Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Friday was not fun when we left work. I mean,
by the time Matt and I got out of here,
it was already pretty bad out there. You could have
easily slipped in fall just on the stairs that are
outside of our office. I had to drive then to
Baxter Arena, where they were still playing a hockey game
between Omaha and Lyndon Wood from the Saint Louis area
(00:21):
was in town. They of course got here early enough
to avoid all that mess, but there was not a
lot of people who made it to that game because
the roads were terrible. It was an ice rink out there.
We're getting plenty of different responses, and it was my
understanding that Scott earlier today Scott Vorhe's had Mayor Geene
Stothard on, so I wanted just a little bit of
(00:41):
a different perspective here. State Senator Mike McDonald joining us
on our phone line today and Senator McDonald thanks so
much for being a part of our show today.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
Yeah, thank you for the invitation.
Speaker 1 (00:52):
First things first, you've been a state senator for you know, gosh,
almost eight full years at this point. When you look
at you know, kind of the response in you're an
Omaha native. There are a lot of hills in our
neighborhoods and things of that nature. From your vantage point,
how should this have been handled? If they could have
(01:13):
done anything differently to help protect the roads from the
carnage that we saw on Friday.
Speaker 2 (01:18):
Yeah, I was obvious. The city was not prepared for
the storm. We knew the ice storm was coming, we
weren't prepared well. We have to do is try to
learn from these mistakes because we know this is maybe
the first ice storm of the season, but it will
not be our last. And through the years, we know
looking at being prepared, looking at salt sand and I'm
getting so many people reaching out to our office and
(01:43):
bringing up different concerns and ideas, and just start with
the first responders. At one point we had twenty four
first responder vehicles that were either stuck or were damaged
to the point where they could not continue to serve
the citizens. And the citizens we're continuing calling UH nine
to one one and these calls were being delayed. We
(02:06):
have to do better. And when you have an emerscy vehicle,
we've got to have that coordinating and that's the mayor's job.
The mayor's job is to lead the city and make
sure that we're coordinating between the all city employees, all
the members of the city team, from first responders to
those people out putting down the assault and the sand
and making sure that we are working as a team.
(02:27):
But you need a leader to do that. That's taking
that position as mayor and making sure they're there coordinating
that and leading the city, especially during a major ice
event like we had. But we just were not We
were not prepared.
Speaker 1 (02:44):
Yeah, if anybody's unfamiliar with State Senator Mike McDonald, you
have a lot of experience in the fire department, and
at one point you were the fire chief here. I
couldn't imagine being a first responder and a v quite
like that and have to be out on a call
and everything is basically an ice rank out there. What
(03:06):
would have been the right way for us to handle that,
especially considering the fact that there was some precipitation that
preceded the freezing rain that we got on Friday night.
Speaker 2 (03:16):
Well, you know, the idea of being prepared and the
firefighters are prepared and they're ready to answer that nine
to one one call, that emergency call when those citizens
reach out. For example, one of the fire trucks was
stranded for twelve hours. The crew was sitting in the
vehicle for twelve hours. Now that's just not acceptable. You
(03:39):
should have had a standard salt truck there as quickly
as possible to get them back in service because we
know the nine to one one calls are going to continue.
That comes back to the leadership and being there in
quarterbacking the city at that moment in time, with everyone
working together as a team. But again, we know the
game's not one of the day of the kick. If
(04:00):
you know, the game's won in preparedness and it's played
that day. But we have to be better prepared because
ninety percent of that victory is going to be before
the game even begins, and it's based on us being
prepared and working as a team in the city for
the citizens of Omah.
Speaker 1 (04:16):
We're speaking with State Senator Mike McDonald, who also is
a former fire chief of Omaha, Omaha native as well.
