Facing numerous investigations feisty pol plots next move
Joe Jordan | Nebraska Watchdog
A feisty and embattled small town pol who wants a public promotion but shows no signs of getting it, is now looking to take his act private.
Scott Japp
For the last 10 months Unicameral hopeful Scott Japp, a member of the Papio-Missouri Natural Resources District, has been fighting accusations from Omaha to Lincoln.
According to Papio General Manager, John Winkler, Japp is under investigation by the Douglas County Attorney and the Nebraska Accountability and Disclosure Commission— probes tied to accusations Japp used his NRD post for “financial gain” at taxpayer’s expense.
Now it appears Sarpy County can be added to those looking into Japp’s dealings, while Japp continues to elude any official charges or rulings against him.
At the same time Japp tells Nebraska Watchdog it’s time for him to either “put up or shut up” and he intends to “put up” by organizing a company to help property owners deal with “corrupt government entities” such as the PMNRD.
Winkler calls Japp’s latest move “more baseless allegations and slander.”
Much of this stems from Japp’s opposition to a proposed 225-acre, $42 million dam site in northwest Douglas County due to be completed in the next few years.
At the same time the NRD is acquiring land for the project, Japp apparently is urging landowners to cut a separate deal.
According to a Nov. 25, 2013, letter sent to Nebraska Watchdog by the NRD, Japp made the following sales pitch:
“I have been asked to represent Canudigit LLC, a firm that wants to acquire a lease agreement for the topsoil and the mineral material aggregates on the section of land…that would be acquired from a governmental agency. This royalty would be addition (sic) revenue to the price you would receive from the sale of the land to the PMNRD.”
Winkler has called the move an “effort to interfere with the NRD’s land acquisition program.”
Japp is running for the Legislature’s District 16 seat, about an hour north of Omaha, against incumbent Lydia Brasch.
But if their first head to head meeting—they’ll face each other again in November— is any indication Brasch, who won the May 13 primary election 63 percent-37 percent (4,646-2,680), has little to fear.
Contact Joe Jordan at joe@nebraskawatchdog.org.
Joe can be heard on Omaha’s KFAB radio every Monday at 7:40 a.m. and KHAS-AM in Hastings every Wednesday at 7:30 a.m. and 12:45 p.m.
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