Avery: Bruning trying to ‘score political points’ in housing war

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BY ERIC OLSON / The Associated Press

OMAHA — State Sen. Bill Avery says he understands the frustration the Nebraska Equal Opportunity Commission is experiencing in its dealings with Attorney General Jon Bruning.

“It looks to me like the attorney general will not pass up an opportunity to score political points on the immigration issue,’’ the Lincoln senator said Friday. “It’s not about the commission. It’s about immigration.’’

Bruning said it’s about protecting the people who pay his salary.

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Bill Avery

Bill Avery

“The taxpayers do not want my office to pursue citizens of this state on behalf of illegal immigrants,’’ he said.

The commission is at loggerheads with Bruning over his refusal to file a lawsuit on behalf of two illegal immigrants in Lincoln who alleged they were discriminated against by their landlord.

Commission director Anne Hobbs said state and federal law gives all individuals equal protection under the Fair Housing Act regardless of their legal status. She said Bruning’s office is required to provide counsel to anyone who has a legitimate complaint.

Bruning said his office decides which cases have merit, not the commission.

Bruning said he would never represent an illegal immigrant — even if he or she did have a legitimate complaint about discrimination.

Avery commented after equal opportunity commission leaders held a news conference to address their contentious relationship with Bruning.

“People, legal or illegal, are subject to not only the punishment of the law but the protections of the law,’’ Avery said. “He’s trying to make a distinction here. He’s trying to say we’re not going to give them protection of the law, but we’re going to enforce the sanctions of the law.’’

Bruning has attached himself to the illegal immigration issue. He pushed a bill in the Legislature that would have cut off state assistance to people who could not prove they are in the country legally. The bill died early in the session.

Hobbs said the commission has forwarded 104 housing discrimination cases to Bruning’s office over the past five years, and only one has gone to court.

Bruning said the prosecution record is more an indication of the poor work done by Hobbs and the commission. He said Hobbs should be fired.

“If my lawyers were that bad, and I managed the organization that poorly, I should be turned out by the voters,’’ Bruning said.

Hobbs said her agency is considering asking the Legislature to let it hire its own attorneys rather than relying on Bruning to handle its cases. Some state agencies have been allowed to use outside counsel, she said.

She said the commission fields 70 to 100 housing discrimination complaints a year, with only a handful deemed worthy to be sent to Bruning’s office.

Because of Bruning’s history of not pursuing what she deems to be legitimate cases, Hobbs said, many of the complaintants are encouraged to hire their own attorneys to pursue their cases in federal court.

The case that has caused the latest firestorm involves a landlord’s asking a couple to provide drivers’ licenses after he became concerned that too many people were living in their apartment.

Bruning said such a request is not unusual, with landlords often asking for documentation from tenants. The new landlord, he said, had discovered he did not have the tenants’ drivers’ licenses on record.

But Hobbs said the request was an example of how “one individual was treated differently than everybody else because of national origin.’’

Bruning said the investigative work handed over to his office was shoddy, and called the case “another in a long line of cases not properly investigated.’’