City Councilman Jon Camp triggered a burst of parlimentary and partisan debate Monday when he introduced a resolution declaring that The Lincoln City Council rejects the Green New Deal, the controversial package of environmental measures being promoted by a group of Freshman Democrats in Congress.  The resolution was on First Reading, indicating that a Public Hearing would be scheduled on it next week, but Councilman Carl Eskridge took the unusual step of moving to indefinitely postpone it.  In doing so, he complimented fellow Council members Leirion Gaylor Baird and Cyndi Lamm, both of whom are running for Mayor.

“I think you two have done a great job of keeping politics off this dias” said Eskridge.   ”  To me, this is changing that.  I would rather we just postpone this indefinitely, get through this political process, and then the new Council do whatever needs to be done.”

Camp took offense at the characterization:

“I don’t appreciate the characterization that this is political” he said.  “It’s not that at all.  It’s just representing our citizens in a proactive way.”

Camp offered to withdraw the resolution in the face of the resistance, saying it needed more work anyway.  Eskridge had moved to indefinitely postpone the measure and fellow Council Member Jayne Raybould had seconded it, however, and refused to withdraw her second.  The City Attorney’s office was called in to referee the dispute, ultimately advising Council members that there is only a slight difference between withdrawal and indefinite postponement.

Next, Council member Leirion Gaylor Baird tried to direct the combat to a bigger picture.

“We as a City just dodged a bullet when it comes to water rationing, and maybe the Council’s time can be better spent discussing how to discuss our well fields in the wake of more frequent and severe storms and weather.  Not this.”

The Council ended up voting unanimously to indefinitely postpone the resolution.

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