Latest / The KFAB Comment Line with Jean Stothert / Omaha Police Dept. and Douglas County Sheriff Race

Transcript

Omaha Police Dept. and Douglas County Sheriff Race · The KFAB Comment Line with Jean Stothert

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: And with me here today is Tony Connor.
• 0:02
  Speaker 2: Good morning.
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: Now, Scott just said Jean Stothard as a guest on today,
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: and it's going to be rather spicy. We're not going
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: to make this spicy.
• 0:10
  Speaker 2: I don't think so.
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: I don't think so either. Now, for those of you
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: that don't know Tony, everybody knows Tony. But Tony right
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: now is the president of the Nebraska State Fraternal Order
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: of Police. He is also a sergeant with the Omaha
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: Police Department. You've been with OPD about twenty five years,
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: twenty six and July you started in two thousand. Good
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: for you. And and and he is the former president
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: of OPOA, which is Omaha Police Officers Association, or as
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: we call it, the police union. Former president. He was
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: president when I was mayried. So let me just start
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: out with saying, Tony and I have this relationship that's
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: kind of like I was going to say, a love
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: hate relationship, but it's more like an old married couple, right, Okay,
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: all right. Sometimes we're friendly with each other and sometimes
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: it's like ah, but I think that's pretty typical because
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: and this is Tony. This is something I never really
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: understood because when you are president of the union and
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: you're the mayor like I was. It seems like that
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: there's always this conflict going on. But you were there
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: to represent the members.
• 1:17
  Speaker 2: Yes, that's it.
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: I was there to represent the taxpayers. But I was
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: also there to represent the members because they were our employees.
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: So I used to say, we shouldn't act like we're enemies.
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: We should be working together. But we work together quite
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: a bit. So you know, I wanted to for you
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: to start out to talk a little bit about what
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: the foot what you do with the Fraternal Order Police,
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: but then I have so many things I want to
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: get into with you. So just tell everybody, as president
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: of the Nebraska State Fraternal Order Police, what's what's the function?
• 1:48
  Speaker 3: What do you do?
• 1:48
  Speaker 2: Okay, I'll back up a little bit.
• 1:50
  Speaker 4: When I was president of the OKA during twenty twenty,
• 1:52
  Speaker 4: we had all the riots here. Once the riots were
• 1:56
  Speaker 4: over after those two weeks, I got back to my
• 1:58
  Speaker 4: desk and I remember that Sunday night chief kind of
• 2:00
  Speaker 4: we're both kind of smiling and happy that we felt
• 2:03
  Speaker 4: like it was over. The twelve hours ships were done
• 2:06
  Speaker 4: and I felt like, oh man, this is good.
• 2:08
  Speaker 2: As finally done.
• 2:08
  Speaker 4: So I got back to my desk and I was
• 2:12
  Speaker 4: flooded with media questions, media and A requests and all
• 2:16
  Speaker 4: these comments and stuff made on social media about defunding
• 2:19
  Speaker 4: the police, getting rid of qualified immunity.
• 2:22
  Speaker 2: There's all these things.
• 2:22
  Speaker 4: And I was reaching out to the National FOP and
• 2:26
  Speaker 4: Joe Gamaldi is the vice president, and we were friends
• 2:29
  Speaker 4: from meeting at a conference years ago back when he
• 2:32
  Speaker 4: was president of the Houston Police.
• 2:34
  Speaker 2: Union and him and I talked.
• 2:36
  Speaker 4: He gave me some talking points from the National FOP
• 2:39
  Speaker 4: and we at the time OPIOI was independent. So after
• 2:42
  Speaker 4: that help from him, I encouraged the membership to join
• 2:48
  Speaker 4: the FOP. So in twenty twenty one, the OPOA became
• 2:53
  Speaker 4: OPIA but technically for turnolder police Logic one.
• 2:56
  Speaker 2: So that's kind of where it all started.
• 2:58
  Speaker 4: So my turn was getting to the And I always
• 3:01
  Speaker 4: tell people the story about Aaron Hansen. I love it
• 3:04
  Speaker 4: because he when I first got elected, he told me
• 3:06
  Speaker 4: he says, Tony, don't do more than two terms, don't
• 3:09
  Speaker 4: do over six years, but the show life for leadership.
• 3:11
  Speaker 4: Now his reasoning I didn't agree with. He says, you're
• 3:14
  Speaker 4: gonna feel like you have power, and and I was like,
• 3:16
  Speaker 4: I never would feel that way because you always have
• 3:19
  Speaker 4: to get your board to prove things, and now you
• 3:22
  Speaker 4: got to get your membership to prove things. I couldn't
• 3:24
  Speaker 4: speak on anything without their approval. So it's like we
• 3:27
  Speaker 4: had checks and balances built in good advice.
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: But that I'll get to this because that's a term
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: you used with me. You said I had a shelf
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: life and apparently I expired.
• 3:38
  Speaker 3: So anyway, keep talking.
• 3:40
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 3:42
  Speaker 4: Ago, yeah, so so once once, uh, my term was up. Honestly,
• 3:48
  Speaker 4: at the end of those six years, it was you
• 3:51
  Speaker 4: start creating enemies within politics, especially because I felt like
• 3:55
  Speaker 4: my role was more external. I don't know if you remember,
• 3:58
  Speaker 4: but I'll reach out to you right away when I
• 4:00
  Speaker 4: reach out to the chief.
• 4:01
  Speaker 3: Obviously, we always say keep your friends closed.
• 4:06
  Speaker 2: Well I never looked.
• 4:07
  Speaker 4: Honestly, I'll use a couple of people in the example that
• 4:10
  Speaker 4: our friends of mine break your hearty Any Melton, for example,
• 4:13
  Speaker 4: I'm on the city council. I reached out to them
• 4:16
  Speaker 4: and I'll share this story. They both of them was like, Hey,
• 4:19
  Speaker 4: let's just be for coffee, or let's just be for breakfast,
• 4:21
  Speaker 4: or let's just meet.
• 4:22
  Speaker 2: It was never I was like, hey, I want me
• 4:23
  Speaker 2: for drinks if you want.
• 4:25
  Speaker 4: But once we became kind of closer friends, like, hey,
• 4:27
  Speaker 4: let's have a beer, Let's have a drink.
• 4:28
  Speaker 2: You know.
• 4:29
  Speaker 4: So it's like, I really value those relationships because it
• 4:32
  Speaker 4: was able. Those relationships helped me get things that was
• 4:35
  Speaker 4: needed for my membership, if that makes sense. So they're
• 4:38
  Speaker 4: making decisions, they're voting on contracts, they're voting on different
• 4:41
  Speaker 4: things that affect our memberships. So it's important to have
• 4:43
  Speaker 4: those relationships. So that's the reason I reached out. I
• 4:47
  Speaker 4: remember how difficult you were at the beginning. That's a
• 4:49
  Speaker 4: funny story to me, but but but I still love it.
• 4:52
  Speaker 2: It was.
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: You know, we each had roles, we really did. And
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: to go back to the council, I have a good
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: relationship with him too, But the council doesn't get anything
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: until the mayor proves it. So those labor contracts, they
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: wouldn't get them unless the mayor has worked on our
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: But anyway, we're gonna and what we are. This is
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: what Tony Connor with us today, and we were when
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: we were talking about this time that he started talking
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: about with the riots and things, that was the summer
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: of twenty twenty and what was happening then was after
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: the George Floyd incident that happened, and we did have
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: protest and we did have riots in Omahak.
