff's officers and occupying army. Here's the fact of the matterazine.
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Speaker 3: When an Omah Police officer was shot in the head
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Speaker 3: here recently and luckily survived at one hundred and fourteenth
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Speaker 3: in Dodge, some of the first responding officers, some of
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Speaker 3: the first responding deputies, were members of the DCSO Special
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Speaker 3: Operations Group, there to protect their brothers and sisters when
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Speaker 3: they needed it. Every day, almost every day, our Douglas
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Speaker 3: Kinny Shriff's Office CAT Team works with the OpenD trafficking
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Speaker 3: it to pursue and stop and if we need to
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Speaker 3: arrest dangerous reckless drivers or street racers or those engaging
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Speaker 3: in the legal side shows, one of the most dangerous
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Speaker 3: statistical behaviors that we see on our public streets. It
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Speaker 3: wasn't very long ago. Just last year, the DCSO teamed
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Speaker 3: up with the Omah Police Department to take down the
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Speaker 3: break the Precious Metals and eighty fourth and Ugh. This
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Speaker 3: was a hot spot of theft and fraud. It was
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Speaker 3: a fencing location. They were victimizing retailers across the Omah
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Speaker 3: metro and thieves associated with that, impacting people in unincorporated
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Speaker 3: Douglas County as well as City of Omah. The team
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Speaker 3: effort is strong, but there's something else, Jean, I think
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Speaker 3: what's important again. I want to brag about my staff,
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Speaker 3: the best sheriff's office in the nation of my humble opinion,
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Speaker 3: Douglas County. Last year, unincorporated Douglas County had the lowest
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Speaker 3: number of reported person crime and property crime victims in
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Speaker 3: seven years. We've seen reductions across almost every crime category
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Speaker 3: from last year to previous years. But then also even
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Speaker 3: more importantly, we saw seventy five percent reduction in traffic
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Speaker 3: fatalities and unincorporated Douglas County and a fifteen percent reduction
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Speaker 3: in personal injury collisions. So that just doesn't happen with
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Speaker 3: good intentions. That happens because we've got good people that
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Speaker 3: care about this community, that go to work every day
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Speaker 3: put on that uniform of their civilian uniform and dropped
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Speaker 3: their shoulder and are focused on the public safety of
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Speaker 3: the people that we served.
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Speaker 1: Absolutely, it's all about keeping the public safe. And then
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Speaker 1: when you look at what's happening elsewhere, even in Nebraska,
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Speaker 1: Lincoln just reported their violent crime is up thirty two percent,
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Speaker 1: and look what we have here in Omaha. And you know,
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Speaker 1: the one thing I wanted to also bring up if
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Speaker 1: we have always had mutual aid, we always help each other,
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Speaker 1: not only the Douglas County Sheriff and OPD, but helped
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Speaker 1: the other law enforcement agencies in our metro area. And
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Speaker 1: when Omaha Police Department suffered like every other law enforcement
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Speaker 1: agency in the country did in twenty twenty when COVID
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Speaker 1: hit after George Floyd hit and our numbers went down drastically.
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Speaker 1: You know, we've been operating with about one hundred less
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Speaker 1: police officers than we are budgeted for. And with that
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Speaker 1: the help of other law enforcement agencies, including the Douglas
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Speaker 1: County Sheriff, makes all the sense in the world that
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Speaker 1: you are out there to help us, we're there to
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Speaker 1: help you, and the whole the whole intent and goal
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Speaker 1: is to keep the city safe. And Omaha is a
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Speaker 1: safe city. And I think that's really important to bring
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Speaker 1: up that that mutual aid has always existed. Now, one
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Speaker 1: of the things that they accused you of is over
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Speaker 1: overstepping your boundaries. So on to just ask you, what
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Speaker 1: what do you in your words, what is the primary
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Speaker 1: function of the Douglas County Sheriff's Department, Because I know
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Speaker 1: you have you have officers on patrol. You also take
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Speaker 1: care of the courthouse, the haul of justice. Just tell
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Speaker 1: the listeners what the primary function is and then we
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Speaker 1: are always there to help each.
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Speaker 3: Other well per per stage statue, you know, every sheriff
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Speaker 3: in every county has a statutory obligation to maintain and
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Speaker 3: promote the safety of every citizen in their county, sure
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Speaker 3: regardless of where they live in the county. The sheriffs
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Speaker 3: also have statutory duties to protect the courthouse and to
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Speaker 3: engage in civil process to make sure the court system
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Speaker 3: runs efficiently. And then also in areas of the county
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Speaker 3: that are not a city, about one about half the
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Speaker 3: land mass of Douglas County, about one step of the
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Speaker 3: population of Douglas County is unincorporated Douglas County. That's where
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Speaker 3: Sheriff's offices have primary jurisdiction. That means if you call
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Speaker 3: nine to one one, it's going to be a sheriff's
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Speaker 3: deputy that's going to arrive to take your call and
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Speaker 3: a sheriff's investigator who's been due the follow up. Now,
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Speaker 3: that doesn't mean that that obligation to keep citizens safe
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Speaker 3: diminishes one block on the other side of that city
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Speaker 3: county boundary. We do work well with our partner agencies
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Speaker 3: that are primary jurisdiction agencies in their cities. But if
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Speaker 3: a citizen in those jurisdictions needs the help of the
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Speaker 3: sheriff's office and if we can provide that assistance to
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Speaker 3: keep them safe, we will do so. If that means
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Speaker 3: working with our partners and other law enforcements for engaging
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Speaker 3: in the effort on our own. My obligation is sheriff
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Speaker 3: is my bosses, and my bosses are the people of
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Speaker 3: Douglas County because that's who I.
