MARIES COUNTY— At a meeting last week, the Maries County Commission discussed allowing the voters to decide whether or not to make the county’s prosecuting attorney a full time job, and to increase the pay accordingly.

Maries County Sheriff Chris Heitman was at the meeting briefly. He asked if they are planning to attempt to have a full time prosecuting attorney and to put the issue before voters on the November ballot. Western District Commissioner Ed Fagre said, “We talked about it.”

Heitman said Maries County is the only county in the area that has a part time prosecuting attorney. Maries County Prosecuting Attorney Tony Skouby is considered part time and is paid as a part time employee, but he works full time. “He’s here every day,” he said, adding the sheriff’s office “bugs him” almost every day about something. 

Eastern District Commissioner Doug Drewel said if they don’t raise the prosecutor’s pay, “He will go elsewhere.”

The sheriff said and the commissioners previously discussed that state law states the full time prosecutor is paid the same as the associate circuit court judge, which is $146,812. Skouby currently is paid as a part time prosecuting attorney, which is $52,101. The difference, if voters approve the full time position, is an additional $94,711 for Skouby, which would be paid for with current tax dollars. The raise would begin at the beginning of his next term in 2023. 

Fagre said they can let the people decide at the ballot box if they want a full time prosecuting attorney. Drewel made a motion to put the issue on the ballot and Fagre gave the second and all three commissioners voted yes. 

“It’s something that is needed because we bug him to death,” Heitman said. “The jail is full.” 

Treasurer Rhonda Slone said Skouby “does anything we ask.” There have been and continue to be legal matters Skouby takes care of for Maries County. 

The sheriff added, “They’re handing down sentencing like we’ve never seen. It’s bad for our budget and the jail, but good in that we are reducing crime.”

Drewel said if voters approve it, the increase is about $100,000. Also, the sheriff’s salary has to be increased by about $30,000. He asked Heitman if he’s had an increase in his pay. Heitman said that’s now why he was there, but, no, his paycheck has not increased yet. 

Presiding Commissioner Victor Stratman said they need to do that. Drewel said, “Just pay him and get it over with.” Stratman asked if they should go back to the beginning of the year and back-pay from there, too. “Go back to day-one and catch up from here on out,” Drewel said. 

The sheriff said he likes his job and although he sees people in some very low places, he said there are “good people” in the county who are “just in bad situations.” It’s nothing like what he would encounter if he did police work in St. Louis. 

Fagre said he saw a man he knows at a retail place in the county who uses meth or some type of drug and “he was just a skeleton. I don’t know how he survives.”

The sheriff’s salary increase approved by the Missouri Legislature as part of another bill was contested by the Missouri Association of Counties (MAC) without success, they talked about increasing the salary in increments over a period of five years. Other counties have done it several ways, but County Clerk Rhonda Rodgers said most of them just began paying the sheriff for the entire amount. The sheriff makes $48,776 annually and the new salary is set at $73,406, an annual increase of $24,630. 

Fagre said if they increase it by 20 percent each year, they will still be behind. Slone said or when Heitman leaves office, they will have to “catch it up.” 

Drewel wondered how many years Maries County can sustain these increases in pay. The next step is to put it on the ballot. 

After the meeting, Rodgers said she had conversation with Skouby who said there is a time period between when the voters approve it and when the raise would begin. The November ballot would mean a salary increase approved by voters could not happen until four years later. The issue needs to be on the August Primary Election ballot. Rodgers said certification for the August ballot is due by May 24 so there is no time to waste. 

Two cents per ballot

Rodgers said she received correspondence from Elkins-Swyers Printing Company of Springfield, the company the county uses to print its election ballots. She was informed the prices for the ballots will increase by 8 percent, which is two cents per ballot. Once the supply chain problems are corrected, the company said pricing will return to its normal level. Drewel was skeptical about that. 

Rodgers said she is supposed to order a certain percent of ballots based on the number of ballots cast in the last election. It’s not easy and the primary election is more difficult because she doesn’t know which ballots Republicans and Democrats will choose to vote and how many. Stratman said they have to have enough ballots in any election. 

Rodgers said during the 2016 Election, she had enough ballots for a 70 percent voter turnout, and ran out of ballots. She made copies of the ballots and they were taken to all of the voter precincts. Those copied ballots had to be hand counted. 

“We have to have ballots, no matter how many people show up,” Stratman said. 

Rodgers said at that time she was trying to save money and who would have thought there would be more than a 70 percent voter turnout. It is just unheard of. She said during that election, those copied ballots were taken to every precinct. “I had people running ballots everywhere,” she said. 

Radios, telephones, TVs

IT Manager Shane Sweno was at the county commission meeting with several issues to discuss with the commissioners. He said Osage County Sheriff Mike Bonham emailed Deputy Scott John that Maries County’s FCC radio license is due to expire. Bonham used to work as the Maries County Deputy and apparently was the contact person for the FCC license, which must be renewed every 10 years. Sweno said it was a timely email from Bonham because the county FCC license would have been cancelled. Sweno was able to get it updated “just in time.” He also found out the other two radio licenses will need to be updated next year and the second one the year after. Now they know. 

Sweno received an AT&T price quote on service for the desk phones in the courthouse of $19.79 per phone per month. Currently the county uses Mitel and pays $22.49 per phone. He asked if the commissioners are interested in changing back to AT&T.

“I don’t want to go back to AT&T if Mitel is doing a good job,” Stratman said. “If there’s not much difference, just stay.” 

Stratman spent hours and hours on the phone with AT&T trying to unravel the complicated knot of AT&T service in the courthouse. 

Sweno said the panic buttons should be back in service. He’s doing a test that day. 

Stratman said they have an extra kiosk to clock in and out with that can be put downstairs for the dispatchers/jailers to use. Sweno said this will help as some employees are still forgetting to go upstairs and clock in and out. 

Sweno is working with the county clerk’s office to make some changes to the office technology to comply with the cyber defense the state is requiring to promote election security. 

On June 7 they will come to switch over the clerk’s network. Sweno said several lines may be needed to be run. They will put  the office in a more secure router for 24-7 monitoring for election security. 

Rodgers said the state is requiring her office to do this. The state contacted with a couple different companies and the state will pay for it. 

Sweno said they made changes after the audit and separated the county clerk’s office from the rest of the courthouse. He said the infrastructure is there for the election security project. 

The television on the wall in the county commission room was used for the first time last week. Sweno is a busy county worker and the commissioners said at the beginning of the year when they bought the TV for him to do his priority work first before installing the TV. It is wired to hook up to the county clerk’s laptop. They looked at several road sites including the Fish Hollow river access road, MCR 306. There were several fields to choose from to look at and many details visible on the maps, including the culverts on the road the plaintiffs in the lawsuit over the access want to close. Drewel said those culverts keep that road from washing out.

Stratman asked if when SEMA gets its floodplain maps finished if they will be able to look at them. Sweno said many mapping layers can be added. 

Keep graders running 

The price escalation of diesel fuel and the increase of rock, has the commissioners concerned about keeping the county roads in the condition they would like but may not be able to afford. 

Fagre said during the recession in 2008, they had to lay off road workers for a month because gasoline was so high. 

Drewel said recently Road Two has been pulling rock out of the ditches and putting it back on the roads. “If we can keep the graders running, we’ll let those truck sit.” They will have to decide which one they need the most.