Lincoln's Partisan Divide Erupts Into Trench Warfare

Following-up on a diary from last week on the question of whether the partisanship on Lincoln's City Council is being exaggerated by the Lincoln Journal-Star's coverage, before Monday night's final budget vote whatever conflict exists over funding of the Lincoln Fire Department turned quite personal between two Council members - Democrat Jonathan Cook and Republican Jon Camp.

The LJS reports:

The latest fire department flareup was ignited when Cook made a motion to restore $100,000 that Republicans on the council, led by Camp, cut from the fire department budget earlier this month.... Cook said the cut undermines public safety for no reason and accused Camp of being motivated by a vendetta against the fire department, recounting controversial statements Camp has made over the years about firefighters and the fire department. Cook said he doubted fire officials in other cities - such as Minneapolis, where rescue workers recently responded to a major bridge collapse - endure the kind of criticism Lincoln's do. He asked: Were they accused of having too many workers on site? Spending too much on overtime? Putting in too many workers' compensation claims?...  

Instead of being proud of Lincoln's specially trained team of firefighters who respond to national emergencies, Cook recounted Camp's accusation last year that firefighters had tried to "elevate themselves" by exaggerating their role at Ground Zero after Sept. 11. "I think it's part of an effort to turn heroes into villains and pick, pick, pick at a fire department that two studies have shown is a very efficient department," Cook said. "It's time to end these attacks on the fire department."  

In return, Camp accused Cook of twisting his words, trying to get media attention and "trying to cause alarm in our citizens." He said Lincoln has a good fire and ambulance service, but could do better and needs to be "fiscally prudent." "I'm tired of your tirades," Camp said. "And if you don't cease with this, I'm going to ask our colleagues to censure you because you've gone too far." He then called on Cook to apologize to him and the citizens of Lincoln. After the meeting, while Camp was being interviewed by the Journal Star, Cook approached and Camp became angry, calling him a "mouthpiece for the fire union" and saying, "get a life" before stalking away.  

It doesn't appear Camp will be getting an apology from Cook, who said, "I don't owe him an apology. He owes the men and women of the fire department an apology for constantly defaming them".... Cook's motion to restore the money failed by a 3-4 vote, with Republicans voting "no" and Democrats "yes."

It's hard to say where this Cook vs. Camp battle royale has its beginnings. Maybe partisan loyalties have colored the debate, but anyone who follows Lincoln city government can tell you that the idea of the proudly belligerent Camp accusing anyone of making tirades and seeking media attention is quite ridiculous on its face. Camp's made an artform of precisely that sort of grandstanding and - if anything - seems to resent having his own tactics used against him.

Both Cook and Camp were re-elected in Lincoln's May election, so they're probably going to have to put up with each other for four more years on the City Council. Both have also expressed past interest in seeking the Mayor's Office, so who knows just how far their skirmishes might ultimately go?

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Partisan Sensationialism at the Lincoln Journal-Star?

Yesterday's Lincoln Journal-Star ran a Letter to the Editor that pretty well nailed the paper for framing the city's budget process as nothing more than a partisan showdown: I watched much of the City Council budget meetings Aug. 6 and 8. I found the seven members of our Council to be voting for themselves (or, rather, their constituents) more so than down their respective political lines.   Why, then, must Journal Star coverage mislead us where partisan politics are concerned? The Aug. 9 article on the budget mentioned the dreaded R & D words nearly 10 times. Might we remind the reporter that mayoral elections are not partisan and nowhere on the general ballot was there an R, D or any other letter by the candidates' names.   I wish the paper would report the news, not create it. That's why we have FOX News.   Barbara Arendt, Lincoln Maybe we should look at the article Ms. Arendt was talking about to understand the merit of her accusation: It came down to streets, police officers and firefighters Wednesday, as the Lincoln City Council spent several hours putting the final touches on the municipal budget. Campaign promises not to increase the city's property tax rate made for difficult decisions.....   As usual, the fire department budget provided fodder for controversy. In July, Councilman Jon Camp proposed cutting its budget by $175,000. Wednesday, he reduced that to $100,000. The four Republicans on the council went along with that, over the objections of the three Democrats....   Republicans rebuffed a last-minute attempt by Councilman Jonathan Cook to restore the money by using several revenue sources that materialized since the mayor prepared his budget - such as money from a new StarTran advertising contract. Instead, Republicans moved the unallocated money into the city's contingency fund.   Cook said later he was shocked they refused to restore money to the fire department after doing so for the aging and police departments. "What does that say?" Cook said. "I don't believe many councils nationwide would refuse to appropriate that money to its fire department"....   Democrats were unable to dissuade Republicans from cutting the Affirmative Action office in half and folding it into the personnel office.... Republicans on the council were dogged about diverting more money toward street construction and maintenance, and had succeeded in moving about $800,000 toward that end until the end of the meeting. But in a last-minute move, Cook convinced two Republicans to instead move a portion of that - the general revenue - to the police department. After the meeting, Budget Officer Steve Hubka said it amounted to nearly $328,000. In all fairnes, there does appear to be a partisan divide in Lincoln politics where the Fire Department is concerned - as their union has been an important source of support for local Democrats with Republicans frequently targeting the Fire Dept. because of that relationship. But, otherwise, the letter writer makes an excellent point. There seems to be a general trend in the Nebraska press towards over-emphasizing party labels at the local level in an attempt to make local politics (hence, local news) more sexy. While the subjective interpretation of local politics through the prism of partisanship sometimes has merit, this isn't the first time a reporter's laziness has resulted in some spin and manufactured conflict along artificial lines. Then, at the same time, reporters continue to turn a blind eye to the decade-old Republican political machine running our state government that derives its whole power from that label. Ironic, don't you think?

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