Paul Hammel
LINCOLN — A Lincoln senator has fired a legislative dart across the bow of powers held by the Nebraska Attorney General’S Office.
State Sen. Danielle Conrad introduced a bill Friday to diminish the AG’s authority when it comes to advisory legal opinions to the Legislature.
Conrad said Attorney General Mike Hilgers “abused his authority” and “weaponized” his current powers, which are granted by the Legislature, to issue legal opinions that helped the executive branch defy state law.
Battle over inspectors general
Legislative Bill 1191 was inspired by a nonbinding advisory opinion issued by Hilgers in August, which concluded that two inspectors general offices created by the Legislature were violating the separation of power clause of the State Constitution via broad access to agency records and facilities.
The opinion led to blocking the IGs — created to investigate cases of death and serious abuse in state prisons and the child welfare system — as well as the State Ombudsman’s Office, from visiting state prisons and other institutions, and from records they had routinely received.
That, Conrad said Friday, “has frustrated important oversight of our most troubled state agencies.”
The Ombudsman’s Office, which includes the IGs, has had the authority to investigate and resolve complaints from the public, inmates and state wards for over 50 years, the senator said.
Latest salvo in separation of powers fight
The Attorney General’s Office declined to comment, but the bill represents the latest salvo in the controversy over whether the inspectors general can continue to fulfill their roles.
Under LB 1169, the AG could still issue advisory opinions, but if the AG or a state agency seeks to declare a state statute unconstitutional, it would have to go to court to do so, Conrad said.
“If they don’t want to comply with the law, they should go to court,” she said. “Not run to the Attorney General.”
Hilgers, during a panel discussion in November, said that the State Constitution is clear and that the IGs have more access to information than senators themselves.
The speaker of the Legislature, Sen. John Arch, has said he would introduce legislation this session to seek to clarify the role of the IGs in hopes of avoiding a legal fight over constitutional powers.
Conrad announced plans Friday to also introduce a bill to restore the investigative powers of the Inspectors General for Child Welfare and the Department of Correctional Services.
She said her bill is designed to “not concede too much” to the other branches of government. Conrad said that the State Constitution has granted the Legislature “oversight” authority over state agencies and that it must be protected.
Sovereign immunity
In addition, Conrad introduced a bill Friday to allow legal claims against the state in cases of serious bodily injury or death of a state prison inmate or state ward.
The state enjoys “sovereign immunity” against most legal claims based on a centuries-old, common-law doctrine that “the king” cannot be sued.
But a couple of recent Nebraska Supreme Court rulings have served to expand sovereign immunity unreasonably, according to some lawyers, and grant protection even in cases where state decisions negligently led to deaths and injuries.
One case involved Terry Berry, a 22-year-old prison inmate who was choked to death in 2017 by his cellmate. Berry’s family sued, maintaining that prison officials should have foreseen the fatal assault because the cellmate, who was serving life for murder, had said he would assault Berry if he was forced to share a cell with him.
Senior care, day care
Among other bills introduced Friday, Lincoln Sen. Anna Wishart and five other senators want to establish an incentive program for “intergenerational care facilities,” that offer nursing care for seniors as well as day care for children.
LB 1178 would set up a grant program, with $300,000 in funding, to help nursing homes develop child care facilities.
Wishart said such facilities can help workforce issues by allowing employees to have on-site child care; can reduce depression and isolation of seniors; and can more efficiently address two problems at once — the need for child care and senior care.
“What drew me to it were the social opportunities — senior citizens are becoming lonelier,” she said. “There’s such a mutual benefit for both the seniors and the kids.”
The senator said pilot projects across the state, particularly in Adams, have shown success in such intergenerational care.
Reverse osmosis tax credit
Nebraskans could get an income tax credit for installing a reverse osmosis system at their home under LB 1184, introduced by Lincoln Sen. Eliot Bostar and Sumner Sen. Teresa Ibach.
Such filtration systems remove nitrates from drinking water. A person would have to show that the nitrate level in their water was above 10 parts per million, which is the level deemed hazardous to human health.
The state has recently been offering the filtration systems free.
Recording law enforcement
A person videotaping or recording the work of a law enforcement officer would be guilty of obstructing an officer unless they were more than 10 feet away from the officer under LB 1185, introduced by Kearney Sen. John Lowe.