• 5:29
  Speaker 3: So that's what we're kind of talking about here.
• 5:31
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 5:31
  Speaker 4: Yeah, So anyway, fast forward to my term was up.
• 5:34
  Speaker 4: Like I said, I you know, over over.
• 5:36
  Speaker 3: Your shelf life expired my life.
• 5:38
  Speaker 4: You certainly become certain people that you end up not
• 5:43
  Speaker 4: liking you, and you do, unfortunately have enemies.
• 5:45
  Speaker 2: And I'll be honest. Schmatter said this to me once.
• 5:47
  Speaker 4: He says, Tony, when you look at your enemies, if
• 5:50
  Speaker 4: those people were your friends, wouldn't you think you're doing
• 5:52
  Speaker 4: something wrong? And that is so true because there's so
• 5:54
  Speaker 4: many people that, oh yeah, to this day you have.
• 5:56
  Speaker 3: To accept it.
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: You're gonna especially like in my job is as mayor,
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: you know, I mean, I had haters, There's no doubt.
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: And for the reason they hated me. It could have
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: been anything from a policy that I supported, or because
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: I had blonde hair. I mean, for whatever. I mean,
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: people either like it or they don't, and you just
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: got accepted.
• 6:16
  Speaker 4: I agree, I agree, And once I got there, I
• 6:18
  Speaker 4: just just knew that there was I knew it was
• 6:20
  Speaker 4: time honestly. So when when my turn was up, I
• 6:22
  Speaker 4: was approached about running for state president. Initially I said
• 6:25
  Speaker 4: in my mind was like no, but one thing about
• 6:28
  Speaker 4: me is want something to kind of get an idea
• 6:30
  Speaker 4: put in my head. I started thinking about it, started
• 6:32
  Speaker 4: pondering it, and I was like, well, that's still an
• 6:34
  Speaker 4: opportunity to still be a voice for law enforcement.
• 6:36
  Speaker 2: And the reason I even started within the union.
• 6:38
  Speaker 4: When I first started, I was starting two thousand, young
• 6:41
  Speaker 4: black man, you know, had opinion of police and from
• 6:44
  Speaker 4: things you see in the media and here when I
• 6:46
  Speaker 4: got on the job and was working with guys that
• 6:49
  Speaker 4: were white, guys didn't look like me. You know what,
• 6:51
  Speaker 4: it showed me how I saw how committed they were
• 6:54
  Speaker 4: to solving homicide. So it's responding to those shooting scenes,
• 6:58
  Speaker 4: trying to track down these shooters and these people that
• 7:00
  Speaker 4: I've hurt people and in the majority of black community,
• 7:02
  Speaker 4: I was. I was impressed with that. I was impressed
• 7:05
  Speaker 4: with how how professional apartment was. Some of the stuff
• 7:08
  Speaker 4: you've heard across the country, Thank god wasn't happening.
• 7:11
  Speaker 2: You know that.
• 7:12
  Speaker 4: From behind the scenes, I was like, darn, we need
• 7:15
  Speaker 4: to have someone that can speak on these things. That
• 7:17
  Speaker 4: can be willing to put themselves out there that looks
• 7:20
  Speaker 4: like me. That's gonna that's gonna hush some of those
• 7:23
  Speaker 4: automatic racial things that come up in times. So so
• 7:26
  Speaker 4: that was one of my motivations for running for the board.
• 7:29
  Speaker 4: And then I got elected vice president, I'm elected president
• 7:31
  Speaker 4: and those none those races were easy. I mean I
• 7:33
  Speaker 4: had to you know, you run it against other members
• 7:35
  Speaker 4: of people you love.
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: And tell me about it. I know, I know all
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: about that.
• 7:38
  Speaker 2: Oh yeah, yeah, so it was. It was.
• 7:41
  Speaker 4: I looked back at those those six years as president
• 7:43
  Speaker 4: and four years of the vice president before that, and
• 7:46
  Speaker 4: three years on the board before that, is there's times
• 7:48
  Speaker 4: in my career that I'm the most proud of now
• 7:51
  Speaker 4: being a sergeant on the street and how joke and
• 7:53
  Speaker 4: I say, you know, it's the stress and the pressure
• 7:57
  Speaker 4: of the things I dealt with as president totally prepared
• 8:00
  Speaker 4: me to be a sergeant. It's like, this is honestly
• 8:03
  Speaker 4: feel like it's easy and when it compared to the president.
• 8:07
  Speaker 4: But now I'm the state president. The thing about that
• 8:09
  Speaker 4: that's nice is a lot of the day to day
• 8:11
  Speaker 4: roles are dealing with the members issues. That's all gone.
• 8:14
  Speaker 4: So that's kind of nice. The biggest thing we focus
• 8:16
  Speaker 4: on We have a conference every year. Are is coming
• 8:18
  Speaker 4: up this June in North Platte and so we have
• 8:22
  Speaker 4: a conference every year. And then we also the state legislature,
• 8:24
  Speaker 4: so we deal with a lot of bills that go
• 8:25
  Speaker 4: through the legislature. We have a lobbyist, Julia Plucker's partner,
• 8:29
  Speaker 4: Julia Plucker was lobbyist for.
• 8:31
  Speaker 2: OPOA and I know Julius.
• 8:32
  Speaker 3: She does a great job.
• 8:33
  Speaker 4: And Sean Kelly is her partner him too, great job. Yeah, yep,
• 8:37
  Speaker 4: So he's our lobbyist. So that's that's really the two
• 8:39
  Speaker 4: main things that we focus on on the state level.
• 8:42
  Speaker 4: So it's it's a lot less stress. Because people were like,
• 8:45
  Speaker 4: what are you thinking. I'm like, I know, but it's
• 8:48
  Speaker 4: a lot less stress.
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: How are there multiple f ops? You said number one,
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: this is Omaha, So there's multiple all over the state
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: FPS and then you're president of them all. Yes, okay, okay,
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: got it all right. Now I want to get to
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: some stuff I really want to talk about because along
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: with that summer of twenty twenty when everything was happening,
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: it was not a typical across the country. We were
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: seeing a lower number of people applying to be in
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: law enforcement. It was happening everywhere, and it happened here.
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: We are budgeted in Omaha for nine hundred and six
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: police officers.
• 9:24
  Speaker 3: I did that.
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: That is something I did because I added over one
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: hundred officers to the budget when I was mayor and
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: we were down, and we have been down since now.
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: I wanted to tell you last weekend, I was in
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: New Orleans for the Jazz Festival and there's like one
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: hundred and fifty thousand people in this racetrack for the
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: Great Jazz Festival. What I noticed, Tony, is there wasn't
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: a lot of police. I saw more police when we
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: have the Memorial Day concert, you know, I mean Memorial
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: Park concert. So I asked one of the officers and
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: he goes, oh, ma'am, we are so down on police officers.
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: We have to call the National Guard in to walk
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: up and down Bourbon Street. So it still is happening
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: in other cities. But let me bring this up because
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: I want to get to this. Recently, somebody called the
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: show and they said, what do you think about the
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: new police contract that was just settled? And I said,
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: I haven't read it. You know, this is the first time.