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Speaker 1: Work for directly, absolutely, And you know, Nebraska is one
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Speaker 1: of forty six states where the sheriff is elected by
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Speaker 1: the public and not appointed by the mayor like the
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Speaker 1: police chief is. So you were elected by the public
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Speaker 1: to serve in that position. One other thing I have
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Speaker 1: to bring up that was said during the fundraiser or
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Speaker 1: the announcement with your opponent, Mark Martinez, is that Aaron
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Speaker 1: Hansen has gobs and gobs of money. I kind of
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Speaker 1: had to snicker at that statement. Gobs and gobs of money,
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Speaker 1: lucky you. I mean, raising money is one of the
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Speaker 1: hardest things to do. Take it from me that has
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Speaker 1: been doing it. I've been an elected position. I was
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Speaker 1: for twenty seven years. Campaigning is hard, can't You have
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Speaker 1: to raise a lot of money, you have to have
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Speaker 1: a lot of contact with the voters. But the one
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Speaker 1: thing I never did, and I don't think any candidate
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Speaker 1: should ever do, is to tell lies to the public
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Speaker 1: to get elected. And that's when you talked about elections
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Speaker 1: are getting more and more contentious. That is happening more
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Speaker 1: and more and more, and the public needs to be
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Speaker 1: informed and they need to be educated, and they need
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Speaker 1: to know what they're voting on, and they make it
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Speaker 1: so confusing. Now, that's why I want to do really
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Speaker 1: on this morning, to say here's what I do and
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Speaker 1: here's what the sheriff's duties are, and to be able
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Speaker 1: to talk about these things. So I think I really
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Speaker 1: appreciate you being on this morning. The campaign, like I said,
12:44
Speaker 1: it's firing up like all campaigns are right now, and
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Speaker 1: so I wish you luck. If your opponent wants to
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Speaker 1: be on this show, we'd certainly let him be on
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Speaker 1: this show. But I just I was very surprised at
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Speaker 1: this headline. I was very surprised by these accusations. I
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Speaker 1: don't think that they are true. You know, I've worked
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Speaker 1: with you for twelve years, or actually sixteen years, because
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Speaker 1: I worked with you when I was on the city council,
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Speaker 1: and we don't always agree, but that's okay, you know.
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Speaker 1: I mean, if we always agree, we would be pretty
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Speaker 1: non functional. So to say that you're leading an occupying
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Speaker 1: army is something that I certainly would oppose. How many
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Speaker 1: do you have as far as your total staffing with
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Speaker 1: your sheriff's department that are actually sworn.
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Speaker 3: Sure, We've got about two hundred and sixty two total
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Speaker 3: employees under the Douglas County Sheriff's Office, and we have
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Speaker 3: one hundred and sixty two or budget for one hundred
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Speaker 3: and sixty two sworn. And I would say that those
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Speaker 3: one hundred and sixty two are probably split evenly in thirds.
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Speaker 3: A third are assigned to Row Patrol patrolling unincorporated Douglas County,
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Speaker 3: but then also assigned to the Community Action Team, which
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Speaker 3: can be responsive across the county. A third are assigned
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Speaker 3: to criminal investigation, and a third are assigned at the
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Speaker 3: courthouse in the Civic Center to maintain the peace and
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Speaker 3: safety down there. Now, part of that third is also
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Speaker 3: constantly out in the county trying to find individuals that
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Speaker 3: have TELNY warrants. You got to remember, if someone gets
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Speaker 3: a warrant through the district court, the only agency that
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Speaker 3: pursues those individuals as a primary duty as a Douglas
14:25
Speaker 3: County Shriff's Office, regardless of what agency originally does the arrest.
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Speaker 3: And so you know, the Sheriff's Office, we do a
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Speaker 3: lot of work constantly all the way across the county
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Speaker 3: and unincorporated Douglas County. I think our folks do a
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Speaker 3: great job. I'm proud of them.
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Speaker 1: Yes, absolutely, And I know has brought up about community policing.
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Speaker 1: You do believe in practice community policing as well as
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Speaker 1: Olaw Police Department. Correct.
