Upcoming Events

NACO County Board Workshop

February 5-7, 2014

Kearney, Holiday Inn

Southeast District Meeting
March 13, 2014
Mahoney Park, I-80

Panhandle District Meeting
March 19, 2014 Bridgeport, Prairie Winds Community Center

West Central District Meeting

March 20, 2014

Bridgeport, Prairie Winds Community Center

Northeast District Meeting
March 21, 2014
Norfolk, Lifelong Learning Center

Central District Meeting
March 27, 2014
Kearney, Holiday Inn

Assessors Spring Workshop
May 22-23, 2014
Lincoln, Cornhusker Hotel 

To view all upcoming events, click here.

Associate and Sustaining Members

Education Foundation Memorial Program

In This Issue

Register Now for 2014 County Board Workshop 

Tax Levies and Tax Rates for 2013 Available on Nebraska Department of Revenue's Website

2014 NACO Scholarship Applications Available   

Legal Line 

U.S. Communities  

Order NACO's 2014 Directory of County Officials Now 

NACo Prescription Drug Program 

County Government Day PowerPoint 

2013 County Board Handbook and Revisions  

News Across the State 

News From NACo 

NACo Web-Based Education 

Legal Calendar 

County Classifieds 

Associate & Sustaining Members 

NACO Education Foundation Memorial Program 

Court of Appeals Upholds An Officer's Termination

In Shear v. City of Wayne Civil Serv. Comm, 21 Neb. App. 644, --- N.W. 2d --- (2014), the court reviewed an appeal from a police officer following his termination from his position with a Police Department.  The former police officer's assertions were that his due process rights were violated in a pretermination hearing, that the Commission's decision was arbitrary and capricious, and that the Commission erred in allowing undisclosed testiŽmony at the hearing. The Court of Appeals declined to find in his favor.

The Court highlighted pretermination procedures that were outlined by the U.S. Supreme Court in Cleveland Board of Education v. Loudermill, 470 U.S. 532, 105 S. Ct. 1487, 84 L. Ed. 2d 494 (1985).  In that case, the U.S. Supreme Court held that a public employee possesses certain due process rights when state law grants a property right to continued employment. When a state deprives a public employee of this right to continued employment, the deprivation must "'be preceded by notice and opportunity for hearing appropriate to the nature of the case."' After Loudermill, courts have concluded that procedural due process claims are divided into three stages: pretermination process, actual termination, and posttermination process. (Citations omitted).

In this case, there was not a dispute about whether the former police officer had a property right in his continued employment with the Police Department and could not have been discharged without due process rather the necessary extent of the pretermination process was disputed. The terminated employee argued that the pretermination procedures were insufficient because there was a biased decisionmaker. He claimed that because the city's administrator was both the complaining party and the adjudicator in the pretermination hearing, the city adminstrator effectively served as "the accuser, the judge, and the executioner," rendering the pretermination process a nullity.

The Court explained, "In interpreting Cleveland Board of Education v. Loudermill,  the Nebraska Supreme Court has adopted the view that only limited pretermination process is required, especially if posttermination proceedings are available and extensive. In adopting this view, the court noted that the purpose of a pretermination proceeding is not to resolve the propriety of the discharge, but, rather, to serve as an initial check against mistaken decisions. Thus, pretermination proceedings need not be elaborate. Informal meetings with supervisors are sufficient pretermination proceedings." (Citations omitted).  The Court concluded the posttermination procedures provided the required measure of due process for the terminated employee.

The district court and Court of Appeals held that the former police officer was afforded due process and that the Commission's decision was made in good faith for cause.

The full text of the opinion can be located by clicking here. 

County Services in Jeopardy if Congress Fails to Fund PILT

Counties will have no option but to severely reduce or eliminate critical county services to the public if Congress fails to deliver funding for PILT in the FY 2014 Omnibus spending bill.  To read more, click here.

Registration for the 2014 NACo Cyber Symposium is Now Open

Join NACo April 9-11 in Omaha, Neb. for one and a half days of education and networking around the topics of cybersecurity.  This year's symposium will follow a two-track model with targeted programming for both county officials, and IT and cybersecurity staff.  NACo is offering complementary registration for all Cyber for Counties Task Force Members.  To read more, click here.