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NE: Omaha mayor is back defending raises, ripping council

By   /   August 13, 2012  /   20 Comments

Mayor Jim Suttle

By Joe Jordan | Nebraska Watchdog

OMAHA — Following a mild stroke, Omaha Mayor Jim Suttle settled into his first full day at City Hall, defending controversial pay raises and ripping the City Council for failing to come up with a fire union contract.

Before taking questions from reporters, the Democratic mayor spoke for nearly 15 minutes. (See video below.)

Suttle  insisted, among other things, that council members who claim the $59,000 in raises to three top mayoral aides were secretly handed out are distracting the public and misleading the media.

Nebraksa Watchdog‘s Joe Jordan questioned the mayor.

Contact Joe Jordan at joe@nebraskawatchdog.org.

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Joe Jordan

  • ProgressiveOasis

    Let’s see…2 of the city council members had to request copies of Suttle’s aides pay stubs so they could calculate what they are actually being paid this year. They discovered raises had already been given and paid since 01/01/2012. The Mayor told no one ahead of time and his approved budget did not include those new, higher salaries. Wow, that stroke must have been more severe than reported if the dumb SOB actually thinks he didn’t get caught lying with his hand in the cookie jar. What a joke. Thanks again Dave Nabity for screwing up the recall so we can’t get rid of this moron until Spring 2013.

  • Trinity

    Every organization Nabity has been part of he has tried to take over and shattered. Are you surprised? We are not.

  • Anne

    I worked day and night on the petition to recall suttle. We got it to a vote and you (the voters) failed to show up to make it overwhelmingly final. We are given another chance in 2013 to get rid of this moron. Let’s do it.

  • Countrybanker

    Trinity: There are animals at Henry Doorly Zoo that could run (1) Omaha better than this mayor and (2) OPS than their current Board and unousted President…Clean house in Omaha government, top to bottom (and slip over into Bellevue mess while you are doing it). The pensions due the firefighters and police will never be paid, not because of political fools that grant them…because the taxpayers will refuse the higher taxes necessary to pay them!. Do you own Omaha municipal bonds? Look and see what California cities are doing. Big fight between the pensions and bondholders!. Both cannot be paid!. Bankruptcy law says bonds get paid….but Obama and the UAW showed America how to ‘roll’ a court and the rule of law.

  • Sonny

    Omaha deserves the like of Suttle and so on, they pot they clown in there and retained his phony a–

  • ip

    that’s right, Omaha,this is the rest of the story. you didn’t want the embarrassment of having recalled your mayor now you’re going to live to regret even more than just this indiscretion. Just wait and see he’s going to clobber us again with something unexpected.

  • Kevin

    May 13, 2013. 9 months from today. Make a change.

  • SunnyD

    I’ve heard Suttle is using funds to help the YR’s. He knows it’s his best bet on reelection. For years the YR’s have been drive the party into the ground.

  • Kathy

    who are the “YR’s” . . . . sorry, I don’t know

  • Kevin

    Young Republicans

  • D. Mark

    Where do these politicians find the money when they want to spend it on something they want, but when something the people need or deserve, they want to raise our taxes? Remember when the helicopter was going to be grounded, but the Chief of Police found the money to keep it flying! Do you think there may be a little “FLUFF” in their budgets? Seems like the Mayor found some last January!

  • Kathy

    Thanks Kevin. That is what I thought it stood for, but am surprised Young Republicans would help Suttle. They should be smarter than that.

  • Jazzee

    It wasn’t Nabity that screwed up the recall it was the left wingers in west omaha who have no guts whatsoever –so blame them
    Suttle thinks we are so dumb he LIED pure and simple -he can’t give them bonuses because of state law wait…Fahey gave bonuses to the police and fire unions did he break state law?? sorry mayor your pathetic news conference and excuses were so transparent like obama blame everyone but yourself OOPSIE guess what we don’t believe your lies

  • ProgressiveOasis

    Pam Spaccarotella was offered $180k and voluntarily took a cut to $140k. The the $165k is no where near her original offer. I wish the Suttle administration would quit referring to a pay cut as a raise. $165k is still below the original offer. I’d like to see the City Council take a real paycut for costing taxpayers $20 million thanks to failing to a achieve a labor contract.

  • ProgressiveOasis

    Jean Stothert is in charge of the labor committee and they have failed to achieve a Fire contract. Something Mayor Suttle did do. Jean Stothert doesn’t even have the leadership skills to conduct the negotiations like Suttle did, she had to have it outsourced to a third party. Vote for Jean Stothert if you want a Chief of Outsourcing. Now Jean Stothert and her Mayoral ambitions are costing this city’s tax payer’s $20 million because she has failed to achieve a Fire contract. Last time I checked $20million is considerably more than the $59,000 in well deserved pay raises the Mayor is giving. In fact, these are raises the Mayor has the power to give without the Council’s approval.

  • ProgressiveOasis

    The Mayor has the power to give these pay raises. That’s already been mentioned.

  • ProgressiveOasis

    This is because those who opposed Suttle had all the rhetoric and no facts. Just like Jean Stothert has been spewing lately. Jean Stothert has been such a divisive force in Omaha, she is going to politically crash on her butt just like Daub and Nabity did. The fact is, the facts back up Suttle and his administration.

  • SoWhat???

    The finance director voluntarily took a reduction in the offered salary years ago and she’s still complaining about it. She was under no pressure to stay at the lower salary and could have returned to the private sector purportedly for more money. That should tell you all you need to know…she’s an idiot and has been cooking the books for Mayor Moron for years now. If she thinks she’s worth more, go somewhere else and get it. Anybody who thinks different, like ProgressiveOasis, is a moron too.

  • G$

    The 9 most difficult words to speak and mean (even more so for Omaha political leaders)
    I was wrong.
    I am sorry.
    Please forgive me.

  • BkDodge42

    Kathy can you recognize spin when you see it? Just need to look at SunnyD for an example.