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Speaker 3: Yeah, we created a community laison program and so we've
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Speaker 3: got individual deputies that are assigned to different areas of
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Speaker 3: the community that kind of have their own little niche
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Speaker 3: expert area, whether the say based community, or different parts
15:06
Speaker 3: of the community, or different business and industries in the community,
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Speaker 3: and each of them do a good job as a
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Speaker 3: team to stay in contact and be present at community
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Speaker 3: events or be president meetings, to be in touch for
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Speaker 3: the community. So community policing is a big important part
15:24
Speaker 3: of being in affected law enforcement maidencies. But it's not
15:28
Speaker 3: just chilling up and being present, right. The real relationship
15:32
Speaker 3: comes through the problem solving. Sometimes you have to have
15:34
Speaker 3: tough conversations to try to solve someone's problem in their neighborhood.
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Speaker 3: And ultimately that real trust comes through action, not just words.
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Speaker 3: You have to actually have action to help people solve
15:45
Speaker 3: their problems and be responsive in their communities and keep
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Speaker 3: their homes and their families safe.
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Speaker 1: Absolutely all right, well, thank you so much, Jriff Hanson.
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Speaker 1: And one last important question. What's your favorite Easter candy?
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Speaker 3: Oh? Gosh, I love the uh you know, I I
16:03
Speaker 3: kind of love the Skittles jellybeans. That's that's kind of
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Speaker 3: my uh.
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Speaker 1: No kidding, I don't know about that. I I like
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Speaker 1: the I like the Cadbury eggs. You know, those little
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Speaker 1: chocolate ones that have the little yellow in it that
16:18
Speaker 1: look like a raw egg. Those are the ones I
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Speaker 1: like so well. Enjoy.
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Speaker 3: Not a fan of anything in the middle.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, all right, thank you so much for being on.
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Speaker 1: Sheriff Aaron Hanson, Douglas County Sheriff, thank you for being
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Speaker 1: here today.
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Speaker 4: All right, Peyton, here we go, Jeene, I had a
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Speaker 4: we spoke briefly yesterday before we go to break here. Yes,
16:44
Speaker 4: and you mentioned something about your sister city or the
16:48
Speaker 4: city of Omaha, sister city in France.
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Speaker 1: Is that right?
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Speaker 2: Yes?
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Speaker 1: I did. I created two sister cities since I've been mayor.
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Speaker 1: One is in Normandy and it's in France and it's
17:00
Speaker 1: word Easny Omaha and it's right where Omaha Beach is.
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Speaker 1: And then I created another one in Sicily, in Carlentini, Sicily,
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Speaker 1: and I've been to both places.
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Speaker 4: Adam responded yesterday. And that's the great thing about the
17:15
Speaker 4: kfab comment line email inbox is we can come back
17:18
Speaker 4: to these at any time, So any point throughout the
17:20
Speaker 4: day you have a question, be sure to reach out. Sure,
17:22
Speaker 4: he said, Mayor Jean, convince me that a sister city
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Speaker 4: is more than just an excuse to travel the world
17:28
Speaker 4: on taxpayer money.
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Speaker 1: Oh, I am so glad he said that, because you know,
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Speaker 1: there is an idea from people that that is how
17:35
Speaker 1: it goes. Let me tell you there is no budget
17:38
Speaker 1: in the city of Omaha for travel to sister city.
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Speaker 1: I've been to Ireland CARLAINI, and then I have been
17:46
Speaker 1: to France, and I paid for it out of Jean
17:49
Speaker 1: Stanthert's own pocket. My husband went with me too, and
17:52
Speaker 1: he paid for it out of his own pocket. There
17:55
Speaker 1: is no budget for travel for the mayor of Omaha,
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Speaker 1: and so when I went, there was no taxpayer dollars whatsoever.
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Speaker 1: And I do think they're important. You know, our oldest
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Speaker 1: sister city is She'soka, Japan. We've had it for over
18:10
Speaker 1: sixty years. Eisenhower proposed this back in the International Sister
18:16
Speaker 1: City Association back in nineteen fifty six. It's been in
18:22
Speaker 1: place for that long, and it was shortly after World
18:25
Speaker 1: War Two. It was a national initiative to try to
18:29
Speaker 1: bring people together to share their things, that they were
18:34
Speaker 1: more alike than their differences. And they call it citizen diplomacy,
18:40
Speaker 1: and it's really trying to have personal relationships with other
18:44
Speaker 1: countries that will hopefully in the future reduce a chance
18:49
Speaker 1: of conflicts. We always have shared education, business, culture, art,
18:56
Speaker 1: international trade. All of those things are very very important
19:00
Speaker 1: that we do with our sister cities. And I'll run
19:02
Speaker 1: through them real quick because I think I remember Shuzoka,
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Speaker 1: Japan is one. We have one in brown Schwag Germany, Chilae, Lithuania, Nace, Ireland, Halapa, Mexico, Yontai, China.
19:13
Speaker 1: And then we have the new one in France Karlentini, Sicily,
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Speaker 1: and the newest is Jamestown, Guana. So those are our
19:20
Speaker 1: sister cities. And you know, we have exchanges with students.