And while we have you here, I have a few
questions because certainly in the last month or so, people
have learned about your candidacy for the mayoral position of Omaha,
and there have been a lot of questions about different
things that are going on in the city. But also
(04:39):
one of the things that's kind of intriguing about you
is earlier this year we heard about kind of the
transition you'd made from the Democratic Party to the Republican Party,
and that's something that we actually brought up on this show,
which was fairly interesting. And You're not the only person,
at a very high profile person, not just in Nebraska,
but across the country that have flipped from Democrat to
(05:00):
Republican in the last couple of years. So what would
be the best explanation you could give to somebody who
might be an independent thinking person who is like, so,
why is this happening around the country? Why are so
many people who are in politics flipping from the left
to the right.
Speaker 2 (05:16):
Well, and I can't really speak for people around the country.
I can tell you that my position was that I
ran as a pro life Democrat in twenty sixteen when
I first ran for the legislature, and I remain a
pro life person from you know, conception of natural death
and in between. And the Democratic Party had been a
(05:36):
Democrat for forty years and was a pro life Democrat.
And again I was censured for that position, and I
wasn't asking the Democratic Party to agree with my position.
I was just asking them to respect my faith based position,
and that led me to a party change. And I
think I've heard from other people around the country that
you know, they have different reasons, but I can tell
(05:58):
you that that was the situation I was in and
that's what how I made. My decision was based on
not asking the Democratic Party to change their position on
pro life, but just to respect my faith based position.
Speaker 1 (06:11):
Term limits are certainly a thing in the unicamerals. You
will be wrapping up your second term here and this
could be the next step for you moving forward. I
have to ask about term limits though, because it seems
to be something that people are generally in favor of
around the country. Why does it work for the Nebraska
unicameral or does it work should there be should it
(06:33):
be looked at to be somewhat changed for Nebraskans, Or
is that the Nebraska set up something that the rest
of the country should look at and say, hey, they
actually have this right.
Speaker 2 (06:44):
Well, I'll go about to nineteen thirty seven with Georgia
Norris and the people in Nebraska decided to try a
one house system, and we are unique. We're the only
unicameral in the country with the idea of term limits
being put in. You know, in that discussion you could
go through the pros that cons of term limits, and
we've talked about it as state senators. Okay, should it
(07:04):
be eight years? Should it possibly be twelve years? Is
that the compromise on term limits and there is pros
and cons and the idea of that we are unique.
I think the people around the country should look at
the unicaral and how we do things as state government.
We don't cauc us by parties. We cauc us on
ideas and issues. So try to leave the Democrat, Republican
(07:27):
independent party at the doorstep and come in and just
work for the people of Nebraska. I think that's how
state government should be. I think people around the country
should look at the idea of the unicamer and how
successful it's been here in our state. But I really
enjoyed and was honored to serve for eight years and
the idea of caucusing on ideas and issues and not
(07:50):
by political party and working with different people on different
days on issues was a great, great experience for me,
and I believe it's the best way to run state government.
And other States should look at our unicramel system that
we've had in place since nineteen thirty seven.
Speaker 1 (08:04):
Well, it is certainly something that we'll be paying attention to.
Of course, you being in the mayoral race, you and
incumbent Mayor Gene Stothard, among others, will be involved in
the primary election, which is going to take place the
first of April next year. I'm sure we're going to
be talking multiple times between now and then. Senator Mike McDonald,
we thank you so much for the information today and
(08:26):
for your input on what we should have been doing
on Friday, and we'll talk again very soon. I'm sure.
Speaker 2 (08:31):
Thank you for having me on your show.
Speaker 1 (08:32):
Yeah, absolutely, it is three forty seven. We thank you
so much for listening to us, and of course we
want you to talk about your experience. I'll tell you
how my night went driving around on Friday trying to
get myself to that hockey game. I'm going to have
Matt Case talk about his story and we'll get yours
as well, because this is a huge deal. We couldn't
drive in this town. This is one of the fifty
(08:55):
largest cities in America. We couldn't even drive around on
Friday night.
