Bellevue City Council member accused of sexual harassment, threatening remarks
A Bellevue City Council member is accused of making sexual and threatening comments. During Tuesday's council meeting, Councilman Paul Cook read a prepared statement listing the allegations.
By News Channel Nebraska
BELLEVUE - A Bellevue City Council member is accused of making sexual and threatening comments. During Tuesday's council meeting, Councilman Paul Cook read a prepared statement listing the allegations.
"No one should have to worry about sexual harassment, threatening comments or inappropriate behavior being directed at them," Cook said. "An elected official should not make a comment to an employee, 'You should watch out, I just had my testosterone shot.'"
Bellevue City Attorney Bree Robbins confirmed with KETV she has witnessed and/or been reporting the remarks. Robbins would not confirm which council member allegedly made the comments.
"I've witnessed and it's been reported to me multiple of those comments," Robbins said. "I've only been in my position since February, some of those other comments have been dated back within the last year-and-a-half or two years."
Robbins says the alleged comments are the reason why the city is considering ordinance No. 3978.
If the ordinance is passed, any Bellevue council member or the mayor could be removed from office for committing misconduct. According to Robbins, there's no ordinance holding leaders accountable for misconduct at this time.
"We've done all of those things to have conversations with this councilperson prior to getting to this point," Robbins said. "There's nothing that we can do and at some point people are going to stop reporting because there's nothing that can be done."
For the past month, many taxpayers have told KETV they're not on board with the proposed ordinance.
Bellevue May0r Rusty Hike says he understands voters point of view, but he hopes Cook's statement shed light on a current problem the council is facing.
"I would have an issue with removing an elected official from office," Hike said. "But when you see it on this side, we have no way to go. It's the only thing that we can come up with that statutorily ok to do."
The City Council will vote on the proposed ordinance on Dec. 3rd.