Thread: Fremont, NE City Council to Appeal Judge's Ruling

April 28, 2009

Tonight the Fremont City Council cleared the city council audience to enter into an executive session. An hour later the citizens were allowed back in and a motion made to appeal Dodge County Disrict Judge Samson's ruling that rejected the city's legal challenge to a special election.

Citizens comments were allowed, the first being a challenge against the city council for subverting the procedure by holding the executive sessoin and for voting on the issue of appealing the court 18-2538. The city council refused to address this challenge. Several other citizens spoke expressing their dismay that this was yet another waste of taxpayer money to subvert the lawful procedure and rights of the citizens to hold a special election. Someone wanted to know how much money the council had paid to prevent the special election. I cited the Ca Supreme Court ruling in Jan 2009 that said local and state governments do have the authority to enforce immigration laws http://www.ilw.com/articles/2009.0407-hethmon.shtm and R.I.'s Supreme Court in April 2009 dismissed an ACLU lawsuit http://www.pbn.com/detail/41458.html and Oklahoma Federal Judge dismisses lawsuit challenging HB1804 [url="http://www.steinreport.com/HB1804DSMSS1-22-07"]steinreport.
It is truly sad to see a local government overtly subvert the laws to silence the very people they are sworn to represent.

The vote was 1 No 5 Yes 2 abssent. NOTE: the city council members not in attendance were two of three who the local newspaper quoted did not want the appeal, the third member ended up voting FOR the appeal.

City Council Members Contact Information:
Mayor Donald Edwards 402-721-4640
Steve.Navarrette@fremontne.gov 402-721-4598 VOTED YES
Gary.Bolton@fremontne.gov 402-727-9384 VOTED NO
Jon.Gilfry@fremontne.gov 402-753-3080 VOTED YES
Mary.Marsh@fremontne.gov402-721-7277 ABSENT
Sean.Gitt@fremontne.gov402-727-6092 ABSENT
Scott.Getzschman@fremontne.gov402-721-6301 VOTED YES
John.Anderson@fremontne.gov402-721-4036 VOTED YES
Jennifer.Bixby@fremontne.gov402-753-3112 VOTED YES

GO BIG RED!!!!

I would really like to hear some feedback on this letter. The President of the City Council in Fremont, Ne sent it to me one day after they voted to appeal the judges decision. AM I MISTAKEN OR DOES HE SOUND RACIST AGAINST AMERICANS? NOTE: To show that I said nothing racist I have also shown the emails that led up to his response - the other two take place the day of the city council meeting. And I can assure you that my testimony at the council meeting was calm, non-racist and reiterated the information in my email to the city council members.

4/29/09 From Gary.Bolton@fremontne.gov To: nagsusansmith

May I point out a couple of things to you. First of all, I find it difficult to understand how with you living in Omaha, you know how many undocumented workers we have in Fremont. We don't even know ourselves how many we have. The statistics you give are general comments about the nation as a whole, and I spent 37 years in our local school system, and I can tell you the cost of educating the children of undocumented workers and the services they receive are far, far below the cost of a court battle we will face in federal court if this issue passes. Ironically, most of the children of undocumented workers were born here making them legal citizens, so even though their parents came here illegally, their children born here have the same legal status as we do, like it or not. Those undocumented workers you speak of are paid by check, and they have FICA and pay taxes just like everybody else. When they buy groceries here, they pay sales tax just like everybody else, and if they buy a house, they pay property tax on that house just like everybody else. They may be paying into a social security account that if they have a stolen social security number, they may never collect that money when they retire. Yes, they may be getting some services if they are here and unemployed, but usually they have a job and they pay their taxes. I might enlighten you to the fact that the undocumented workers we most likely have here, the number of which is a mystery, are not taking away anybody's job. Hormels and Fremont Beef are not turning away white American born workers that I am aware of, in fact, for those who apply, Hispanic or white, they get the job. Many whites that do not get the job cannot pass the drug test, and of those who do pass the drug test and are hired, are not there after 3 months because the work is too hard. You are most likely correct on the independent contractors, but I am told plenty of whites run that scam also....................a huge flaw in the system. Also, our police in Fremont are not working overtime because of the Hispanic population. Those who do work overtime are doing so because we are about three officers short of a full staff. I agree that many of my constituents would be much happier with this ordinance, in fact I believe they would be as happy as one can be if every single brown face left this community. It really is not about illegal at all.................it is about the fact many simply do not want any Hispanics here at all. I want it made very clear......................I do not want undocumented workers in my city, my state, or my country. It is a problem the federal government has created because they simply do not enforce the law, and they make it nearly impossible for local municipalities to enforce the federal law. I resent that, and I resent those who claim I want them here. I do not. But, I believe there is a better way to get them out of our country. Perhaps all 50 states should file suit with the federal government and sue them for not enforcing the law. Gary Bolton

