Latest / The KFAB Comment Line with Jean Stothert / Readressing Hanson and Emergency Vehicles

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Readressing Hanson and Emergency Vehicles · The KFAB Comment Line with Jean Stothert

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: I won't back away from anything, and we've got a
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: lot to talk about. Peyton is with me here today,
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: the producer. Good morning, Good morning Geene.
• 0:06
  Speaker 2: How are you doing.
• 0:07
  Speaker 3: I'm good. Did you have a good Easter weekend?
• 0:09
  Speaker 2: I did really, really fulfilling weekend.
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: I did too, and got to go out to lunch
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: with my daughter and my two grandsons. The famous Max amazing,
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: and I've got plenty of Max stories. But you know, first,
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: I really want to tell people if you want to
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: call in today, you can call in at four oh two,
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: five five eight to eleven ten, or you can email
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: us at comment at kfab dot com. But I was
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: on Scott's show a little bit before we started today
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: to talk about the issue going on with Mayor Ewing
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: and his administration. And you know, Scott brought up campaigns
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: were the campaign was contentious. All campaigns are contentious, you know,
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  Speaker 1: And if anybody says during a campaign they don't hate
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: their opponent, they're lying to you because during the campaign,
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: you know, unfortunately, but people fire things back and forth.
• 0:59
  Speaker 3: This was not.
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: This campaign against Mary Ewing after the primary was nothing
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  Speaker 1: like my first campaign with Jim Subtle, the second one
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  Speaker 1: in twenty seventeen. My opponent was Heath Mellow, and it's
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  Speaker 1: a good example for me to talk about because it
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  Speaker 1: was contentious.
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  Speaker 3: Heath and I are best of friends. Now you just get.
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: Over it and you move on, because I've said many
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: times when you run for political office, you're either going
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: to win or lose, and this last one I lost
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  Speaker 1: to Mayor Ewing, and I've moved on and I think
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: he should too. Now the issue is, and I'm just
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: going to reiterate it again, is that he told the
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: cabinet last Monday a we could go to day ask
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: the Chief of Staff, asked Tom Warren if I was
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: contacting anyone, and if I was, they were to report
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: it to them, or if I ask anyone to be
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: on the show, they were to report it to the administration,
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: either Mary Ewing, Tom Warren or the communication director, and
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: they would most likely be denied. Now, I had had
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: arranged and scheduled last Friday for a department director to
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: be on the show, and it was at his request.
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: I didn't call out and ask it was at his request,
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: but I figured and I went ahead and scheduled him.
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: And after the cabinet meeting he had to contact us
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  Speaker 1: and say I can't be on your show. Now We're
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: not allowed to do that anymore. Very perplexing to me
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  Speaker 1: because once again, these are all directors that I hired,
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: all of them except the Chief of Police, Touch Maater
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  Speaker 1: was hired by Subtle, and then Bob Steube public Works
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  Speaker 1: was hired if you could believe it, by mayor Fahey so,
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  Speaker 1: but I've worked with him for the last twelve years,
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: had a good working relationship, and alls I would ever
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: think of doing would be to bring them on to
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  Speaker 1: share current important information that our listeners need to hear.
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: Whether we have a big snowstorm, may'd be great to
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  Speaker 1: have public Works on, whether it's a public safety issue,
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  Speaker 1: the chief of police. I had Kathy Bossman on Fire
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  Speaker 1: Chief to talk about Western Nebraska fires. But never would
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: be my intention to bring any of these directors that
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: are still city employees on and do anything negative or
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: use it to just be negative towards Mary Ewing. I've
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: gotten over it, in my opinion, Mary Ewing needs to
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  Speaker 1: to and move along because these are things that are important.
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  Speaker 2: Now.
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  Speaker 1: Keep in mind, I also had a very very active
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  Speaker 1: web page and a very very interactive Facebook page for
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  Speaker 1: twelve years, and people would always question there's a lot
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  Speaker 1: of questions going on, a lot of comments on that Facebook,
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  Speaker 1: but they were just sure I had a whole team
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: answering things, and I didn't. That was the communication director
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  Speaker 1: or me answering people for twelve years, allowing people to comment,
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  Speaker 1: allowing people to be on the Facebook. Mary Ewing started
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  Speaker 1: out not allowing comments on his social media until a
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  Speaker 1: lawsuit was filed, and now apparently he has numerous facebooks.
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  Speaker 1: I don't know how many because I don't really follow it,
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  Speaker 1: but he's a allowing comments on one. Don't understand that
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  Speaker 1: that lack of wanting people to be able to have
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  Speaker 1: their voice and to listen to things important to them. Now,
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: keep in mind all those department directors also are city
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: paid employees paid by the taxpayers, and they are here
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: to serve the public. I think he made it quite
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: clear that not all of KFAB would be banned, just
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: my show, and I think that shows it has become
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: very personal. I don't know whether it's a grudge, but
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: my statement would be move on, get over it. The
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: I did follow the proper channels and send an email
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: to the Communication director Aaron Grace last week after I
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: was told by the director that he could no longer
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: be on the show, and I asked permission in writing
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: for this director to be on the show last Friday,
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: and once again her answer was, and I'm going to
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  Speaker 1: read it again, excuse me, which will good morning. Thank
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: you for taking time to reach out at this time.
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: Per Mayor, youing any request to appear on your show,
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  Speaker 1: your comment show will be declined.
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  Speaker 3: Period.
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  Speaker 1: And so I followed the proper communication channels that they
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: are demanding. But keep in mind, when I was mayor,
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  Speaker 1: I just asked anybody that was going on the air
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  Speaker 1: on any station to just let us know, to give
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: us the heads up. They did not have to ask
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  Speaker 1: my permission. I did not block anybody from any news
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  Speaker 1: media outlet ever, and the police chief for example, fire chief,
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  Speaker 1: they really didn't even need to tell me because these
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: are issues of public safety that the community, that the
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: community needed to know. So I really wanted to bring
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: that up again. This was not my intention whatsoever or
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: this station's intention whatsoever to use this as a platform
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  Speaker 1: to criticize. But I would say, time to move on
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  Speaker 1: and let's do what's best for the public.
