Posted on 01/18/2010 3:02:05 PM PST by butterdezillion
I've never posted a thread before. I hope I do it right.
My brother was one of the plaintiffs in a case where a school bond issue was passed after the school board violated open meetings rules and gave blatantly false information in order to even get the bond issue on the ballot. (The sole engineer the school relied upon had told them the school was unsafe because of a "sagging beam", but when my brother looked with a flashlight at this "sagging beam" he found it was actually an air duct. That's just one example of the level of competence involved here).
The Nebraska Supreme recently ruled in Pierce v Drobny (See at http://www.supremecourt.ne.gov/opinions/2010/january/jan15/s09-400.pdf ) that it didn't matter if open meetings laws were violated or if there was no legal meeting which prompted the placement of the bond issue on the ballot. The process for openness and accountability means nothing. No matter how public officials lie and cheat, they can absolutely get away with it as long as nobody finds them out until AFTER the election. (My brother and his fellow plaintiffs worked HARD for MONTHS to get the proof to substantiate their claims and to correct the lies officials told the voters - beginning before the election - but officials obfuscated until after the election)
This is absolutely a microcosm of Washington, DC. It exactly illustrates why this country is screwed from the halls of the US Congress right down to the street where you live.
The kicker? Six of those seven justices who decided that the process of openness and accountability doesn't matter were appointed by Ben Nelson - the guy who sold his healthcare vote for a backroom bribe.
Exactly why do we even care whether laws get passed, when they will never, ever be enforced? Is there any honest official in this nation?
Good post, keep them coming on the shenaigans of the NE political crooks. The day is coming to hold them responsible!
An excellent first thread! :-)
As a Nebraska native your posting motivated me to skim over the court ruling, and it seems to me that you’re really stretching to make a point here. Your brother and the other plantiffs simply waited too long, as the court decision explained. Had they filed the OMA violation before the referendum, the court could have done something about it. I can appreciate your side of it too, as the thinking probably was, if the referendum fails, we don’t have any reason to complain. So it seems mostly to me as a case of “live and learn”. But unless you have more reason that I read in the decision, this seems to be a matter of law, not something attributable to Ben Nelson’s appointments. Open Meeting laws are essential but like everything, there are limits and procedures that need to be followed to make them work for us.
Hey the good news is the Nebraska Unicameral has twice as efficient as every other state legislature with two houses to fight and play politics in, plus you have term limits now. You even got rid of Ernie Chambers! And Ben Nelson can’t even show his face at a pizza joint without getting harassed...
I live in Florida but ever since Ben Nelson folded his anti-govt. funded abortion hand and voted for this socialist b.s. I have written him horrible letters telling him he should just jump out of a tall building cause he is so bad.
I go to U.S.Senate.gov and pull him up and just tell him things that would get me put in time out here.
Your series of pics is really great.
BUMP!
Thanks.
Another reason why judges should be elected.
District Attorneys....County General Managers.....
Everybody who holds a department manager position should be elected.
NO APPOINTMENTS.
We Floridians have our own Nelson who is just as annoying as Nebraska’s version.
Public schools are the cash cows of political corruption & cronyism. They exist primarily for the benefit of the Pols & unions, with a secondary function of indoctrinating children with leftist dogma.
Let's START reclaiming OUR schools by insisting that the Feds stop ALL involvement in education. Period. And throw the local bums out of office.
Compare the shenanigans on this (obfuscating until it’s too late for anybody to do anything about it) with the Hawaii DOH (See www.butterdezillion.wordpress.com and follow the links for more info on the blatant law-breaking.)
They never had a legal meeting where it was decided to place the bond issue on the ballot.
When you read the decision, the whole thing is based on the presumption (their word, not mine) that the plaintiffs knew that open meetings laws had been violated before the vote. That wasn’t the case. It was all they could do, as farmers during harvest time, to even manage the time to look and find out that the “sagging beam” was an air duct. It never occurred to them - until they started asking for minutes of the meetings, notices of the meetings, etc that the people counseling the school board actually let them break these laws the way they did.
These farmers had to investigate the laws, try to get straight answers from untruthful administrators, correct false news reports, find out the true condition of the school, attend meetings that they were ultimately kicked out of anyway, etc.....
It’s a case where a lie makes it all around the world before the truth can get its shoes tied. The reason the open meetings laws are so important is because nobody can file charges about something they don’t even know happened. It’s exactly what’s going on in Washington DC. It’s exactly what got Obama into office.
What procedures could have been used here to keep the school board from inflicting damage through their open meetings violations?
And in all of this, if you look at the opinion, the fact that the laws were broken was never addressed. The fact that the bond issue was on the ballot even though there are no school board minutes authorizing the placement on the ballot has never been addressed. How was that issue able to make it on the ballot? Can I just go to the elections office and say I decided to put something on the ballot? There is a legal procedure to be followed and it WASN’T followed.
But that never got addressed. Never.
Funny, ‘cause my first name is Nellie. And Ben Nelson is probably a long-lost cousin of mine as well, but that doesn’t mean I have to like him.
I’ve posted about 4 posts now that aren’t appearing. Sort of frustrating. Is it because I’m new?
I agree. Four of these justices will be on the 2010 November ballot to see if they should be retained. But nobody knows anything about the judicial people so everybody just votes them in. I’ve always thought it would be a service to list how the justices voted on specific issues so that people can see their judicial philosophy.
I hope this posts. I’ve posted 4 or 5 times and nothing gets through. I think I’ll see if they let me send this as a private response too.
I don’t know. There’s an auto-preview function, so make sure you’re hitting the post button a second time.
Okay. Now they’re showing up. Maybe they just got stuck in moderation. Patience isn’t one of my strengths. lol
You are right catpuppy and I have sent Bill Nelson many letters also tlelling him exactly what I think or his sorry liberal socialist ass too.
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