----- Original Message ----- From: Susan Smith To: gbolton@neb.rr.com Sent: Tuesday, April 28, 2009 6:38 PM

Dear Councilman Bolton: Thank you for your response and support for the taxpayers to vote in a special election. Your question to me regarding the cost of the lawsuits that may follow is excellent. In general, the point could be made that the cost of lawsuits would still be less expensive than it is to cover the costs associated with beneifts, services, welfare, crime, education, healthcare, translators, etc. The financial benefit to the city in implementing and enforcing the ordinance means that Illegal Aliens would leave the city, opening the jobs up to Americans who (for the most part) pay their taxes - so the tax revenue for the city should go up (based upon an IRS 2006 Unreported Earnings Report that showed over $1 Trillion dollars is lost because Illegal Aliens are hired as independent contractors and then don't file or pay their taxes - and the businesses don't have to pay taxes on them either. The report also shows that 10 million Illegal Aliens had jobs in the country and of those 5 million were paid cash - so no taxes were collected from that money either), education costs would go down because their children would move with them so that means property taxes could remain resonable, crime would go down freeing up the police from overtime and court costs associated with that, insurance rates should come down because the risk of uninsured drivers should go down, hospital costs would go down, welfare etc. A side benefit is that your constituents will be much happier and have more confidence in the local government. I think an analysis could be done in adding up the costs to your city for Illegal Aliens versus the legal cost if it is challenged. I would also contact some of the cities and attorney's involved in these types of lawsuits to get an idea of what the actural costs would run. Councilman Bolton, I appreciate the difficult considerations the Fremont government has to take into consideration. If there is any information or reports you feel would help balance your concerns, please let me know. I will do some checking on the costs with defending the ordinance from other cities and pass that information onto you. Sincerely,Susan Smith

--- On Tue, 4/28/09, gbolton@neb.rr.com <gbolton@neb.rr.com> wrote:

From: gbolton@neb.rr.com <gbolton@neb.rr.com>
Subject: Re: Fremont City Council Vote to Appeal Judge Samson's Decision?
To: nagsusansmith
Date: Tuesday, April 28, 2009, 8:31 PM


I agree that we should not waste taxpayer funds to appeal Judge Samson's ruling, so I plan to support putting this issue to the voters. With that being said, what is your opinion about the need to eventually spend a great deal of taxpayer's funds to defend this ordinance should it be successful in the special election? We have been told by a great many attorneys that we can -expect a lawsuit should it pass, and defending this could be costly. Just wondered what your opinion was on spending taxpayer dollars on that? Question is asked of you in all honesty and NOT to be interpreted as a question just to be confrontive.