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: I haven't read it, but I said, you know what
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: things that I did when I was still mayor were
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: things that we worked together. I worked with the police
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: chief on and the union to say what can we
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: do in Omaha so that we can start getting more
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: people to apply. And a couple of the things we
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: did is I was the one that came up with
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: the idea of our police officers in Omaha will be
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: paid at least five percent higher than any law enforcement
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: agency in the country. We did take out the there's
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: different steps when you're a police officer, and as you
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: go through each step, year by year, you get a
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: raisin salary. We took out the entry level. It was
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: called the T step, the training step. We took that
• 10:55
  Speaker 1: out and so they started at step one. They used
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: to start it was about fifty something thousand a year.
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: The starting salary now is seventy nine five eighty. Really
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: boost that up. We did year round applications. Although with
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: year round it's the problem was if they could apply
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: in Lincoln right now, but we would say we're not
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: taking applications yet in Omaha, they would go, well, forget it,
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: I'm going to go to Lincoln. Yes, but still, even
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: though we're doing year round applications, we settled on that
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: we still can't do more than two classes a year,
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: basically is what I was going to say, because it
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: really takes about nine months from the start of the
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: academy and then they go they do twenty two weeks
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: of training fifteen weeks of field training, so it takes
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: a while. So there's only two classes a year, so
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: we can't still do more. The higher salary made a
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: big difference, I think. So there was a lot of
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: things that we did now when that last contract was settled.
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: This is what I want to ask you. You posted
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: something and you said, finally a contract with some meaningful changes.
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: Tell me what is different or tell me what was
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: added that we didn't already discuss that really you think
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: is going to really increase our applications. Now the applications
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: have increased, which I think is great because I think
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: that shows what we did yes when I was still
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: mayor is working. But what other things do you think,
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: and I know you talked to the union members a lot,
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: what other things do we need or do you think
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: we need an omaha that we don't have that we
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: didn't really work on what would help Omaha be more attractive,
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: because darn I think Omaha is pretty darn attractive.
• 12:40
  Speaker 2: Well I do, I do too.
• 12:41
  Speaker 4: One thing I used to tell my members when I
• 12:43
  Speaker 4: would go to national conferences, I'm like the big fifty
• 12:47
  Speaker 4: or major cities. Those conferences always started off with the
• 12:50
  Speaker 4: president speaking about the things they're having good in their
• 12:53
  Speaker 4: city and things that are going bad. The guy from
• 12:55
  Speaker 4: San Francisco, I used to always say, he would get
• 12:58
  Speaker 4: up and talk and I would afterwards like I want
• 13:00
  Speaker 4: to go hug that guy afterwards because he just never
• 13:03
  Speaker 4: had anything get the same.
• 13:03
  Speaker 3: Well, he's probably beating his head again.
• 13:05
  Speaker 4: All it was it was Omaha, we're worth I think Mesa, Arizona,
• 13:12
  Speaker 4: and and there's one other city I can't think of
• 13:17
  Speaker 4: right now. But there's only like four cities that would
• 13:19
  Speaker 4: have anything positive say because they were dealing with a
• 13:23
  Speaker 4: lot of the ultra liberal policies that were hurt in
• 13:26
  Speaker 4: their cities. And so one thing about Omaha is there
• 13:28
  Speaker 4: is a lot of things that are that is attractive
• 13:29
  Speaker 4: here absolutely with this last contract. One thing I think
• 13:33
  Speaker 4: the new president, Pat Dempsey, who's a good friend of mine,
• 13:36
  Speaker 4: great great guy. You should you should have him on seriously,
• 13:38
  Speaker 4: I'm sure he would.
• 13:39
  Speaker 2: Come on.
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: He you know, just just full disclosure.
• 13:45
  Speaker 3: I ask him.
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: I text him and I asked him that's usually what
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: I do say, can we talk? And he did not
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: respond to me at all.
• 13:51
  Speaker 4: Okay, I'm I'm sure he'll respond. I know he's busy
• 13:54
  Speaker 4: and I remember being in that role. Trust me, your
• 13:56
  Speaker 4: phone rings a lot.
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: But I did ask pat if he wanted to come
• 13:59
  Speaker 1: on and talk about what he thinks there is still
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: out there that we need and that's what I want
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: to ask you about.
• 14:04
  Speaker 4: So yeah, well this contract really addressed the tier three.
• 14:08
  Speaker 4: So I'm in ten two. Tier three. They got a
• 14:11
  Speaker 4: little addition and they explained.
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: And this is Tony Conner here to explain what that means.
• 14:17
  Speaker 4: Okay, so we have we have different pension benefits, right,
• 14:20
  Speaker 4: so Tier two has has a if you want to
• 14:22
  Speaker 4: call it, a higher benefit. So this one of the
• 14:24
  Speaker 4: biggest changes was addressing Tier three and that.
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: The tiers dependent on how long you have served your
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: years of service.
• 14:31
  Speaker 4: So right right now, if you have fifteen years or less,
• 14:34
  Speaker 4: pretty much a Tier three officer and anyone from fifteen
• 14:37
  Speaker 4: or more their their Tier two.
• 14:39
  Speaker 3: But we did negotiate that.
• 14:41
  Speaker 2: Yes, no, no, I'm talking about Okay, this new content.
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: Okay, but the new contract, there's changes.
• 14:45
  Speaker 4: Okay, there's been there's been changes to that. Okay, it's
• 14:48
  Speaker 4: a little more into our pension. But we also lowered
• 14:50
  Speaker 4: our percentage in our health insurance to twenty percent, which
• 14:54
  Speaker 4: is a good thing. Said that kind of counterbalances the
• 14:56
  Speaker 4: additional additional money going to the pension.
• 14:58
  Speaker 1: I got to ask you this, so you said, you
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: just said something. Are you putting a little more into
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: the pension?
• 15:03
  Speaker 2: Little more? Yes?
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: Okay, Now, I just got to bring this out. During
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: the campaign against Mayor Ewing, I stood there next to
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: him over and over and over, and he promised that
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: the police will put less into their pension.
• 15:16
  Speaker 2: Well, I mean, it's easy to say things when you're
• 15:18
  Speaker 2: running for office.
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: Oh well, yes, tell me about that.
• 15:20
  Speaker 4: Too when you're in the office, because when you negotiate
• 15:23
  Speaker 4: a contract and you know this, that's as a person
• 15:26
  Speaker 4: that sat there. It is a balance, right, you gotta
• 15:29
  Speaker 4: there are things that you have to balance off, the
• 15:31
  Speaker 4: calls and things.
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: And you know what a point I wanted to bring
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: up here is the city Charter, which is like our constitution.
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: It says the employee and the employer will pay substantially
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: equal amounts into the pension. Now, I just want to
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: give these figures out the police right now, for the city. Annually,
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: the city puts in forty one million the employee. The
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: police put in twenty. Now people are going to go,
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: wait a minute, they're putting in twenty, but the city
• 16:00
  Speaker 1: is putting in forty one the taxpayers. But true pension
• 16:04
  Speaker 1: reform is you took less benefits too, and those less
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: benefits equal to money, and so there's a value to
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: that because basically what was happening in my opinion, is
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: it used to be police could retire with full pension
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: benefits after twenty five years of service at age forty five.
