BELLE — Belle Alderman Rebecca Withouse said concerns about the wording of official meeting minutes from Feb. 25 led to a heated discussion after the March 10 session that ended with the resignation of City Treasurer-Office Administrator Charro Reasor. The mayor contacted Reasor on March 11, and she returned to the position.

Withouse discussed the situation during an interview on March 13, explaining she arrived to the closed session late after a work obligation and raised concerns about language included in the draft minutes.

According to Withouse, she first became aware of the wording when she received a photo of the minutes earlier in the day.

“When I blew it up and I really looked at it, I was very concerned about the wording of some of the minutes,” Withouse said.

The section that drew her concern involved citizen participation and referenced an apology made by Tracy Creswell in the Feb. 25 meeting.

The wording read that Creswell “spoke on the nonsense she made up and reported to the newspaper without fact checking her information. She said she can admit when she is wrong and she is wrong. Additionally, she made an apology to Charro stating she knew she was rude to her.”

Withouse said a person with legal experience advised her that the wording could present potential problems.

“This is official documents that you file with the state of Missouri,” she said. “This is bad.”

When the board returned to open session, she made a motion to reconsider the minutes so the wording could be revised.

She said the goal was to remove language she believed sounded personal or hostile.

“I wanted the potentially attacking language … taken out,” Withouse said. “Because we have a standard, there’s a code of conduct.”

Withouse was referring to Belle City Ordinance 113.490, which addresses employee conduct, and Ordinance 113.520, which outlines disciplinary standards for city employees.

One provision of that ordinance, Section (p), addresses inappropriate conduct or treatment of members of the public. City clerks and other officials are generally expected to maintain neutrality when recording minutes. Describing a citizen’s statements as “nonsense she made up” could reasonably be interpreted as inappropriate treatment of a member of the public because it inserts judgment rather than simply documenting what occurred during the meeting.

Another provision, Section (h), references acts of misconduct while on duty. If official minutes include biased or disparaging language instead of a neutral record of proceedings, that could be interpreted as misconduct in the performance of official duties.

The city code also includes Section (k), which prohibits falsification of any information required by the city. That section would apply only if the minutes inaccurately represent what was actually said or occurred. For example, since Creswell did not say she made up information, the record could potentially be considered materially inaccurate.

Withouse said she was attempting to prevent additional controversy for the city.

“The city of Belle has had enough legal issues,” Withouse said. “We don’t need more.”

During the discussion, Withouse said Reasor confirmed she had written the minutes. This is a duty that should, by legal statute, fall on City Clerk Cindy Barbarick.

This shows a shift from the stance the city had when it terminated the employment of former clerk Frankie Horstman, citing in their official reply to allegations by the state attorney general’s office concerning Sunshine Law violations that posting city minutes were the responsibility of the clerk. Aldermen Steve Vogt, Aldermen Jeanette Struemph, and Mayor James (Pudd) Mitchell were all city officials during that investigation.

Missouri law places the responsibility for maintaining official records and documenting meetings squarely with the city clerk. Under the state’s Sunshine Law, RSMo § 610.020 requires all public governmental bodies to keep minutes of meetings, including a record of votes and the substance of what occurred during the meeting. Because someone must maintain those official records, the duty typically falls to the municipal officer designated by statute to keep the city’s records.

In fourth-class cities like Belle, that role is defined in RSMo § 79.320, which provides that the board of aldermen shall elect a clerk “to be known as the city clerk.” The statute further specifies that the clerk “shall keep a journal of the proceedings of the board of aldermen” and “shall safely and properly keep all the records and papers belonging to the city which may be entrusted to his care.” These provisions establish the clerk as the official custodian of municipal records and the person responsible for documenting the board’s proceedings.

Taken together, these statutes explain why the responsibility for keeping official minutes and maintaining records, including meeting documentation and related postings, is generally considered the clerk’s duty. The Sunshine Law requires that minutes and records be created and maintained, while § 79.320 assigns the task of keeping the journal of proceedings and safeguarding city records to the city clerk. If the facts of a particular situation show that meeting notices, minutes or other official records were not properly maintained or posted, these statutes are often cited because they identify the city clerk as the officer charged with maintaining those records for the municipality.

“I addressed her directly, saying, I don’t have a problem with what you wrote,” Withouse said. “But I feel it could be a problem …I don’t like the language.”

Withouse said City Attorney James Klahr also expressed concern about the wording.

“He stated…that the language concerned him too because it was too personalized and not neutral,” she said.

Withouse said that the verbiage should be changed to,“Tracey Creswell spoke on an interaction with Charro, admitting she was wrong and admitted to being rude to her and apologized to her.”

Withouse said two aldermen supported reconsidering the wording.

“Jeanette (Struemph) and Seth (Klein) made a motion to go back and retract their acceptance of these minutes,” Withouse said.

According to Withouse and draft minutes received from the meeting, no vote on their motion was taken.

Withouse said Reasor asked for a piece of paper, handed it to another official and left the meeting.

“She stood up, said her stuff is going to be in her office, and walked out,” Withouse said. “She had resigned.”

Withouse said the mayor then blamed her for the resignation.

“The mayor…looked at me and said, ‘Now you’ve done it. This is your fault,’” she said.

Withouse said the council ultimately did not vote to change the minutes. She later withdrew her motion after it appeared it would fail for lack of a second.

“The attorney stated that the motion needed to die for lack of a second, or withdraw the motion,” she said. “I believed that withdrawing the motion would have it still entered on the record.”

Draft minutes from the March 10 meeting contain no mention of Reasor resigning and no record of the mayor’s comments to Withouse after the resignation. 

Creswell contacted The Advocate on March 16 and said that she felt the official minutes from the city were personally attacking her.

“It was a personal attack against me in regards to the mayoral race, that’s the way I feel,” she said. “It was a personal attack.”

Creswell said she spoke with Mitchell on March 11 and voiced her concerns on the issue.

“I told him that the entire thing needed to be rewritten,” Creswell said. “Because it was making me look like an idiot, because it doesn’t even reflect what was actually said.”

Creswell said that Mitchell told her he would have the city redo the minutes at the next meeting and that the reason the newspaper was covering this was for financial reasons.

“The mayor said to me that ‘the reason that this stuff is being put into the newspaper is because you guys are going out of business, and you’re only trying to keep your butts afloat,’” Creswell said.