{"id":4541,"date":"2011-04-28T14:08:34","date_gmt":"2011-04-28T20:08:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/?p=4541"},"modified":"2017-04-06T13:29:52","modified_gmt":"2017-04-06T19:29:52","slug":"smith-gets-straight-to-business","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/?p=4541","title":{"rendered":"Smith gets straight to business"},"content":{"rendered":"

Above: Papillion Sen. Jim Smith at his family business, Norm’s Door Service, planning a project with the field manager.<\/em><\/p>\n

Even though he recently retired from Omaha Public Power District (OPPD), Papillion\u00a0Sen. Jim Smith has not had much time to enjoy retirement. In fact, he said operating his small business is what he considers to be his hobby \u2014 although he said he does like to golf once in awhile.<\/p>\n

And he has carried that work ethic with him to the Legislature.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have much less time on my hands now,\u201d Smith said. \u201cBefore [being elected to the Legislature], I was involved in a lot of community organizations and boards. But now, having retired from OPPD, this is my other full-time job.\u201d<\/p>\n

But how does he consider this job to be different?<\/p>\n

\u201cUnlike the others, I take it home more frequently,\u201d he said. \u201cYou are not off the clock, even on recess days and weekends, because you are meeting with constituents.\u201d<\/p>\n

But Smith says, the time and commitment are worth it.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs small business owners, my wife and I have seen first hand some of the struggles small businesses have in competing in this economy and creating and retaining jobs,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

It was for that reason that Smith decided to run for the Legislature. He wanted to bring diverse ideas, from a small business owner\u2019s perspective, to the lawmaking process with the hopes of creating a better economy for the state. But he has discovered his motivating factor to create laws would be just one of many.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think, probably as any senator would say, there are moments that are frustrating. Things do not always go the way you would expect them to with 48 other perspectives,\u201d Smith said.<\/p>\n

There are bills that appear like they would be easy to move forward, he said, but end up being opposed. But, in the end, he said, the frustration that comes along with the position is usually offset by the rewards.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is just nice being able to watch, listen and learn from folks who have been in public service for long time,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Even though he recently retired from Omaha Public Power District (OPPD), Papillion\u00a0Sen. Jim Smith has not had much time to enjoy retirement. In fact, he said operating his small business is what he considers to be his hobby \u2014 although he said he does like to golf once in awhile.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":21460,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"colormag_page_container_layout":"default_layout","colormag_page_sidebar_layout":"default_layout","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[167,18],"tags":[80],"class_list":["post-4541","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-features","category-senator-features","tag-sen-jim-smith"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/MeetSmith_blog2017.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4541","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4541"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4541\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21701,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4541\/revisions\/21701"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/21460"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4541"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4541"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4541"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}