Chambers' bill would make discipline records public
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BY JoANNE YOUNG / Lincoln Journal Star
If public information were gold, some state senators would be stingy and some generous this session. Sen. Ernie Chambers would be both.
Chambers introduced two bills this week, one that would provide more access and one less.
In providing more access to information, he would make public any disciplinary action involving law enforcement officers, police, sheriff, state troopers, even state Game and Parks conservation officers.
Bill would help Lincoln pay for arena
A bill that would help Lincoln pay for an arena and convention center complex in the Haymarket area is once again before the Legislature.
The proposal (LB565), offered by Lincoln Sen. Bill Avery, is modeled after last year’s LB500 that died at the end of the legislative session after losing the support of Omaha Sen. Ernie Chambers.
The bill would allow much of the state and city sales tax dollars generated by existing hotels to be used for initial startup costs if the city created a special entertainment district in the Haymarket area.
The measure would also divert state and local sales tax dollars generated from new businesses in a convention center district for up to 25 years to help finance the city’s share of the costs, as long as the venture met several standards. There must be at least
$20 million invested in the project and it must create at least 75 jobs.
This is an important tool for economic development that helps leverage local private dollars, said Wendy Birdsall, president of the Lincoln Chamber of Commerce. It is of particular interest to us because of the arena proposals, she said.
There is also broad support for the bill across the state because other cities, like Grand Island or Scottsbluff, can use it, said Avery. It is at least part of the solution for much needed development, he said.
Last year senators suggested that the entertainment and tourism districts could be used to build a baseball stadium in Omaha and a theme park in Sarpy County.
Omaha Sen. John Nelson has also introduced a similar measure (LB697).
In committee
OPEN MEETINGS: The Government, Military and Veterans Affairs Committee considered a bill (LB7) that would make it easier for citizens to speak during public meetings. Introduced by Sen. Don Preister of Omaha, the measure would ensure citizens they could speak at meetings without having to first be put on the agenda. A competing bill, (LB391) from Sen. Mick Mines of Blair would put new regulations on what the public could speak about during meetings. Mines wants comments made by the public to pertain to agenda items “as allowed by the individual presiding over the meeting.”
SALES TAX HOLIDAYS: The Revenue Committee considered two bills that would give consumers a break from sales taxes in August to compete with other states like Missouri and Iowa that have the so-called sales-tax holidays. One of the bills, (LB3) by Sen. Rich Pahls of Omaha, would exempt clothing, school supplies, computer software and personal computers from sales taxes over the course of a weekend. The holiday would begin at midnight on the first Friday in August and end at midnight on Sunday.
FREE HUNTING: Veterans and active-duty military personnel would get free hunting and fishing permits under a bill (LB184) by Sen. Tom Carlson of Holdrege considered by the Natural Resources Committee. The law would apply to all active-duty Nebraskans, including those in the National Guard, and honorably discharged veterans. The exemption would not apply for commercial hunting and fishing.
Quote
"If you have a cell phone, please shut it off now, or you will be shot at sunset," said Sen. Joel Johnson of Kearney when opening a committee hearing Thursday.
Coming today
The session convenes at 11 a.m. Committee hearings begin at 1:30 p.m.
And he would extend that to any school employee — teachers, school nurses, principals — required to have a certificate from the Nebraska Department of Education.
Law enforcement workers and teachers are public employees, Chambers said, and there is no benefit to the public to keep matters of discipline a secret.
Secrecy and accountability do not go together, he said.
“There must be openness.”
School districts and law enforcement will watch the bill closely.
Lincoln Police Chief Tom Casady said his major concern would be that public disclosure of discipline would have a “chilling effect” on the willingness of supervisors to discipline an officer, for fear that intimate details of something like being late to work or other embarrassing missteps would be in the news.
“I would like the general public to be aware of and assured that misconduct by police employees is dealt with appropriately,” Casady said, “but somehow this has to be balanced against the right of a public employee doing incredibly demanding and difficult work to have some level of privacy in personnel matters.”
He said too many people perceive the police “take care of their own,” but they would be surprised at the reality of police disciplinary action, at least at LPD.
If there are departments that aren’t dealing appropriately with misconduct, the public needs to know that, he said. But this bill does little or nothing about that possibility.
On the teacher discipline side, the state and Lincoln education associations and Lincoln Public Schools officials said they could see potential problems to the bill but wanted to know more about its practical effects.
“It may be going too far, but we don’t know that,” said Arlene Rea, Lincoln Education Association president.
Nancy Biggs, LPS associate superintendent for human resources, said she didn’t know how the bill might conflict with federal law. “We are evaluating it,” she said.
LPS personnel policy says no one, except school officials carrying out their professional duties, has access to an employee’s file, and nothing in its contents can be divulged to an unauthorized person.
Another of Chambers’ bills (LB470) would take away public access to a person’s arrest records if no charges are filed, if the person completed diversion or if charges are dismissed.
Marty Conboy, Omaha city prosecutor, said for many years he has seen people who were not prosecuted or who went through diversion have those arrests made public.
State law isn’t clear on how and when arrest records fall out of the public domain, Conboy said. This law makes it clear that if charges are not filed, the information will not be public after one year from the arrest date; if diversion is completed it will not be public after two years; and if charges are filed but the case is dismissed, three years.
Conboy gives the example of a young person arrested for shoplifting and cleared before being charged, or a person arrested for sexual assault but the victim recants. “The case is over, but it’s not over for that person,” he said.
They can lose an opportunity for a job or a daycare license, he said. Some cases create great prejudice for an accused person who is never charged.
Conboy said the record would still be available for law enforcement, but not the public. The record would be available to the public if the person is being prosecuted on another charge or if he or she is an announced candidate for public office or an officeholder.
But the vast majority of the cases are for minor arrests.
“And those things are very damaging in a competitive world,” he said.
Reach JoAnne Young at 473-7228 or jyoung@journalstar.com.
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