Click on each image for a bigger, more readable view.
Both can be found online by going to the Missouri Department of Natural Resources website.
Go
here, click on the "Find" button at the top (It looks like a pair of binoculars) and type in "Barton."
It's interesting to note that Barton filed two seperate complaints for the same activity.
The meeting was to begin at 7:00 PM. Remember that.
6:34 -- Bob Grimes arrives at City Hall.
6:34 -- Frank Bernard arrives.
6:35 -- City
manager supervisor employee Gary Barton arrives.
6:35 -- Mayor Allen Deckard arrives, after a brief stop next door at the post office.
6:36 -- Buddy Rogers arrives.
6:38 -- They all gather at the door.
I found it interesting that, more than twenty minutes before the meeting was to start, they all arrived virtually at the same time, within two minutes of each other.
I have to wonder if they met somewhere beforehand.
6:39 -- Ron Cornelius arrives.
6:44 -- Rosie arrives.
The rest arrive sometime after that.
At about 6:55, I enter city hall. On my way to the water fountain, I find city
manager supervisor employee Gary Barton huddled with Jan Sisk of the
South Missourian News on the bench outside the office. At first, they don't notice me.
Gary Barton says to Jan Sisk, "You can enhance that for me."
Jan Sisk replies, "I guess I'll have to; I don't have any choice."
They see me and immediately cut off their conversation. I wonder what they were talking about.
The meeting begins as scheduled.
Most of what happens in open meeting seems mundane and routine.
Ordinance #999, regarding careful driving, passes unanimously.
Ordinance #1000, regarding where to drive on a roadway, also passes unanimously.
Bobby Ryan's bid of $3800 plus rent for a scissor lift to erect the city electric building passed, with Buddy Rogers abstaining.
Bid were opened to sell the 1968 Chevy fire truck. Norman Todd bid $100. Tim Garrison bid $426. Kevin Steed bid $551, and his bid was accepted.
There seems to be some question about the actual cost of a project on Sunset.
The meeting then went into closed session. The audience filed outside, where I learned that a citizen had filed eight complaints with the police department and the police department had not acted on any of them. In fact, the complaints wound up in the hands of Gary Barton!
The police had no business turning those complaints over to the mayor, and the mayor ABSOLUTELY had no business giving them to Gary Barton, whose job description seems to be something like "Utilities Supervisor."
What does the utilities supervisor have to do with criminal complaints? Not a thing. So why was he given access to them?
A reporter for the
West Plains Daily Quill was at the meeting, so look for an article there in the next few days.
