A group of nearly 25 Stoddard County citizens packed the commission chambers Monday morning to express their concern to commissioners 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 to and the dollar amount and the highest rate paid to the 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 was asking.
"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 of 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.
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 Sheltered Workshop. If you had continued giving funding to the 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.
"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 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 and 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 the notice her daughter would not be returning, the mother claimed Devin Miller, who oversaw the 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 doubt to believe what is said in the letter to be true.
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 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 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 a couple questions to McCollough.
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."
Hazard Mitigation Meeting
Bootheel Regional Planning Commission Director Hannah Barnett reported to commissioners a hazard mitigation meeting would be held from 10 a.m. to 11 a.m. Wednesday, Aug. 22 at the Bootheel Regional Planning Commission in Dexter.
Anyone involved in emergency management is invited and letters were sent to police, fire and EMS workers to attend, she said.
"The more participation we have, the faster plans go so we need the commission to help encourage people to attend," Barnett said.
At this time, hazard mitigation is about a year behind, she reported.
Castor Township
The Stoddard County Commission met in special session last Tuesday evening to move the Castor Township board forward following the arrest and resignation of two board members.
Mathis said he was asked why the commission moved so quickly on appointing Virginia Gant as treasurer and Dale Moreland as president.
"For the business of Castor Township, it had to move forward in an expeditious manner," he said. "There were bills to be paid and at that point we had two good recommendations we were more than comfortable with filling the terms until April."
He added citizens will have the chance to vote in April if they do not approve of the appointments.
Employee Retirement
Several months ago, Collector Carla Moore asked the commission what it would cost the county to move employee retirement to the next level of LAGERS.
To help assist with the increase, Moore volunteered to take on employee salaries in her office through the collector's maintenance fund and free up money for the county.
"In the past we never had a mechanism to help fund and Carla gave an option if we desire to do so," Mathis said.
County Clerk Joe Watson reported LAGERS pays employees 1.5 percent of their average monthly salary for the past five years. This costs the county 7.1 percent for government employees and 6.1 percent for law enforcement employees.
This runs the county about $10,500 per month at the L7 level of LAGERS. If the county were to go to an L6 LAGER level, it would pay two percent of their average monthly salary for the past five years.
This would double from 7.1 percent to 14.2 percent and cost the county about $20,000 per month based on current salaries, Watson said.
Several elected officials were in agreement whether the county could afford the jump later.
"We might can afford it now, but down the road is what we have to look at," Recorder of Deeds Kay Asbell said.
Asbell asked if the level move could be revisited at a later time, which Mathis said it could.
Moore then questioned what the cost for of the average monthly salary of the past three years would cost the county.
"We asked and found out we can't afford, so we can ask something new," Mathis said.
Jail Expansion
With the passing of Propositions 1 and 2 last week, the county is preparing to look into funding mechanisms for the project.
The commission will look into the options of private financing versus a bonding company.
"I think we need to get some legal advice to stay within parameters of the law," Jordan said.
Mathis appointed Jordan in charge of finances and information gathering for the project and requested a weekly update regarding the jail expansion.
Collection of the taxes for the project will begin Jan. 1, 2019.
Crime Victim Advocate
When the grant for the crime victim advocate was taken out over two years ago, Mathis said the commission was told it would not cost the county anything.
"This is a dual position between Dunklin and Stoddard County," he said with Stoddard County paying the bills.
At this point, Mathis reported bills have tallied close to $10,000.
Prior to adoption and acceptance of the 2018 budget, Mathis reported Prosecuting Attorney Russ Oliver addressed the commission about speaking with Dunklin County for sharing the cost.
Several months ago, Jordan asked Oliver to update the commission if an agreement was reached with Dunklin County, but had not heard from him yet. Oliver was out of town during Monday's meeting.
"No money was put into the 2018 budget to continue the crime victim advocate position," Mathis said.
He reported Oliver, Watson and the commission have requested to meet next week to discuss the position and what direction to go budget wise.