First I would like to apologize to those attending the meeting tonight. I was so angry that 2 of the 3 commissioners didn't even bother to show up for the REQUIRED LB644 meeting. Martha said I was shaking. They blew us off. I have never in over 30 years of dealing with county government seen such a lack of respect for the people.

There is black letter law and the spirit of the law. They violated both. We will post more on this when I calm down. Commissioners by law were supposed to listen to us. This was our time. 2 never even showed up.  Now, they say they couldn't have attended because doing so would be a violation of the Nebraska Open Meetings Act.  They were advised by NACO (Nebraska Association of County Officials) not to attend as it would be a violation of the Open Meetings.  Today, some inside our county buildings are still defending this even though it has been clearly shown not to be true.

To verify this for the people of our counth, we wrote the State Senator, State Attorney General, Governor and Platte Institute for assistance.  All confimed that the LB644 meeting in no way violated Nebraska laws and they should have attended.

I am sorry. This meeting was a disgrace. These commissioners were supposed to listen to us. Some gave an extremely moving story about how they just can't pay anymore and the commissioner blew all of us off.

We listened to a young county road worker trying hard to make ends meet. He can not afford another tax increase, he can't even afford daily lunch which makes me sick to my stomach. All this pain while our commissioners buy a new office with a high-security system for our county attorney. Does this make sense? To anyone?

We are part of the heartland. We feed America. Our state constitution gives us rights. Those rights shall not be denied or infringed on by any state or subdivision. Last night those that went to the meeting saw our rights ignored by elected commissioners intent on doing what they want to do. They made statements that were not true and we will point that out in future posts.

This is our home now. We are Nebraskans. We promised to uphold everyone's rights and I for one am going to stand up, speak out and protect with all the integrity I can find the rights of my neighbors.  This is not going to end here. It is time for leaders that listen and respect the people. We need change.