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: They were really taken too much out too soon. And
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: so now that has changed and the police have to
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: work to thirty years and age fifty five, but they're
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: not punished if they retire before fifty five. So that
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: which I'm trying to explain is true pension reform. You're
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: working longer now and you have to put in more
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: years of service and be older than you used to.
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: And that's why there's that difference of the amount the
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: city puts in and the police officers put in.
• 16:54
  Speaker 4: Yeah, and those things were all balanced out. That's the
• 16:56
  Speaker 4: negotiating table. And I'm just a contract well before my
• 17:00
  Speaker 4: time as president.
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: Honestly, that's important for it people to know.
• 17:03
  Speaker 2: I agree.
• 17:04
  Speaker 4: So like, for example, and I'll point out it was
• 17:06
  Speaker 4: it was a mayor Fahi that brought a lot of
• 17:08
  Speaker 4: those pension changes, and I was a young guy, and
• 17:10
  Speaker 4: I remember voting knowing some of those things, and I
• 17:12
  Speaker 4: was like, I was telling the guys I was working with, like,
• 17:15
  Speaker 4: we need the money more than we need to worry
• 17:16
  Speaker 4: about the pitchion.
• 17:17
  Speaker 2: At this point, we're brand new. Are we worried about
• 17:18
  Speaker 2: a pension.
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: At this And don't you think most of the younger
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: guys when they're looking for a job, they're looking for
• 17:23
  Speaker 1: money in my pocket? Now, pension retirement's important, but they're
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: not looking at that yet if they're young.
• 17:29
  Speaker 4: Generally, in my opinion, when you get to about year
• 17:31
  Speaker 4: five as a cop, this job will always say it
• 17:36
  Speaker 4: will chew you up and spit you out because it
• 17:38
  Speaker 4: is a very very challenging job. And when you're about
• 17:41
  Speaker 4: five years in, you're like you start thinking, like, what
• 17:44
  Speaker 4: do I want to do this for another twenty five years.
• 17:46
  Speaker 2: I mean, that's a big question.
• 17:48
  Speaker 4: So for those Tier three guys especially, and that's we're
• 17:50
  Speaker 4: able to get rid of the penalty and this last contract,
• 17:52
  Speaker 4: Pat was able to get rid of penalty in this
• 17:54
  Speaker 4: last contract.
• 17:55
  Speaker 2: That is huge for those guys.
• 17:57
  Speaker 4: So they're not looking at I have to do thirty right,
• 18:00
  Speaker 4: because that's this job. And I believe that penalty is
• 18:03
  Speaker 4: what hurt us. In twenty twenty. We lost a lot
• 18:05
  Speaker 4: of those officers because they were like, do I want
• 18:07
  Speaker 4: to do this for twenty five more years dealing with
• 18:08
  Speaker 4: protests because that was the first protest.
• 18:10
  Speaker 2: At that level in my entire career.
• 18:13
  Speaker 4: I mean, I remember seeing officers and I was on
• 18:15
  Speaker 4: when I was down at their at the riots because
• 18:16
  Speaker 4: I was just delivering like snacks and drinks to the
• 18:19
  Speaker 4: front line guys and watching their faces and look on
• 18:23
  Speaker 4: her face was like they were shocked.
• 18:25
  Speaker 1: I know they were doing it was terrible. So I
• 18:27
  Speaker 1: just I want to just reinforce. It used to be
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: that OPD would retire after twenty five years of service
• 18:33
  Speaker 1: at age forty five. Now it's age it's after thirty
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: years of service at age fifty five. That's ten more years.
• 18:40
  Speaker 1: But you're not punished if you retire before fifty five.
• 18:44
  Speaker 2: That's a different There might be a little bit difference
• 18:46
  Speaker 2: in there.
• 18:46
  Speaker 4: And I don't know the facts because I didn't negotiate
• 18:48
  Speaker 4: this contract, so I don't want to I don't want
• 18:50
  Speaker 4: to say for sure that's exactly accurate.
• 18:51
  Speaker 2: I think it is a little bit different than that.
• 18:53
  Speaker 4: But at the same time, I know we got rid
• 18:55
  Speaker 4: of the penalty is the biggest thing that was That
• 18:57
  Speaker 4: was huge for that tier THO Tier three officers. So
• 19:00
  Speaker 4: that way they don't have to have that pressure for
• 19:03
  Speaker 4: hundred thirty years.
• 19:05
  Speaker 1: So the other things that I mentioned before that we
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: already determined that we were going to do, including that
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: five percent more that still stands. That still stands, okay,
• 19:16
  Speaker 1: So because I know that's a big recruiting tool that
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: you are using now. And in fact, today there is
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: an open house today out at Rainwood from two to
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: four for the Omaha Police Department and they are inviting
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: people to come out there. There's going to be swat
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: out there, there's going to be detectives, their support mount
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: of patrol, and so that people could come out and
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: see what it's like to be an Omaha police officer.
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: And look at the training. So let me go back.
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: So right now, we are getting more applicants. I think
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: we're hearing that we're getting more applicants throughout the country,
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: but there are still some big cities that are still struggling.
• 19:53
  Speaker 1: So do you think that we are where we need
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: to be in Omaha? Are there other big things that
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: you think we need to do to make Omaha more
• 20:02
  Speaker 1: competitive and to make more Omaha more attractive for people
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: to go into law enforcement.
• 20:07
  Speaker 4: Well, I'll say the five percent. I think that's very
• 20:09
  Speaker 4: important for a lot of reasons. I first heard that
• 20:11
  Speaker 4: when I was at the Major Cities Conference, I want
• 20:14
  Speaker 4: to says Baltimore, and they explain that. I'm like, wow,
• 20:16
  Speaker 4: that's a great idea for Omaha because we're the only
• 20:19
  Speaker 4: city in the state that deals with the high level
• 20:22
  Speaker 4: of violence that we deal with as police officers in Omaha.
• 20:24
  Speaker 4: So that made so much sense for us in Omaha.
• 20:27
  Speaker 4: So I think that that five percent is probably the
• 20:31
  Speaker 4: most important thing if we're going to continue to be
• 20:34
  Speaker 4: the premier agency that applicants young young men and women
• 20:38
  Speaker 4: want to apply.
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: So you know, and let me explain what was happening
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: is we were cannibalizing each other. It would be like
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: Omaha would give a raise and we would figure out
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: what it is, and then Lincoln would go, oh up,
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: got to beat them. And then they would do a
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: contract and beat them, and then Greta would do something
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: else and then and so we thought the way to
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: get out of this continue to us battle is we
• 21:01
  Speaker 1: would say, no matter what you do, we're going to
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: be five percent higher. And then eventually that has to
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: stop because the other cities can't just keep on saying, well,
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: we'll be five percent higher than you too. So I thought,
• 21:12
  Speaker 1: now if we could sustain it, because let me tell you,
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: that is expensive. Right now, in twenty six the Omaha
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: Police Department budget is two hundred and sixteen million dollars.
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: Two thirds of the entire general fund budget in the
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: City of Omaha goes to fire and police two thirds.
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: So you could see how important it is and law
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: enforcement and public safety is. And I always used to
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: laugh at chiesch Mater because when I would say, chiech Motter,
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: do you realize that two hundred and six are two
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: hundred and sixteen million are going into opd's budget?
