Photo Dan Swanson news|press County Commissioner Nicki Kreifels asks Glen Steffensmeier, county highway superintendent, to explain the need to spend $84,000 to overhaul a road grader when the county is in a financial crisis serious enough to warrant the layoff of seven people. The grader operator reported there are no problems with the machine and no leaking of fluids. The trade in value of the 14-year-old machine is estimated at $112,000. Steffensmeier said it is county policy to overhaul or trade-in machines with over 10,000 hours of work on them. Since the machine in question has been so reliable, Steffensmeier said, the decision was made to keep it. Kreifels moved to postpone spending the $84,000 until after the budget crisis is resolved, but her motion died for lack of a second.

grace johnson
news | press

The Nebraska Attorney General’s Office has admonished Otoe County commissioners for their handling of the elimination of seven county road workers Aug. 12, and stated that they violated Nebraska’s Open Meetings Act.

The Attorney General’s office informed commissioners Thursday they should vote again in a proper fashion to make the firings valid, but stopped short of pursuing criminal prosecution or a lawsuit against the county. “We find it likely that a court would hold that the Board’s actions growing out of the improper closed session, including its elimination of the jobs of certain county employees, are void and a nullity,” stated the letter from the Attorney General’s office.

An emergency board meeting regarding the Attorney General’s response is scheduled for Friday at 3 p.m. in the county courtroom.

“We want to express directly our grave concern with the way this issue was handled by the (County) Board,” the Attorney General’s letter states. “In Nebraska, government at the state and local levels must strive for openness and transparency. In this instance, the Board fell well short of the mark. The actions in this case breed distrust by Nebraskans in the workings of government. Ultimately, whether the Board’s decision is right or wrong, such a decision should never be made behind closed doors.”

The Attorney General’s decision states that the board was in violation of the open meetings laws because “there was no proper reason to go into closed session under the circumstances of this case, and also because the Board did not follow proper procedures to go into a closed session under Section 84-1410.”

The letter states that “‘budgetary matters is not one of the reasons for which a closed session may be called.” The Open Meetings Act specifies that a closed session is allowable if it is “clearly necessary for the protection of the public interest or for the prevention of needless injury to the reputation of an individual and if such individual has not requested a public meeting.”

The decision also states that closed sessions may be called “to protect an individual’s privacy as to his or her job performance,” or to “prevent needless injury to an employee’s reputation.” The letter states that the closed session at the Aug. 12 meeting was not called for those reasons and that “personnel matter,” which was announced as the reason for the session prior to it commencing, is not listed in the Open Meetings Act as an acceptable reason to hold a closed session.

Additionally, the letter says that the board failed to describe the “subject matter” of the closed session as is required.

In his complaint to the attorney general’s office, Local 251 Vice President George Forst said the commissioners may have met prior to the Aug. 12 meeting to discuss the termination of the workers. The attorney general’s office says there has not been any “direct evidence” presented to them that such a meeting occurred, but that the meeting would be a violation of the Open Meetings Act.

“We would remind the Board. . . that if two or more Board members have discussion regarding Board business outside a meeting, they run the risk of violating the Act,” it says.

The layoffs of the seven workers were scheduled to take effect Monday, Sept. 1. On Tuesday, commissioner Nicki Kreifels motioned to halt the layoffs in order to further discuss the issue with the union and examine the budget, but the motion died after failing to receive a second. (See related story on page 1).

Watch for further updates on www.ncnewspress.com and in the next issue.