Cindy Gonzalez and Aaron Sanderford
LINCOLN — Resentment ramped up Thursday from two lawmakers who believe that state officials have “disrespected” and “lied” to their North Omaha constituents about economic development projects.
State Sens. Justin Wayne and Terrell McKinney led a filibuster of nearly 50 minutes, delaying Gov. Jim Pillen’s “State of the State” address and detailing reasons for their frustration.
Much of the talk centered around millions of dollars in public funding for North Omaha that Wayne and McKinney helped secure through legislation.
The biggest single allotment — about $90 million — was for an industrial business park in the North Omaha area near Nebraska’s largest airport.
With guests and state officials watching from balconies, the North Omaha senators said the Nebraska Department of Economic Development did not always follow its own rules in the process to award that funding to a partnership poised to create a “shovel-ready” site for businesses to build upon.
Any public investment that big — and one that might call for the taking of land — should require community input and engagement, Wayne said. He said families and businesses in the airport business park site are to be dislocated and uprooted. Among his top beefs was the lack of community meetings to inform residents.
He called a pair of fellow lawmakers to the microphone who confirmed that community meetings were held in their districts prior to economic development projects.
“We don’t seem to be that important nor do we seem to have our voices valued, not just by this body but this administration,” said Wayne. “The disrespect to Districts 11 and 13 is unbearable. “
McKinney called the Department of Economic Development (DED) by a different name: the Department of Exclusion and Dropping the ball.
He criticized its handling of another pot of money — the roughly $225 million in state grants that have yet to go to North and South Omaha organizations for a variety of economic development initiatives.
Some fellow senators spoke in support of the sentiments shared by the North Omaha senators.
McKinney and Wayne have said they are disheartened by the exclusion of the Legislature and North Omaha elected leaders from a press conference led a week ago by Pillen and Omaha Mayor Jean Stothert on the airport area business park. McKinney said the exclusion was part of the Pillen administration’s “troubling pattern of sidelining North Omaha community leaders.”
Neither McKinney nor Wayne stayed in the legislative chambers to listen to Pillen deliver his State of the State address.
While Pillen did not address the criticisms in his talk, he said in a news conference afterward that he was fully supportive of the DED.
“We’ve worked very, very hard. I’m 100% supportive and a part of the processes of the Department of Economic Development,” he said.
“You can’t please 100% of everybody.” He said he felt “great” about the initiatives and his team’s “tireless” work.
Asked about the potential dislocation and disruption of people and businesses at the business park site, Pillen said: “Whenever there’s economic development that takes place, and growth, there’s going to be some disruptions. And that’s a process that goes on in every community across the state.”
Pillen said the business park development is important for job creation for North Omahans. He said he expected more than a billion dollars in investment in the North Omaha area over a five-year period.
“There will be a few families that have sacrifices, no question,” he said.
He said his modus operandi is to be “100% positive with any senator,” including Wayne and McKinney.
“And it’s OK if, God forbid, we don’t agree on everything.”