A vote this week by the Omaha City Council, a vote tied to Mayor Jean Stothert’s time away from City Hall, isn’t sitting well with Stothert.

It’s the latest chapter of who’s in charge of city government when the mayor is out of town.

Right now, when she's gone for any length of time it’s the city council president, but Stothert has pushed to hold off that transfer-of-power for five days and wanted to put the issue to the voters in November.

Democrats on the council have fought the Republican mayor and with Tuesday’s 4-3 vote, strictly along party lines, have kept it off the ballot this year.

Stothert issued a statement today calling the vote “partisan” insisting the change she proposed and unanimously backed by the Charter Convention is, “not about me, personal time off, or working remotely. The amendment modernizes a 65-year-old charter to acknowledge advances in communication technologies.”

During Tuesday’s meeting, when reports of Stothert being out of the city for 84 days in the last year found the council at odds, Democrats Vinny Palermo and Danny Begley argued their constituents oppose Stothert’s proposed change to the charter.

“Very few items that I ever hear 100 percent on, except for one and that was the executive branch being out of town. And I don't even care for how many days,” said Palermo, the council vice-president. 

Today Stothert said, “Over the last two months, as council members tried to stir up criticism about my travel in the last year, I have received fewer than 10 calls and emails."

Stothert’s statement was issued while she is out of town, due back in Omaha September 10.