Politics: Last Act of Defiance

Biography of the Author “Scott Bolinger”

              I grew up in Alliance Nebraska. Graduated from Hemingford Nebraska in 1987. After High School I joined the US Airforce and was stationed in San Antonio Texas for basic training. I attended Tech school at Sheppard AirForce base in Witchatafalls, TX. My study was in Civil Engineering as a “structural specialists.” I was stationed in Zweibrucken Germany after tech school and assigned to the “26 Civil Engineering Squadron.” There, I received my structural technician certification. After I was honorably discharged from the AirForce I joined the Army National Guard that was based out of Alliance Nebraska. The Alliance unit was a howitzer unit.

    I married in 1993 to Marilyn Holtzheuser  and I have a daughter (Jennifer) and 4 step children (Waylon, Brandi, Angela, and Chris).

   I studied Business management, information technology, motorcycle mechanic, welding, realty, fitness and Nutrition. In 2018 I decided to go back to college and get a Bachelor of Science degree. I went to college at the University of Nebraska at Omaha with a major in Political Science and a minor in Criminology with a concentration in government affairs and civic engagement. 

   My work history started in High School. I worked at Hoff Hause garden, KFC as a dish washer, a labor position salvaging telephone poles along the highway and Ranch Hand. I joined the military right after high school. After my military service I worked at a rubber hose manufacturing plant called Dayco,  a supervisor at a troubled youth center called The Nebraska Boys Ranch, taxi for RailCrew, rehab tech, and jailer.

    I started my first business in 1998. That business started as a network marketing company. Through diversifying the business it eventually turned into a property inspection and property management business. At that time I was working full time at the Nebraska Boys Ranch, full time driving taxi for the RailCrew, and trying to run a business. I worked every day for a couple years going on 4 hours of sleep each night. I started with nothing, worked hard to build up about $500,000 in net worth. In 2005 I Authored my first book on Self-Defense, and then eventually wrote 12 more books on self-defense, physical fitness and property management. 

  I started in politics around 2003 by volunteering as a Planning Commissioner. From that, I seen how our local government was being run and seen some grey area politics. The way they treated the people was not something I would do. The way the government was ran did not feel quite right. Seeing my own city council trying to take peoples lands in a very unethical way, spurred me to run for office. I felt that we needed people in office that were there to help people. To make sure they know that they have someone who will fight for them.

   I have had many influences in my life that helped me push forward in my endeavors. My sisters were full time students, single parent and worked full time. I thought that was very impressive to be able to do all of that at once. My mother was a RN and achieved a Master in Art. There were many times that she had gone back to college to further her educational goals. She also volunteered for the Disable Veterans Association for more than 30 years. My dad worked more than 35 years at the Rail Road and helped anyone that would ask. My grandmother achieved a Master in Dance and taught dance classes in Alliance for more than 40 years. During WWII she worked in a machine shop on plane parts. My great grandparents were business pioneers that started the first grocery store and first radio station in Alliance. My Great uncle was one of the founders of the VA Hospital in Hotsprings South Dakota. My Great grandmother was as an established singer who sung at one of President Coolidges ceremonies. My Barker ancestors establish peace treaties with Natives along with the Crawfords, Lincolns, and Hanks. My great, great, great, great uncle was Abraham Lincoln. There were many influences in my family tree that pushes me to get off my ass and get something done

My start in politics

Quote: Politics isn’t about complaining about the problem. It is about addressing the problems and coming up with solution to resolve those problems.

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    I started in politics around 2003 by volunteering as a city planning commissioner in Alliance Nebraska. I had served on that board for 5 years. I did not have a big interest in an elected positions until I seen some unethical practices being committed by city employees and City Council. What I seen was the city government trying to get approval on a program in an area of town that was falsely presented as a tax incentive. The city wanted to name an area as “substandard and blighted” to help create a program to have a tax incentive to give those business owners a way to help them improve their properties. That program ended up being just a government land grab scam. By approving the definition of a property as “Substandard and Blighted” gave the city the backing to claim eminent domain.

    At the planning commission meeting we made our recommendation to approve the program for that area as we thought it was a program to help the land owners put money back into their business. But what happened was the city government used the program to take over a city block by eminent domain because “now” it was labeled and substandard and blighted. The elected officials pulled one over on the planning commission. There were several land owners that did not want to sell. One of the

property owners just put $14,000 into their property. He did not want to sell, so the city sent the fire chief over there to condemn the property and was forced to sell at $10,000.  One of the city council argued in support of the 10k buy out by stating that it was the going rate for that property. But, by state statue the city would have to get three appraisers estimates to establish a claim for the going rate. I do not recall that ever happening. About 6 months later, we received another letter, same issue, different part of town. It was on 3rd and Cody. I did my job as a Planning Commissioner and talked to all the land owners that were going to be affected. Many areas were redeveloped and some areas had plans to add improvements. There were plans to add a new business on one of the lots as well. Nobody was notified by the city. When the city presented the “blighted and substandard” request to the Planning Commission they presented out dated pictures that showed a time when it was under developed. The City misrepresented their request. Pictures may have been 5 years old. Back then there was a vehicle salvage yard. But that area had a new owner that cleaned up the salvage yard and created a commercial storage area and then he updated the corner gas station. Next to that, the city showed a withered building. If there were updated photos it would have shown that the new owner put $16,000 into that building and made it into a coffee shop. Next door to that was an open land and the new owner of that land had an approved contract to build a new building for a video store. When I seen that the city was showing these outdated photo, I argued the issue and voted to table that agenda item until the city can provide updated information and the rest of the commissioners agreed. The city refused to update their information and instead, fast tracked it and bi-passed the Planning Commissioners recommendation and approved the substandard and blighted program for that part of town. I believe that when I went out of my way to make sure the city government was fallowing policy and showing that I had the people’s interests and tried to protect their properties that this was the starting point of me being black-flagged and targeted by the city clerk, manager, police chief and city council. For me trying to protect peoples land, our city decided to take a very personal vendetta against me. I found an interest in running for city council because of how people were treated that owned those properties. I would never treat people that poorly. But for the next

decade, I paid for my efforts in a long line of harassment that came from the city council, clerk, city manager and police chief, in which they had done everything they could do to micromanage my daily life and business which included a campaign of misinformation. They probably assume that by harassing me would deter me from speaking out, but it made me want to run for office again and again and expose their false and unlawful acts so we could eventually get someone in office that had the people’s interests at heart.

