OMAHA- The Omaha City Council rejected Mayor Jean Stothert’s appointment of Ben Gray to the Omaha Municipal Land Bank Board of Directors on Tuesday.

Stothert had sought to appoint Gray, who lost his City Council District 2 seat in May, to be the District 2 resident representative on the board. But council member Juanita Johnson, who defeated Gray in the May election, opposed his appointment. So did a number of District 2 residents who testified at a public hearing on the appointment earlier this month.

Council members Vinny Palermo and Danny Begley joined Johnson in voting “no” on Tuesday. The vote was 4-3 in favor of appointing Gray, but that fell one vote short of the supermajority required by city code.

“My reason for opposing it is because land banking can be used as a tool to help those in underserved communities have a leg up in purchasing property in the area,” Johnson said. “In order for that tool to be effective, we have to be very mindful with who we choose to manage that.”

The land bank board has seven voting members, one from each council district. The City Council recently appointed Johnson to the land bank board as a nonvoting representative of the council.

Gray had extensive experience with the land bank, including working on state legislation that enabled its creation and on the city ordinance that created the land bank.

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