As threatened, the City of Omaha did not send representatives to a Douglas County 911 Users Group meeting Wednesday, signaling a widening rift between the city and county over the county’s hiring of a former deputy Omaha police chief.
“They (the county) have forced us to consider other options for 911 services,” City Attorney Matt Kuhse said.
An interlocal agreement between the City of Omaha and Douglas County for 911 services expires at the end of the year. Both parties were expected to begin renegotiating it soon.
The rift over the county’s hiring of former Deputy Chief Greg Gonzalez as deputy 911 director is throwing the agreement into doubt. It’s unclear what it would take for the city to leave the agreement, where they would get 911 services if not from the county and how much it would cost. Any new interlocal agreement would require Omaha City Council approval, which is not guaranteed.
People are also reading…
Gonzalez retired from the Omaha Police Department in 2022 after falling out of favor with Police Chief Todd Schmaderer and Mayor Jean Stothert after his wife, Police Capt. Kathy Belcastro-Gonzalez, sued Schmaderer and the city for retaliation over a discrimination complaint she had filed.
She won the case in federal district court and on appeal. The city must pay nearly $1 million in damages and attorney fees.
Kuhse and Douglas County Sheriff Aaron Hanson, who narrowly defeated Gonzalez in a contentious election for sheriff two years ago, have taken issue with the county’s hiring of Gonzalez without consulting the 911 Users Group. That’s an advisory board of officials from the cities and towns served by Douglas County 911.
Kuhse and Hanson said their issues are over the process, not the person. They said the county should have conducted a more thorough background check than the usual basic check it did through the Nebraska State Patrol.
But an attorney for Gonzalez called the city’s actions “naked retaliation against Kathy Gonzalez and her husband.”
“This is a page out of Washington hardball politics that I’ve never seen in Omaha before, and I’ve lived here 67 years in a political family,” said Tom White, a former state senator who also represents Belcastro-Gonzalez.
“The cost to taxpayers for this petty vengeance could run into the multiple millions,” White said. “It would cost the city millions to replace the equipment Douglas County has purchased, that taxpayers have purchased.”
Kuhse said the city’s position “has nothing to do with the lawsuit or retaliation or the perception that Kathy Belcastro-Gonzalez and Greg Gonzalez have that Chief Schmaderer is out to get them.”
He said the city already spends about $8.2 million a year on Douglas County 911 services, about 85% of the cost of operating the system. That’s because most calls come from within the City of Omaha, where the vast majority of Douglas County’s population lives.
Douglas County Administrator Patrick Bloomingdale has said the county followed the same process in hiring Gonzalez it has used to hire deputy 911 directors in the past.
Kuhse had told county officials that representatives of the Mayor’s Office and Omaha Police and Fire Departments would not attend meetings with Douglas County 911 unless they were assured that Gonzalez would not be there.
Wednesday was the first meeting of the 911 Users Group since Gonzalez started work about a month ago. City of Omaha representatives did not attend. The meeting was called off because only four of the eight members were there.
Hanson attended. He was promoting a resolution to declare “no confidence” in the hiring and vetting process. Hanson sat next to Gonzalez before the meeting and during the brief time it took to determine there was no quorum.
After the meeting, Hanson said it was unfortunate that more members had not attended.
He said he hopes Omaha doesn’t leave Douglas County 911. Hanson said he also hopes for “a renewed emphasis on valuing the input of all the members of the 911 Users Group.”
“And number three, I do hope that what also results is an appropriate vetting process, whether it’s currently for any newly hired individual in a position of confidence and authority in 911 but definitely moving forward,” Hanson said.
Douglas County Board Vice Chair Mike Friend, a member of the Users Group board, said he hopes the city and county can start communicating again and solve this difficult situation.
County Board Chair Roger Garcia and board members Chris Rodgers and P.J. Morgan also attended the meeting Wednesday to observe.
Friend said he had confidence that Bloomingdale and 911 Director Kathy Allen had followed the standard operating procedure and had not deviated from established processes in hiring Gonzalez.
“I know Patrick,” Friend said. “I know his skill. I know his quality. I also know Kathy’s skill and quality. I trust these two individuals. If I didn’t, then maybe we’d be heading in a different direction.”
Omaha remembers 9/11 at Memorial Park service
The 450 or so people who gathered on the steps at midtown Omaha’s Memorial Park on Thursday morning marked the 13th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks on New York City, Washington D.C.., and Pennsylvania.
They commemorated the surprise attacks that killed 2,977 people with one minute of silence at 9:11 a.m.
The crowd at the event, organized by the local First Responders Foundation, included students from nearby Brown-Talbot School and St. Margaret Mary; numerous firefighters and police officers, led by police Chief Todd Schmaderer and fire Chief Bernie Kanger; Douglas County Sheriff Tim Dunning; Thomas Metz, special agent in charge of the FBI’s Omaha division; and Mayor Jean Stothert, who signed a proclamation designating Sept. 11, 2014, as a day of remembrance.
Volunteers put up 2,977 small U.S. flags on the park’s greenspace just north of Dodge Street.