Speaker 2 (08:59):
Emery song on news radio eleven ten KFA b
Friday was not fun when we left work. I mean,
by the time Matt and I got out of here,
it was already pretty bad out there. You could have
easily slipped in fall just on the stairs that are
outside of our office. I had to drive then to
Baxter Arena, where they were still playing a hockey game
between Omaha and Lyndon Wood from the Saint Louis area
(00:21):
was in town. They of course got here early enough
to avoid all that mess, but there was not a
lot of people who made it to that game because
the roads were terrible. It was an ice rink out there.
We're getting plenty of different responses, and it was my
understanding that Scott earlier today Scott Vorhe's had Mayor Geene
Stothard on, so I wanted just a little bit of
(00:41):
a different perspective here. State Senator Mike McDonald joining us
on our phone line today and Senator McDonald thanks so
much for being a part of our show today.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
Yeah, thank you for the invitation.
Speaker 1 (00:52):
First things first, you've been a state senator for you know, gosh,
almost eight full years at this point. When you look
at you know, kind of the response in you're an
Omaha native. There are a lot of hills in our
neighborhoods and things of that nature. From your vantage point,
how should this have been handled? If they could have
(01:13):
done anything differently to help protect the roads from the
carnage that we saw on Friday.
Speaker 2 (01:18):
Yeah, I was obvious. The city was not prepared for
the storm. We knew the ice storm was coming, we
weren't prepared well. We have to do is try to
learn from these mistakes because we know this is maybe
the first ice storm of the season, but it will
not be our last. And through the years, we know
looking at being prepared, looking at salt sand and I'm
getting so many people reaching out to our office and
(01:43):
bringing up different concerns and ideas, and just start with
the first responders. At one point we had twenty four
first responder vehicles that were either stuck or were damaged
to the point where they could not continue to serve
the citizens. And the citizens we're continuing calling UH nine
to one one and these calls were being delayed. We
(02:06):
have to do better. And when you have an emerscy vehicle,
we've got to have that coordinating and that's the mayor's job.
The mayor's job is to lead the city and make
sure that we're coordinating between the all city employees, all
the members of the city team, from first responders to
those people out putting down the assault and the sand
and making sure that we are working as a team.
(02:27):
But you need a leader to do that. That's taking
that position as mayor and making sure they're there coordinating
that and leading the city, especially during a major ice
event like we had. But we just were not We
were not prepared.
Speaker 1 (02:44):
Yeah, if anybody's unfamiliar with State Senator Mike McDonald, you
have a lot of experience in the fire department, and
at one point you were the fire chief here. I
couldn't imagine being a first responder and a v quite
like that and have to be out on a call
and everything is basically an ice rank out there. What
(03:06):
would have been the right way for us to handle that,
especially considering the fact that there was some precipitation that
preceded the freezing rain that we got on Friday night.
Speaker 2 (03:16):
Well, you know, the idea of being prepared and the
firefighters are prepared and they're ready to answer that nine
to one one call, that emergency call when those citizens
reach out. For example, one of the fire trucks was
stranded for twelve hours. The crew was sitting in the
vehicle for twelve hours. Now that's just not acceptable. You
(03:39):
should have had a standard salt truck there as quickly
as possible to get them back in service because we
know the nine to one one calls are going to continue.
That comes back to the leadership and being there in
quarterbacking the city at that moment in time, with everyone
working together as a team. But again, we know the
game's not one of the day of the kick. If
(04:00):
you know, the game's won in preparedness and it's played
that day. But we have to be better prepared because
ninety percent of that victory is going to be before
the game even begins, and it's based on us being
prepared and working as a team in the city for
the citizens of Omah.
Speaker 1 (04:16):
We're speaking with State Senator Mike McDonald, who also is
a former fire chief of Omaha, Omaha native as well.