• 5:58
  Speaker 2: I'm going to get into something a little bit deeper
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  Speaker 2: that you touched on. And this is in regards to
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  Speaker 2: comments on social media. Okay, so this is coming from
• 6:05
  Speaker 2: an unnamed Omaha citizen wants to note that they're an independent,
• 6:10
  Speaker 2: but they did support you. They did not support the
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  Speaker 2: street car however, and then this is the key phrase here. However,
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  Speaker 2: why is everyone getting all the heat for having comments
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  Speaker 2: limited on his Facebook page because he's a Democrat, because
• 6:20
  Speaker 2: he has a lawsuit against him? And then he said,
• 6:22
  Speaker 2: let's go to the other side. Governor Pillen does not
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  Speaker 2: have comments on. Senator Kaleen Kathleen Koth does not have
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  Speaker 2: her comments on or limited severely limited comments. Rumors are
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  Speaker 2: that you blocked people on your Facebook all the time.
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  Speaker 2: I think that if you and everyone else is going
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  Speaker 2: to point out the current mayor for disabling the ability
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  Speaker 2: to comment, then every politician needs to follow this.
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: Well, in my opinion, they should. But let's go back
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: in history a little bit. Did a governor ever allow
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  Speaker 1: and have an interactive Facebook? Do the legislators do that?
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  Speaker 3: Now?
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  Speaker 1: That's not my business my concern right now, because you
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  Speaker 1: know whether they did or did in the past. Are
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: they following just what other legislators have done? In the
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  Speaker 1: past or other governors have done in the past. I'm
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  Speaker 1: not sure if any governor was very interactive on their
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  Speaker 1: Facebook or social media, but we certainly did. And to
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  Speaker 1: have somebody say I block people is just false. Now
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: what we had to do. And again, rumors, I am.
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  Speaker 1: You know, when you're in my position as mayor for
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  Speaker 1: as long as I was, you get so tired of
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  Speaker 1: rumors like the rumor that I lived in Saint Louis.
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  Speaker 1: I mean, my lord, we can't get rid of that.
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  Speaker 1: And that is just a lie. It's so false and
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: so easy to prove that is false. But you know,
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  Speaker 1: we I took the position that I would be interactive,
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  Speaker 1: and I did it for twelve years. The one thing
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  Speaker 1: we did on my Facebook that I got very concerned
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  Speaker 1: with is we had some very vile, vulgar, racist comments.
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  Speaker 3: On the Facebook.
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  Speaker 1: And I thought, this is not right because I have
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  Speaker 1: grade school kids looking at this and reading this, and
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  Speaker 1: so we did put a term of use on the
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  Speaker 1: Facebook and on the homepage it said if there are
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  Speaker 1: any comments that are racist or vulgar or vile, they
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  Speaker 1: may be removed. So we had basically a warning on there.
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  Speaker 1: And that's the only time that we would ever remove anything.
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  Speaker 1: We weren't blocking people. We weren't saying people couldn't comment.
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  Speaker 1: And I'll tell you a story which I think is
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  Speaker 1: quite interesting because it is really shows the difference between
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  Speaker 1: how people look at the mayor and have the ability
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  Speaker 1: to comment.
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  Speaker 3: I'm going to give you two examples.
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  Speaker 1: Number one, some of the comments were coming in so
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  Speaker 1: so bad and so like I said, vile or vulgar
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  Speaker 1: that my communication director and I did a little test
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  Speaker 1: one day and there was a post that was on OPD,
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  Speaker 1: the Omaha Police Department's Facebook, a post and all the
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  Speaker 1: comments were very positive. Oh, we think you guys are great,
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  Speaker 1: good job, keep it up, keep going. My community cation
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  Speaker 1: director and I took the exact same post with the
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  Speaker 1: exact same picture and we put it online and all
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  Speaker 1: the comments were negative. How dare you do this? This
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  Speaker 1: isn't right, the same exact comment. So when you are
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: an elected official such as the mayor, you will get
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  Speaker 1: negative comments. But that's just part of it. I mean,
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  Speaker 1: it's just part of what it is. Another example is
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  Speaker 1: we put a post up when we did the groundbreaking,
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  Speaker 1: but it was kind of a ceremonial groundbreaking because the
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  Speaker 1: project was already underway of the new multi sports comments
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  Speaker 1: at Levi Carter Park in North Omaha. We put a
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  Speaker 1: picture up, we put the groundbreaking, we put information up
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  Speaker 1: about what was being built there, indoor outdoor facilities. Within
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  Speaker 1: three days, we ended up taking the whole post down
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  Speaker 1: because there was over eight hundred comments and most of
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  Speaker 1: them were negative, I mean terrible comments about this project
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  Speaker 1: that was about forty eight million dollars no taxpayer money,
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  Speaker 1: all grant money, and they were all negative from why
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  Speaker 1: did you pick Levi Carter to how am I going
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  Speaker 1: to get my child there? To this isn't what we
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  Speaker 1: need in this area. I mean, they were all negative.
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  Speaker 1: So if you are the mayor, you have to expect that,
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  Speaker 1: and if you don't, you know, if it's not serving
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  Speaker 1: a purpose anymore, you can certainly take the whole thing down,
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  Speaker 1: But you can't pick and choose what you're going to
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  Speaker 1: let show to the public and whatnot. When you're a
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  Speaker 1: public official and you have a public Facebook, you need
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  Speaker 1: to keep the public informed. Now, there were every year
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: I would get a letter, it seemed like, to the
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  Speaker 1: law Department from the ACLU saying somebody has complained that
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: their post was removed and almost every time we would
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: look and we removed it because it was something that
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  Speaker 1: was vulgar or racist if and we would always respond
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  Speaker 1: to the ACLU and say we will follow the law,
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  Speaker 1: and we did.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, you can't tolerate that on a public social media page.
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  Speaker 2: I'm going to turn into a little bit of a
• 11:00
  Speaker 2: different area here. Depending on what the callers and the
• 11:03
  Speaker 2: listeners are asking, we may get back into it. But
• 11:06
  Speaker 2: this one is in regards to large city events and
• 11:09
  Speaker 2: the timing in the planning process. My question is, how
• 11:14
  Speaker 2: are the large annual Omaha event scheduled? Can two large
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  Speaker 2: events not happen at the same time? And this anonymous
• 11:20
  Speaker 2: listener used the Sinco de Mayo festival in South Omaha,
• 11:25
  Speaker 2: noting that that is the second weekend in May, And
• 11:27
  Speaker 2: is that because the Berkshire Hathaway event is in downtown
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  Speaker 2: the first weekend. That's just an example, but there's a
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  Speaker 2: couple other ones as well.
