April 7, 2026 · General Affairs · 2,949 words · 3 speakers · 8 segments
Okay. Welcome to the general affairs Committee.
I am Senator rick holdcroft, representing legislative district 36, and I serve as chair of the Committee. The Committee will take up the nomination in the order posted this public hearing. Today is your opportunity to be part of the legislative process and to express your position on the on the proposed nominee. If you are planning to testify today, please fill out one of the green testifier sheets that are on the table at the back of the room. Be sure to print clearly and fill it out completely. Please move to the front row to be ready to testify when it is your turn to come forward. Give the testifier sheet to the page. We don't have a page today. If you do not wish to testify but would like to indicate your position on the individual, this. There are also yellow sign in sheets back on the table for each nominee. These sheets will be included as an exhibit to the official hearing record. When you come up to testify, please speak clearly into the microphone. Tell us your name and spell your first and last name to ensure we get an accurate record. We will begin each bill hearing. Each nominee hearing with the the nominee's opening statement, followed by proponents of the nominee, then opponents, and finally anyone speaking in the neutral capacity. We will finish with a closing statement by the nominee if he wishes to do so. We will be using a three minute light system for all testifiers. When you begin your testimony, the light on the table will be green. When the light with yellow light comes on. You have one minute remaining and the red light indicates your time is finished. Questions for the Committee may follow, which do not count against your time. Also, Committee members may come and go during the hearing. This has nothing to do with the importance of the nominee being heard. It is just part of the process. As senators may have bills to introduce in other committees, which is unlikely today. A few final items to facilitate today's hearing. If you have any handouts or copies of your testimony, please bring up at least 12 copies and give them to the clerk. Please note that thumb drive, cds, dvds, oversize documents, books, lists of signatures, and similar items will not be accepted as exhibits for the record. Props, charts, or other visual aids cannot be used simply because they cannot be transcribed. Please silence or turn off your cell phones. Verbal outbursts or applause are not permitted in the hearing room. Such behavior may be caused for you to be asked to leave the hearing. Finally, Committee procedures for all committees state that written position comments on a bill to be included in the record must be submitted by 8 a.m. The day of the hearing. The only acceptable method of submission is via the legislator's website at Nebraska Legislature.gov.
Written position letters will be included in the official hearing record, but only those testifying in person before the Committee will be included in the Committee statement. You may submit a position comment for the record or testify in person, not both. I will now have the Committee members with us today introduce themselves starting on my left. Mary dekay representing district 40, which consists of holt knox, cedar alvo. Northern part of pierce, northern part of dickson county. John cavanaugh district nine midtown omaha. Dorn district 35 grand island. Victor rountree. District three west. Bellevue east papillion and the lands between. Good afternoon. Jared storm, district 23, which should be butler saunders colfax county Senator john cavanaugh also acts as the vice chair of our Committee, also assisting the Committee today. To my right is our legal counsel, kevin langevin. And to my far left is our Committee clerk, barb dorn. No pages today, and we have just the one nominee. So. Mr. Gomez, please come forward. Yeah. Only one. Welcome to the general affairs Committee. You have as much time as you wanted for an introduction. Oh, thank you very much. Thank you, gentlemen and audience, it's my privilege to be here. I almost missed the meeting, the hearing today because we have an kind of pretty good accident on interstate 29. Took us about an hour to get out of there. So we're lucky to be here on time, you know? So. But god made us to be here. So
My name is antonio gomez. I born in mexico, but. Would you mind spelling your first and last name for. The antonio? A n t o n I o. Last name is g o m e z again, like I said. Was born in mexico. But I come to this great united states of america back in 1965. So I've been 61 years in this great country in 56 years in the siouxland area. Most of my life live in south sioux city and jackson, Nebraska. And during my. Time as a public servant, you know, I belong to a lot of quite a few boards, you know, college boards. And I was an elected official in 2007, and I took the oaths in january 8th, 2008, and I was reelected in 2012 and reelected in 2000, 2016. Dakota county commissioner, the commissioner as well served 12 years. Prior to that, I served on the mexican american commission of the state of Nebraska, which is probably latino commission now and stay what it is. I don't think they changed the name. I don't know, back in the days I was appointed by governor tom. And through those years I met a lot of good people, great people that sutherland chamber of commerce and sioux city, they have a delegation that go to washington, dc. Just stop me. If I were to to, to, to long. And that delegation started in 1975, and there's about 60 of us business elected officials and. Person that wishing to go. But that's a certain number. So I went from 2011 to 2016. And those years that I went to the state delegation, the purpose of it, as you bring your concerns and your area, you know, to the congressmen and senators. So I made all the senators from the tri state area, starting from bob kerrey up to mike johanns and the present people that feature. And I didn't you know, I had the chance to meet with him and. Senator, but I might. Johanns and all those people. So I served with all my heart and all my willingness, you know, and. This is part of my public service. I started my own business in 1981. So we own gomez ballard company in jackson, Nebraska. So we've been in business for 43 years, 44 years. And we provide products for meat packing industry and other businesses around the area. When we travel as far as omaha, sioux falls and norfolk, we can go farther than that because the local company competition, you know, they can have a better prices than us because afraid to kill you and those trips. So this this part of my life and I'm here.
