Legislature Keeps Secret Ballot for Committee Chairs; Heavican Speaks on Judiciary

The Nebraska Legislature Thursday rejected a proposal for open elections for committee chairs. And Nebraska Chief Justice spoke to senators about the state of the judiciary. NET All Things Considered host Jack Williams interviewed legislative reporter Fred Knapp about the developments.

Williams: Fred, What can you tell us about the rules debate?

Knapp: Well, the main debate was over whether or not the elections for committee chair ought to be by secret ballot, the way they are now, or public. Sen. Steve Halloran made a motion to make them public.

Halloran: All of our actions as state legislators should be transparent. Our constitution demands transparency, our constituents expect, and more importantly,

they deserve transparency.

Williams: What was the counter argument.?

Knapp: Well, it had to do with partisanship, even though the legislature is officially nonpartisan and people are elected on that basis without their parties appearing on the ballot. Nevertheless, everybody is registered as a member of a certain political party, and right now the Republicans have a 32 to 17 edge. And the argument is that if you make the votes public, people will be pressured to vote along party lines, and that could deny some Democrats who might be better qualified, might deny them the opportunity to be committee chairs. One of them, Steve Lathrop, who's currently Chairman of the Judiciary Committee, even though he's a Democrat, articulated that argument.

Lathrop: Don't think you're kidding me or anybody else in this room. It isn't about transparency. It certainly isn't about the constitution. And it isn't about your version or your thoughts on what my oath to the constitution is. That's all b.s. to cover up, we want to get down to the, we want to get down and find out who the scoundrels are in the Republican Party that would vote for a Democrat.

William: So was the argument basically along partisan lines.

Knapp: No, there was a considerable split in opinion, even among the Republicans. Senator Mike Groene, a Republican who calls himself a conservative populist, talked down about another faction of the party.

Groene: I used to call them Rockefeller

Republicans, but they're really in Nebraska they're the country club ones.,They always are the swing votes between the liberals and the conservatives. They get their chairs. And then they look down and say we'll give this one to the Democrat and this one to the Republican.

Knapp: And Senator Mike Flood, a Republican who's formerly the Speaker of the legislature before he was term-limited out, and is now back, condemned Groene’s remarks.

Flood: Don't be misled. There's references to being collegial. There's references to country club Republicans, there's references to using the right fork when you sit at the table. Let's be clear that this session has to be better than last. You want to run your mouth about dividing people, that's what we'll get here.

Williams: So Fred, how did it turn out?

Knapp: The rules change was defeated on a vote of 30 to 19, with 13 Republicans joining all 17 Democrats to defeat it, and only 19 Republicans in favor.

Williams: And Chief Justice Mike Heavican addressed the Legislature earlier in the day. What did he have to say?

Knapp: He talked about the challenges of keeping the judiciary running during the pandemic. He said about half of the employees of the court system have had to quarantine. But the system kept running.

Heavican: There is no exception, for a pandemic or otherwise, to Nebraska's constitution’s requirement of open courts. After all, crime does not stop during the pandemic. Nor does child abuse ,spouse abuse, fraud, or the myriad of other social issues that depend on our courts for resolution,.

Williams: Beyond the pandemic, what did Heavican have to say about the operation of the court system?

Knapp: Well there was an interesting moment when he talked about how much cheaper it is to supervise an offender through probation or problem solving courts, as opposed to putting them in prison. Let's take a listen.

Heavican: Probation supervision costs about $2,000 per person per year. Intensive supervision… served approximately 1200 adults last year costing approximately $3,500 per person per year. Problem solving courts cost approximately $4,000 per person per year. The cost of incarceration is approximately $41,000 per person per year. Do the math: Probation is the taxpayers friend.

Knapp: And that's something that may stick in lawmakers minds as they grapple with how to solve prison overcrowding and deal with a proposed $230 million new prison.