And while we have you here, I have a few
questions because certainly in the last month or so, people
have learned about your candidacy for the mayoral position of Omaha,
and there have been a lot of questions about different
things that are going on in the city. But also
(04:39):
one of the things that's kind of intriguing about you
is earlier this year we heard about kind of the
transition you'd made from the Democratic Party to the Republican Party,
and that's something that we actually brought up on this show,
which was fairly interesting. And You're not the only person,
at a very high profile person, not just in Nebraska,
but across the country that have flipped from Democrat to
(05:00):
Republican in the last couple of years. So what would
be the best explanation you could give to somebody who
might be an independent thinking person who is like, so,
why is this happening around the country? Why are so
many people who are in politics flipping from the left
to the right.
Speaker 2 (05:16):
Well, and I can't really speak for people around the country.
I can tell you that my position was that I
ran as a pro life Democrat in twenty sixteen when
I first ran for the legislature, and I remain a
pro life person from you know, conception of natural death
and in between. And the Democratic Party had been a
(05:36):
Democrat for forty years and was a pro life Democrat.
And again I was censured for that position, and I
wasn't asking the Democratic Party to agree with my position.
I was just asking them to respect my faith based position,
and that led me to a party change. And I
think I've heard from other people around the country that
you know, they have different reasons, but I can tell
(05:58):
you that that was the situation I was in and
that's what how I made. My decision was based on
not asking the Democratic Party to change their position on
pro life, but just to respect my faith based position.
Speaker 1 (06:11):
Term limits are certainly a thing in the unicamerals. You
will be wrapping up your second term here and this
could be the next step for you moving forward. I
have to ask about term limits though, because it seems
to be something that people are generally in favor of
around the country. Why does it work for the Nebraska
unicameral or does it work should there be should it
(06:33):
be looked at to be somewhat changed for Nebraskans, Or
is that the Nebraska set up something that the rest
of the country should look at and say, hey, they
actually have this right.
Speaker 2 (06:44):
Well, I'll go about to nineteen thirty seven with Georgia
Norris and the people in Nebraska decided to try a
one house system, and we are unique. We're the only
unicameral in the country with the idea of term limits
being put in. You know, in that discussion you could
go through the pros that cons of term limits, and
we've talked about it as state senators. Okay, should it
(07:04):
be eight years? Should it possibly be twelve years? Is
that the compromise on term limits and there is pros
and cons and the idea of that we are unique.
I think the people around the country should look at
the unicaral and how we do things as state government.
We don't cauc us by parties. We cauc us on
ideas and issues. So try to leave the Democrat, Republican
(07:27):
independent party at the doorstep and come in and just
work for the people of Nebraska. I think that's how
state government should be. I think people around the country
should look at the idea of the unicamer and how
successful it's been here in our state. But I really
enjoyed and was honored to serve for eight years and
the idea of caucusing on ideas and issues and not
(07:50):
by political party and working with different people on different
days on issues was a great, great experience for me,
and I believe it's the best way to run state government.
And other States should look at our unicramel system that
we've had in place since nineteen thirty seven.
Speaker 1 (08:04):
Well, it is certainly something that we'll be paying attention to.
Of course, you being in the mayoral race, you and
incumbent Mayor Gene Stothard, among others, will be involved in
the primary election, which is going to take place the
first of April next year. I'm sure we're going to
be talking multiple times between now and then. Senator Mike McDonald,
we thank you so much for the information today and
(08:26):
for your input on what we should have been doing
on Friday, and we'll talk again very soon. I'm sure.
Speaker 2 (08:31):
Thank you for having me on your show.
Speaker 1 (08:32):
Yeah, absolutely, it is three forty seven. We thank you
so much for listening to us, and of course we
want you to talk about your experience. I'll tell you
how my night went driving around on Friday trying to
get myself to that hockey game. I'm going to have
Matt Case talk about his story and we'll get yours
as well, because this is a huge deal. We couldn't
drive in this town. This is one of the fifty
(08:55):
largest cities in America. We couldn't even drive around on
Friday night.
Speaker 2 (08:59):
Emery song on news radio eleven ten KFA b
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