I have the great honor from governor feeling that he wants me to serve in this race and gaming commission, and I'm like you, I told missus ricketts that any any time that I start a new board, you know, so you always learn things and I assume going to take a couple of minutes to learn all about it. Racing and gaming commission. So I'm here willing to serve my great country and I say my great country because I, I'm a united states citizen now. So anyway, in my state and the people in my county and my and my city. Okay, see if there are any questions from the Committee, any questions for the nominee? Senator dekay, thank you. Your business is right out there. It's totally on highway 20 where you have your house and the corrals and stuff there. That's correct. Right across from the landfill. Yes, yes. I drive by that several times a year. I was curious about that. Second, what what was your driver for wanting to be on the gaming board was suddenly thought about or tasked to do orr? Well. Like I have an interest in gaming, racing and gaming. Like I said, the only thing I know about gaming I. I've not really. I don't believe. That for me personally go on the casino and throw money on those slot machines because I think. I haven't had any luck. So I'm not. But I love horses. I, I even hold horses in my place out there. You know, I used to have 24 quarter horses and ponies for my kids and then my grandkids. But furthest answer to your question. I give up public service in 2020. Right? Right. The pandemic, you know, and I said, this is enough. I, I'm retired, but I think I'm missing a meeting here and there. You know, when I heard that this, this board meets six times of the year very efficiently, but and kind of like it, you know, it's not that many meetings. And also, I think every time you join a commission or board or anything, you met good people and you learn something. So I'm here to serve, like I said, but I just have a knowledge about the horses. No, I went to the horse races a lot, but I love horses. Thank you. You bet. Senator cavanaugh, thank you, chairman. Thanks for being here, mr. Gomez, and your willingness to continue to serve. I just had one question on the application. There's the parts of certify that I nor any member of my immediate family. You said, no, I can't certify. Cannot certify. Do you know. Say that. So it's one of the questions on the application. And actually, I think I pulled it up on my phone.