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Speaker 1: There's a lot that we share with each other that
19:26
Speaker 1: we are sharing citizen diplomacy. So I think they're very
19:29
Speaker 1: important and I hope they continue. And we're back and
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Speaker 1: we have something to talk about this morning that I
19:35
Speaker 1: find quite inappropriate and unacceptable, an issue that is going
19:40
Speaker 1: on now between me as host to this show and
19:45
Speaker 1: Mayor Ewing, And I want to tell you who are
19:48
Speaker 1: listening to this, really what is going on, because it
19:52
Speaker 1: is a concern. So I will preface this by saying
19:55
Speaker 1: the last twelve years as mayor of Omaha we've had.
19:58
Speaker 1: My office has had a great relayationship with all media, radio,
20:02
Speaker 1: the newspaper, TV, and I was very, very supportive of
20:07
Speaker 1: any of my department directors and department directors include the
20:11
Speaker 1: fire chief and the police chief, of being interviewed and
20:14
Speaker 1: taking questions by any media outlet at any time. They
20:19
Speaker 1: are city employees, their salaries are paid for by the taxpayers,
20:23
Speaker 1: and important accurate information was the one thing that I
20:28
Speaker 1: wanted to get out daily. And if any of those
20:30
Speaker 1: directors needed to come on the radio or we're asked
20:33
Speaker 1: to come on the radio, that was absolutely fine with me,
20:36
Speaker 1: and I would do the same thing myself. I must
20:39
Speaker 1: have been on KFAB hundreds of times. Anytime they asked
20:42
Speaker 1: me to be on KFAB, I would agree to do it.
20:45
Speaker 1: In fact, I asked to be on KFAB sometime when
20:47
Speaker 1: they didn't want me to be on, I just said
20:49
Speaker 1: I want to be on today. But and when I
20:52
Speaker 1: was first mayor, I did send an email out to
20:56
Speaker 1: the staff and the only restriction I had is I said,
20:59
Speaker 1: if you're going to be on the TV radio, are
21:01
Speaker 1: do an interview, just let us know, let my communication
21:04
Speaker 1: director or let myself know as a heads up. Because
21:08
Speaker 1: what I didn't want is then the media allah calling
21:10
Speaker 1: me and saying, well, well, so and so say the
21:13
Speaker 1: library director was on and what do you think about this?
21:15
Speaker 1: I just wanted a heads up so I would know
21:17
Speaker 1: that they were on. But never did I deny any
21:21
Speaker 1: director or any city staff from being interviewed or being
21:25
Speaker 1: on any media outlet at all. Again, these are city employees.
21:29
Speaker 1: They're paid for by the taxpayers, and they are keeping
21:32
Speaker 1: the citizens informed. Now, I was informed that last Monday
21:37
Speaker 1: at cabinet, and I had a cabinet meeting every Monday
21:40
Speaker 1: morning with all the department directors and with certain members
21:44
Speaker 1: of the Mayor's office, and those are the deputies. Those
21:47
Speaker 1: were the IT director, the homeless service coordinator. We met
21:50
Speaker 1: every Monday just to talk about the past week and
21:53
Speaker 1: what was going to be happening in the oncoming week.
21:57
Speaker 1: And I was told last Monday at the mayor at
22:00
Speaker 1: the end of the meeting, walked out of the room
22:02
Speaker 1: and Tom Warren, chief of staff, who was my chief
22:05
Speaker 1: of staff and now is Mary Yuank's chief of staff,
22:08
Speaker 1: brought up my radio show to everyone and he asked
22:12
Speaker 1: if I was contacting anyone, and if you said I
22:14
Speaker 1: had asked a few questions, for some additional information, etc.
22:18
Speaker 1: Most of the things, or all of the things I
22:20
Speaker 1: asked for, should be public knowledge. But sometimes you need
22:23
Speaker 1: a little memory refresh you know. I mean, these are
22:26
Speaker 1: things that I dealt with for twelve years, but when
22:28
Speaker 1: you don't think about them for a while, sometimes you
22:30
Speaker 1: need a little memory refreshed. But almost anything I ask
22:34
Speaker 1: was information that I was already privy to as mayor,
22:37
Speaker 1: And so it went on to say mister Warren. Tom
22:41
Speaker 1: Warren went on to tell the staff of what I
22:43
Speaker 1: was told. Obviously I wasn't there. That if I contact anyone,
22:47
Speaker 1: I was to let them know the mayor or Tom
22:50
Speaker 1: Warren or their communication director. And if I requested any
22:55
Speaker 1: of them to be on this show, fire chief, police, chief,
23:00
Speaker 1: public Works, planning any of them to be on my show,
23:03
Speaker 1: they were to tell them and my request would be denied.
23:10
Speaker 1: That's what they were told, and I found out about this.
23:13
Speaker 1: Now this has been personal in this they've made this personal. Why.