Gary Bolton
President, Fremont City Council

> NEBRASKANS ADVISORY GROUP (NAG)
>
> April 28, 2009
>
> Dear City Council Members:
>
> I would like to take a moment to encourage you to NOT waste taxpayer funds appealing Judge Samson's ruling on the illegal immigration ordinance and to ALLOW the citizens of Fremont their lawful process by voting to hold the special election.
>
> I hope the information showing higher courts rulings dismissing these
arguments will help dispel some of your concerns:
>
> 1. Constitutionality/Threat of costly lawsuits/In Conflict with Federal
Laws:
>
> California Supreme Court in Jan 2009 ruled .....Justice Werdegar wrote
that 8 USC 1324(c) expressly allows state and local enforcement of § 1324 alien
smuggling provisions, and 8 USC 1357(g)(10) expressly allows cooperative
enforcement of civil immigration law violations, even in the absence of a
written agreement...
> Link http://www.ilw.com/articles/2009.0407-hethmon.shtm
>
> Rhode Island Superior Court in April 2009 dismissed an ACLU lawsuit aimed
at stopping the use of EVERIFY.....concluded "The Governor has the
authority to issue the Executive Order"....
http://www.pbn.com/detail/41458.html
>
> Oklahoma Federal Judge dismisses lawsuit challenging HB1804.....because
the court finds that no such standing exists, the case is dismissed without
prejudice....
> www.steinreport.com/HB1804DSMSS1-22-07.pdf
> http://www.bibdaily.com/pdfs/NCLC%20Hen ... -12-07.pdf
>
> April 7, 2009, Assistant Deputy of Homeland Security provided
congressional testimony stating that the EVERIFY program had been updated and
was the most effective tool they had to curbing illegal immigration. (DHS
Website)
>
> Thank you for your time and consideration in this matter.
>
> Sincerely,
> Susan Smith

After seeing how the Fremont City Council blatant attempts to subvert the lawful process of the citizens to hold a Special Election....it's looking more like GO BIG RED COMMUNIST STATE.

The people of Fremont have done everything within their lawful means to have their voices heard. But the arrogance and ignorance of the city council members is unbelievable!.....UNBELIEVABLE!

Originally Posted by SusanSmithNAG

I would really like to hear some feedback on this letter. The President of the City Council in Fremont, Ne sent it to me one day after they voted to appeal the judges decision. AM I MISTAKEN OR DOES HE SOUND RACIST AGAINST AMERICANS? NOTE: To show that I said nothing racist I have also shown the emails that led up to his response - the other two take place the day of the city council meeting. And I can assure you that my testimony at the council meeting was calm, non-racist and reiterated the information in my email to the city council members.

4/29/09 From Gary.Bolton@fremontne.gov To: nagsusansmith

May I point out a couple of things to you. First of all, I find it difficult to understand how with you living in Omaha, you know how many undocumented workers we have in Fremont. We don't even know ourselves how many we have. The statistics you give are general comments about the nation as a whole, and I spent 37 years in our local school system, and I can tell you the cost of educating the children of undocumented workers and the services they receive are far, far below the cost of a court battle we will face in federal court if this issue passes. Ironically, most of the children of undocumented workers were born here making them legal citizens, so even though their parents came here illegally, their children born here have the same legal status as we do, like it or not. Those undocumented workers you speak of are paid by check, and they have FICA and pay taxes just like everybody else. When they buy groceries here, they pay sales tax just like everybody else, and if they buy a house, they pay property tax on that house just like everybody else. They may be paying into a social security account that if they have a stolen social security number, they may never collect that money when they retire. Yes, they may be getting some services if they are here and unemployed, but usually they have a job and they pay their taxes. I might enlighten you to the fact that the undocumented workers we most likely have here, the number of which is a mystery, are not taking away anybody's job. Hormels and Fremont Beef are not turning away white American born workers that I am aware of, in fact, for those who apply, Hispanic or white, they get the job. Many whites that do not get the job cannot pass the drug test, and of those who do pass the drug test and are hired, are not there after 3 months because the work is too hard. You are most likely correct on the independent contractors, but I am told plenty of whites run that scam also....................a huge flaw in the system. Also, our police in Fremont are not working overtime because of the Hispanic population. Those who do work overtime are doing so because we are about three officers short of a full staff. I agree that many of my constituents would be much happier with this ordinance, in fact I believe they would be as happy as one can be if every single brown face left this community. It really is not about illegal at all.................it is about the fact many simply do not want any Hispanics here at all. I want it made very clear......................I do not want undocumented workers in my city, my state, or my country. It is a problem the federal government has created because they simply do not enforce the law, and they make it nearly impossible for local municipalities to enforce the federal law. I resent that, and I resent those who claim I want them here. I do not. But, I believe there is a better way to get them out of our country. Perhaps all 50 states should file suit with the federal government and sue them for not enforcing the law. Gary Bolton

