Recall: It's about Unions

Omaha World Herald ^ | January 20, 2011 | Paul Goodsell

[NEMDF]

WORLD-HERALD EXCLUSIVE The effort to recall Omaha Mayor Jim Suttle isn't just about removing him from office, several of the recall's key financial backers say.

What those big donors really want from Tuesday's election, they say, is to overturn the power and influence of the city's public employee unions.

“It's about the unionism in the public sector and their ridiculous strength,” said retired restaurant owner Mike Simmonds, the recall effort's top financial supporter.

Simmonds' anti-union sentiment reflects a nationwide trend, described recently by the New York Times as “a rising irritation with public employee unions.” With the weak economy hammering local and state government budgets, and with pension funds sliding deeper into the red, there's growing concern about whether payroll and benefit costs are sustainable.

The Omaha fire union president, Steve LeClair, said fire and police protection is expensive but essential for the city.

“I'm not going to apologize for the benefits this local has negotiated,” he said.

The recall backers have a “big-business mentality,” he said, that goes beyond Omaha's city finances.

“They would be opposed to any unions,” LeClair said.

Leaders of the anti-Suttle effort don't have a single agenda, of course. The Mayor Suttle Recall Committee started with significant support from two groups upset about taxes: landlords hit by rising property tax rates and restaurant and bar owners affected by the new 2.5 percent restaurant tax.

Several of the recall leaders have political ambitions or ties to potential replacements for Suttle, a Democrat.

Some were aides to former Mayor Hal Daub, who lost to Suttle in 2009 and who hasn't ruled out another run for the office; Omaha businessman Dave Nabity, who raised the money for the crucial paid-circulator portion of the petition drive, is mum about his own mayoral plans.

The largest contributors to the recall effort regularly donate to local and national Republican candidates and committees.

Former TD Ameritrade executive Pete Ricketts, who lost a U.S. Senate bid in 2006, is the GOP national committeeman for Nebraska. Ricketts has poured money in recent years into Republican campaigns and various conservative causes and organizations.

And David Sokol, chairman of MidAmerican Energy, has clashed with Suttle in the past over issues related to the Qwest Center Omaha. Sokol, who is on the board that runs the Qwest Center, could not be reached for comment.

But among the recall effort's leading financial backers, anti-union sentiment could be the strongest motive.

While Suttle and his defenders say he has made some progress in pushing the unions for changes, the donors say they want a more aggressive approach.

Those interviewed said they hadn't settled on whom they would support for mayor if Suttle was recalled.

“It's going to take a very tough mayor to break the back of these very powerful unions,” said Simmonds, who supported Daub in 2009 although he gave Suttle $5,000 after the election.

He said his “proudest moment” was in 1981, when then-President Ronald Reagan fired striking air traffic controllers. No planes crashed, and life went on, Simmonds said. Similarly, he said, Omaha could fire all its current firefighters and replace them with less expensive employees.

Another major donor, George Venteicher, is a real estate developer who serves as vice president of the Omaha Alliance for the Private Sector, a group of businesspeople that regularly criticizes Suttle and the city's labor contracts.

“We have to change the direction of the city,” he said.

Simmonds, Venteicher and Ricketts were three of the six businessmen tapped by Nabity to provide the bulk of the money during the recall petition drive. The others were Sid Dinsdale, chairman and CEO of Pinnacle Bank; Barton Bonn, owner of Ashley Lynn's tanning and hair salons; and Mike Cassling, CEO of an Omaha medical equipment company.

Simmonds said he'd like to see public employee unions banned from political involvement — or prevent public sector workers from organizing into unions at all.

Simmonds noted that the fire union gave Suttle $30,000 in campaign contributions in 2009. Elected officials, Simmonds said, have an inherent conflict when they receive campaign support from the employee unions whose contracts they negotiate.

LeClair, the fire union president, scoffed at the notion that his union is too powerful because of its campaign contributions.

He contrasted the union's $30,000 contribution, representing money pooled from 650 firefighters, with more than $200,000 donated by six pro-recall businessmen during the petition drive alone.

The six donors have given more since that initial round, bringing their total to $317,250. When Sokol contributed $50,000 last week, he joined the ranks of the recall's top financial backers.

LeClair said that well-to-do businessmen might not value what well-trained, professional police and firefighters provide the city but that most Omahans do.

“People who don't live in a gated community need the services we provide,” he said.

The issue, Simmonds said, is union power — not public safety. He said the union deals harm the city because they are forcing the city to raise taxes to pay for wages and benefits, including contributions to fix the shortfall in the police and fire pension system.

Simmonds, who held Burger King, Taco John and Jimmy John's franchises, said he is wealthy enough to pay those taxes, but that's not true of all residents.

“The everyday working person can't do that,” Simmonds said.

Dinsdale said he and other donors have nothing to gain from ousting Suttle, other than helping build a stronger Omaha.

“I think Omaha's a great city,” he said. “ I just want to see if it can get back on a firm financial footing.”

[NEMDF]

Mayoral recall election is Tuesday, January 25th.

[artificial intelligence]

“is to overturn the power and influence of the city’s public employee unions.”

That’s a good reason right there.

[NEMDF]

An interesting item came up also with this mayor. Some of the leaders of the recall group went to the mayor in (IIRC) January last year, to discuss concerns they had as to the Fire Department administration, and the mayor pooh-poohed their concerns, said he was confident everything was fine. So the recall group then went to the state auditor, who actually looked into it, and found that there were no valid records as to the fire department’s hours for payroll, vacation and sick time tracking, overtime, etc. Of course the fire chief said, “....you see our men on the news all of the time, putting out fires. I think their work speaks for itself...”, as if the fact that they put out fires disqualifies them from having to have time worked and payroll records. And the mayor just went along with it as if nothing was wrong. HOPING THE RECALL GOES THROUGH NEXT WEEK.