23:17
Speaker 1: I don't know why. I really don't know why. Again,
23:22
Speaker 1: a good relationship for the city with KFIRB or any
23:26
Speaker 1: other media outlet is so important for the taxpayers. I
23:30
Speaker 1: want to keep that relationship, and so does KFAB. I
23:33
Speaker 1: mean they want to be able if there is a
23:35
Speaker 1: public safety issue to have the police chief on, or
23:38
Speaker 1: if there's a huge snowstorm to have public works on,
23:41
Speaker 1: or if there's a big development question that they could
23:45
Speaker 1: have planning on. So my question is to Merror Ewing,
23:48
Speaker 1: what are you afraid of of not allowing these directors, which,
23:54
Speaker 1: by the way, all of them I hired, with the
23:57
Speaker 1: exception of the police chief. I'm the public works director.
24:01
Speaker 1: I hired all of them. I've been working with them
24:04
Speaker 1: for almost twelve years. I have a very good relationship
24:07
Speaker 1: with them. They are city employers employees, and you know,
24:12
Speaker 1: the reason I would want them on is to talk
24:15
Speaker 1: about the city and talk about things, to give good
24:18
Speaker 1: information out. What are you afraid of that you will
24:22
Speaker 1: not let these employees just be on my show. I
24:26
Speaker 1: don't see any other restriction to any other show that's
24:30
Speaker 1: on KFAB on iHeartRadio, on TV news or anything. You know.
24:35
Speaker 1: I never told my staff when I became mayor that
24:38
Speaker 1: they had to report any conversation they had with Jim
24:41
Speaker 1: Suttle or Hal Dobb or Mike Fahee. I never asked
24:45
Speaker 1: for that at all. There's something called freedom of speech
24:49
Speaker 1: that I think is very important too. But you know,
24:52
Speaker 1: Mary Ewing had not allowed any comments on his Facebook either,
24:56
Speaker 1: which I worked on my Facebook every single day with
24:59
Speaker 1: my community cation director to get accurate, current information out
25:03
Speaker 1: and to answer people's questions. This was something that was
25:06
Speaker 1: very very important to me. Now there was a city
25:10
Speaker 1: department director scheduled to be on this show today. This
25:15
Speaker 1: was a director that I did not reach out to.
25:17
Speaker 1: This director reached out to me asked if they could
25:21
Speaker 1: be on the show today, and so they were scheduled
25:23
Speaker 1: to be on the show today. And then after that
25:26
Speaker 1: cabinet meeting, the director told me that he was not
25:29
Speaker 1: allowed to be on the show today. So I responded.
25:33
Speaker 1: The last evening, I sent an email to Aaron Grace,
25:37
Speaker 1: who is Deputy chief of Staff for Communications for the
25:40
Speaker 1: Mayor's office, and I asked Aaron, I told her about
25:45
Speaker 1: you know, I'm hosting this radio show and how important
25:49
Speaker 1: it is to get current, accurate information out, and then
25:52
Speaker 1: I mentioned as mayor of Omaha for the past twelve years,
25:55
Speaker 1: I always had a good working relationship with all media outlets.
25:58
Speaker 1: And then I asked if I could have that director
26:02
Speaker 1: reschedule that director on the show at a later date.
26:06
Speaker 1: I did receive an email back from Aaron Grace this
26:09
Speaker 1: morning and she said, good morning, thank you for taking
26:12
Speaker 1: time to reach out at this time. Per Mayor Ewing,
26:16
Speaker 1: any request to appear on your comment show will be declined.
26:22
Speaker 1: So they're making this a very personal issue between me
26:28
Speaker 1: and the Mayor's office or the mayor. Why they are
26:31
Speaker 1: doing that, I don't know, and that's what I want
26:34
Speaker 1: the listeners to question too, Why are you doing this.
26:37
Speaker 1: I was mayor for twelve years. I obviously have a
26:41
Speaker 1: broad vast knowledge of what's going on in the city,
26:45
Speaker 1: from the public safety aspect, to the budget, to the
26:48
Speaker 1: streetcar to anything. Maryor Ewing has been there for ten months,
26:53
Speaker 1: so I mean I obviously have a lot of knowledge.
26:55
Speaker 1: I still reach out to Hall dob on issues with
26:58
Speaker 1: the city. So Scott Vorhes, who is the programmed director
27:03
Speaker 1: for KFAB here in Omaha, did send a response to
27:08
Speaker 1: Aaron Grace after I showed him her letter to me
27:11
Speaker 1: this morning saying any interviews will be declined. And he
27:15
Speaker 1: did say in the spirit of our email exchange this week,
27:18
Speaker 1: because Scott did send her a previous email asked talking
27:22
Speaker 1: about my show, he said, I am curious for what
27:26
Speaker 1: reason a blanket band of city employees on Jean Stothret
27:30
Speaker 1: show would be instituted. I can appreciate concerns, but until
27:35
Speaker 1: given the opportunity to allay those concerns, how can we
27:38
Speaker 1: prove the mayor's fares are unfounded? As far as I know,
27:43
Speaker 1: there's no response on that yet. But again, I do
27:47
Speaker 1: not understand the hesitation to let city paid employees and
27:51
Speaker 1: directors that I have a good relationship with to share
27:54
Speaker 1: information are now banned from this show. And you know,
27:58
Speaker 1: if it's a if it's an is of just being
28:01
Speaker 1: an opponent. You know, he was my opponent. He ran
28:04
Speaker 1: against me. I served three terms and he ran against me.
