A dozen opponents spoke during an Omaha City Council public hearing on the appointment of Omaha Mayor Jean Stothert‘s slate of nominees for the first Omaha Inland Port Authority board. The nine members ultimately were approved by the City Council on a 5-1 vote, and they are to begin developing policies and procedures and take other steps to launch the roughly 300-acre inland port district in northeast Omaha. The Legislature created such districts to spur economic development and jobs. (Cindy Gonzalez/Nebraska Examiner)

OMAHA — Nebraska’s largest city on Tuesday installed its first nine-member Inland Port Authority board, following an emotionally charged public meeting where citizens raised concerns including lack of transparency about the appointment process.

With City Councilwoman Juanita Johnson opposed, the council voted 5-1 to approve Mayor Jean Stothert’s slate of nominees to lead the board that will oversee economic development in a roughly 300-acre zone of northeast Omaha.

Inland ports were created as a tool by the Nebraska Legislature to help spur jobs and business. Lawmakers bestowed powers on such entities, which must be approved by the state as well as the city, that include selling bonds to finance construction and infrastructure within the designated zone.

Deliberate decision

Stothert spoke during Tuesday’s hearing, which was moved to the top of the council agenda hours before the meeting began.

She praised her nine nominees as respected professionals and community volunteers. To avoid a potential conflict of interest — a question raised days ago by neighbors — one appointee is resigning from the board of a nonprofit involved with a multimillion-dollar business park planned for the inland port district.

Stothert reiterated that, as mayor, she has the power to appoint the board members, subject to confirmation by the council.

“It was a very deliberate decision, consistent with the process that is required for appointments to nearly all City of Omaha boards and commissions,” she said, adding that her picks came from a pool of about 40 people that her staff and others suggested. “This should not be personal or political.”

The mayor left the meeting after her testimony, and a dozen speakers then stepped up as opponents of the board appointments. The public hearing went on for about two hours.

Affordable housing, razed houses

Many were property owners in the inland port district boundaries who had underlying objections to the $90 million state-funded business park plan that calls for residential neighborhoods to be cleared to make way for the project.

Their objections turned also to the topic of affordable housing, saying the state and city have been making creation of affordable housing a priority — yet the business park plan would raze homes that families have lived in for generations.

The limited time residents had to review the mayor’s board selections became the latest point of aggravation and feeling of being disrespected, said Joe Fox, president of the East Omaha Neighborhood Association.

He and others learned of the nine nominees Thursday, when Tuesday’s City Council agenda was made public. 

“We’ve been here since the Oregon Trail,” he said of his neighborhood west of Eppley Airfield. “We were annexed by the city a long time ago. We’ve been here longer than the CIty of Omaha.”

‘This is not being rushed’

Rowena Moore said she was raised in the area that is now designated as the inland port authority district although she has since moved elsewhere in North Omaha. 

“When you rush to do something, you’re trying to hide something,” Moore said. 

Councilman Brinker Harding pushed back on complaints about the timing of the nominations, saying that the council has been discussing the formation of the inland port authority for about six months. 

“This is transparent. This is not being rushed through,” he said.

Johnson, who represents the area that includes the inland port zone, said her constituents continue to have unanswered questions. 

She objected to the board members being approved as a slate. 

Of city board appointments in general, Johnson said she has been met with resistance from the Stothert administration when seeking more involvement to try and beef up diversity and inclusion.

‘I don’t trust the system’

Four of the nine board members were present for the public hearing: State Sen. Terrell McKinney; Mike Riedmann, president emeritus of NP Dodge Co.; Thomas Warren, Stothert’s chief of staff, and Davielle Phillips, associate at Holland Basham Architects.

McKinney and Warren spoke, and that was in response to questions from Johnson.

North Omaha state legislator McKinney said he was not aware of all that went into the mayor’s selections. He said that once state lawmakers passed legislation pertaining to the inland port authority, he told community members to start submitting names.

Said McKinney: “I don’t trust the system. I don’t trust the city. I don’t trust the state. I don’t trust the county commissioners. I don’t trust nobody.” 

That’s why, he said, he encouraged people to be “proactive” and send names to Omaha officials.

Board members

Other board members approved: Brook Aken, director of economic development external relations for the Omaha Public Power District; Michael Helgerson, executive director of the Metropolitan Area Planning Agency; Jacob Hoppe, principal at Hoppe Development; Carmen Tapio, CEO of North End Teleservices.

Ernest White, first vice president at American National Bank, is the board member who plans to resign from the board of the Omaha Economic Development Corp, which is part of the development team that won a $400,000 planning grant for the business park.

The partnership, which also includes Burlington Capital and the Greater Omaha Chamber of Commerce, was awarded a nearly $90 million grant to make the business park shovel-ready for business and industrial development. Those funds have yet to be released.

First steps

Riedmann, one of the new commissioners, said after the public hearing that he suspects it will take six to nine months for the board — which is not paid — to get “up and running.”

He was one of the original board members that a decade ago helped launch the Omaha Land Bank, which also was created by state legislation. Similar to the first land bank board, the Inland Port Authority board will have to develop bylaws and policies and hire key people, Riedmann said.

The board also will work with a still-to-be-appointed nine-member advisory committee.

First steps, Riedmann said, likely will be visiting and talking to officials successfully running other inland ports.

“You learn from others,” he said.

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