Just four months after he was indicted, former Omaha City Councilman Vincent “Vinny” Palermo accepted a plea agreement and pleaded guilty to a felony charge of conspiracy to commit wire fraud by deprivation of honest services.

Palermo admitted during a change of plea hearing in federal court Friday to failing to disclose conflicts of interest when awarding money through his position on the City Council, and to conspiring with others to use nonprofit funds to pay for his airfare and accommodations on a number of trips.

“I agreed to a common and unlawful plan to commit honest services fraud by wire,” Palermo wrote in his petition to enter a plea of guilty. “I knew the unlawful purpose of the plan and willfully joined in it.”

The former South Omaha representative had previously pleaded not guilty to nine federal felonies spanning conspiracy, honest services fraud, bank fraud and wire fraud. The government will move to dismiss all but the conspiracy charge at sentencing, which is set to take place in November.

“As much as Mr. Palermo has been vilified and talked about and shamed, in the end, he did the right thing,” Randy Paragas, Palermo’s defense attorney, said of his client taking the plea deal. “He didn’t drag the government through what would have been a horrific trial for the city of Omaha, and for himself.”

As part of the agreement, the prosecution and defense agreed that Palermo’s federal prison sentence should not exceed 21 months. The honest services fraud conspiracy charge that Palermo pleaded guilty to carries a maximum sentence of 20 years.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Cheryl Zwart will recommend that Palermo’s guilty plea be accepted by his sentencing judge, Senior U.S. District Court Judge John Gerrard. Gerrard is not bound by the sentencing agreement and could choose to reject it, in which case Palermo could withdraw his guilty plea.

“If (Gerrard) decides not to accept the 21 month recommendation, the defendant is free to withdraw his plea, and we’d start all over again,” Paragas said.

Palermo is set to be sentenced by Gerrard on Nov. 16 in Omaha.

At the sentencing hearing, Palermo will also be sentenced for violating conditions of his federal probation, which he was placed on in 2019 after pleading guilty to three misdemeanor counts of willfully failing to file tax returns. Paragas said they plan to admit at the hearing that Palermo knowingly violated the conditions of his supervised release by leaving the state without informing his probation officer.

Photos: Federal agents search the home of Omaha City Councilman Vinny Palermo