City Hall: Election politics, noting a tragedy and lighting up a council meeting | Local Government

“He was not sending emails for any legitimate county purpose but only to promote himself and his campaign,” she said. “Unchecked ego and hubris ought not cost the county. Make him pay for his own lawyer.”

The county commissioners, noting this isn’t the first time they’ve appointed outside counsel to represent an elected official or department head, unanimously approved the contract.

Nigro said he took the public-records request to the county attorney, who regularly deals with issues such as this, even though the county attorney’s prosecutors and public defender’s attorneys regularly are on opposite sides in the courtroom.

“The thing is, to say that I’m not entitled to legal representation or I should have to pay my own attorney is a misunderstanding about how public-records requests work,” Nigro said.

Anyone can make a public-records request, he said, and if public officials or department heads were always required to hire their own counsel anytime that happened they’d go bankrupt.

He said he plans to comply with the request and he’s produced the emails, but Baylor Evnen attorneys will review them to make sure they are all considered public under state law.

“I have nothing to hide,” he said.

In the first email Eggers submitted to the county board, Nigro tells his staff he’s running for reelection and that he didn’t know Egger, who retired in January after being with the office for 32 years, was running against him, saying he was hurt that she said nothing to him about it beforehand.

He also talks about his running the office during the pandemic and how he wants to help shape improvements in the county’s criminal justice system. He attached a news release announcing his run and invited them to attend a campaign kickoff event.

Nigro said the second email came from his campaign and went to a list of supporters, some of which might have included work emails.

Both Democrats, Nigro, who is seeking his third term, and Egger will square off in the May 10 primary.

Sen. Megan Hunt talked Tuesday about Milo Winslow, a transgender man and advocate who died by suicide last week, in emotional comments from the floor of the Legislature.

Winslow had spoken in support of a city ordinance to extend protections to include sexual orientation and gender expression and also expressed his frustration about the timing of the introduction of the ordinance and his fears that the transgender community would be targeted by groups seeking to block it.

Opponents launched a referendum petition that collected 18,500 signatures. They needed just more than 4,000, and if the election commissioner verifies that many, the Lincoln City Council must decide whether to rescind the ordinance or put it to a vote.

Hunt read one of Winslow’s last messages on social media, where he had many followers.

“His final social media posts show how tortured he was by the division in this city that has been drummed up by hateful anti-trans people among us, and we are responsible for that,” she said. “We have something to do with that, colleagues.”

She talked about mental health issues, about protections for all people.

“Some of these problems you can fix by just being freaking nice,” she said. “Milo Winslow’s life could have been saved.”

This may have been a first.

A speaker who testified during open-mic night at last week’s City Council meeting ended his soliloquy at the microphone by lighting a joint.

During open-mic meetings, the public can speak on topics not related to an agenda item.

The speaker, who’s appeared frequently to talk about various topics, spoke last week against mask mandates, the damage politics has done to our lives and unsafe chemicals in water. He turned to leave, then turned back.

“One more thing,” he said. “I won’t take up too much of your time.”

The plainclothes officer who is at all council meetings came up and led the 28-year-old man away.

He went willingly with the officer, who took him outside and ticketed him for possession of marijuana and smoking in a prohibited place.