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  Speaker 1: No, I mean there are reasons why there are multiple
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  Speaker 1: events all over town in different areas. I mean you
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  Speaker 1: could have a big event, say at Xarbon Village, and
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  Speaker 1: a big event downtown and a big event down in
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  Speaker 1: South Omaha. Now I worked with them on the Sinco
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  Speaker 1: de Mayo Parade because they wanted to change the route
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  Speaker 1: and they wanted to have it at a different area.
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  Speaker 1: They wanted to have it in a different Omaha park.
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  Speaker 1: I would have liked to see Sinko Domayo come downtown
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  Speaker 1: in our beautiful park, our new Riverfront parks. But there
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: are a few events I will say that can't be
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  Speaker 1: handled at the same time. And I will give you
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  Speaker 1: an example, and that is the Pride Parade. For many
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  Speaker 1: years it was held in Council Bluffs because it was
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: all over the nation. It was the same time as
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  Speaker 1: the College World Series, and they wanted to have the
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: parade downtown, and they wanted to have the parade when
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: it was happening all over the nation. And I tried
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: to convince them that we could have it downtown, which
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: I think parade should be downtown. But they couldn't handle
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: it during the College World Series, and I think people
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: could understand why, so they went over to Council Bluffs.
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  Speaker 1: I am the one that brought back the Pride Parade
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  Speaker 1: because I had an LGBT advisory and they wanted to
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  Speaker 1: bring it back and got them to agree, and they
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  Speaker 1: were agreed wholeheartily to hold it at a different time.
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  Speaker 1: That's all they had to do, and then we brought
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  Speaker 1: it back to Omaha. So that's just a good example.
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  Speaker 1: But can our police department handle a big, major parade
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  Speaker 1: downtown and the College World Series.
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  Speaker 3: That would be difficult.
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  Speaker 1: We did handle, for instance, the College World Series and
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  Speaker 1: the US Swim Trials. They were happening at the same time.
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  Speaker 1: One was at the Arena Convention Center, one was at
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: the ballpark and they were close together, and we handled that, okay.
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: So there's just it just depends on what event it is.
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  Speaker 1: Sinko Demayo, I think it would be great if it
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: would happen on May fifth. It's the same with Saint
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: Patrick's Day. Everybody always asked me, why do you have
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: it the weekend before? Why don't you have it on
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: Saint Patrick's Day because that's when the Hibernians wanted to
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: have it. They wanted to have it on Saturday, and
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: Saint Patrick's Day doesn't always follow on a Saturday. So
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: it does depend on the issue and the parade and
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: where it is. But you can definitely handle multiple events
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: at one time, and it is a strain on the
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: police department. I mean, you know, with a parade, you
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: got to put up barriers, you got to have the route,
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: ad has to be approved by the Parks department. There's
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: all sorts of things that go into getting You have
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: to get a permit, you have to get like a
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: parade permit, and that has to be approved by the city.
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: So the city's always looking at what would be the
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: safest for people that are going to be attending these events.
• 14:14
  Speaker 2: This is I always like to highlight this right here
• 14:16
  Speaker 2: because this is amazing for all of the listeners. What
• 14:19
  Speaker 2: I would like to know is if you call the
• 14:20
  Speaker 2: mayor's hotline, will you get a response back? I called
• 14:23
  Speaker 2: the mayor's hotline several times when the previous was in office,
• 14:27
  Speaker 2: and I always got a call back that may not
• 14:28
  Speaker 2: have been able to resolve the issue, but they at
• 14:30
  Speaker 2: least communicated with me. What's kind of the procedure of that,
• 14:33
  Speaker 2: So someone calls in the mayor's hotline for whatever reason,
• 14:36
  Speaker 2: what does it look like in terms of a response
• 14:39
  Speaker 2: or reaching out.
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: I guess I'm the previous, so I think that would
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: be you right, That's okay, I am the previous. You know,
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: I don't know what Mayor Ewing is doing. I will
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: say the hotline is required by the city charter, and
• 14:53
  Speaker 1: the city charter says.
• 14:54
  Speaker 3: It will be a complaint line.
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: Well, I didn't want to call it a complaint line
• 14:58
  Speaker 1: because then I felt like alls we are going to
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: get as complaints. So we called it the hotline. It
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: is housed in the Mayor's office. I increased the number
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: of people we had working in the hotline, and also
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: I had several retired police officers in there too that
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: were so good if there was a real contentious call
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: to de escalate what the issue was. But what I
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: wanted with the hotline is to make sure we answered
• 15:23
  Speaker 1: the questions that were coming in and referred people to
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: the proper department by giving them the number if they
• 15:30
  Speaker 1: had to call another department. I didn't want to have
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: a whole list. If people had an issue with public
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: orcs will call this number. If they have an issue
• 15:38
  Speaker 1: with planning, call this number. If they had an issue
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: with whatever. I wanted to have them have one number,
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: which was four four four or five five fivey five
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: they could call and get referred on. Then I will
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: say this, we took a lot of pride in the
• 15:51
  Speaker 1: twelve years. I was there that Monday mornings were answering
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: a lot of emails and a lot of phone calls
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: that came in over the weekend, and they literally spelled
• 15:59
  Speaker 1: pro spent probably more than half the day, if not
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: all the day answering what came in over the weekend.
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: Those men and women that were working the hotline did
• 16:08
  Speaker 1: a fantastic job. If we had a bad snowstorm in
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: they closed City Hall, they would be in there, several
• 16:14
  Speaker 1: of them would come in just to answer calls. Our
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: procedure was that they would get back to everyone with
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: an answer. You know, if a pothole was reported, if
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: a neighbor issue was reported, they would get back with
• 16:28
  Speaker 1: them on what they were doing to resolve that issue.
• 16:31
  Speaker 1: I don't know what mer Ewing is doing.
• 16:33
  Speaker 2: You know, people complain about like a job interview too.
• 16:37
  Speaker 2: You get a job and you apply and you just
• 16:39
  Speaker 2: don't hear anything back, and it's like it's fresh, well shit,
• 16:42
  Speaker 2: you don't know if they saw it, if it just
• 16:43
  Speaker 2: went to straight to junk. So it's always nice to
• 16:45
  Speaker 2: just hear something, even if it doesn't solve the problem,
• 16:48
  Speaker 2: just acknowledging that what you said was heard.