28:08
Speaker 1: And my feelings about elections have always been the same.
28:11
Speaker 1: There's one or two things that happen when you run.
28:13
Speaker 1: You're gonna win or you're gonna lose. There's no second place.
28:17
Speaker 1: I didn't win my fourth term, and I accept that.
28:20
Speaker 1: But you know, I've had opponents in the past. For example,
28:23
Speaker 1: Taylor Royal, he was my opponent back in twenty seventeen.
28:27
Speaker 1: Heath Mellow was my opponent after the primary in twenty seventeen.
28:31
Speaker 1: We are best of friends. You know, you get over it,
28:34
Speaker 1: whether you win or you lose, or what was said
28:37
Speaker 1: during the campaign, you get over it and you move on.
28:40
Speaker 1: And that's what mere Ewing, in my opinion, needs to
28:43
Speaker 1: be doing. This ban of city employees just on one show.
28:48
Speaker 1: For whatever reason, they're making it personal, and I think
28:51
Speaker 1: it's inappropriate, and I think that everyone that is listening
28:55
Speaker 1: should be aware of that, and I would like to
28:57
Speaker 1: hear your response on that. Again. They his Facebook, just
29:01
Speaker 1: because of a lawsuit. He has now agreed to have
29:05
Speaker 1: one Facebook that is taking comments, but he has not
29:09
Speaker 1: since he has been mayor taking comments and responded to
29:11
Speaker 1: the public, and so I know he's got something new.
29:14
Speaker 1: He announced at the State of the City address that
29:17
Speaker 1: there's going to be an opportunity for a survey. But
29:20
Speaker 1: my knowledge of the survey is you can sign it
29:23
Speaker 1: as a guest. But they're wanting to know your email
29:25
Speaker 1: address and other information what a lot of people don't
29:28
Speaker 1: want to share, so interested to see what your opinion is.
29:34
Speaker 1: You know. It just totally baffles me because, like I said,
29:37
Speaker 1: these directors I worked with for a long long time
29:40
Speaker 1: had a good, honest, working relationship with him. I never
29:44
Speaker 1: restricted them from being out in public and talking about
29:47
Speaker 1: things the public needed to know about. And the big
29:50
Speaker 1: question is is why would any request from me to
29:54
Speaker 1: be to any of these directors be declined? Like the
29:59
Speaker 1: fire chief Kathy Bossman, Chief Bossman was already on. She
30:03
Speaker 1: was someone I appointed I had her on before this
30:07
Speaker 1: band came out, or I would call it a gag order.
30:10
Speaker 1: And she talked about fires in western Nebraska. I mean,
30:13
Speaker 1: what is the problem with coming on a radio and
30:17
Speaker 1: talking about fires in western Nebraska? And if this had
30:20
Speaker 1: already been said, would she be denied that ability to
30:23
Speaker 1: come on and talk about fires in western Nebraska? So
30:27
Speaker 1: I asked Mary Ewing to say, what is his issue?
30:31
Speaker 1: What is he afraid of? And if Mary Ewing wants
30:34
Speaker 1: to be on this show, we'd certainly invite him to
30:37
Speaker 1: be onto.
30:38
Speaker 4: I just want to ask one question here. You know
30:41
Speaker 4: KFAB is a conservative, right leaning station. Does that have
30:44
Speaker 4: anything to do with any of this?
30:46
Speaker 1: I have no idea. I mean, I am just I'm
30:49
Speaker 1: totally baffled by it. And I will say this, I
30:51
Speaker 1: think that there is the feeling in the community that
30:55
Speaker 1: perhaps our local newspaper is a little more left leaning
30:59
Speaker 1: maybe some of our TV stations that never bothered me.
31:03
Speaker 1: I mean I interviewed with anybody, and my staff will
31:06
Speaker 1: tell you if I was in the middle of something
31:09
Speaker 1: major and any news outlet, whether it again be radio, TV, newspaper,
31:14
Speaker 1: if they called and they wanted an interview, I would
31:16
Speaker 1: drop what I was doing to interview with them, because
31:18
Speaker 1: my feeling and my feeling with the directors was that
31:23
Speaker 1: they're going to do a story with or without you,
31:25
Speaker 1: So why not be part of it and give your
31:27
Speaker 1: point of view and get the facts out as often
31:30
Speaker 1: in as much as you possibly can so that people
31:33
Speaker 1: know what's going on. And I want that relationship to
31:36
Speaker 1: continue with KFAB. I want you, Jim Rose or Scott
31:41
Speaker 1: Vorhees in the morning or Chris Baker in the afternoon
31:43
Speaker 1: to be able to invite city directors and them be on.
31:46
Speaker 1: But to put a ban on one show is what
31:49
Speaker 1: I feel is very inappropriate, and I think the mayor
31:52
Speaker 1: needs to answer to it.
