Crawford County commissioners present proposed taxing board appointment policy on June 30.

  After the June 23 meeting, commissioners discussed with Prosecuting Attorney David Smith regarding the policy situation with the taxing boards, and Smith created a proposed policy.

The policy states all operational costs associated with each taxing board will be funded from the board’s budget, and all projected operational expenses will be included in their annual budget report. The policy continued by defining operational costs as, but not limited to, advertising costs and promotional literature.

Crawford County Library District Director Amy England first addressed the board on June 16, presenting them with a letter from her, a 2022 letter from the commissioners sent to the taxing boards, and a copy of state statute RSMo. 182.050 regarding appointment of board members.

In her letter to the commissioners, she explained that the 2022 letter required them to advertise board openings in the newspaper, which “generates unnecessary cost” to the taxing boards. She also asked that they no longer be required to provide recommendations, and that the commissioners take full responsibility for appointments, which is why England was confused with the proposed policy.

“I’m not understanding what that has to do with the appointment process,” England said. “The question was...the letter from 2022 is not, it’s above and beyond state statute. So, are you saying that you’re sticking with the letter from ‘22, and you’re adding this as a different policy?”

England said that the main question she has is what authority does the commission have to tell the taxing boards that they have to go beyond what is written in state statute.

Presiding Commissioner Steve Black believes the commission has every right to create policy that the statute doesn’t necessarily address.

“I mean, the statute is not going to be able to address each and every topic that comes up,” Black said.

He also said that if the commissioners just accepted the recommendations for the library board, then this problem would probably not have come up.

“We can still go with the recommendations, that’s fine, but the board needs to understand that recommendations aren’t appointments,” Black said.

District 2 Associate Commissioner Jared Boast added that if the boards want to just turn over the applications, they are welcome to do that.

Resident Jax Jenson said that the proposed policy seems incomplete.

“It’s just kind of silent on these other issues on what happens after advertising,” Jenson said.

Turning the discussion to advertising, Black explained that if the commission paid for it, it would be double taxing because money is set aside from the county’s taxes and placed into a fund for the taxing boards’ operational purposes. If the commission paid for it, it would be coming out of the general revenue funds instead.

England questioned whether they could advertise in other ways.

“Does it have to be a legal notice? Can it be a posting like you do for a job notice? I mean, like I think it depends on what it is, but sometimes you just post things on a bulletin board,” England said. “Legal notices cost a lot more than running just a help wanted.”

The commissioners agreed that as long as the boards can prove that they advertised, they don’t really care how they do it, whether that be a help wanted or a Facebook post.

They decided to rework the policy, taking the previous comments into consideration.

SEMA funds received

Treasurer Karen Sikes announced that the county received almost $321,000 from the State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA).

“I think some of it came from FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) as well. It was for the road districts flooded from 2024,” Sikes said. “Still waiting on all the stuff to come in to figure out which road district gets how much.”

She also reported that the county has seven CDs at Peoples Bank totaling $684,886.33, plus one more for $200,000 at Raymond James that will mature in September.

Boast gave an update on the damage to the Sappington Bridge Road bridge when someone shot fireworks off it.

First reported at the June 23 meeting, Boast said that a MoDOT inspector inspected the bridge and only found superficial damage. He added that a contractor that does a lot of concrete work will look at it to see what needs to be done next.

In other business, District 1 Associate Commissioner Mark Pfeiffer said that District 1 applied for and was awarded a matching grant for $9,775 that will be put toward a 14,000-pound, four-post lift with two 7,5000-pound roller jacks beneath it.

He also announced that Mike Pendleton said he can no longer brush-hog the county’s landfill.