Aldermen pass Belle ordinance reducing marshal salary, benefits

By Roxie Murphy, Staff Writer
Posted 5/19/21

Belle aldermen on May 11 passed the second reading of Ordinance 609 - Marshal’s Salary and Benefits with a contentious vote.

Following the second reading, Mayor Steve Vogt asked the board …

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Aldermen pass Belle ordinance reducing marshal salary, benefits

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Belle aldermen on May 11 passed the second reading of Ordinance 609 - Marshal’s Salary and Benefits with a contentious vote.

Following the second reading, Mayor Steve Vogt asked the board if they had any discussion. Alderman Sundi Jo Graham said she did.

“The community is not for this,” Graham told fellow aldermen. “This has been decided for a long time. I don’t care what anybody says.”

Alderman Jeanette Struemph disagreed.

“I don’t think so —,” she countered.

Vogt said the people re-elected Ken Stanfield and Josh Seaver to the aldermen seats — both men voted to contract police services with the Maries County Sheriff’s Department. 

“The people who were elected supported this,” Vogt said.

He believes the community supports the decision.

“We don’t have to appoint someone else to the marshal’s position since we are contracting police services to the county,” Vogt said. “We have confirmed that with MML.”

The marshal’s position isn’t scheduled to be on the ballot again until April 2022.

Graham said she is against the measure and that the board knows they are wrong.

The second reading was approved with a 3-1 vote, Graham against, and passed with the same vote.

The ordinance will effectively make the marshal’s salary $100 a month without benefits at the start of the next four-year term in 2022.

Vogt added that he has a meeting set up with Maries County Sheriff Chris Heitman at 1 p.m. on May 26 to discuss whose responsibility it will be to take care of future nuisance violations and citations. They will also be documenting the contents of the Belle Police Department evidence locker.