31:54
Speaker 5: I'm not sure why John Ewing would ban that. In
31:57
Speaker 5: today's day and age. You want diversity of opinion, you
32:02
Speaker 5: want discussions, you want contrasting opinions that need to be challenged,
32:09
Speaker 5: and they need to be spoken about, and it's completely unfair,
32:13
Speaker 5: it's unfounded. We have shows like The View whose sole
32:18
Speaker 5: purpose was to allow that diversity, and John Ewing certainly
32:22
Speaker 5: is not interested.
32:23
Speaker 1: I you know, I absolutely agree with you. And you know,
32:27
Speaker 1: like I said, it's baffling to me, not everybody agreed
32:31
Speaker 1: with me. Good lord. The whole time I was mayor.
32:33
Speaker 1: I mean it was like every single day. But you
32:36
Speaker 1: have to accept other people's opinions. It didn't matter to
32:39
Speaker 1: me what political party you were, are you know, your race,
32:44
Speaker 1: are your gender, and none of that mattered to me.
32:46
Speaker 1: And I respected other people's opinion. And that's what should
32:50
Speaker 1: be happening with government today, rather than say, you know,
32:54
Speaker 1: we will talk to anybody but you for what reason?
32:58
Speaker 1: And like I said, what are you a friend? I
33:00
Speaker 1: should know what's going on in Omaha. I was mayor
33:03
Speaker 1: twelve years and he's been mayor ten months. So let
33:07
Speaker 1: us take advantage of those great directors. The City of
33:10
Speaker 1: Omaha has that, like I said, all of them, but
33:12
Speaker 1: police chief and Public Works director I hired and worked
33:15
Speaker 1: with for twelve years, and let him talk to the
33:17
Speaker 1: public and let them share points of view, and let
33:19
Speaker 1: people call in and say whether they agree with us
33:22
Speaker 1: or not, so I absolutely agree. I think it's just
33:25
Speaker 1: baffling that they have taken this position.
33:28
Speaker 4: Four zero two, five, five, eight, eleven ten. Here we
33:32
Speaker 4: have Frank on the line. Frank, you're on News Rady
33:34
Speaker 4: eleven ten with Jean Stouth.
33:37
Speaker 6: Good morning, Good morning. I'm just curious. This is sort
33:41
Speaker 6: of blackluster after all the things you've been talking about
33:44
Speaker 6: this morning. But I'm just curious as to all the
33:48
Speaker 6: fish fries and whatever that they have in Omaha that
33:53
Speaker 6: they do a lot of meals on Friday nights for
33:56
Speaker 6: the churches. And I know there's huge fundraisers with a
34:00
Speaker 6: tech with the churches being tax exempt, I understand that also,
34:04
Speaker 6: but why are these fish fries tax exam They they
34:11
Speaker 6: don't pay any taxes for the meals if they sell
34:15
Speaker 6: to the city. And I'm sure no city council is
34:18
Speaker 6: going to recommend this because there's too many Catholic votes
34:20
Speaker 6: that lose. But if they paid, I'm not wrong there.
34:26
Speaker 6: But if they paid, if they if they charged sales
34:29
Speaker 6: tax in there, it would not cost the churches anything.
34:33
Speaker 6: And I can assure you because I used to own
34:35
Speaker 6: a business in West Omaha that on Friday evenings. My
34:39
Speaker 6: business would be softer because of these fish fries. And
34:45
Speaker 6: at one time I know that that one of the churches,
34:49
Speaker 6: and it's been a while, but they were going through
34:51
Speaker 6: like like fifty kegs of beer on a Friday night.
34:56
Speaker 1: And yes, they absolutely do.
34:59
Speaker 6: That's that's find that they do that. But that that's
35:04
Speaker 6: revenue that's coming out of other businesses. Now, not all
35:07
Speaker 6: those people are going to go out to eat, are
35:08
Speaker 6: going to go out and have a beer someplace, but
35:12
Speaker 6: that's that's tax revenue that's coming out really for no reason.
35:18
Speaker 1: And it's true that churches are tax exempt and so
35:23
Speaker 1: and that is by law, and so that is why
35:26
Speaker 1: they don't have to follow, you know, the rules of
35:28
Speaker 1: sales tax and then the restaurant tax on top of it,
35:30
Speaker 1: if you remember, that's for all prepared food and beverages,
35:33
Speaker 1: and that's an extra two and a half percent. But
35:36
Speaker 1: because of that, they don't have to because of being
35:40
Speaker 1: sales tax and tax exempt for being a religious organization
35:43
Speaker 1: or a church, that they don't have to charge that.
35:45
Speaker 1: Now that the one thing is is if they yeah,
35:48
Speaker 1: I could see that they might be hurting other restaurants
35:50
Speaker 1: in the area because that is a thing in Omaha,
35:53
Speaker 1: the fish fries. I mean, people wait three hours in
35:56
Speaker 1: line to go to fish fries, and the churches make
35:59
Speaker 1: a lot of money on that. But it's only for
36:01
Speaker 1: a short period of time. It's only during Lent. And
36:04
Speaker 1: so now I understand what you're saying and appreciate your call.