So it's the question is certify that I nor any member of my immediate family nor any other party having influence over me, has a material, personal or financial interest with any matter under the discretion or jurisdiction of the board or commission which I applied. I further certify that no other relationship bias or ethical conflict exists, which prevents me from fulfilling my duties as appointed. And you said you can't you couldn't certify that. Well, the thing. That I understand the question myself, it is that if a guy has a personal interest or willing to gambling and make money out of that and all, that's not my purpose. I mean, I'm sorry if I'm not well understand the question, but my this my purpose, my purpose is that I do my job as as well as I as good as I can and trying to stay away from any problems. You know, I mean, this, this problem, we say that. So you don't have like a family member who works at a casino? No. Okay. No, no. Or in any of these businesses that you have jurisdiction over. No, sir. Okay. And so your thought was that you just don't like gambling, right? Right, right. Okay. Sorry about that. Oh, no, that's a that's a. I still. Answer on my age, I still learn. Thank you very much for clarifying that. Any other questions from the Committee now, are you a quarter horse? Do you consider yourself a quarter horse breeder or. No, I just love these horses, you know, and later in the day, in the days, I kind of get rid of most of my quarter horse and I end up with saddlebred and friesians, you know, because I like the dancing horses and I participate in every parade in town, in the county and everywhere, because my horse is the joel very good. So it's just it's just a very phonetic guy about horses. I love those animals. And have you had anything to do with the horse track up there in south sioux city. Other than put a dollar here and there? That's no other than that, but in comparing the horse and cedar races. But I know that it's probably the end of put a dollar in there on gambling, so I don't have a problem with that. Yes. Senator k, one more question I've driven by before. Do you have any competitions out along the highway there? Because I driven by and you know, I've seen people dressed in mexican regalia for I don't know if it was a horse competition or rodeo or. Right in my place. If it is a holiday or something like that. We gather family and friends, you know, and I invite him with horses, you know, and we have a mexican colon orr chariot. That's what we call him, you know, and do some tricks with the horses and steers and so forth.
Like not, not any different than than here in the united states. But I also. Promote rodeos in south sioux city for 12 years, right in the old crystal lake park, you know, right along highway 20 and right across from the outfield. It used to be not anymore there. So. I really enjoy those events. And there was for the public, you know, I bring some. Great vans and there was a family type of occasion, you know, because I can see mom and dad with 3 or 4 kids, you know, and they just pay the admission and they turn them loose. The kids. And quite often we have kids come over to us and I can find my dad. I can find my mom was pretty sure the parents, you know, when they go in there, they just like a day off for them and they turn them loose. Because I had carousels, I had ponies, and I have swings and everything else. So yeah, yeah, I do, I do some, I like to do those events in my. And that's probably what I witnessed when I was given by. So you come by and you see us riding the horse and do something right upset. You come by there and you saw us. Yeah. That's that's those holiday weekends, like 4th of july, memorial day weekend and labor day and things like that. But I don't know for how long, you know, because tony's getting up in age, but I still love my horse and I still riding. Okay. Thank you. You bet. Any other questions? Yes. Senator rountree, thank you so much, chairman holdcroft, and thank you so much, mr. Gomez, for being here. I appreciate your testimony. And like you, I don't like to gamble too hard earned money to just let it slide like that for me personally. But that being said, I know you love the racing side of the horse side, but this is the racing and the gaming commission. How do you plan to. I know your passion is going to be there for the racing side. How will your passion also be for enacting the things that we need on the gaming side, even though you personally don't care for the gaming? Well, like I said, you know I'm not a gambling thanks to god that I don't have to have it so I can. It doesn't bother me at all. You know, if I don't get on the horse track, you know, realistically, I like that the main purpose that go there, you know, it's going to see this horse racing, stuff like that, you know. So I think we may learn to serve in the war. Like I said, you know, I like horses. And I think I want to tell you something. I always bothered about. Why don't we don't have a casino and Nebraska?
Because I can see most of the people from the area going across the river, and I can see sioux city doing a great things from the money they generated, the casino, you know, and good things. And he never was in favor of it, which is, I understand, I, you know, it's very. So when les morgan came and put in the ballot, I think personally myself, if we monitor those dollars distributed in the way it should be, you know, I don't see nothing wrong with that. And I, I do everything that I can to do the right thing and. And try to stay away from trouble, from troubles. All right. Thank you so much. I appreciate that. Thank you. Any other questions from the Committee? Is there anyone here who's going to testify? No, just here in support. Okay. Would you like to make a closing statement? No. Thank you very much for the opportunity to help you. Let me serve on the commission. Other than that, I will do my best, you know, and keep. Lord keep me health in my in my early my early years. No, my older years. Thank you. Thank you sir. Well, thanks for coming all this way, I appreciate it. It's always better to do the interviews in person. It is over the phone. Well it is. Yeah, definitely. Yeah, I prefer that. Thank you very much. Sure. God bless you all. That concludes the hearing. Oh, we do have we had no online or ada comments. I have to make that statement. And and that concludes our hearing for mr. Gomez. Thank you very much.