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: And yeah, I agree, And you know what the problems
• 16:53
  Speaker 1: would change depending on the time of the year too.
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: And what I would ask is for cabinet on Monday morning,
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: which I mentioned four, is I would have the hotline
• 17:02
  Speaker 1: provide me with the number of calls and what the
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: issues were every Monday morning, and I shared it with
• 17:07
  Speaker 1: the whole with all of the directors. Because in the
• 17:10
  Speaker 1: winter it could be potholes and snow removal or ice.
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: In the summer it could be weeds and litter. I mean,
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: they just changed what the issues were. But I wanted
• 17:18
  Speaker 1: to make sure the directors were aware, so they knew
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: what was going on all over the whole city and
• 17:23
  Speaker 1: what were the main problems. I will say this, the
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: main issues that we had consistently though, were neighbor issues
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: all the time. I'd say seventy percent were always neighbor issues.
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: Whether it be a noisy neighbor at dog barking, trash,
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: cars parked in the front yard, the RV parked in
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: the front yard, whatever, they were multiple different questions and concerns,
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: but they were mostly neighbor issues.
• 17:50
  Speaker 2: Yes, they thought it was the landlord hotline. Okay, let's
• 17:53
  Speaker 2: hit the phone lines here. This is Jeff on the
• 17:55
  Speaker 2: phone lines. You are on news radio eleven ten KFAB
• 17:58
  Speaker 2: with Jeenst author.
• 18:01
  Speaker 4: A Dean. Hey, I had a question for you. I
• 18:03
  Speaker 4: I was in the truck one hundred and forty fourth
• 18:05
  Speaker 4: and Maple, and I saw the fire truck and ambulance
• 18:10
  Speaker 4: behind me, so I pulled over let them go past.
• 18:12
  Speaker 4: And just in my mind, I'm like, you know, I
• 18:14
  Speaker 4: bet they're going to the retirement home. And I so
• 18:17
  Speaker 4: I was heading that way, and sure enough they go
• 18:20
  Speaker 4: rolling into the retirement home. And I could understand that
• 18:24
  Speaker 4: an ambulance heading to the retirement home. But when they
• 18:29
  Speaker 4: roll the fire truck, is that like a contractual cash
• 18:33
  Speaker 4: cow for the fire department?
• 18:35
  Speaker 3: You know that That's a great question, and that question.
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: Is ask a lot, you know, And it's up to
• 18:39
  Speaker 1: dispatch who they dispatch when a call comes in nine
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: to one one, But they have protocol that they have
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: to follow. And the reason that they always dispatch a
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: fire truck with an ambulance is because there's a lot
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: more fire trucks than ambulances, and there is at least
• 18:57
  Speaker 1: a paramedic, if not just a medic, that are on
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: every fire truck, a medic that they could get to
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: a scene quicker sometimes than the ambulances due and that's
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: why they always dispatch a fire truck with an ambulance.
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: Sometimes the ambulance reaches at first, sometimes it's the fire
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: truck that they can. With the fire truck they can
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: go ahead and start at least basic life support if
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: it's needed, and then they could dispatch others if needed to.
• 19:24
  Speaker 3: I know.
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: Another point of contention is always been and I got
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: so many calls about it, is seeing a firetruck idling
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: with all that diesel fuel in front of a grocery
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: store and people would go in thinking, oh, there's a
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: big something, a big emergency going on in this grocery store,
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: and they would see the firemen getting their groceries for
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: the day, and they would be like.
• 19:45
  Speaker 3: Why are you allowing this?
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: Well, they're allowing it because they're on duty, you know,
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: and they are stopping to get their groceries because they
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: got to eat at the same time. But at this
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: you know, they are on duty. And if they're in
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: their shopping for their lunch at Whole Foods and they
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: get a call, they're out and they're on that call.
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: And so the reason is they do that is they
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: are still on duty and they are still in the
• 20:09
  Speaker 1: area that they cover, and they will get there quicker
• 20:13
  Speaker 1: if they go and they do the shopping or whatever
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: while they are they are still on duty, and then
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: they go back to the station. And if they just
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: sit down to lunch and they're call, they're out. So
• 20:23
  Speaker 1: it's not any different than being in the station or
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: being you know, at a grocery store or whatever.
• 20:28
  Speaker 3: But the reason is the fire trucks.
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: There are a lot more fire trucks than ambulances, and
• 20:32
  Speaker 1: they get their quicker. And we are back and boy, Peyton,
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: there's a lot going on last week, a lot going
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: on this week. Pam Bondy was fired last week and
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: that made national news to the private sector, and Supreme
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: Court seem poised on Wednesday to reject President Donald Trump's
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: restrictions on birthright citizenship. If anybody has anything to say
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: about that, we're open to that. Artemists too, still so
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: exciting now today is when they are going to be
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: doing that loop and going deeper into space than any
• 21:08
  Speaker 1: human has ever done, and traveling to the dark side
• 21:11
  Speaker 1: of the Moon, which reminds me of Pink Floyd's Dark
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: Side of the Moon that came out in nineteen seventy three.
• 21:19
  Speaker 2: I wish I had that song pulled up. That's a
• 21:21
  Speaker 2: good one.
• 21:21
  Speaker 3: I know, it's great.
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: I was out of high school one year, so that'll
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: be really interesting. Of course, they've had a bit of
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: a toilet problem that they keep on talking about. But yeah,
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: you know, this is a lot of tests for Artemis
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: to about longer space travel with humans, and if you're
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: going to be in space a long time, you need
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: that toilet. It's just that you can't say I'm going
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: to go on a space walk y'all.
• 21:44
  Speaker 3: For a little bit, see you later, Gotta go. But
• 21:48
  Speaker 3: hopefully they get that figured out. But it's a good test.
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: So there will be a period of time today I
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: think less than an hour that they will have no
• 21:55
  Speaker 1: communication with Houston, which is really interesting too. But I
• 21:59
  Speaker 1: can't wait to see the pictures that they come back with.
