While Belle aldermen voted during a May 14 closed session to eliminate Belle Marshal Jerry Coborn’s secondary position as street commissioner, a title created to pay the public official a higher salary unrelated to police duties, concerns surrounding the implementation of the appointment continue. The board approved their minutes to eliminate the position at the June 11 meeting, which should make the job defunct. However, aldermen continue to ignore questions around the creation and alleged elimination of the position.

Public records clearly define the elected marshal as having a salary of $100 a month and no benefits, while the street commissioner position never officially existed according to ordinance.

The marshal’s salary is required to be set via ordinance and was last changed in 2020. The change took effect in May 2021 after former mayor Steve Vogt and the board of aldermen voted to reduce the marshal’s salary from $36,000 a year with benefits to $100 a month, without benefits.

This change in salary was a direct result of the board’s concerns about the police department budget and their alleged inability to hold former Belle marshal Joe Turnbough accountable to a job description.

Turnbough’s administration was fraught with fiscal issues, including a small budget and overspending. Despite Turnbough’s popularity among city voters, the board chose this course of action to curb the out-of-control spending that the department suffered under his leadership. Turnbough, working two jobs at the time, eventually stepped down from the marshal position barely a year into his four-year term. By then, the Maries County Sheriff’s Office was already contracted with the city to provide police services.

By attempting to gain more control over the elected position, the board created a situation that limited the marshal’s position salary, making it untenable for qualified candidates unless they had alternate sources of income.

Turnbough resigned as marshal on April 13, 2021, citing the questionable future of the position. He was hired as the interim Belle police chief on Aug. 29, 2022, by former mayor Daryl White, Jr., and the board. However, he resigned again on Nov. 1, 2022, due to conflicts with the mayor. Coborn was appointed police chief in November 2023 by the board with a $25 hourly salary — the same as Turnbough.

Coborn, still holding the title of chief of police, was elected marshal in April 2023. By law, he could not hold the marshal and police chief positions simultaneously. When he was sworn in as an elected official, it eliminated the police chief position, pay, and benefits.

Once he took the oath, he accepted the $100 monthly salary, without benefits, as outlined by city ordinance after the April 2022 election. The previous board and Coborn knew about the marshal’s pay because they tried to change it on Oct. 19, 2022, to $47,840 with benefits prior to the April 2023 election. However, the board was informed that the marshal’s salary couldn’t take effect before the four-year election cycle was over, which is April 2026.

Abandoning their attempts to change the marshal’s salary and reinstate the benefits, the board devised a way for Coborn to continue receiving his current salary. The implementation of their plan was flawed.

On April 24, 2023, the board may have illegally created the position of street commissioner, first by basing it on a repealed state statute and next by not outlining the duties and powers as prescribed by the Revised Statutes of Missouri (RSMo) 79.290, and lastly by not implementing the position in an ordinance.

RSMo 79.290 reads, “The duties, powers, and privileges of officers of every character in any way connected with the city government, not herein defined, shall be prescribed by ordinance. And bonds may be required of any such officers for faithfulness in office in all respects.”

With no record of an ordinance creating the position or outlined duties for the board to oversee the street commissioner, the city may have been illegally disbursing funds, providing healthcare, and other benefits to Coborn, who would have been entitled to all of these if the marshal’s pay and benefits had not been altered in 2020 by two of the four current board members.

Maries County Sheriff Chris Heitman said, “I think, based on all of the information I’ve received from sources, there is reason to believe there may have been crimes committed.”

By creating a new position and not fixing the ordinance outlining the marshal’s pay and benefits, aldermen have positioned themselves to maintain control over who future marshals will be, as only they can offer the additional job and duties for the position to be paid a living wage.

The street commissioner position was dissolved on May 14 by the board with a unanimous vote and on July 16, a building inspector position was created by ordinance. The Advocate is still waiting to hear an official statement from the board concerning the reasons behind these actions. However, the creation of this new position follows all state laws and provides Coborn with an appropriate, and well-deserved, salary and benefits package.

While that may seem good for Coborn, the board can use this as leverage to vet candidates for the marshal’s office in the future. If an officer chooses to run for the marshal position at the current salary, it will be at the board’s discretion whether or not to offer this same position to the next election winner.

Previous boards have been vocal about wanting to eliminate the marshal position, a proposition voted down at least twice in the last 10 years, which would allow them to appoint a chief of police. The board has ignored multiple questions from The Advocate concerning this matter since June 2, even though all of the information presented here, and those questions, are a matter of public record that can be accessed by anyone through Sunshine Law requests made to the city.

The 2020 board made the marshal’s position irrelevant to any future qualified candidates. With the creation of the secondary position, the current board has leverage over current and future elected officials by controlling to who they offer appointed positions, taking the autonomy away from the office as the officeholder relies on the board for their financial security.

The Advocate made a Sunshine Law request for public records to Belle City Treasurer Charro Reasor on July 31 regarding the creation and subsequent salary and benefits package of the street commissioner position.