Speak Out 5/14/14

Becker's

puppets?

Wow! Great job to the not so smart citizens of Poplar Bluff for electing in the current not so smart city council members! Hopefully in 2 years the smarter citizens of Poplar Bluff step up and vote them off the council. Poplar Bluff had so much going for it until Becker and his city council puppets got involved!!

Childish? It's

Don Schrieber

Who is being childish now? I think it is the D. A. R. Don Schrieber: Mad at the voters that voted them out. People were not having a say in the city. I hope Bagby did not foget his sippy cup or pacifier.

Redirecting

truck money

The money the city saved by not buying a new fire truck will help pay the salary the city owes former city manager Doug Bagby because he was fired with almost three years left on his contract.

How do you

recall council?

Please print the procedure for recalling the city council members of Poplar Bluff.

Way to

go Angela

Congratulations to Angela Pearson and others for firing Doug Bagby.

Council owes

explanation

Dear Speak Out, The City Council owes the taxpaying citizens full disclosure of their reasons for firing our city manager. $278,000 is a big additional financial burden.

Shame on new

city council

This is the message to the four city council members, not Absheer or DeGaris: SHAME! SHAME! SHAME! SHAME! SHAME ON YOU!

Council evades

Sunshine Law

I read with interest your story on May 6, "New City Coalition Fires Bagby." In it, councilman Johnson states, "We all [Pearson, Rushin, Tinsley, Brannum, and Johnson] felt the people wanted a change and felt that [the city manager's position] was the place we needed to start...Over the last few weeks, we met three at a time at different places to discuss it."

This appeared to me to potentially be a rather serious violation of Missouri's Sunshine Law, so I checked the website maintained by Missouri's Attorney General. It specifically addresses this, stating, "Under the Sunshine Law, a meeting takes place when a majority or quorum of a public governmental body gathers to discuss or vote on public business (§ 610.010(5), RSMo, and Colombo v. Buford, 935 S.W.2d 690 (Mo. App. W.D. 1996)). Therefore, if less than a quorum of the public body meets to discuss public business, it is not a 'meeting' as defined under the Sunshine Law. However, the Sunshine Law will apply to meetings of groups with less than a quorum when the entity is deliberately attempting to evade the Sunshine Law. See, Colombo, cited above. For example, a public governmental body may not purposely meet in groups with less than a quorum to discuss public business and then ratify those decisions in a subsequent public meeting."

I found this rather enlightening, and I'm sure that our mayor and council members will, also. Maybe they could pass a resolution asking the Attorney General to come investigate these deliberate, and apparently repeated, attempts to violate state law. I'm sure they will do so, because this new coalition has specifically campaigned on transparency.