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: So there's something else I wanted to bring up before
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: we open it up for more calls and questions. And
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: like I said, we love to hear what you have
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: to say about anything. It's your chance to speak up
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: and sound off. But there is a group in Omaha,
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: and I hope they're listening today called Nebraska Taxpayers for
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: Freedom and they are a group led by a fellow
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: named Doug Kagan who's been around a while. He's basically
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: considered their group a bit of a watchdog. When I
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: look on their web page, they don't have many followers
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: on their Facebook, about one hundred and fifty, but they
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: say that they are there to listen and to be
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: very very conservative. Obviously, like I said, it's a grassroots
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: taxpayer right organization is how they describe themselves. So Doug
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: Kagan is a leader. Doug, I hope you're listening to
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: this because he posted something about me the other day
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: that I wanted to bring up and we've already talked
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: about this. In Nebraska Legislative District twenty, John Ferguson is
• 23:10
  Speaker 1: a candidate running for re election. He is a Democrat,
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: and there is another candidate, very good candidate named Chris Johnson,
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: Chris Anderson. I'm sorry Chris, who is a Republican and
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: he is a great candidate.
• 23:24
  Speaker 3: But I came out and said I.
• 23:26
  Speaker 1: Endorsed John Ferguson a while back because John Ferguson number
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: one endorsed me when I was running for mayor I
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: think he got a lot of comments from the Democrats
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: because he's a Democrat, but he stood by me. And
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: the other thing with John Ferguson, I've said this before
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: is that out of all of the Omaha legislators, Republicans included,
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: there was nobody that was more engaged with me and
• 23:55
  Speaker 1: the city of Omaha than John Ferguson. He called me
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: multiple times, how will this affect Omaha? How will that
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: affect Omaha? Do you support this?
• 24:03
  Speaker 3: Do you not?
• 24:04
  Speaker 1: Can you give me some more information. I had one
• 24:07
  Speaker 1: meeting in my office that I had the president of
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: Mutual of Omaha come in to talk about tiff with
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: the new tower downtown. I invited all the Omaha legislators.
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: Very few came, very few wanted to come. But John
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: Ferguson was there, and he really cared. And I think
• 24:23
  Speaker 1: he's done a good job. And isn't that what we want?
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: I mean, don't we want? The legislature is supposed to
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: be nonpartisan, And so I said I would endorse him.
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: I said he was trusted, he was a principal leader,
• 24:36
  Speaker 1: and he never waivers in fighting for Omaha. And that's true,
• 24:40
  Speaker 1: and so I stuck by him. Now will I ever
• 24:42
  Speaker 1: say anything negative about Chrissy Anderson. No, I will not.
• 24:45
  Speaker 1: I think he's a great candidate. In fact, I've invited him.
• 24:48
  Speaker 3: To be on this show.
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: But Doug said that KAI quote voters in Legislative District
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: twenty of a splendid opportunity to elect a fine fiscal
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: conservative with a sterling background, Chris Anderson, which I agree,
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: and it's precisely what the taxpayers in D twenty desperately need. Therefore,
• 25:08
  Speaker 1: I am angered, but not surprised, that former Mayor Jean
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: Stothart endorsed a liberal Democrat, Streetcar Stothart. Again, Doug likes
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: the name calling, but he's calling me Streetcar Stouthart, and
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: again I will accept that with pride.
• 25:25
  Speaker 3: Street Car Stothart has.
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: Become a political Oh wait till you hear this pariah.
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: He's calling me a political pariah among the taxpayer voters.
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: Now keep in mind, folks, this is coming from a
• 25:38
  Speaker 1: man who did not support the Republican candidate for mayor
• 25:41
  Speaker 1: of Omaha. He supported me in the past. I've been
• 25:45
  Speaker 1: mayor twelve years, but this time he did not support
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: me because he thought I wasn't lowering taxes enough. Now
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: keep this in mind. I lowered the levy five times
• 25:56
  Speaker 1: that the city council approved. I often effort to come
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: and talk to Doug Kagan and walk him through the
• 26:04
  Speaker 1: whole budget.
• 26:04
  Speaker 3: He refused.
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: I offered to go to the Nebraska taxpayers for Freedom
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: and talk to them and walk them through the budget
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: process and how I budgeted and why I was only
• 26:16
  Speaker 1: able to lower the levy five times.
• 26:19
  Speaker 3: He refused. He did not want to talk, he did
• 26:22
  Speaker 3: not want to.
• 26:23
  Speaker 1: Get the facts, but he likes to criticize, and he
• 26:26
  Speaker 1: did not support me. Now, I'm just going to say this,
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: this is what the problem is I see with both
• 26:34
  Speaker 1: political parties right now. When I became mayor of Omaha,
• 26:37
  Speaker 1: everybody knows I'm a conservative. Everybody knows I'm a Republican.
• 26:42
  Speaker 1: Everybody knows I hold up the values of the Republican
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: Party and I want lower taxes, and I want public safety,
• 26:48
  Speaker 1: and I want a strong national defense. All the tenets
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: of the Republican Party I have and people know that
• 26:54
  Speaker 1: that I have. But you know, it's not easy to
• 26:57
  Speaker 1: be the mayor of a city of about five hundred people,
• 27:01
  Speaker 1: and it's not easy to do that budget every year,
• 27:03
  Speaker 1: which I did, and so I would say, you know,
• 27:06
  Speaker 1: if we want Republican candidates elected, then we need to
• 27:11
  Speaker 1: stick together, and we need to have people quit calling
• 27:16
  Speaker 1: people like me that serve for twenty seven years in
• 27:19
  Speaker 1: an elected position political pariahs now because I said I
• 27:24
  Speaker 1: supported a Democrat candidate who did a lot of good
• 27:28
  Speaker 1: for the city of Omaha. When I say I'm going
• 27:31
  Speaker 1: to support somebody, and I meant this while I was
• 27:33
  Speaker 1: a mayor, and I still mean it now, I don't
• 27:36
  Speaker 1: say anything negative about the opponent the other person. I
• 27:39
  Speaker 1: just don't you know. If I say I support somebody,
• 27:42
  Speaker 1: I will say why. But this now, you know, this
• 27:45
  Speaker 1: name calling and of a pariah is not helpful to
• 27:49
  Speaker 1: the party period, and this is what we need to
• 27:53
  Speaker 1: keep on doing. I brought this up in the past,
• 27:56
  Speaker 1: but I'll repeat it. The day after the election that
• 27:59
  Speaker 1: I I was defeated this last time, Kevin McCarthy called
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: me from California and he said, Gene, this is with
• 28:08
  Speaker 1: the position of every Republican candidate is going to be
• 28:11
  Speaker 1: like in twenty twenty six. We Republicans need to stick together,
• 28:16
  Speaker 1: not be fighting against each other. And I don't know
• 28:19
  Speaker 1: why the Nebraska Taxpayers for Freedom and Doug Kagan have
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: chosen this position to go after fellow Republicans, but they have,
• 28:28
  Speaker 1: and I think this is something we need to move
• 28:30
  Speaker 1: forward with and I'd love I'd love to hear your
• 28:33
  Speaker 1: comments on that. You know, these are things that I
• 28:36
  Speaker 1: think are very important to us. The National Committee woman
• 28:40
  Speaker 1: for the state of Nebraska, I've never met her. I
• 28:44
  Speaker 1: don't know her. I've never met her, and she had
• 28:46
  Speaker 1: some very negative things to say about me, but I've
• 28:48
  Speaker 1: never met her, you know. And her comment about me
• 28:52
  Speaker 1: was I want to take the Republicans' guns away. I mean,
• 28:55
  Speaker 1: that was probably one of the most false things that
• 28:58
  Speaker 1: could ever come from somebody who is out there trying
• 29:01
  Speaker 1: to help the Republican Party. So I will say, whatever
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: party you are in, you know, it doesn't mean that
• 29:07
  Speaker 1: the other party is evil. I've brought this up before too.
