BELLE — “The newspaper has never been uninvited to a meeting,” Belle Mayor Daryl White, Jr. wrote in a July 18 letter to the Missouri Attorney General’s Office in response to 21 bullet-pointed allegations of Sunshine Law violations made by the Maries County Sheriff Chris Heitman.

White claims the meeting scheduled to take place on Sept. 23, 2022, between himself and Heitman about the severance of the police services contract, was held privately at Heitman’s request.

“We had contacted the sheriff’s office and stated we would be addressing the commissioners about ending the contract,” White said. “The sheriff said he would like to discuss privately, and he would not discuss anything in front of the commissioners.”

Maries County Sheriff’s Deputy Chief Scott John refuted the information White provided.

“Sheriff Heitman was invited to an official meeting with Mayor Daryl White to discuss the termination of police services,” John said. “Sheriff Heitman felt it would be prudent to have a local reporter, Roxie Murphy, there to cover the discussion. When we showed up, the mayor refused to have the meeting if Roxie was going to be present and that they would only have the meeting if she left.”

John went on to say the sheriff did not refuse to meet with the mayor in front of the commissioners.

“The sheriff didn’t say that he wouldn’t meet with the mayor and commissioners,” John said. “He said the commissioners approve contracts but he makes the decisions on whether the sheriff’s department enters them or not. He wanted to talk to the mayor directly about contracts with the sheriff’s office. The commissioners don’t make those decisions and that is what the sheriff told the mayor.”

Former alderman Kayla Bray was present at city hall on Sept. 23, 2022, when White stopped Heitman, John, Murphy, and Alderman Adam Padgett along with herself from entering the building. She also refuted White’s claims.

“That was wrong because when (Heitman) was here (White) uninvited the newspaper,” Bray said. “He was the one that told us that we shouldn’t be talking to the newspaper.”

White closed his statement by “inviting the newspaper to send a reporter to all our meetings rather than a recorder so that there isn’t any confusion or misconstrued information.”

However, John said he was present for the Sept. 21, 2022, meeting and the neither White nor the board addressed him regarding the police contract.

“If the city is not trying to hide anything and a representative needs to be there in person, a representative from the sheriff’s department was there for 45 minutes (during the Sept. 21 budget meeting) and they did not discuss any details with the sheriff’s department regarding the budget or the contract,” John said. “There is only one reason a representative from the sheriff’s office is going to be at a budget meeting. No one on the council informed me in the 45 minutes I was there that there was going to be a discussion on the sheriff’s contract. They allowed me to leave without informing me that there would be further discussion.”