• 21:42
  Speaker 3: And he would go, as.
• 21:43
  Speaker 1: It should be and so, but you know what, the
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: if you are an Omaha police officer by year six,
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: now just your sixty year, you will make over one
• 21:52
  Speaker 1: hundred thousand dollars a year. And I think that's very
• 21:55
  Speaker 1: attractive for somebody that is looking for a good career.
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: I got another hour to ask you questions, but let
• 22:03
  Speaker 1: me ask you this. What give me one piece of
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: advice that you would give someone who is starting out
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: in the field of being a police officer.
• 22:12
  Speaker 4: First off, it's just I would say, listen to your
• 22:15
  Speaker 4: veteran officers that are on the job. Omaha is once
• 22:17
  Speaker 4: again is our department I really seriously think is one
• 22:20
  Speaker 4: of the best in the country, if not the best.
• 22:22
  Speaker 3: I do too.
• 22:23
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean we're just we just the guys are
• 22:25
  Speaker 4: so professional. They work their butts off.
• 22:27
  Speaker 3: The men and women.
• 22:28
  Speaker 2: The men and women.
• 22:28
  Speaker 3: Yes, we have a you can call me a guy.
• 22:33
  Speaker 1: You I mean, you have a lot of women in
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: a police department, to what I think is absolutely great.
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: And I tell you, when I was mayor, I had
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: security that were Amaha police officers, and I had a
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: mix of.
• 22:44
  Speaker 3: Men and women and they were the best.
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: Even Karen, even Karen, and if she's listening, even you,
• 22:50
  Speaker 1: Karen no id. We and we really just had a
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: good time together. They are so professional and so good
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: at what they do. So can you stick around just
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: for a few minutes. I know Peyton's looking at me like,
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: please wrap this up. Tony Connor, who is now president
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: of the Nebraska State Fraternal Order Police the Oma police officer,
• 23:10
  Speaker 1: I want to ask you just a few more things
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: before you split out of here.
• 23:13
  Speaker 2: Problem. Okay? All right?
• 23:14
  Speaker 3: I got an email here in the inbox and it says,
• 23:17
  Speaker 3: for my casual observation, many Omaha police look like they're
• 23:20
  Speaker 3: overweight and out of shape.
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: Oh wow, I'm looking at Tony Connor right now.
• 23:26
  Speaker 3: Is this a Magic Mike movie?
• 23:27
  Speaker 2: No?
• 23:28
  Speaker 3: What are the requirements to maintain their fitness and appearance?
• 23:31
  Speaker 2: How often are they tested?
• 23:33
  Speaker 3: And what are the repercussions if any for those out
• 23:36
  Speaker 3: of standard?
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: Good question, Tony, you want to take that one.
• 23:38
  Speaker 2: Well, since I'm a fat guy, I'll go ahead to
• 23:40
  Speaker 2: answer that question.
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: Tony Connor, is where that's for the Omaha police departments?
• 23:43
  Speaker 3: Go ahead, Tony.
• 23:45
  Speaker 2: We okay.
• 23:46
  Speaker 4: So, so as far as like legally, it's hard for
• 23:48
  Speaker 4: a department to put a standard on because there has
• 23:51
  Speaker 4: been lawsuits in the past. During my time as president,
• 23:54
  Speaker 4: we negotiated with the chief a basically a fitness downer
• 23:57
  Speaker 4: which will give extra hours of two officers that hit
• 24:01
  Speaker 4: hit their standards.
• 24:02
  Speaker 2: It's to cooper standards.
• 24:03
  Speaker 4: So we have these testing twice a year and we
• 24:05
  Speaker 4: have over hundreds of ulscers going through. We also have
• 24:09
  Speaker 4: something we negotiated when I was president, jiu jitsu classes
• 24:12
  Speaker 4: at the Academy, which helps officers with use of force.
• 24:15
  Speaker 4: It has reduced our use of force numbers, which has
• 24:17
  Speaker 4: been such a positive thing. And our instructures of the Academy,
• 24:21
  Speaker 4: Dan Miller and the rest of the guys Aaron orson amazing,
• 24:23
  Speaker 4: amazing instructors. So we do have different ways to get
• 24:28
  Speaker 4: officers incentivized to work out, and that has actually been
• 24:32
  Speaker 4: a very positive thing for the department. So I'm sure
• 24:34
  Speaker 4: that they may maybe that lady's you know, write an
• 24:36
  Speaker 4: article about or her email about seeing me one day
• 24:39
  Speaker 4: in uniform.
• 24:40
  Speaker 2: I don't know because I'm.
• 24:40
  Speaker 1: Fat, But no, no, no, Tony had I remembered in
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: twenty twenty. I believe it was Tony had COVID and
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: you were one of the sickest people I've ever seen,
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: and you were so skinny at that time.
• 24:54
  Speaker 2: That was a rough time.
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: But it is important to say that during their training,
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: during their twenty two weeks of training, they go through
• 25:01
  Speaker 1: rigorous fitness. I mean, there's no way I would ever
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: make it through.
• 25:05
  Speaker 2: This, and also the cords all levels that happens.
• 25:07
  Speaker 4: As police officers, we have a spike every single day
• 25:10
  Speaker 4: because we're just we're just at a higher level of
• 25:12
  Speaker 4: awareness because of our job. You literally are you know,
• 25:15
  Speaker 4: you're at you you have to be at a high
• 25:17
  Speaker 4: level at all times. When we get off of work. Yeah,
• 25:19
  Speaker 4: you kind of spike down to the it's two loves. Well,
• 25:21
  Speaker 4: it's it's it's it's a challenge, and that's something it's
• 25:24
  Speaker 4: kind of.
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: Like being mayors level spikes several times a day. Okay,
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: I'm going to ask you two tough questions here. Number
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: one is, Okay, we're budgeted for nine hundred and six
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: we officers. We have been down quite a bit right
• 25:40
  Speaker 1: now currently we have eight hundred and thirteen, so almost
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: ninety something down, so Tony we our crime rate is
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: so low. I believe we've had two homicides so far
• 25:51
  Speaker 1: this year. Okay, this is a tough question. Since we
• 25:54
  Speaker 1: have done all sorts of different things with our you know,
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: our call center.
• 26:00
  Speaker 3: Do we need nine hundred and six.
• 26:01
  Speaker 4: Officers, Yeah, I think we need that and probably even
• 26:04
  Speaker 4: more honestly, so as far as our crime numbers, we do.
• 26:07
  Speaker 4: Chief Smatter deserves credit for beefing up our gang unit
• 26:10
  Speaker 4: and having a large gang unit and our gang unit
• 26:12
  Speaker 4: officers they are the ones out there arresting.
• 26:15
  Speaker 3: Game and they do such a good job.
• 26:17
  Speaker 4: Yeah, long term investigations to make sure people are actually
• 26:20
  Speaker 4: behind bars for a long time that are violent in
• 26:22
  Speaker 4: our community. They have done an amazing job. And it's
• 26:25
  Speaker 4: almost to the point to where you like giving your question.
