Stoddard County commissioners are looking into a request by a group of citizens for Sheltered Workshop financial documents dating back 10 years.
The group of nearly 25 citizens packed the commission chambers Monday morning to express their concern about taxpayer money and how it's spent in the midst of the Senate Bill 40 and Sheltered Workshop disagreements.
The group, led by Mike McCollough, described themselves as concerned taxpayers advocating for the developmentally disabled of Stoddard County and many more who couldn't be in attendance.
McCollough asked the commission to act as a liaison to the Stoddard County Sheltered Workshop to retrieve a breakdown by year of the amount of money received by the SCSW from the taxpayers of the county for the last 10 years, a breakdown of all county taxpayer money spent by the SCSW for the last 10 years including who received the money and the dollar amount, the highest rate paid to a client and the average rate paid to all the clients.
"We will look over the list requested and decide what we can and can't get and how it needs to go," Presiding Commissioner Greg Mathis said.
Commissioner Steve Jordan said he didn't have a problem with what McCollough and the group were requesting.
"I think it will shed a lot of light when you get to where these funds went or didn't go," he said.
McCollough also expressed concern for the current Senate Bill 40 board's motion to stop funding Stoddard County Progressive Industries. He asked to poll each commissioner on their thoughts regarding the issue. Stoddard County Progress Industries includes a new sheltered workshop effort and Echos, a thrift store.
Mathis asked McCollough if a contract was in place and he replied there was a contract for SB40 to give Progressive Industries $100,000 seed money.
"If there is a contract in place, I'm not for breaking a contract," Mathis said.
McCollough replied he did not believe the SB40 board was asking to do that with Stoddard County Progressive Industries, but was concerned why funding was cut before Progressive Industries was up and running.
"It's no secret I'm for the new workshop so I'm for continuing funding of that," Mathis said.
Commissioner Carol Jarrell said she had no objections with having the new Progressive Industries building and Echoes.
"If you can employ the mentally handicapped, that's great," she said. "My only concern was you cut funding to the (existing) sheltered workshop. If you had continued giving funding to the (existing) Stoddard County Sheltered Workshop as was said on the ballot passed by taxpayers in 1976, I would have no problem with that."
Jarrell continued by saying her problem came when the decision was made not to renew the contract with the original sheltered workshop.
"I want every developmentally handicapped person to have a job and feel good about themselves," she said. "But I have a problem with the Stoddard County Sheltered Workshop having plenty of employees out there working and the contract cut. So I'm not for renewing this money to the Progressive Industries until the Stoddard County Sheltered Workshop is also funded."
McCollough reiterated he and the group of citizens were not representing the SB40 board, but were a group of concerned Stoddard County taxpayers who wanted to bring certain issues to light and ultimately help the developmentally disabled.
Jarrell apologized for including McCollough.
While Jordan did not want to be polled on just the question regarding his thoughts on the funding, he said since he was elected commissioner, all he has done is try to get information to find out where the problem between the SB40 and original Sheltered Workshop board began, and why it has continued.
"My thought process was to change board members to evoke a conversation to try to get where really the problem is," he said. "As far as trying to micromanage the new board, they weren't managed by the commission before and I'm not interested in managing now."
McCollough also presented a letter from the mother of a former SCSW employee who was at the workshop for 29 years.
In the letter, the mother of the former worker discussed alleged physical conditions and health hazards of the SCSW stemming from the agreement with Republic Services for employees to sort recycling materials. The letter also discussed why she made the decision to terminate her daughter's employment.
The mother claimed unsanitary items were found in the items brought for workers to sort through and her daughter would come home physically sick to her stomach from the stench and filth, as well as become nauseous when eating, talking or thinking of the conditions.
When calling the SCSW to give notice her daughter would not return, the mother claimed Devin Miller, who oversaw the original Sheltered Workshop in Manager Jim LaBrot's absence, was "rude and sarcastic and said she couldn't ever return to the workshop."
Jarrell added LaBrot recently resigned from his position as director of the SCSW and Miller was overseeing the workshop.
Mathis said while he has not seen the materials being left by Republic Services for sorting, he has known the mother who wrote the letter for many years and has no reason to doubt what was said in the letter.
Mathis also added he would say there are two sides to each story and Miller was not in attendance to represent himself.
In addition to the letter, Mathis said he met with an individual last week, with no affiliation to the SB40 or original Sheltered Workshop, who had concerns of the materials being left for employees to sort.
"I can certainly see where it could be a problem and I understand what (the letter) is saying, but I feel like Devin should be here to address it," he said.
McCollough then directed questions to Jarrell regarding the Sheltered Workshop. Jarrell serves as the liaison between the commission and the SB40 board.
As liaison, McCollough asked Jarrell if she ever looked at issues equally or has her allegiance always been to the original Sheltered Workshop board and LaBrot.
Jarrell said while she has been called a LaBrot follower, which Mathis said was done by him, her allegiance has been to the developmentally handicapped working at the Sheltered Workshop.
"My concern was the Senate Bill 40 board sat on $2 million and never asked if there was anything they could do to help since it was taxpayer's money," she said.
Jarrell went on to say she was lied to by the SB40 board after receiving building inspection results last year. She said the board claimed they would fix the building, but after receiving the inspection findings, they began looking into a new building.
Jarrell then took a turn to ask McCollough questions.
She asked if the new Sheltered Workshop had received a certified letter from the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education stating it was a sheltered workshop.
McCollough reported the process has begun, but DESE approval was only needed if funding was requested.
"This is all being worked on while getting clients in," he said.
The workshop will not be getting DESE reimbursement for the first 10 to 20 clients brought in until after Oct. 2 because of deadlines for formalities, McCollough said.
He added DESE will then be brought to the workshop for certification so state, private and county funding can be obtained.
Hires for the new sheltered workshop are estimated to begin by Sept. 1, if not before, McCollough reported.
Jarrell closed by reiterating her efforts between the SB40 and Sheltered Workshop boards to come to an agreement.
"I truly did try to get a good working relationship between the administrations," Jarrell said.
While trying to get an agreement, Jarrell said SB40 board members asked to look over how the county did their voucher system.
"I was accused by Senate Bill 40 members of not being very ethical in behavior," she said. "I didn't like that because I was working to get an agreement going. I was told they wanted to look over the voucher system and they came in to bring up ethical procedures."
Mathis admitted better conversation could have taken place between both groups.
"When we were voting on new Senate Bill 40 board members, I told my fellow commissioners this is going to go on for several more years," Mathis said. "I don't think this is anything that will be healed overnight although I know I would certainly like to see it."