Rasmussen resigns from council

Lawyer challenges city's request to remove wolf hybrid

by Nathan Arneal
posted 1/07/09, updated 1/9/09

The suggestion by one city councilman that everyone on the council should have Internet access led to the resignation of another council member at Tuesday’s meeting.

Renee Rasmussen wrote a statement of resignation on the back of her agenda and slid it to mayor Karan Legler after councilman Al Wochnick said he thought everyone on the council should have Internet access.
Wochnick supported recently instituted pay raises for city councilmembers, which he said was to help cover the costs of Internet access and a land-based phone line.

“We are drawing a check from the tax payers,” Wochnick said. “My theory on the check from the taxpayers is that it’s basically to reimburse you for the expense incurred by sitting here. I have no other reason to want a check.”

Council members are paid $2,500 per year, a figure Wochnick says covers the cost of his Internet access and land-based phone line, two utilities he said he would not have if it were not for him being on the North Bend City Council.

The mayor and council members with Internet access are sent daily updates on city business.

“When I came on the council I was informed that I needed to have a computer and Internet,” Wochnick said. “It’s just an expense I incurred.”
At that point, Rasmussen, the only council member without Internet access, handed her resignation statement to Legler.

“You think it’s that necessary and I don’t,” Rasmussen told Wochnick as she left the room.

With council member Kevin Ferguson already absent, the meeting then ended for lack of a quorum.

Legler will nominate a person to fill Rasmussen’s seat for the Council’s approval at a later date.

Earlier in the meeting, the Council was addressed by attorney Clark Grant of Columbus who was representing William and Barbara Cooper.

The Coopers had received a letter from the city requesting the removal of their dog, a German shepherd and wolf mix.

In defense of its request, the Council cited city ordinance 6-203, which makes it a misdemeanor to harbor wild animals within the city limits, as well as Nebraska state statute 93.03, which also outlaws wild animals from being kept within corporate limits.

Grant disagreed with the city’s assertion that the dog was a wild animal. He said the seven-and-a-half year old dog had not had any previous incidents of misbehavior and was current on its vaccinations.

“If she has any wolf in her, she is considered a wild animal,” Legler said. “There is nothing that can promise that she will not revert back to her wolf instincts.”

Legler also cited a statement from the Humane Society of the United States that said “Crossbreeding wolves with domesticated dogs produces animals with the same wild instincts of the wolf. They are extremely unpredictable as pets, especially around children.”

Wochnick, a former wolf hybrid owner himself, said that rabies vaccines have not been proven effective in wolf hybrids.

“We do not want to have an incident that we could have prevented,” Legler said.

Since the city ordinance classified the keeping of wild animals a misdemeanor, Grant said that the proper course of action is to have the city attorney file a complaint with Dodge County and that the City Council on its own does not have authority to force removal of the dog.

“It’s the court that would have to determine if there is a violation of this ordinance,” Grant said, “not the City Council.”

City Clerk Theresa Busse said the city was aware of the proper channels, and that the letter was simply sent as a courtesy to see if the situation could be resolved before it headed to the court system.

In other council business:
• The council voted to commend mayor Legler for requesting and pursing the audit of the fire department.
• Councilman Jeff Kluthe asked that council members keep in mind proper dress attire when attending meetings.

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