• 26:27
  Speaker 4: This is what I've heard from people. It's like, well,
• 26:29
  Speaker 4: where our crime numbers are down, maybe we need less cops,
• 26:31
  Speaker 4: Like no, because now tomorrow it can go. It can
• 26:34
  Speaker 4: things can change and a split second. That's the thing
• 26:36
  Speaker 4: about our job. So the fun of the job is
• 26:39
  Speaker 4: literally like the next call is something totally different, right,
• 26:43
  Speaker 4: But also there's times where you're just sitting doing nothing,
• 26:45
  Speaker 4: you know, and you.
• 26:45
  Speaker 1: Know, people bring that up when because I'm a believer
• 26:48
  Speaker 1: in a real aggressive annexation, but when before we ever,
• 26:52
  Speaker 1: before I ever put an annexation package in front of
• 26:54
  Speaker 1: the city Council to vote on. I had to get
• 26:56
  Speaker 1: it approved by Chief Smatter first, and I had to say,
• 26:59
  Speaker 1: we're going to take an x many you know citizens,
• 27:03
  Speaker 1: how many more police officers do we need to cover
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: this area? Because there's there's a gold standard that you need.
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: I forgot the gold standard. I believe it's two thousand. Yeah,
• 27:12
  Speaker 1: two thousand. Depends on the area. Yeah, some some places
• 27:16
  Speaker 1: you would hire them. So in a higher crime area,
• 27:18
  Speaker 1: you might have more, in a lower crime area, you
• 27:20
  Speaker 1: might have less. Okay, now here's another here's another question
• 27:24
  Speaker 1: that Jim Rose one morning will bring up all the time.
• 27:27
  Speaker 1: Do we really still need public employee unions?
• 27:31
  Speaker 2: Absolutely? I love Jim Rose, but I think he's wrong
• 27:33
  Speaker 2: on that.
• 27:35
  Speaker 1: I think he's wrong on the street. Okay, we've got
• 27:38
  Speaker 1: we've got an agreement here.
• 27:40
  Speaker 4: Yeah, public secord unions are are extremely important. So for example,
• 27:46
  Speaker 4: right now, I'm on your show because I have protections
• 27:48
  Speaker 4: as the former opiod president state president, I can come
• 27:51
  Speaker 4: and talk about public safety.
• 27:53
  Speaker 2: I could talk freely.
• 27:54
  Speaker 4: I'm not under the thumb of the chief that's going
• 27:56
  Speaker 4: to say all things are going great when when things
• 27:59
  Speaker 4: are actually burning behind you. So so we see that
• 28:01
  Speaker 4: in other places, especially in the South that don't have
• 28:04
  Speaker 4: as many police unions, we see some of those some
• 28:07
  Speaker 4: of those issues up in Atlanta's like perfect example.
• 28:10
  Speaker 2: So oh my god.
• 28:12
  Speaker 4: Yeah, they've they've dealt with some crazy prosecutions, officers being
• 28:16
  Speaker 4: targeted about a prosecutor. So so that's why that's extremely
• 28:20
  Speaker 4: important that we have those protections also too, Like like
• 28:24
  Speaker 4: we talked about before in Nebraska, in my opinion, is
• 28:26
  Speaker 4: should be the example for the entire country.
• 28:28
  Speaker 2: With CIR. Everyone has a.
• 28:30
  Speaker 3: Court of Industrial Relations.
• 28:32
  Speaker 4: There's a there's a standard. You're in the middle. You're
• 28:33
  Speaker 4: not gonna be the top, you're gonna be a bomer.
• 28:35
  Speaker 4: You're in the middle.
• 28:35
  Speaker 3: And that's where we go for impass.
• 28:38
  Speaker 4: So there's no you don't see cops on strikes. You
• 28:40
  Speaker 4: don't see teachers on strike. You see them have to
• 28:43
  Speaker 4: go to CIR in order to set the contract. So
• 28:45
  Speaker 4: that keeps the teachers in the classroom, keeps the cops
• 28:47
  Speaker 4: on the beat, and it keeps the fireman in the firehouse.
• 28:50
  Speaker 1: So and one one last thing I want to talk
• 28:52
  Speaker 1: to you about and then I'll send you on your way.
• 28:54
  Speaker 1: Here is the shariff's race.
• 28:56
  Speaker 2: Oh gosh, I can't wait.
• 28:58
  Speaker 1: And you know, I mean, this is really interesting. And
• 29:01
  Speaker 1: and the mayor came out and said he endorsed Mark Martinez,
• 29:05
  Speaker 1: who is challenging the current sheriff, who is Aaron Hanson.
• 29:10
  Speaker 1: You've worked with Aaron Hanson, Sheriff Hanson a lot. Just
• 29:14
  Speaker 1: give me your your thoughts on the sheriff's race right now.
• 29:17
  Speaker 4: Well, I think, first of all, if anyone even is
• 29:19
  Speaker 4: even considering vote for Mark Martinez, you should really, you
• 29:22
  Speaker 4: should really question that vote. Aaron Hanson is by far.
• 29:25
  Speaker 4: I think he's done an amazing job of sheriff. He's
• 29:28
  Speaker 4: focused on things that were important to the citizens of
• 29:31
  Speaker 4: Douglas County. The speeders in western Douglas County, the drag racing, UH,
• 29:37
  Speaker 4: the theft at UH businesses, what do you call it,
• 29:42
  Speaker 4: construction businesses. He's done such a good job homelessness. He's
• 29:45
  Speaker 4: done such a good job of focusing on what the
• 29:47
  Speaker 4: public wants. He even shows his numbers of how he's
• 29:50
  Speaker 4: done things. There's a there's a point when you have
• 29:52
  Speaker 4: a an no offense of Donney, because Dounney was an
• 29:54
  Speaker 4: amazing sheriff, two amazing guy. But when you have a
• 29:57
  Speaker 4: young guy that comes in he's energetic very much. So, Yeah,
• 30:00
  Speaker 4: Aaron knows how to work with people. He's able to
• 30:03
  Speaker 4: bring their their union together. He's done things that are
• 30:05
  Speaker 4: like you wouldn't expect the sheriff to do, working with
• 30:08
  Speaker 4: their with their union. And I think he's I think
• 30:10
  Speaker 4: he's been an amazing job. It's unfortunate right now. I
• 30:12
  Speaker 4: don't know if you know this, but Douglas County is
• 30:14
  Speaker 4: still working without a contract that it irritates me that
• 30:18
  Speaker 4: the county board is so freaking difficult for those guys
• 30:20
  Speaker 4: to work with.
• 30:21
  Speaker 1: And that means they continue on with the previous contract,
• 30:23
  Speaker 1: so they do have a contract, but they don't their
• 30:25
  Speaker 1: contract has expired.
• 30:26
  Speaker 4: Your contracts yeah, yeah, and expired the end of last year.
• 30:29
  Speaker 4: And and that's frustrating for those for those deputies. But
• 30:32
  Speaker 4: I'm telling you there's no question Mark Martinez, I have
• 30:35
  Speaker 4: no respect for I'll keep my language professional because I
• 30:39
  Speaker 4: know the radio you guys can't hit a button quick
• 30:42
  Speaker 4: enough for the cursing. That only because of my mouth
• 30:44
  Speaker 4: when his name comes up. But honestly, there's no question
• 30:46
  Speaker 4: Aaron Hanson is the guy that anyone should vote for
• 30:49
  Speaker 4: this that lives in Douglas County He's done an amazing job,
• 30:52
  Speaker 4: and Mark would be such a step backwards.