• 29:11
  Speaker 1: My son is a Democrat. He used to be a
• 29:13
  Speaker 1: Republican and he's a Democrat. I don't hate him. He
• 29:16
  Speaker 1: just has different points of view than I do, and
• 29:19
  Speaker 1: I want to listen to his points of view. But
• 29:21
  Speaker 1: I'm not changing who I am either. So being Mayor
• 29:25
  Speaker 1: of Omaha again, you are in the blue dot. There
• 29:28
  Speaker 1: are at least twenty thousand more Democrat voters in the
• 29:31
  Speaker 1: city of Omaha than Republican voters. And if you want
• 29:34
  Speaker 1: to be the mayor of Omaha, you cannot take a
• 29:38
  Speaker 1: hard heart ride position right position and think that every
• 29:41
  Speaker 1: Democrat is evil because they're not.
• 29:45
  Speaker 2: To the phone lines we go. You are on the
• 29:47
  Speaker 2: Genest Author show here on news radio eleven ten kfab Hello, Ryan, Hi.
• 29:53
  Speaker 4: Jane, how are you today?
• 29:55
  Speaker 3: I'm great? Thank you, how are you? Thanks for calling?
• 29:58
  Speaker 4: Hey, pretty good. I think you kind of stepped on
• 30:00
  Speaker 4: your endorsement there because his name is John Frederickson, not
• 30:05
  Speaker 4: John Ferguson.
• 30:07
  Speaker 3: Thank you for paying that.
• 30:09
  Speaker 1: You know, I know it, and I after I said that,
• 30:15
  Speaker 1: I thought, wait a minute, what am I saying? And
• 30:17
  Speaker 1: then I got on this other tangent when I was
• 30:20
  Speaker 1: trying to get through. But yeah, that that was That
• 30:23
  Speaker 1: was quite an error for me. So I obviously know
• 30:27
  Speaker 1: who is running, but I apologize say that it is John.
• 30:30
  Speaker 1: It is John Fredrickson, and John A couple.
• 30:34
  Speaker 4: Times I did.
• 30:35
  Speaker 3: I was on a roll.
• 30:36
  Speaker 1: I had something on my mind, but I know it's
• 30:39
  Speaker 1: John Fredrickson, and I do. John, if you're listening, and
• 30:41
  Speaker 1: your dad, who's a great guy too, is listening. I apologize.
• 30:45
  Speaker 1: John Fredericson is the candidate. Thank you for bringing that up.
• 30:50
  Speaker 3: Though I don't mind bringing up when I say something wrong.
• 30:54
  Speaker 3: I appreciate it. Thank you.
• 30:56
  Speaker 2: All Right, we're going to shift another direction here. This
• 30:58
  Speaker 2: one comes from John and this is wants you to
• 31:00
  Speaker 2: speak about the streets out in El Corn. There's a
• 31:03
  Speaker 2: little bit of context real quick. It's a long email,
• 31:05
  Speaker 2: but I'm just going to give you a few bits
• 31:07
  Speaker 2: to run with here. We have several subdivisions, and he
• 31:10
  Speaker 2: named the one that he's in, but I'm going to
• 31:12
  Speaker 2: leave that private. Several subdivisions with streets that have no
• 31:15
  Speaker 2: gutters or sidewalks that have been deemed substandard by the city.
• 31:19
  Speaker 2: They were that way when the city annexed us. Our
• 31:21
  Speaker 2: streets have passed pothole status. I'm interested in what the
• 31:25
  Speaker 2: way forward is Today we have five hundred thousand plus
• 31:29
  Speaker 2: plus dollar homes on third world, horrible streets. What can
• 31:34
  Speaker 2: they do about this?
• 31:35
  Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, I'm really glad you brought this up, because,
• 31:39
  Speaker 1: as the caller or the emailer knows, there's been a
• 31:43
  Speaker 1: lawsuit that was filed against the city from those folks
• 31:47
  Speaker 1: out in that area out in el Corn and the
• 31:50
  Speaker 1: city prevailed in that lawsuit. They did appeal it, they
• 31:55
  Speaker 1: lost on it again. But here's the deal. When the
• 31:58
  Speaker 1: City of Omaha, which was not me, I mean it
• 32:01
  Speaker 1: was before my time, annexed Elcorn, a lot of those
• 32:06
  Speaker 1: streets were put in a long time ago with beautiful
• 32:09
  Speaker 1: homes and ranches along that area that did not have sidewalks,
• 32:13
  Speaker 1: did not have storm brains, gutters, curbs, and the streets
• 32:16
  Speaker 1: were made out of asphalt. That's the way it was
• 32:19
  Speaker 1: when it was annexed. The folks out there take the
• 32:22
  Speaker 1: position that they were promised, and that was during the
• 32:25
  Speaker 1: Faihi administration, that their streets would be kept up in
• 32:29
  Speaker 1: good position, in good shape, just like they were when
• 32:33
  Speaker 1: it was Elcorn. What I did when I first became mayor,
• 32:38
  Speaker 1: and this is going to take just a few seconds
• 32:40
  Speaker 1: to explain, this is if an area, whether it be
• 32:43
  Speaker 1: Elcorn that is now within the City of Omaha West
• 32:46
  Speaker 1: Side or Millard, if they wanted a residential street repaired
• 32:52
  Speaker 1: and resurfaced, whether it be asphalt or whether it be
• 32:55
  Speaker 1: concrete with storm drains and sewers and curbs, it was
• 32:59
  Speaker 1: one hundred percent up to the homeowners in that area
• 33:03
  Speaker 1: to pay for it. I thought that was unfair, and
• 33:06
  Speaker 1: so I got a group of citizens together. They met
• 33:10
  Speaker 1: for over the year and they made recommendations what they
• 33:13
  Speaker 1: considered was fair, and the recommendations were something that we
• 33:17
  Speaker 1: now have been following for over ten years, and there's
• 33:21
  Speaker 1: been dozens of neighborhoods that have taken part of this plan.
