Omaha voters asked to decide on rules to remove council members, $333 million worth of bonds

Voters who live in the City of Omaha have issues to consider, lots of them, in the 2024 election now under way.

Omahans will decide nine City of Omaha matters, in addition to voting on political races and statewide ballot measures. The Omaha-specific issues include a controversial City Charter amendment; borrowing $333 million for city capital projects, including $100 million to help pay for expanding the city's downtown arena and convention center; and establishing a Good Life Economic Development Program for the Avenue One development in the Elkhorn area.

The measures appear on Omahans' ballots under the heading "Special Issues Ticket."

The Omaha City Charter is the structural framework that guides how city government operates. The City Council occasionally asks voters to amend the document. The council typically chooses amendments from a list of changes recommended by a City Charter Study Convention. The charter requires that such a group of citizens be convened once every 10 years. The most recent convention was in 2022.

The Greater Omaha Chamber created a campaign to promote the bond authorization measures. Through Oct. 1, the Building Omaha's Future campaign committee had raised $122,250, including donations of $25,000 from Hawkins Construction Co., $20,000 from First National Bank of Nebraska, Inc. and $10,000 from Noddle Development Co. The committee spent $105,365 for direct mailers, consulting fees, polling and other campaign expenses, according to state campaign finance records .

Here's how voters will be asked to change the Omaha charter

There are two City Charter amendments on this year's ballots.

City Charter Amendment 1 caused public controversy when it was proposed by the Omaha City Council because it would give the council additional power to remove a fellow member from office. It would also alter the reasons that would cause a member to lose their seat on the council. The amendment would change Section 2.05 of the charter.

Typically, charter amendments are technical updates recommended by the study convention members. But portions of Charter Amendment 1 on this year's ballot are exceptions. The council's law committee, chaired by Council Vice President Aimee Melton, initiated much of the amendment, saying it addressed problems raised by former Council Member Vinny Palermo's arrest last year on federal felony charges.

Palermo, who has since been convicted and sentenced, remained on the council for months after his April 2023 arrest, even though he was in jail awaiting trial. That effectively left Palermo's District 4, South Omaha, without representation and the council powerless for more than three months to remove and replace him. The other six council members eventually voted to remove Palermo in August 2023 under a City Charter provision that says a member must forfeit their office if they miss council meetings for three consecutive months without being excused.

Charter Amendment 1 would speed up that process. Council members could be removed if they miss four council meetings in a row without being excused. In a second change, which was recommended by the charter convention, council members also could be removed if they moved out of the districts they were elected to represent.

The controversial provision of the amendment would allow the council to remove a member for certain violations of the council's code of conduct. Those violations are "racial or sexual discrimination, severe and pervasive mistreatment of city staff, conviction of a crime of violence, or acquiring a personal financial interest in a contract or transaction under consideration by the city."

The council approved the code of conduct in August at the same time as it voted to submit the City Charter amendment to voters. It would take votes from all six of the other council members to remove the member.

Under the current rules, a council member would be removed from office if they were convicted of a felony. That means that if Palermo had been released from detention, he could have continued to be on the council until the case was decided, Melton said.

"Without the removal part, we're not solving the Vinny problem," she said.

Opponents of Charter Amendment 1 say there already is a solution: a recall election by voters.

The power to remove a council member rightly belongs with the voters of the member's district, not with the council, said Cheryl Weston, one of more than a dozen people who testified or wrote letters opposing the measure.

Janet Bonet, who served as a citizen on the 2022 Charter Study Convention, said the amendment would give the council power to "un-elect" someone they or the mayor didn't like. Bonet called the amendment "half-baked" and said vagueness in the reasons and process for removal leaves the door open to political or personal motivations.

"No one should be able to un-elect anyone from office unless there's been a serious felonious conviction," she said.

Melton said requiring a 6-0 vote would prevent the council from removing someone for political reasons.