• 30:54
  Speaker 1: I I I appreciate your comments and I appreciate your honesty.
• 30:57
  Speaker 1: Tony Connor. Is so good to see you. I know,
• 31:00
  Speaker 1: see this role that we have now is much better,
• 31:02
  Speaker 1: isn't it. I know we're not adversaries anymore. We can
• 31:06
  Speaker 1: talk to each other and have a good time. I
• 31:08
  Speaker 1: really appreciate seeing you, Really appreciate you being on the show.
• 31:10
  Speaker 2: Thanks. I appreciate it. You bet, you bet.
• 31:13
  Speaker 1: Take care Tony Connor with the Omaha Police Department and
• 31:16
  Speaker 1: also with the Nebraska State Fraternal Order of Police, he's
• 31:20
  Speaker 1: the president.
• 31:21
  Speaker 3: Thanks for being with us.
• 31:22
  Speaker 2: Thank you.
• 31:22
  Speaker 1: Somebody called in and wanted to talk about Miller Park,
• 31:25
  Speaker 1: and I started talking about Carter Lake Park, and then
• 31:28
  Speaker 1: I closed the show by saying, go out and vote tomorrow.
• 31:31
  Speaker 1: What was wrong with me? As it was from me
• 31:33
  Speaker 1: being out of town. But I'm on my game today
• 31:36
  Speaker 1: and so we know that today is the right day.
• 31:41
  Speaker 1: Today is Wednesday, and this is May Sex and we
• 31:45
  Speaker 1: are here, and we're glad that you are here too,
• 31:47
  Speaker 1: and listening.
• 31:48
  Speaker 3: Getting out and voting is still important. It is still
• 31:50
  Speaker 3: not today though so important. It is so important, and
• 31:53
  Speaker 3: it is next Tuesday. You know, I Peyton. I lost
• 31:56
  Speaker 3: a race in two thousand and six.
• 31:58
  Speaker 1: That's the only other race I lost for the legislature
• 32:01
  Speaker 1: by fourteen votes on a recount. So somebody to say
• 32:07
  Speaker 1: my vote doesn't matter, I will say, for sure, your
• 32:11
  Speaker 1: vote does matter, because after that race, I thought, good lord,
• 32:15
  Speaker 1: if I would have knocked on two more blocks, it's.
• 32:18
  Speaker 3: Really a workout, no thing, you just didn't want it
• 32:20
  Speaker 3: bad enough.
• 32:20
  Speaker 1: No, but losing a race by fourteen votes is unbelievable,
• 32:26
  Speaker 1: and it does show that every vote counts. But anyway,
• 32:29
  Speaker 1: another caller called yesterday. Enough about me called yesterday and
• 32:33
  Speaker 1: asked about the Damn Bar, which is a bar that
• 32:37
  Speaker 1: has closed, and he said the city did not review
• 32:40
  Speaker 1: its least permit. That was back in October of twenty
• 32:44
  Speaker 1: twenty two. I was mayor then, and so I said, well,
• 32:47
  Speaker 1: I knew there was issues. I had to refresh my
• 32:50
  Speaker 1: memory a little bit. But if that caller is listening,
• 32:53
  Speaker 1: I did. And since Mary Ewing does not allow any
• 32:57
  Speaker 1: of his staff members to be the show, I could
• 33:00
  Speaker 1: not ask the parks director, and there is no parks
• 33:03
  Speaker 1: director yet, because that the parks director was basically fired
• 33:08
  Speaker 1: a month after Mary Ewing was in office. But anyway,
• 33:11
  Speaker 1: I did call the parks director that was there at
• 33:13
  Speaker 1: that time, mecht Kalsovich is the one that we're talking
• 33:16
  Speaker 1: about now, and I called him and asked him to
• 33:19
  Speaker 1: refresh my memory. And so he said it was really
• 33:22
  Speaker 1: a cross section of running a bar on city park property.
• 33:27
  Speaker 1: And so he said that being on city park property
• 33:32
  Speaker 1: and having a bar there, there were some compliance issues
• 33:36
  Speaker 1: that they just weren't able to be met to allow
• 33:39
  Speaker 1: them to run things the way that we wanted it
• 33:42
  Speaker 1: run for them to be successful. And he said one
• 33:45
  Speaker 1: of the main items was marketing or promoting it in
• 33:49
  Speaker 1: a way that the city found acceptable since it was
• 33:52
  Speaker 1: on city property, and they said it would have taken
• 33:56
  Speaker 1: some really significant code changes with the city. There was
• 33:59
  Speaker 1: a lot of legal discussions, and then he said another
• 34:02
  Speaker 1: contributing factor was ultimately the death of the owner, and
• 34:06
  Speaker 1: he said that's why things just weren't happening, and the
• 34:10
  Speaker 1: city felt like it wasn't in the city's best interest
• 34:13
  Speaker 1: to keep a bar going there. And he said that
• 34:16
  Speaker 1: the owners were talking about reopening in another area, and
• 34:22
  Speaker 1: then the city was doing some talking about how they
• 34:26
  Speaker 1: could use that space in an alternate way, and they
• 34:29
  Speaker 1: said that the city needed more shop space for the
• 34:32
  Speaker 1: park staff. They thought that was a good location to
• 34:34
  Speaker 1: serve the riverfront for the areas all on the riverfront.
• 34:37
  Speaker 1: So I hope this helps and I hope this explains
• 34:40
  Speaker 1: a little bit about the Damn Bar. But the dam
• 34:43
  Speaker 1: Bar was in Freedom Park and it was Dan Bar
• 34:45
  Speaker 1: and Grill and River City Star and it was on
• 34:48
  Speaker 1: it was basically on the Miller's landing area. So that's
• 34:52
  Speaker 1: the answer I got from the former parks director Met Kalsovich,
• 34:55
  Speaker 1: who was a parks director when it closed down.
• 34:58
  Speaker 3: Very interesting. I just got an email coming and then
• 35:00
  Speaker 3: you might appreciate this, Gene, thank you for the show.
• 35:03
  Speaker 3: Maybe just a reminder, this is Nurses Week, huh.
• 35:07
  Speaker 1: I always remember it is in May. I didn't remember
• 35:12
  Speaker 1: it was this week, but how about that. And you
• 35:15
  Speaker 1: know what, I loved being a nurse. I loved everything
• 35:19
  Speaker 1: I've done, but nurses started today.
• 35:21
  Speaker 3: Excuse me.
• 35:21
  Speaker 1: Yeah, nurses are very, very very special. And you know
• 35:24
  Speaker 1: I've told this story before, but about twelve years ago
• 35:27
  Speaker 1: when we opened the cancer center at the Med Center,
• 35:30
  Speaker 1: guess who was a keynote speaker, Joe Biden, And you
• 35:34
  Speaker 1: know he was. That was before he had some issues,
• 35:38
  Speaker 1: some health issues, but he was, I just have to
• 35:41
  Speaker 1: tell the listeners. He was so kind to me because
• 35:45
  Speaker 1: he walked in. He was going to be the keynote speaker.
