More allegations fly at council meeting

by Nathan Arneal
Published 1/25/23

Discussion with Sandy Vosler regarding potential violations of open records laws cumulated with the city council going into executive session to discuss possible pending litigation against it at the Jan. 17 council meeting.

Vosler presented multiple print outs of e-mails and records and audio recordings of previous meetings he said prove a felony conspiracy to withhold information from the public.

When asked by a member of the audience how this started, Vosler said it began when he lodged a complaint with the city about Ray Wesch running an illegal business out of his home on East 13th Street, which is zoned for residential use. He said the business was directly competing with his own legal auto body and painting business.
Vosler first lodged his complaint in 2014, according to documentation he provided.

In September 2022, Vosler made a public records request of all documentation regarding Wesch’s property, citing specifically any building permits. The next day city clerk Theresa Busse sent Vosler a fence permit Wesch had taken out and said there was no further documentation on that property.

In December 2022, Vosler specifically requested copies of the daily log from the second week in June 2016.

The daily log is a list of interactions Busse has with people who come into city hall. Busse notes who came in or called, what they wanted and how it was handled. She then e-mails this log to the mayor and council members on a daily basis. Busse said she does this as a courtesy and she is the only clerk in the state that does it. There is nothing in statues that requires a daily log be kept and distributed in such a manner. City Attorney Tommy Thomsen, who was at Tuesday’s meeting, confirmed this.

When Busse received Vosler’s request in December, Busse consulted Thompsen as to whether the daily logs were public records and subject to public request. She said they had never been requested or given out to the public before.

“I told Theresa that I had an issue with whether or not these daily logs were public records,” Thompsen said to Vosler. “So I did some checking on that, and I determined that they were, and I told Theresa to give them to you. So you have them now. No harm, no foul.”

Vosler disagreed, saying that since he did not receive the log entries within the four days required by law for an open records request, that Busse violated the law and should be fired.

“You may go to the state of Nebraska,” Thomsen said, “but I am advising this council that there was no harm, no foul.”

Vosler also said he was targeted by the city after asking for details when his shop turned up on the city’s list of nuisances in October.
His property was first put on the list earlier in the summer, but he did not receive the notice letter because the wrong address was used, Busse said. Citations included tires, weeds, debris and inoperable and/or unlicensed vehicles. Several dozen properties around North Bend received such letters last year.

After he cleaned up his business property at Sixth and Hickory streets in North Bend, Vosler’s property was removed from the list.

At the Nov. 1 Council meeting, Vosler asked who made the complaint on the property. Vosler played a recording from the Nov. 1 meeting of Councilman Bart Bosco saying to Vosler, “Ordinance enforcement, when we don’t get complaints, we really have no reason to even think about it. Do you understand that? So if you want to push it, it could come back to bite you in the butt.”

Vosler said three days after that meeting, he got a letter in the mail requesting nuisances on his property be cleaned up.

“That letter was sent out three days, three business days, after you threatened me at that meeting,” Vosler said. “I checked the postdate on the later. Three business days after you told me that it was going to come back and bite me in the butt.”

Bosco said his comment wasn’t a threat.

“Three days later,” Vosler said, speaking to Bosco, “you and Theresa met out in front of city hall and conspired together to put down on record that it was a neighbor who wanted to remain anonymous that didn’t want to tangle.”

At the Nov. 1 Council meeting, Bosco said the complaint came from the Board of Health, which periodically drives around looking for nuisances and of which Bosco is a member.

Vosler pointed out that the Oct. 20 daily log that he acquired a copy of says the complaint came from a neighbor “that doesn’t want on record to tangle with Sandy.”

Vosler said since Bosco said the complaint came from him and the Board of Health, that Busse lied in the daily log by saying it came from a neighbor, therefore illegally altering a public record she knew to be false, a Class II misdemeanor according to statue.

At last Tuesday’s meeting, Bosco said he stands by his statement of the Board of Health making the complaint, and said he never said there were no other complaints. There could have been a Board of Health and a neighbor complain.

Busse said this was the case.

“I have a neighbor (of Volser’s shop) that complained about it,” she said. “I don’t have it on the record because she didn’t want her name on the record. I have a person who complained to me, and I can tell my attorney that.”

Bosco asked where Vosler was going with all this. Vosler said that would be revealed later.

“This is just to show that there is a conspiracy to without information from the public by three individuals on this board and the head of this office,” Vosler said.

Bosco asked Thompsen, the city’s attorney, if he was hearing evidence of a conspiracy to withhold information.

“Nothing,” Thompsen said. “This is wasting a lot of time with nothing but hearsay information.”

Thompsen said if Vosler wanted to pursue it further, he should file a complaint with the county attorney or the Nebraska Attorney General’s office.

Vosler said it’s not about Wesch’s property or business any more.

“It’s about you guys just running wild,” Vosler told the council mebers. “Fast and loose. (Busse) breaking the law, him conspiring to break the law with her. Felony level stuff. Perjury. Sitting here and lying about it.”

Soon after, councilman Ken Streff moved to put the meeting into executive session to discuss potential pending litigation against the council.

After the executive session, the council moved on with its agenda.
Near the end of the meeting, Vosler asked when the council voted to end the daily logs. He was told there was no vote and that the mayor decided to end the practice. Vosler said to end a public record takes a vote of the council.

“They were done voluntarily,” Thompsen, the attorney, said. “They can be terminated voluntarily by the mayor. It doesn’t take any action by the board.”

Vosler continued to voice his opinion that ending the daily logs without a council vote was illegal. Thompsen suggested the council move on with the meeting. Vosler said that was a violation of his rights and the open meetings act by not letting him continue speaking.

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