• 33:25
  Speaker 1: It's either called a street improvement district, which is concrete,
• 33:30
  Speaker 1: or a road maintenance district, which is asphalt, And basically
• 33:34
  Speaker 1: what it is now, it's a cost sharing and so
• 33:36
  Speaker 1: if the neighbors say, on this three block stretch, if
• 33:41
  Speaker 1: they wanted their streets redone and concrete with storm brains,
• 33:44
  Speaker 1: curb sewers, sidewalks, then the city would come out, they
• 33:48
  Speaker 1: would engineer it, they would do all the engineering, they
• 33:51
  Speaker 1: would come up with a cost, and it would be
• 33:53
  Speaker 1: basicly basically a fifty to fifty cost share. The city
• 33:57
  Speaker 1: would pay half and the neighbor would pay half, and
• 34:01
  Speaker 1: they would do it over a period of years. They
• 34:03
  Speaker 1: would be assessed for I think it's ten to fifteen
• 34:06
  Speaker 1: years that they could pay that back, or they could
• 34:08
  Speaker 1: pay it in one bunch. There has been, like I said,
• 34:11
  Speaker 1: dozens of neighborhoods that have taken part in this already. Now,
• 34:15
  Speaker 1: when I was mayor, when this lawsuit came about out
• 34:17
  Speaker 1: in Elcorn, people were saying, well, you need to do
• 34:20
  Speaker 1: ours because it was promised and you need to do
• 34:23
  Speaker 1: it without any cost sharing at all. And that's why
• 34:26
  Speaker 1: it actually went to court, it was appealed, it's they're
• 34:30
  Speaker 1: still holding it up. But my issue was is how
• 34:35
  Speaker 1: can we possibly say, okay, Elcorn, we're going to do
• 34:39
  Speaker 1: yours that used to be Elcorn but now is Omaha.
• 34:43
  Speaker 1: But what are we going to do with all these
• 34:45
  Speaker 1: others that have already taken part in this plan? Are
• 34:47
  Speaker 1: we going to refund their money? I mean, it's not
• 34:50
  Speaker 1: fair to say you've paid for half, but now in
• 34:53
  Speaker 1: a certain area you're going to pay for all of it,
• 34:56
  Speaker 1: or the city's going to pay for all of it.
• 34:58
  Speaker 1: So I even went as fall Is asking public Works
• 35:01
  Speaker 1: to go out in Elcorn and it wasn't just these
• 35:04
  Speaker 1: few streets and few neighborhoods.
• 35:06
  Speaker 3: It had to be.
• 35:07
  Speaker 1: The entire Elcorn that was now part of Omaha. And
• 35:11
  Speaker 1: I said, what would it cost if we would go
• 35:15
  Speaker 1: out there and resurface all of those streets, put in
• 35:18
  Speaker 1: the sidewalks and everything and all of Elkorn that was
• 35:22
  Speaker 1: annexed by the City of Omaha, and it was cost
• 35:24
  Speaker 1: prohibit prohibitive. I mean it would it would It would
• 35:29
  Speaker 1: create and have to require a huge tax increase for
• 35:33
  Speaker 1: all of Omaha just to do Elcorn Street. So I
• 35:36
  Speaker 1: didn't think that was fair either. So we were sticking
• 35:39
  Speaker 1: with that policy that we've had for years now. I know,
• 35:42
  Speaker 1: even Mary Ewing during the campaign had a commercial that
• 35:46
  Speaker 1: said if Jeene Stother, you know, if you want your
• 35:49
  Speaker 1: streets redone Jeene Stother says you have to pay for
• 35:51
  Speaker 1: him yourself. That that was misleading and not accurate at all.
• 35:55
  Speaker 1: I didn't say you had to pay for it yourself.
• 35:57
  Speaker 1: I said we are going to follow this record mandation
• 36:00
  Speaker 1: that came from a committee for the street maintenance districts
• 36:04
  Speaker 1: and the road improvement districts that we've been following for
• 36:07
  Speaker 1: over ten years.
• 36:08
  Speaker 3: Now. To me, it's fair.
• 36:09
  Speaker 1: Now, there is also part of this plan if it's
• 36:13
  Speaker 1: in a high poverty area and a certain amount of
• 36:17
  Speaker 1: people living homeowners, not rentals, homeowners in that area, the
• 36:21
  Speaker 1: city will pay one hundred percent if it's a higher
• 36:24
  Speaker 1: poverty area. Once again, John Frederickson. I am sorry that
• 36:29
  Speaker 1: I was saying your name is Ferguson. I don't know
• 36:31
  Speaker 1: what I was thinking, but I do apologize. So you know,
• 36:35
  Speaker 1: you can call me whatever you want to get back
• 36:37
  Speaker 1: at me if you want.
• 36:39
  Speaker 2: Hey, a street carst author or stouthor yes, street carst
• 36:43
  Speaker 2: author that will call you that sr street carst Author.
• 36:45
  Speaker 1: And again, Doug Kagan, I will take this with pride
• 36:49
  Speaker 1: because you know what this streetcar when it is up
• 36:53
  Speaker 1: and running and people are loving it and it's created
• 36:56
  Speaker 1: jobs and economic development, then somebody, hopefully somebody back at
• 37:01
  Speaker 1: that time in the future, will go oh. I think
• 37:03
  Speaker 1: Jeane Stothard street car Stothard decided to push this one forward,
• 37:07
  Speaker 1: just like they did the Arena Convention Center, just like
• 37:10
  Speaker 1: they did the Downtown Ballpark, just like they did the
• 37:13
  Speaker 1: Riverfront parks. You know, things are hard when you don't
• 37:16
  Speaker 1: really know how they're going to end. And so I'll
• 37:19
  Speaker 1: take that name street car Stothard anytime.
