North Platte’s deputy police chief will serve as interim chief until city leaders choose a permanent successor to now-retired Chief Daniel Hudson.
City Council members voted 7-0 Tuesday to put Steve Reeves, a 33-year Police Department veteran, in temporary charge.
The vote followed a 13-minute executive session with Reeves, a finalist for chief when former Mayor Dwight Livingston appointed Hudson in 2018.
The council voted 5-2 in favor of Councilman Ed Rieker’s motion to go into closed session. Council President Jim Nisley and Councilman Brad Garrick voted “no,” while Councilman Jim Carman was absent.
When the council chamber doors reopened, however, all seven voted to make Reeves interim chief without public debate.
Some two dozen current police officers and North Platte firefighters applauded after Reeves took his oath from Mayor Brandon Kelliher. Also among them were Lincoln County Sheriff Jerome Kramer, Chief Deputy Roland Kramer and County Attorney Rebecca Harling.
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Reeves thanked them for coming, adding his thanks to the council for its vote and to Hudson for his support since making him deputy chief in July 2019.
“The chief (Hudson) is in Florida, and I know he’s listening (online) and I know he got some of you to come,” he said to laughter from the audience.
“A lot has changed at our department under his leadership, and we have a ways to go. We’re going to focus now on a little stability. We’re short a lot of people, so we’re going to focus on recruitment and retention and keeping you all whom we’ve invested a lot of money in working in our department.”
The city’s Civil Service Commission has yet to submit a list of finalists for the permanent chief’s job. Kelliher will nominate the next chief, subject to council ratification.
Council members also heard updates on redistricting the city’s four election wards and discussed how they might adjust how they take public comment at meetings. No action was taken in either case.
Planning Admin-istrator Judy Clark reviewed a proposed election map from gWorks of Omaha to adjust ward boundaries to account for 2020 U.S. census results.
It makes minimal changes to those boundaries and ensures all eight current council members will stay in their wards, Clark said.
The council will have to adopt a final map before year’s end, she added, so Lincoln County Clerk Becky Rossell can stay on schedule in preparing for the May 10 primary election.
Candidates can begin filing Jan. 5.
The discussion on meeting procedures followed up a request by Doyce Williams, 1003 East B St., during their Oct. 19 meeting’s “public agenda request” period.
Council agendas for several years have asked people speaking on agenda items to limit generally limit their remarks to 3 minutes.
Mayors have often let members of the public speak longer but also typically let people seeking a particular city action speak longer than 3 minutes if needed to make their case.
That’s the part that seems unfair, Williams said Tuesday. “It just seems we need an equalizer to make everything just.”
He added, however, that he doesn’t know exactly what would accomplish that.
“I know there’s a lot of variables here, depending on the subject matter and the personalities that stand here before you,” he said. “But I’ve seen people leave that had a legitimate concern and they’re very angry and haven’t been back. And that’s very sad.”
Kelliher, who experimented at earlier 2021 meetings with a visible computerized countdown clock, said he has given people “who are initiating a process” up to 15 minutes to explain what they want.
“I’ve let people speak longer” than 3 minutes, he added. “I’m open to changing it as long as we stay compliant with the (state) Open Meetings Act.”
Council members generally agreed people shouldn’t speak indefinitely if they’re repeating others’ testimony or saying the same thing over and over themselves.
Some suggested leaving it to the mayor when to cut speakers off without a clock. Others said having a time limit makes people organize their thoughts in advance.
“I think it’s important to give people a definitive time (limit),” Councilman Ed Rieker told Kelliher. “But I don’t think we should impede your ability to override that.”
The mayor said he’ll try out different approaches to speaking limits “at the next meeting where it’s relevant,” such as when a major controversy is on the agenda.
“We do want the opinions of the people, and we want them to be heard,” Kelliher said. “But a dozen people saying the same thing probably doesn’t make a strong impression.”
Also Tuesday, the council:
» Gave 7-0 second-round approval to an ordinance to rezone a 6,300-square-foot lot at 406 West F St. so owner Marcus Doughty can double an existing brick duplex into a fourplex. A final vote will be held Nov. 16.
» Approved the sole lease-purchase bid of $31,387 by Kinetic Leasing Inc. of Fargo, N.D., for a used 2016 Elgin Eagle street sweeper.