BELLE — “We have never turned off a recorder and turned it back on unless we went into a closed session. We have never hidden anything from the public,” said Belle Mayor Daryl White, Jr. in a July 18 letter to the Missouri Attorney General’s Office (AGO).

White’s above response was to allegations of Sunshine Law violations made by Maries County Sheriff Chris Heitman in a December 2022 letter to the AGO.

Heitman’s allegation stemmed from a Sept. 21, 2022, open session budget meeting where a recorder from the Maries County Advocate was present.

“During the discussion about the police contract, a recorder was present, property of The Maries County Advocate newspaper,” Heitman wrote. “It was clearly shut off for 20 minutes during the police contract discussion and turned back on when it was time to vote. The newspaper has a copy of the recording.”

Heitman further alleged, “The sheriff’s office was informed of the city’s decision the following afternoon by the Maries County Advocate. The mayor later scheduled a meeting with the sheriff’s office and informed the newspaper The Maries County Advocate. By the following morning, the mayor had uninvited the newspaper and demanded to know why they received minutes from an open meeting within 72 hours of the meeting.”

While White has gone on the record to disclaim the allegations, Kayla Bray, an alderman at the time the meeting took place, refutes the claim.

“Everyone knows he is the one that turned it off,” Bray said about The Maries County Advocate’s recorder. “What happened was we were in the middle of our budget meeting and Scott John was at the meeting representing our sheriff’s department. He got up to leave the meeting because he thought it was getting ready to wrap up.”

Chief Major Scott John also confirmed that he left the meeting after noticing the city had allocated funds to renew the Maries County Sheriff  Department’s contract. John was head of the Maries County Sheriff’s Department’s Belle Division.

“When (John) left, Daryl started discussing stuff about the sheriff’s department, and after he started discussing that stuff he motioned for me to shut the recorder off. I shook my head ‘no’ and he motioned to hand him the recorder and he shut the recorder off. I can’t remember who turned it back on. I think Frankie turned it back on because she knew it should have been turned on the entire time.”

A former employee confirmed that the recorder was turned off.

“We were in the Lonnie Feeler Memorial Building and I am 92 percent certain (White) turned off the newspaper’s recorder,” said Baretich. “The recorder was sitting in front of Daryl on the table.”

A recorder that is property of The Maries County Advocate was turned off for about 20 minutes during the discussion of the police services contract discussion, right after White proposed to the board that they couldn’t afford a side-by-side purchase. The equipment purchase was approved by the previous mayor and board with funds allocated. White said unless they went along with his proposal to cancel the Maries County Sheriff’s Department police services contract earlier than February 2023, the purchase could not be completed.

White also denied in his closing statement that, “I have never personally turned off a recorder, or to my knowledge, no one has turned it off to hide anything.”