Nebraska Equal Opportunity Commission

Nebraska Equal Opportunity Commission

Type	Civil Rights Agency
Headquarters	Centennial Government Building
Location	Lincoln, Nebraska
Commission Chairperson	Patrick Borchers
Executive Director	Paula Gardner
Website	https://neoc.nebraska.gov

The Nebraska Equal Opportunity Commission is the state agency that enforces the Nebraska Fair Employment Act of 1965. The commission consists of seven members and an executive director. The commission receives and investigates civil rights complaints that allege unlawful discrimination in housing, employment and public accommodation.

Commissioners

Executive director

• Paula Gardner

Current commissioners

• Patrick Borchers - Chairperson
• John Arnold - Vice-chairperson
• Royce Jeffries - Commissioner
• Eric Drumheller - Commissioner
• Arla Jo Meyer - Commissioner
• Tyeisha Kosmicki - Commissioner
• Lynn Brennan - Commissioner

The current Executive Director (Paula Gardner) accepted the position in February 2022 after acting as the Interim Executive Director since September 2021 when the previous Executive Director (Marna Munn) resigned. Gardner previously held the position of Unit Director of Conciliation before her promotion. Chairperson Borchers is a Law Professor at Creighton University. Commissioners Royce Jeffries, John Arnold and Eric Drumheller are current or former business executives. Commissioners Arla Jo Meyer, Lynn Brennan and Tyeisha Kosmicki are Realtors.

NEOC Historical Background

The Nebraska Equal Opportunity Act was created as a response to the Civil Rights Movement. The unicameral legislature sought to implement its own state laws to complement the recent passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Originally, the law prohibited discrimination in employment. However, in 1967, it was expanded to cover equal pay. In 1969, to cover housing and public accommodation.

Criticism

The commission has been criticized for being slow to process civil rights charges, with a 7+ month delay reported for cases being assigned to investigators and upwards of a year for resolutions.

2018–2019 Civil rights enforcement outcomes

Discrimination against Latinos

In 2020, the NEOC was sued for failing to hire Latinos. According to a filed lawsuit in the District Court of Lancaster County, the executive director of the commission was accused not hiring highly qualified Latinos as civil rights investigators in 2018. Since that time, the commission has worked to become more inclusive. Between 2018 and 2019, the NEOC ran several ads in the Omaha area with La Nueva Radio, to improve outreach to the Hispanic community.

Lawsuits

In 1997, the NEOC was sued for wrongfully firing two of its investigators in the case of Shepard et al., v. NEOC. The Plaintiffs won the case but lost on appeal on constitutional grounds (separation of powers). In 1998, the former executive director of the NEOC was found to have fathered children with staff at the commission. A legal dispute would later arise in the case of Myers v. NEOC, as the State of Nebraska sought to remove him from the commission. In 1999, two former investigators sued the commission, alleging they were fired in violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act. Despite winning a jury trial, the case (DeBose v. Nebraska, 186 F.3d 1087 (8th Cir. 1999)), lost on appeal, when a Federal Judge ruled that the ADA didn't apply to States. In 2009, the NEOC was sued again in the case of Widtfeldt v. NEOC, for seeking to issue excessive fines on a respondent. In 2017, the NEOC was sued by a complainant for failing to investigate her civil rights charge in the case of Birge v. Nebraska Medicine. In 2020, the NEOC was sued for failing to hire Latinos and taking retribution on a whistle-blower complainant.