36:07
Speaker 4: We got one more caller to get to. Right now,
36:09
Speaker 4: we're going to get to Larry. Larry keeps us real quick. Okay,
36:12
Speaker 4: we have a little bit of time here. You're on
36:15
Speaker 4: with Jean's author.
36:16
Speaker 2: But thank you, Stopford. I go back quite a way
36:20
Speaker 2: as going to the Sydney council meetings and stuff. It
36:23
Speaker 2: was very good when you were there. We had ten
36:25
Speaker 2: minutes as a citizen. They seem to be restricting as
36:29
Speaker 2: hard as they can the citizen's involvement anymore, down to
36:35
Speaker 2: three minutes if you get to speak at all. And
36:38
Speaker 2: I don't think the mayor is being transparent enough about
36:43
Speaker 2: the homeless situation. There are some vacant apartment buildings along
36:47
Speaker 2: the Northwest Radio or close to it that have been
36:51
Speaker 2: vacant for a long time, the windows boarded death. The
36:54
Speaker 2: mayor denies that there's anything along as people being there.
36:59
Speaker 2: In fact, has that it was because there was a
37:01
Speaker 2: broken water line. Well, they were completely vacant for a
37:05
Speaker 2: long time, and the waterline being broken doesn't board up
37:09
Speaker 2: all the windows, so they are not being honest about
37:12
Speaker 2: I think the harmless got removed for mystery and moved
37:16
Speaker 2: into there by order of the minor.
37:19
Speaker 1: I appreciate your call, Larry, and you know true that
37:23
Speaker 1: when you're talking about speaking in public at the City
37:25
Speaker 1: Council meetings, and I know you attend almost every single
37:28
Speaker 1: one and you have for years and years and years,
37:30
Speaker 1: and that's admirable that the people are engaged as you are.
37:34
Speaker 1: But it is up to the city Council president. And
37:37
Speaker 1: I know Chris Jerrem when I was first mayor, ran
37:41
Speaker 1: a meeting different than Pete Festerson did, and now Danny
37:44
Speaker 1: Bagley runs a different meeting than Pete Festerson did. They
37:48
Speaker 1: have to follow Robert's rules of order. They do allow
37:51
Speaker 1: public speaking, but I know the president can or sometimes
37:54
Speaker 1: does not limit and sometimes they will cut off a
37:56
Speaker 1: conversation if it is not germane to the issue that
38:01
Speaker 1: they are on, to the agenda item they are on.
38:04
Speaker 2: Now.
38:04
Speaker 1: The homeless situation is one that we have been dealing
38:07
Speaker 1: with for years. We are never going to eliminate homelessness.
38:11
Speaker 1: There's a reason why some people are unsheltered, and we
38:14
Speaker 1: do have shelters in Omaha, but you know to That's
38:18
Speaker 1: why I hired a homeless service coordinator. I think that
38:22
Speaker 1: the situation hopefully is improving, but we're never going to
38:26
Speaker 1: totally eliminate it.
38:27
Speaker 4: This is the Kfab comment line.
38:28
Speaker 1: Your host of the show, Jean Stauth.
38:30
Speaker 4: We had some really good guests this week, including Pete
38:32
Speaker 4: Ricketts and Governor Pillen, so you can always go to
38:35
Speaker 4: those on the kfab kfab dot com or the iHeartRadio app.
38:38
Speaker 4: You had a quick story about Max here to end
38:40
Speaker 4: the show.
38:41
Speaker 1: Yes, I do, because I have two guests here today.
38:43
Speaker 1: My daughter Elizabeth and my son in law Tom are
38:45
Speaker 1: in the studio and they are Max's parents. And I've
38:50
Speaker 1: told many stories about Max before. He is my six
38:52
Speaker 1: year old grandson who is so funny. But the last
38:57
Speaker 1: Wednesday he got off the bus. I was at his house.
39:00
Speaker 1: I take care of him every Wednesday, and he looks
39:03
Speaker 1: at me like he is so disappointed in me, and
39:05
Speaker 1: he goes, where's Jack. Well, Jack's my dog, and he
39:09
Speaker 1: loves Jack. Jack loves him they roll around on the
39:12
Speaker 1: floor and I forgot. I promise Max that I would
39:15
Speaker 1: bring Jack. So Max looks at me very disappointed, rolls
39:18
Speaker 1: his eyes, and he goes Grandma, get your Google calendar
39:20
Speaker 1: out right now and write this, bring Jack to Max's
39:24
Speaker 1: house every Wednesday. I can't believe this six year old
39:28
Speaker 1: said this to me, but that's my little Max. Thank
39:32
Speaker 1: you everybody for being with us today and thanks for listening,
39:36
Speaker 1: and hope you join us again on Monday. And Happy
39:40
Speaker 1: Easter to everyone.