The Kearney City Council met on January 13, 2026, at 5:30 p.m. in the City Council Chambers. The meeting included a recognition ceremony for police sergeants, numerous public hearings on zoning, land use, and code amendments, and approval of consent agenda items. Key topics included the approval of the Oldfather First Addition development, a discussion on proposed short-term rental regulations, and a decision to postpone action on the code amendments.
Okay, we'd like to thank the members of the Carney Police Department Honor Guard for presenting the colors this evening. Please join us in the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which one nation under the flag indivisible with liberty and justice for all. Can be seated. We will uh have a really special event here tonight. It's always great to see members of law enforcement here and the family of law enforcement that come together to celebrate each other. So I'm gonna ask Chief Excuse me. I'm gonna ask Chief Qualic up to give a few remarks, and counsel will go ahead and step down from the I'm sorry, Chief. Got thrown by my accordance with section 8414 of 12 of the Nebraska revised statutes. A current copy of the Open Meetings Act is available for review and is posted on the wall of the council chambers. Peggy, please take roll. Mayor Nicolette. Here Bush Cutter Moore. Here Schmidt Stratman. Here at this time, we'll ask Chief Qualk to come up and invite um police sergeants Derek Hosick and Austin Hubbard up for a few remarks followed by the oath of office and badge pain. Thank you. Thank you, Mayor. If uh Sergeant Mosek and Sergeant Here would like to come up there. Okay. Awesome. Um before I say it on already. So thank you for everybody coming here tonight. Uh we get a celebrate these two hardworking individuals on their accomplishment today. It's just awesome here to be surrounded by family, uh, friends, also all the law enforcement that's in the room as well to just so show uh their support to you guys. Um, you know, uh here, Austin here, Sergeant Hebert, he's joined here by his wife Monica and his two children, uh Melanie and Carter, and then Sergeant Posa Care with his girlfriend Pope and parents, and we just really appreciate that you guys are here because this really is a family celebration, a family event, and it is a big deal. Um so when we're looking at promote people, we're always looking at what we call it the three C's. You know, we're looking at competency, we're looking at culture, we're looking at character, and we really feel like it's very important as a department that we're hiring the right people and that we're promoting the right people. And we really feel like we are promoting the right sergeants here. They have such influence on the culture of our department and mentoring officers. They will um supervise as sergeants anywhere from five to thirteen, and they just have that daily contact, that daily influence, reading reports, helping them out with cases, and they really just guide those officers throughout their career. Officers will always remember their sergeants that they had that they have their grief by and that they have daily contact with. Again, go through the three C's, you know, when you talk about competency. Um these individuals are extremely intelligent. Um they both have college degrees. Officer or Sergeant Hebrew, um, he's our case law expert. Every week he puts out a um a message out to the officers about current case law, things that we need to be updated on, very important to us. Um FTO, uh police officer in charge, he's our emergency service unit, um, commander, or I'm sorry, uh team leader, where when we have a higher situation, we often um we uh often will um trust his judgment, his decision making um to keep officers safe and keep the community safe. So heavily rely on that. Um Sergeant Hosick, he comes from uh he has a history with uh the actress police department where he's actually a sergeant previously, uh K9 handler, uh SWAT team member as well. Uh and then when he came here um within the last three years at KPB um just excelled uh doing drone operator motorcycle uh operations and also very heavily involved with community engagement. So for them to uh relay that information, share that information with uh the the people they will uh need is just very very valuable. Um also you talk about character, you want to be uh promoting the right guys that have moral integrity, guys that will take ownership over mistakes, learn from mistakes, not blame others, and realize that they are there for the individuals uh that they supervise that those individuals are not there for them, and just really being selfless and doing the right things. Then lastly, you talk about culture, Carney Police Department. Uh we have a high um drive and are very passionate about what we do and we want to be doing a good job. And it's very important that we have the right supervisors teaching that to the officers that that again they have daily contact with. We want a culture where we're promoting uh community trust, public trust, and also um uh public safety, uh community safety. We want to be doing those two things. And we already explained their tactical backgrounds, uh, where they're both ESU members and compete for community safe, also they are heavily involved with community engagement as I discussed earlier. Um Sergeant Pose, he's heavily involved with Special Epics Nebraska and uh Sergeant Hibbert, you've often seen them at all our community engagement events, um involved at the schools, and it's just very important that they teach officers that same philosophy. So very excited to get both these individuals working as uh sergeants and just leading shifts and just very proud of both their accomplishments.