----- Original Message ----- From: Susan Smith To: gbolton@neb.rr.com Sent: Tuesday, April 28, 2009 6:38 PM

Dear Councilman Bolton: Thank you for your response and support for the taxpayers to vote in a special election. Your question to me regarding the cost of the lawsuits that may follow is excellent. In general, the point could be made that the cost of lawsuits would still be less expensive than it is to cover the costs associated with beneifts, services, welfare, crime, education, healthcare, translators, etc. The financial benefit to the city in implementing and enforcing the ordinance means that Illegal Aliens would leave the city, opening the jobs up to Americans who (for the most part) pay their taxes - so the tax revenue for the city should go up (based upon an IRS 2006 Unreported Earnings Report that showed over $1 Trillion dollars is lost because Illegal Aliens are hired as independent contractors and then don't file or pay their taxes - and the businesses don't have to pay taxes on them either. The report also shows that 10 million Illegal Aliens had jobs in the country and of those 5 million were paid cash - so no taxes were collected from that money either), education costs would go down because their children would move with them so that means property taxes could remain resonable, crime would go down freeing up the police from overtime and court costs associated with that, insurance rates should come down because the risk of uninsured drivers should go down, hospital costs would go down, welfare etc. A side benefit is that your constituents will be much happier and have more confidence in the local government. I think an analysis could be done in adding up the costs to your city for Illegal Aliens versus the legal cost if it is challenged. I would also contact some of the cities and attorney's involved in these types of lawsuits to get an idea of what the actural costs would run. Councilman Bolton, I appreciate the difficult considerations the Fremont government has to take into consideration. If there is any information or reports you feel would help balance your concerns, please let me know. I will do some checking on the costs with defending the ordinance from other cities and pass that information onto you. Sincerely,Susan Smith

--- On Tue, 4/28/09, gbolton@neb.rr.com <gbolton@neb.rr.com> wrote:

From: gbolton@neb.rr.com <gbolton@neb.rr.com>
Subject: Re: Fremont City Council Vote to Appeal Judge Samson's Decision?
To: nagsusansmith
Date: Tuesday, April 28, 2009, 8:31 PM


I agree that we should not waste taxpayer funds to appeal Judge Samson's ruling, so I plan to support putting this issue to the voters. With that being said, what is your opinion about the need to eventually spend a great deal of taxpayer's funds to defend this ordinance should it be successful in the special election? We have been told by a great many attorneys that we can -expect a lawsuit should it pass, and defending this could be costly. Just wondered what your opinion was on spending taxpayer dollars on that? Question is asked of you in all honesty and NOT to be interpreted as a question just to be confrontive.

Gary Bolton
President, Fremont City Council

> NEBRASKANS ADVISORY GROUP (NAG)
>
> April 28, 2009
>
> Dear City Council Members:
>
> I would like to take a moment to encourage you to NOT waste taxpayer funds appealing Judge Samson's ruling on the illegal immigration ordinance and to ALLOW the citizens of Fremont their lawful process by voting to hold the special election.
>
> I hope the information showing higher courts rulings dismissing these
arguments will help dispel some of your concerns:
>
> 1. Constitutionality/Threat of costly lawsuits/In Conflict with Federal
Laws:
>
> California Supreme Court in Jan 2009 ruled .....Justice Werdegar wrote
that 8 USC 1324(c) expressly allows state and local enforcement of § 1324 alien
smuggling provisions, and 8 USC 1357(g)(10) expressly allows cooperative
enforcement of civil immigration law violations, even in the absence of a
written agreement...
> Link http://www.ilw.com/articles/2009.0407-hethmon.shtm
>
> Rhode Island Superior Court in April 2009 dismissed an ACLU lawsuit aimed
at stopping the use of EVERIFY.....concluded "The Governor has the
authority to issue the Executive Order"....
http://www.pbn.com/detail/41458.html
>
> Oklahoma Federal Judge dismisses lawsuit challenging HB1804.....because
the court finds that no such standing exists, the case is dismissed without
prejudice....
> www.steinreport.com/HB1804DSMSS1-22-07.pdf
> http://www.bibdaily.com/pdfs/NCLC%20Hen ... -12-07.pdf
>
> April 7, 2009, Assistant Deputy of Homeland Security provided
congressional testimony stating that the EVERIFY program had been updated and
was the most effective tool they had to curbing illegal immigration. (DHS
Website)
>
> Thank you for your time and consideration in this matter.
>
> Sincerely,
> Susan Smith

