County agencies present budgets to commissioners
About a dozen citizens of Hamilton County created a standing-room-only situation in the commission meeting room on Monday morning, but most of them left following the public comment time which is now at the top of the agenda. The group was led by Giltner area resident Greg Epp who addressed the board by reading a prepared statement on the subject of election integrity.
Epp stated that he had been at the courthouse the night of the May primary election and had watched the votes being counted using the county’s ballot counting machine, which he called “the black box.” He said he had been well-received by County Clerk Jill DeMers and her staff, noting that they had explained each step of the vote-counting process. He said he felt good about the how they had “followed their procedures.”
“Do I feel good about the election?” Epp asked, however. “Absolutely not. Why? Because I am a trained auditor and Jill and her staff do not have control of their election.”
Epp went on to say his problem is with the ballot processing machine and the lack of an “independent audit process.”
Proceeding to discuss situations in which he believed the government had misled the American public -- COVID 19, the false Russian Collusion charges aimed against former President Donald Trump -- Epp said he believed the election process is vulnerable to tampering. He went on to list seven nations that have gone back to hand counting ballots and asserted that Hamilton County should lead the surrounding counties by doing the same.
Also speaking on the issue were Paul Huenefeld, who presented six steps to more secure elections, and Dan Daly, who expressed concern that votes could be manipulated this fall when voters will decide between two competing ballot initiatives on the subject of abortion.
Chairman Rich Nelson responded to the comments by saying the events of last weekend — a reference to the attempted assassination of Trump in Pennsylvania — “illustrate we have a long ways to come to get this country back on track.”
The only other commissioner to respond was Francis McDonald, who expressed a concern that the vote counting machine might be connected to the internet or via cell phone. However, both Nelson and DeMers stated that there is no such connectivity and even when it is being serviced a technician must come out from Lincoln.
In other business coming before the board on Monday, the body approved an Inheritance Tax refund and held a public hearing on a conditional use permit application for a temporary mobile home dwelling to be placed on a property near Giltner while a house is being built. The board approved the CUP.
Budget presentations
The commissioners also continued to hear budget presentations for agencies affiliated with the county. Mariah Newmeyer of the county Extension Office was the first to present her office’s budget. She asked for an overall increase of 2.57 percent, the majority of which she said was for salary increases. She also said there would be slight increases for supplies, due to inflation and office equipment, which was mostly the replacement of computers as required every four years by UNL.
Next up was Emergency Management Director Kirt Smith who asked for an overall 1.9 percent budget increase, most of which was again for salary increases. Smith said his office was saving some money by using a different weather radar system which can have unlimited users so that it can be shared by people in various city and county agencies.
The final budget presentation was from County Business Manager Pat Shaw who laid out the county Buildings and Grounds budget. He called for a 3.1 percent increase with most of that going to raises in salaries.
Shaw, who was designated at last week’s meeting as the budget county authority, was asked by Nelson how the process was going. He responded that the gathering of information for budgets was going very well at this point, noting that he “should be able to have something put together by early August.”