• 35:48
  Speaker 1: He walked right up to me and he said you're
• 35:50
  Speaker 1: the mayor and I said yes, and he said you
• 35:53
  Speaker 1: you were a nurse and I said I was. And
• 35:54
  Speaker 1: he said, nurses are angels. I want every nurse listening
• 35:58
  Speaker 1: to hear this, because he and they he related the
• 36:00
  Speaker 1: story of his son that was dying of cancer or
• 36:05
  Speaker 1: died of cancer down at M D Anderson down in Houston,
• 36:08
  Speaker 1: and he just talked and talked about how good the
• 36:11
  Speaker 1: nurses were. And then I got to finish this story.
• 36:13
  Speaker 1: So I was on stage with Joe Biden and he
• 36:16
  Speaker 1: went up there and he started to give his speech
• 36:18
  Speaker 1: and the teleprompter was going all over the place because
• 36:21
  Speaker 1: he was always off his teleprompter. But he said. He
• 36:24
  Speaker 1: started out with saying, you know, you have a good
• 36:26
  Speaker 1: mayor here in Omaha. And he said she plays for
• 36:28
  Speaker 1: a different team than I do. But he said she
• 36:31
  Speaker 1: was a nurse and he said nurses are great people.
• 36:33
  Speaker 1: So all the nurses out there keep up the good work.
• 36:36
  Speaker 1: It's hard work that I know you do it because
• 36:39
  Speaker 1: you love it and I loved it too.
• 36:41
  Speaker 2: That's very good. And I like that story too about
• 36:43
  Speaker 2: Joe Biden.
• 36:43
  Speaker 3: You've said that a few times, but I always like
• 36:45
  Speaker 3: it because that's very true, and I think we should
• 36:46
  Speaker 3: all try to live by that more often.
• 36:48
  Speaker 2: And that's good.
• 36:50
  Speaker 3: I have no knowledge of this, so please inform me.
• 36:53
  Speaker 3: I hope I do. This comes from Greg. Now that
• 36:56
  Speaker 3: Ted Turner passed, I wonder if something different will happen
• 36:59
  Speaker 3: to all the Nebraska land he owned.
• 37:01
  Speaker 1: Well, that that question I sure can't answer. That would
• 37:05
  Speaker 1: probably be a more appropriate question for me to direct
• 37:09
  Speaker 1: to the gov. Right and but Ted the but the
• 37:12
  Speaker 1: caller is right. Ted Turner owns a ton of land
• 37:16
  Speaker 1: in western Nebraska all the way to Colorado and probably
• 37:20
  Speaker 1: through Colorado too, So I don't know. I mean, I'm
• 37:23
  Speaker 1: sure everything is set up in a in a trust,
• 37:26
  Speaker 1: and I'm sure the legal oh yeah, long in advance,
• 37:31
  Speaker 1: long long time ago, since he is a huge landowner.
• 37:34
  Speaker 1: But that's an interesting question, you know, I might I
• 37:37
  Speaker 1: might fork that out to the to the state and
• 37:40
  Speaker 1: ask if they have any information. Either the governor or
• 37:43
  Speaker 1: his lieutenant might have that question.
• 37:45
  Speaker 3: Ted Turner as a simple Google search, ted Turner was
• 37:47
  Speaker 3: one of the largest private landowners in the state of Nebraska,
• 37:52
  Speaker 3: owning nearly half a million acres and western sandhills focused
• 37:57
  Speaker 3: on bison conservation half a million billion acres.
• 38:01
  Speaker 1: Holy cow. Yep, he doesn't. He owned a lot of land,
• 38:05
  Speaker 1: so we'll get some more information about that.
• 38:07
  Speaker 3: Yes, yes, okay, And now Jean says she has another
• 38:12
  Speaker 3: hour on the show. Is this now broadcast until eleven thirty?
• 38:15
  Speaker 3: I think this was in reference to your questioning for
• 38:18
  Speaker 3: Tony Connor, because you just have so much to talk
• 38:21
  Speaker 3: about it.
• 38:21
  Speaker 1: I had so much to talk about. Yes we did,
• 38:23
  Speaker 1: but no, my show is still ten to eleven every.
• 38:26
  Speaker 3: Day, okay, and a quick one here, not every day,
• 38:29
  Speaker 3: money through Friday, money through. I'm not here, so I
• 38:31
  Speaker 3: don't have too long here. But it says mayor Jean,
• 38:33
  Speaker 3: I know the rental inspection program went into place around
• 38:36
  Speaker 3: twenty twenty. I haven't heard a thing about it. If
• 38:39
  Speaker 3: it's been successful, if it is finding unsafe properties or
• 38:42
  Speaker 3: finding safe ones, curious if this program has a success
• 38:45
  Speaker 3: or failure rate.
• 38:46
  Speaker 1: Yes, and you know the statistics. I used to have
• 38:49
  Speaker 1: those right on the tip of my tongue. But you know,
• 38:52
  Speaker 1: it the whole the whole focus of that is the
• 38:56
  Speaker 1: city did not know how many rental properties there were,
• 39:00
  Speaker 1: and so we are getting a lot of complaints, a
• 39:02
  Speaker 1: lot of complaints about landlords. And this registration process was required,
• 39:08
  Speaker 1: and there were thousands of rental properties that were registered
• 39:14
  Speaker 1: then with the city. There were some that weren't that
• 39:17
  Speaker 1: were out of compliance, but that allowed the city on
• 39:21
  Speaker 1: occasions to go in and inspect part of the property,
• 39:26
  Speaker 1: so many units out of a multi family and then
• 39:30
  Speaker 1: if there were a lot of code violations, it would
• 39:32
  Speaker 1: allow the city to go in and inspect the whole area.
• 39:36
  Speaker 1: And so the whole intent was to cut down on
• 39:40
  Speaker 1: slum lords, to cut down on unfit properties. And you know,
• 39:45
  Speaker 1: in my opinion, it was working quite well. And so
• 39:48
  Speaker 1: but there were still some properties out there that were substandard,
• 39:52
  Speaker 1: and so I would love to be able to get
• 39:56
  Speaker 1: the Planning director on here and talk about where they
• 39:58
  Speaker 1: are now, but again that's not allowed. So hopefully I
• 40:02
  Speaker 1: could get a little more information about the statistics on that.
• 40:05
  Speaker 1: But in my opinion, while I was still ware, while
• 40:08
  Speaker 1: I was still mayor, it was working quite well.
• 40:12
  Speaker 3: Just real quickly was it something that they just went
• 40:13
  Speaker 3: down a list of these rental properties and kind of
• 40:15
  Speaker 3: crossed them off as they checked them. Was it by submitting?
• 40:19
  Speaker 1: Like I said, it was hard for the city to
• 40:20
  Speaker 1: know because we didn't really know how many rental properties
• 40:23
  Speaker 1: there were. So you know, it's up to them to voluntarily.
• 40:27
  Speaker 1: Now they could get fined if they don't, if they
• 40:29
  Speaker 1: don't sign up, but it was still a way for
• 40:31
  Speaker 1: the city to monitor how many there were. So, boy,
• 40:35
  Speaker 1: I tell you, I have a lot more to talk
• 40:36
  Speaker 1: about today, but we will be back tomorrow and so
• 40:39
  Speaker 1: thank you so much for spending the time with us today. Again,
• 40:43
  Speaker 1: you can follow us online, you can call us. I'm
• 40:46
  Speaker 1: Gene Stothard and this is eleven ten kfab