You may want to ask him a couple more questions along the following lines,

I agree that illegal immigration is a federal problem, but so is bank robbery. Is it safe to assume that the city will no longer be arresting bank robbers but instead allow them to run free until the feds get around to it? Under the same premise, you also will need to stop looking for kidnappers as kidnapping is also a federal crime. This is not about race, this is not about money, this is about enforcing the law. If money is your main concern when it comes to crime enforcement, perhaps we should be looking at replacing you with someone who does believe in enforcing our laws and will not silence the rights of the people in order to protect criminals.

Great suggestions, I will include them in my response letter to him. Thnx

JUST OUTRAGEOUS!

"They may be paying into a social security account that if they have a stolen social security number, they may never collect that money when they retire"

This a direct quote from the President of the City Counsil of Fremont! I wonder Mr Bolton, are you aware that stealing someone's social security number is a crime? Do you realize the havoc this brings on the American citizen that they steal it from? To me it sounds like you aren't upset that someone STOLE someone's SSN, but rather that the poor criminal can't receive any benefits from the money he paid in.

Another quote from the President'

"Many whites that do not get the job cannot pass the drug test, and of those who do pass the drug test and are hired, are not there after 3 months because the work is too hard. You are most likely correct on the independent contractors, but I am told plenty of whites run that scam also"

Yet another politician with a disdain for the very people they represent. If someone who didn't live here read these words they would think that white people in Fremont are all lazy drug addicts, there is nothing that could be further from the truth.

In my opinion it appears that the real problem in Fremont isn't the people fighting to have criminals treated as criminals, it is the politicians who, once again, are ignoring them.

Kate

When they buy groceries here, they pay sales tax just like everybody else,

Someone needs to inform Mr. Bolton that we don't pay sales tax on groceries in Nebraska.

Also someone needs to explain the term "race baiter" to him because that's exactly what he is!

Welcome, KateH!
I thought of Nebraska as a state with relative political peace, but I guess it is a lot more exciting than I initially thought!

Originally Posted by KateH

JUST OUTRAGEOUS!

"They may be paying into a social security account that if they have a stolen social security number, they may never collect that money when they retire"

This a direct quote from the President of the City Counsil of Fremont! I wonder Mr Bolton, are you aware that stealing someone's social security number is a crime? Do you realize the havoc this brings on the American citizen that they steal it from? To me it sounds like you aren't upset that someone STOLE someone's SSN, but rather that the poor criminal can't receive any benefits from the money he paid in.

For some unknown reason politicians are so giddy over illegals that they think that ID theft is fine and dandy, until it happens to them

Originally Posted by KateH

Another quote from the President'

"Many whites that do not get the job cannot pass the drug test, and of those who do pass the drug test and are hired, are not there after 3 months because the work is too hard. You are most likely correct on the independent contractors, but I am told plenty of whites run that scam also"


Kate

Can you imagine the outrage that would occur if we substituted blacks or any other race in the above statement? Racism if totally permissible if it is against whites. Someone with the money and the courage needs to sue him for being a racist.

Originally Posted by vortex

Welcome, KateH!
I thought of Nebraska as a state with relative political peace, but I guess it is a lot more exciting than I initially thought!

Believe it or not, Nebraska is the place I first became politically involved. I remember working on the campaign to recall Omaha Mayor Michael Boyle. I also remember an election in the big O where "Space Commander Whack, Space Commander" actually got the popular vote through write ins but the job went to the runner up because fictional characters were not eligible for the office.