"You're never going to have a council that's so politically one-sided that they're going to remove somebody without establishing the high level of egregiousness that's required by the ordinance," Melton said.

Charter Amendment 2 would alter Section 5.16 of the City Charter . It would increase the minimum amount of a city purchase that requires public bidding and City Council approval to $50,000. The current threshold is $20,000. The city's rationale is that the threshold has been $20,000 for decades, that many small purchases exceed that amount and that Douglas County's and the State of Nebraska's threshold is $50,000.

There is an explainer on the charter amendments on the City Council web site.

Request to approve more than $333 million in bonds

The bond issues on the ballot would authorize the city to borrow money for long-term capital projects by issuing general obligation bonds. The bonds would be repaid by Omaha property taxpayers. Mayor Jean Stothert has said that issuing the bonds would not cause a property tax rate increase. That's because the city will have paid off previously issued bonds and because property valuations have risen enough that the city will bring in enough revenue with the current tax rate to make the debt payments.

However, just because the rate does not go up does not mean that a person's property taxes won't increase. The tax rate is only one part of how property taxes are calculated. The other factor is property valuations, which tend to rise, which causes people's property tax bills to go up, often even if the tax rate goes down a little.

There is a caveat in the bond issue ballot measures. The language says "the approval of this bond issue will not incur any increases in the debt services tax levy rate of the City of Omaha over the levy increase approved in 2020."

That's a reference to a levy increase of 3.5 cents per $1,000 in valuation that Omaha voters approved in 2020 as part of a street preservation bond issue. The city has not levied that additional amount, and has actually trimmed its property tax levy multiple times since 2020. City Finance Director Steve Curtiss has said the city has no intention or projected need to use the levy increase that voters authorized in 2020. It is included in the bond language in an abundance of caution.

The bond issues are in six parts on the ballot, sorted by categories:

Public facilities

$146 million, including $100 million to pay the city's roughly 50 percent portion of the cost of expanding the CHI Health Center, plus a new downtown police and fire station and a new police outdoor gun range.

$80.9 million for local match of federal funds on such projects as improving Fort Street from 120th Street west to the Tranquility Park entrance, including a new bridge; replacing the Saddle Creek Road and Dodge Street overpass; building the Enterprise Park Roadway truck route near 11th and Locust Streets; and improving 180th Street from Harney to Arbor Streets.

Street preservation

$72 million to continue the accelerated street repair and maintenance program that voters initially authorized with $200 million in bonds in 2020. The money pays for construction and reconstruction projects throughout the city.

$14.5 million for such projects as neighborhood storm sewers and drainage, Missouri River flood control and channel stabilization. These bonds do not pay for the city's ongoing Combined Sewer Overflow program.

Public safety

$10 million for new Fire Department vehicles and police vehicles.

Parks and recreation

$10 million for purchasing land and building new facilities.

Good Life District? Yea? Or nay?

The ninth city ballot measure would authorize the City of Omaha to establish a Good Life District Economic Development Program.

The Nebraska Legislature created Good Life Districts to allow state tax incentives to be used to boost "transformational" real estate development projects across the state. Within such districts, half of the state's 5.5% sales tax can be given to the developers to help pay for certain costs.

In Omaha, the Avenue One development planned for 192nd Street and West Dodge Road has received state approval as a Good Life District. But the legislation leaves it up to the city to administer the collection and disbursement of the tax incentives, and it requires city voter approval to establish such a program. That's what Omaha voters are being asked to vote for or against.

If voters approve ballot measure, the city would pass an ordinance creating a local tax of up to 2.75% to collect the half of the state's 5.5% sales tax generated within the Avenue One Good Life District boundaries. The city would negotiate an agreement with the developers on how the money can be used. The city would then collect that revenue and reimburse the developer for costs approved under the agreement.

Omaha's city sales tax would not be affected. The city would incur costs to administer the program, but would charge an administrative fee from the Good Life District revenue to cover city costs.

, 402-444-1057, twitter.com/CHRISBURBACH

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