Transcript Prepared By the Clerk of the Legislature Transcriber's Office Judiciary Committee September 12, 2008 [LR390] SENATOR ASHFORD: I'd like to welcome everyone this morning and this is obviously a wonderful turnout. Can everybody hear me? I don't want to shout. I could shout, I suppose, but that would be...is this working? [LR390] ____________: Yes. [LR390] SENATOR ASHFORD: It is working. All right. This is a fabulous turnout, very difficult topic. But I can assure you that the Judiciary Committee and the Legislature is ready to take a hard look at the issue of youth violence throughout the state, particularly some of the violence we've experienced in our city in the last several years. And this is where we'll start at that process. My name is Brad Ashford. I'm Chairman of the Judiciary Committee. Before we get to Mayor Fahey, and thank you, Mayor, for coming today, I'd like to thank the team from CeaseFire-Chicago, and they will be speaking in a few minutes about their program which has a national reputation and I think it's worthy of taking a look at. I'd like to introduce my colleagues, first of all, and go down the line with them: Senator Dwite Pedersen from Elkhorn; and Senator Ernie Chambers from Omaha. This may be...well, it won't be the last hearing, Senator Chambers, certainly, but it's one of them. (Laugh) Yes. The Vice Chair of the Committee, Senator Steve Lathrop from Millard and Ralston and other areas and welcome, Senator Lathrop. And, of course, along with Senator Chambers, Senator DiAnna Schimek who served the people of this state, with Senator Pedersen, for so many years and all made such a significant difference to our lives. And then I notice Senator John Nelson is here from Omaha, and Senator Nelson is in the back. I'm not sure where my other colleagues are, but I know that they will be coming. Again, the purpose of this hearing is to gather information. We are all here, I believe, for the same purpose and that's to find...collectively find a solution, hopefully, to the problems we all know are out there. This is not a gotcha hearing. We're not here to get after anyone. We're here to find solutions. And again I'm just so pleased. And I want to also thank my staff, the staff in Judiciary Committee, we've worked since...who have worked with me since the spring and over the summer to talk with many of you, not all of you, unfortunately, but a lot of you about this issue. So I appreciate the extra effort by the committee and the committee staff. With that, Mayor Fahey. [LR390] MIKE FAHEY: Good morning, everyone. On behalf of the citizens of Omaha, we want to welcome you to the City-County Building. I want to certainly thank Senator Ashford and certainly the entire Judiciary Committee for hosting the very special hearing. I'm very proud to testify in support of LR390. There's nothing more important for a citizen than believing their neighborhood is safe and it provides a stable environment for their children because thriving neighborhoods are the backbone of any great city. And my top priority has been and always will be and continues to be public safety. Our community policing efforts have worked. Omaha's overall crime rates continue to decline. We've 1 Transcript Prepared By the Clerk of the Legislature Transcriber's Office Judiciary Committee September 12, 2008 reinstated and strengthened the gang unit. We've graduated thousands of Omaha youth from our Gang Resistance Education and Training program. We have established the city's third weed and seed designated area and continue to utilize the assistance and support from the Omaha community in solving crimes and addressing neighborhood concerns through our Precinct Advisory Committees. However, illegal guns and gun violence pose a serious threat to the livability of our city and are elements our society must aggressively continue to fight. In 2007 we were successful in removing 876 guns from our streets, approximately 150 more guns than we seized in 2006. So far this year, 531 guns have been taken off the streets of the city of Omaha. The police have caught 114 minors under the age of 21 in possession of a gun. But even these startling numbers don't reflect the real human aspect of illegal guns and gun violence. They don't reflect the pain and suffering experienced by the young man hit by a random bullet during his soccer game. They don't reflect the fear parents have that their child may get caught in the crossfire while walking home from school. And they don't do justice to the concern Sgt. Latschar's wife must have felt when she got the call that her husband was seriously wounded in the line of duty. The citizens of Omaha can be assured that we will not allow illegal guns to threaten our way of life. And we are committed to doing all within our power to stop violence that impacts so many innocent people. Gun violence is certainly not unique to Omaha and is a problem affecting cities across our nation. I've joined my fellow mayors as part of the Mayors Against Illegal Guns Coalition in an effort to raise awareness of the issue and work with federal government to address this problem. It is important that the state of Nebraska join Omaha and cities across the state in the fight against this community issue. I certainly applaud the efforts of the Judiciary Committee to further examine gun-related violence in Nebraska and I look forward to the results. And I am confident that by working together we can spare others the painful effect of this senseless and deadly type of violence. I really appreciate the opportunity to appear before you and to testify. [LR390] SENATOR ASHFORD: Thank you, Mayor Fahey. And thank you very much for your will-be eight years of service to the city and citizens of Omaha. [LR390] MIKE FAHEY: Thank you. [LR390] SENATOR ASHFORD: Any questions of the mayor? Senator Chambers. [LR390] SENATOR CHAMBERS: Mayor Fahey, thank you for coming. You had said that...words to the effect, we will not allow illegal guns to threaten our way of life. Would you agree, nevertheless, that illegal guns are threatening everybody's way of life? [LR390] MIKE FAHEY: I couldn't agree with you more, Senator. [LR390] SENATOR CHAMBERS: And I think one of the statistics you gave is 114 minors found in possession of guns. Is it alarming, is it troubling, disturbing? Does it raise questions 2 Transcript Prepared By the Clerk of the Legislature Transcriber's Office Judiciary Committee September 12, 2008 that this many minors know where to obtain guns, but the police in Omaha, the Sheriff's Department, the State Patrol, the FBI, the Federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives cannot determine where these guns are coming from? [LR390] MIKE FAHEY: Well, I think, and again I'm sure there are people more qualified than myself will testify that we are doing a fairly good job here. We're not... [LR390] SENATOR CHAMBERS: No, I'm not asking you that. I'm asking you, is it troubling that this statistic is here and the law enforcement agencies--federal, state, county and local--cannot determine the origin of these guns? Is that troubling? That's all I'm asking you. [LR390] MIKE FAHEY: It's troubling. It's troubling. [LR390] SENATOR CHAMBERS: Thank you. [LR390] SENATOR ASHFORD: Thank you, Mayor Fahey. Also, I'd like to introduce some other members of the Legislature and of the committee. Senator Pete Pirsch, to my right, has come in; and Senator Lowen Kruse is here. And Senator Kruse also will be retiring this year, and he's again done tremendous service to the state, for the state, and I welcome him this morning. What I'd like to do, let me give you a few of the sort of ground rules, I guess, for the morning. There have been a number of professionals, people who work in this area who have expressed an interest in testifying. And we have attempted to group those individuals somewhat by subject matter, well, subject matter is the same but by interest. And so what I'm going to do is go down four or five names, and then once we get through those I'll name the next group. But the idea here is to try to get through this testimony by midafternoon, and if before then, that's great. We normally in Lincoln we have this...Senator...Speaker Brashear is over here to my right and when he was Chairman of the Judiciary Committee he implemented a draconian light system (laugh) that had lights flashing off and on and people would be ejected from their seats with a spring (laugh) when they spoke too long. But we're going to sort of modify that a bit today and ask that people confine their comments to around ten minutes or less. We're going to look at the clock as we go along and if it looks like we're maybe going on a little too long, I will sort of mention that to people. So let me give you the names of the people that I would like to have come up first. We have two members of the Omaha City Council--Councilman Frank Brown, and Councilman Jim Suttle.