    I had written to Governor Johannas with concerns of the substandard and blighted policy and how it can influence the city to claim eminent domain and take over people’s property. The Governor stated that corporations cannot claim eminent domain. In the first case I talked about, the city was forcing people to sale out and they were claiming eminent domain so a bank could construct a new building in that place. The plan also included that the city would take over the old bank and create a new building for the municipality. The renovation of the bank was estimated to cost the tax payers 3 million dollars. So, the city took over the block on 1st  street and box butte so that the bank on 3rd and Box Butte would buy that from the city, then the city municipality would move to 3rd and BoxButte. But, after the city took over that property, the deal fail threw and the city was left with owning that open land area. They also had a bunch of agitated citizens that had their property stolen by the government. The second time this was going to happen, the location was on 3rd and Cody in Alliance Nebraska. In the second case the land owners were not informed of the government’s intent on claiming their property as substandard and blighted. The City Clerk stated that the city did not have to send them any notifications and that the cities only obligation would be to make a post in the news paper and that would be considered notifying everyone. The standard protocol on a policy that affects peoples land has always been to notify everyone with a letter and have a notification in the newspaper. In this case the city decided not to do that. I did talk to several business owners and nobody was informed. But there was a large corporation that had been muscling in on that area to

try and buy people out. I believe as a politician, you should be straight forward in how you conduct business. This was an issue that could have brought legal action to the city for an underhanded and potentially fraudulent act to gain people’s property. In this scenario, they shut down peoples businesses. Under the “Liquidation Act’, the city would be liable to reimburse the money that business could have made over the past 12 years.

    The way the city obtains property by claiming eminent domain is kind of a gray area tactic. No private entity can claim eminent domain. But, they can use the government as the entity to obtain property by use of eminent domain even under false pretense. That should not happen, but it does happen very regularly. You can argue that it is similar to the 2021 30-30 plan proposed by President Biden.

   The helmet law was another bill that I had discussed with the Governor. During that time I was a member of ABATE. ABATE is a motorcycle group that promotes the freedom of choice. Their main argument of freedom of choice is to argue the helmet laws so that motorcyclist can have the choice to wear a helmet or not. People should be allowed to make their own decision to choose to wear a helmet or not. It is at their own risk. I was helping promote a policy to get rid of or modify the bill, to make it a requirement up to the age of 21. But also to expand on motorcycle training programs. That way you are taking a way a safety feature but also adding a safety feature.

    Government land confiscations just never set well with me. But the government created the “Development Corporation” for commercial land development and confiscations and then a few years later created the “Re-Development Corporation” for residential land development and confiscations. Then created the “Bureau of Land Management’, which can take over Ranch land, farm land, and Native Land by utilizing habitat for humanity to save or preserve species. Over the past couple of decades the BLM has been part of confiscating hundreds of thousands of acres of land. They claim for species preservations, but I say it is for mineral rights. Land owners have tried to stand their ground, but usually find themselves in a federal prison or dead. Sounds like more of a communist society rather than a federal republic. Under the constitution, everyone has a right to property and to enjoy that property. The 14th amendment states that the government cannot deny one of life, liberty or property without due process of law.  Unethical politicians tend to find loop holes to get around the constitution and taint it, which slowly takes your rights away.

   I had run for City Council, Legislatures and Congress. Running for the House of Representatives is a larger responsibility that I did not take lightly. Every decision should be looked at as a whole by weighing the positive and negative effect. I have sent several policy proposals and policy change request to the local city council, state legislature and Congress.

  I do believe that we need to review and reduce different government entities as we have an extreme compounded government system that drives up our taxation drastically. We need to get some sort of grasps on that to be able to put more money back into schools, social security, Medicare or expanded Medicare and Medicaid.

    Another issue of interests is investigations of acts of government entities. It is tough seeing politicians continue to get a free pass when they break the law when they are supposed be accountable to the people. On accountability, I do not pick sides. I expect both sides of the isle to be accountable. I have fought tooth and nail in my own community and I will do so at any level of government. I have made pushes for expanded Medicare but in a more responsible way and I had set a budget and goal. I campaigned for this when I ran for Congress. I wanted to make sure our school system were funded well with proper food programs for breakfast and lunch so no kid will miss a meal. I also pushed to improve the farming bills to help fund and improve snaps, school food programs, and senior meal on wheels programs. We have the budget to keep the programs going, but congress was trying to kick millions of people off these programs. We needed good negotiators and innovators to advance trade. When I ran for Congress in Nebraska’s district 3 I campaigned to support the SNAP program as well as push for more trade in Brazil and India. Which in 2020, Brazil and India had the fastest growing economies in the world. It would be a no brainer to increase business with them. Unless you dive head first into the political brain fart of political misinformation and petty squabbles that we have seen at great lengths in 2010 – 2021.