• 37:22
  Speaker 2: Okay. On the Sam Accord, we had a caller who
• 37:25
  Speaker 2: had a great question for you. Didn't hang on through
• 37:27
  Speaker 2: the break, so I'll pass it along. He asked, one
• 37:30
  Speaker 2: thing that you did experienced or handled throughout your twelve
• 37:36
  Speaker 2: years in office as a mayor of Omaha that you
• 37:40
  Speaker 2: didn't like, maybe you regret it a little bit, or
• 37:43
  Speaker 2: something that you wish you could do differently. Oh god,
• 37:46
  Speaker 2: I'm sure, I'm sure that there's just a huge, super long,
• 37:50
  Speaker 2: really long list. No, I think sarcastic, but I'm sure
• 37:53
  Speaker 2: there's some things that come to mind. But give us
• 37:55
  Speaker 2: one that we can digest today.
• 37:57
  Speaker 1: You know, I will tell you I could I could
• 37:59
  Speaker 1: think of, but I'll just I'll tell you a few.
• 38:02
  Speaker 3: I remember it early on I called out a cop.
• 38:06
  Speaker 1: And usually this is something I wouldn't do, but I
• 38:08
  Speaker 1: called out a cop at ninetieth in Dodge early one
• 38:11
  Speaker 1: morning because he shut down the intersection during rush hour
• 38:15
  Speaker 1: during a massive snowstorm. And when they told me dodge it,
• 38:18
  Speaker 1: ninetieth and Dodge is shut down, and I called public
• 38:22
  Speaker 1: works and found out they had just plowed it like
• 38:24
  Speaker 1: a few minutes before. I really criticized that cop and
• 38:28
  Speaker 1: I should have never have done that, and I ended
• 38:30
  Speaker 1: up apologizing I wasn't there, he had a reason.
• 38:34
  Speaker 3: To do it.
• 38:35
  Speaker 1: The police department was mad at me. I was mad
• 38:37
  Speaker 1: at myself for doing it. I mean, I will never
• 38:40
  Speaker 1: forget that because I was thinking to myself, why in
• 38:42
  Speaker 1: the world would I criticize him. He's standing out in
• 38:45
  Speaker 1: the middle of that intersection in a snowstorm, and he
• 38:48
  Speaker 1: is saying, we can't We've got to close it down
• 38:50
  Speaker 1: for a while.
• 38:51
  Speaker 3: I do regret that. And I will tell you one
• 38:53
  Speaker 3: other thing.
• 38:55
  Speaker 1: I was trying to do this as goodwill, but I
• 38:57
  Speaker 1: want people to understand that I had to say, Oh,
• 39:00
  Speaker 1: I'm not sure I should have done this. I thought
• 39:02
  Speaker 1: this was goodwill. But in twenty nineteen we had a
• 39:06
  Speaker 1: particularly horrible, horrible winter, and you know, when people call
• 39:10
  Speaker 1: in and make claims for their cars being damaged by potholes,
• 39:14
  Speaker 1: we really do not The city does not have to
• 39:17
  Speaker 1: pay because it's number one, it's an act of God,
• 39:19
  Speaker 1: and we are following a Torque Claims Act that was
• 39:22
  Speaker 1: acted enacted in nineteen sixty nine that said the city
• 39:25
  Speaker 1: is not responsible four acts of God unless that say
• 39:29
  Speaker 1: that pothole or the hole in the street had been
• 39:31
  Speaker 1: reported multiple times and we didn't do anything about it.
• 39:34
  Speaker 1: But we had a particularly bad winter. So from January
• 39:37
  Speaker 1: through March, I asked the Law Department to go ahead
• 39:41
  Speaker 1: and pay for all of the claims, all of the
• 39:43
  Speaker 1: claims from that period of time. Because the streets were
• 39:46
  Speaker 1: in such bad shape, law department had to hire new people,
• 39:49
  Speaker 1: new lawyers to go through those claims, and you know,
• 39:52
  Speaker 1: it backfired on me. There were some legitimate complaints, but
• 39:57
  Speaker 1: I mean some of the claims that were made were
• 40:00
  Speaker 1: a torn roof on the convertible, or the air conditioning
• 40:03
  Speaker 1: wasn't working, or my seats have a rip in it.
• 40:05
  Speaker 3: This was because of a pothole.
• 40:07
  Speaker 1: So the number of claims that came in were not
• 40:10
  Speaker 1: legitimate claims, and that was something that I think, Boy,
• 40:13
  Speaker 1: this was not really the goodwill that I thought it
• 40:16
  Speaker 1: was going to turn out to be.
• 40:18
  Speaker 2: Yeah, there's a lot of things that we could get
• 40:19
  Speaker 2: into with that, and I like that question. Jim. Thank
• 40:21
  Speaker 2: you for asking that, and I'm sorry we couldn't get
• 40:23
  Speaker 2: you around. We discussed a lot today. This is always
• 40:26
  Speaker 2: going to be uploaded on the kfab dot com website
• 40:30
  Speaker 2: or the iHeartRadio app. This is the kfab comment line
• 40:33
  Speaker 2: with Jeans to authort. I try to get these up
• 40:35
  Speaker 2: by noon, certainly the day of so you can always
• 40:38
  Speaker 2: have a record of these as we wrap up the
• 40:40
  Speaker 2: show today. Any closing thoughts, Gene.
• 40:42
  Speaker 1: Yeah, thanks for listening, and we have a really good
• 40:44
  Speaker 1: guest tomorrow. Steve McCoy with the Airport Authority is going
• 40:46
  Speaker 1: to be in the studio talking about the new billion
• 40:49
  Speaker 1: dollar renovation at our airport and that ought to be
• 40:52
  Speaker 1: really really interesting about what's coming in the future and
• 40:55
  Speaker 1: what's coming and opening next year. So thank you all
• 40:57
  Speaker 1: for listening, thanks for being with us today. P Jonas
• 41:00
  Speaker 1: Tomorrow