We had already contacted the office of our new Omaha City Council member to voice disagreements with votes he had made but after yesterday's post ("Citizens Paying A Criminal's Bills, Drunks at the Movies -- Omaha's City Council At Work"), Claire made another attempt to talk to him personally.They did. In fact, they talked for 15-20 minutes yesterday afternoon and, as a proper follow up to yesterday's post (as well as an encouragement for you to engage your own City Councilpersons), I asked Claire to write a brief summary of their conversation.
I had left a message for Thomas Mulligan (the Omaha city councilman for our area), asking him to please return my call to discuss concerns I had about how the city of Omaha is being run nowadays. Having received a rather brusque reception on other times I had called, I was pleasantly surprised when Mr. Mulligan did call a couple of hours later.
We had a very calm, personable conversation but one in which I raised my disagreement with his votes on the new city budget, new taxes, paying $39,000 for a criminal’s hospital bill and granting a liquor license for a movie theater. I also expressed my concerns about the need to clean up the Old Market of sex shops and the failure of city officials and police to pursue illegal actions by these shops, the massage and escort services. I asked how he was going to vote on the upcoming “gender ordinance” proposed by Ben Gray and inquired about what he had done regarding the Planned Parenthood opening in his district.
His answers? Well, Mr. Mulligan explained how he had tried to whittle down Mayor Suttle's exorbitant budget and was pleased at being able to cut it down by several million dollars. Not enough, I told him. Citizens are tightening their belts all across the country and yet we can't convince government to do the same. Councilman Mulligan agreed and spoke of the Council's efforts to deal with the police and fire unions to renegotiate contracts to bring down Omaha’s huge unfunded liability concern.
About the criminal's hospital bill, Mr. Mulligan said they had no choice. The city would have ended up paying more had they faced a lawsuit from UNMC.
He told me he had met with city planners about the Planned Parenthood facility and will "keep an eye on it." Same for the Old Market and the other things I had mentioned. Indeed, that was a frequent sentiment -- he's going to keep an eye on a lot of stuff. Like the liquor license granted to the movie theater. Mr. Mulligan voted for that because other theaters had one and that they promised to "regulate" sales and behavior. He would keep an eye on that too.
The councilman explained that a "task force" was looking over the Ben Gray ordinance about gender protection and he would review the information. Huh? What's a task force needed for? Why do we elect you guys then? I urged him to think about his vote very carefully because protecting gender orientation (let alone, "gender expression") in the same way one does religion or race is going to present a whole pack of problems.
In general terms, I encouraged Mr. Mulligan to avoid signing away any of our culture's historic moral standards or religious liberties -- because once you do, it’s almost impossible to get them back.
We talked about a "common sense" approach to city government. He spoke of being Catholic and I emphasized that my Christian values determine everything I do; it should be the same for him. We both agreed that Omaha is good place to live and raise a family. But I expressed my fears that it won't stay that way if governing officials cave in to liberal, immoral and overly expensive policies.
I very much appreciate Mr. Mulligan calling me and taking the time to address my concerns. I told him so even as I told him I would continue to pray for him. And prayer is certainly needed frequently for these folks; theirs is not an easy job.
But remember too that they are supposed to be representing us (that's how a democratic republic works), so they need to hear our values and our ideas, courteously but frequently expressed.
