LINCOLN — What a difference a few weeks make.
In a dramatic change of heart, state lawmakers shot down a proposal Wednesday that would have required district elections for the seven members of the Metropolitan Utilities District board.
The rejection came four weeks after it faced no opposition, advancing 31-0 during first-round debate in the Nebraska Legislature.
Wednesday's vote was 23-15, two short of the 25 votes needed to send the idea to final approval.
State Sen. Brenda Council of Omaha had proposed the change to district elections, saying that past shifts to district elections for the Omaha City Council and Douglas County Board had resulted in representatives who better reflected the populace of the area.
The MUD board, she said, has only one member who lives east of 72nd Street and said it has had only one African-American member in its history — and that member was appointed, not elected.
Council said she regularly fields complaints about MUD service from her north Omaha constituents who don't know who to call at the natural gas and water utility.
"If you ask someone 'Who's on the MUD board?' they can't tell you," she said.
But a group of senators, led by Beau McCoy and John Nelson, both of Omaha, spoke against changing the at-large election of the MUD board. Council said a phone campaign by some MUD board members helped rally opponents.
McCoy said he worried that by "Balkanizing" the board via district elections, problems that span the entire district might not be addressed. He cited the billion-dollar sewer renovation project being mandated by the federal government that the senator said was primarily a problem in eastern Omaha and not his suburban, Elkhorn-area district.
Nelson said the MUD board was different from a city council because it was more like running a business and less political.
Because the bill failed to advance on second-round debate, it is likely dead for the year. But Council pledged to bring back the issue in the future.
"It's not a dead issue," she said. "I think the vote today further emphasized the need for it."
The MUD board officially opposed the bill but deadlocked, 3-3 with one member absent, earlier this year on whether to work with Council to seek a compromise on the district-election idea.
Contact the writer:
402-473-9584, paul.hammel@owh.com
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