I attended the November 7, 2023 Camden County Commission meeting at 10:00 a.m.
All commissioners were present.
The first agenda item was Big Bear POA.
There were approximately fifteen residents present from the Big Bear Estates POA out on Duckhead Road. A handful of them spoke before the Commission and I’ll summarize their complaints below.
The lakefront houses of their POA surround an interior hill that is being developed by a builder, Cary Osment. Osment has been clearing the top portion of the hill and the surrounding POA members felt that the removal of the trees and vegetation on the hill has increased the amount of water and silt that is washing down the hillside when it rains. They initially noticed that silt was being washed into the road that encircles the hill after it began raining.
As the rainy weather continued, 9 of the 21 homes in the POA reported some degree of flooding since the hill clearing began. Several of the homeowners reported that their homes had suffered significant interior flooding damage and they claimed Osment’s development was responsible for it. They aren’t able to begin to repair the damage until they’re sure that the hill erosion is under control. They’re also waiting to see if Osment’s insurance will pay for the damage.
In August of 2023, Missouri DNR came to the worksite and found eight violations. The commissioners asked if they had previously experienced any flooding prior to the beginning of the work on the hill? They stated they were not aware of any prior issues with flooding.
Cary Osment spoke to the commission to give his side of the story.
Osment explained that his crew had cleared the top of the hill, but they had never changed its grade. They had received some minor warnings from Missouri DNR, but those issues had all been addressed and resolved. The project is currently in compliance with DNR.
Osment is using professional engineers from Shoreline. He had reviewed the minutes of the POA and discovered that one of the affected houses had experienced flooding in the early 2000’s. In Osment’s opinion, the flooding is largely a result of poor drainage design and maintenance on the surrounding residential properties. He attempted to place sandbags in front of some of the affected areas when the rains were heavy, but was told by homeowners to remove them.
He has put up silt fences as needed and hydro-seeded the cleared area in August. August was the earliest they could seed without the weather washing it away. He also plans to put in a wall to stair-step the hillside midway down the north side of the hill. Osment is also planting Crown Vetch and claimed it should be as effective at retaining water as any “so-called forest.”
Osment mentioned he has had a contentious relationship with some of the POA members since he recently built his house in their neighborhood.
Presiding Commissioner Skelton explained that the Commission did not really have any authority to intervene in the project. The responsibility for enforcement regarding groundwater and soil erosion issues falls within the authority of Missouri DNR. He thanked the residents for their time and opined that the issue of the flooding damage might be resolved through the insurance companies.
The second agenda item was October 2023 Tax Abatements.
They were approved unanimously.
The third agenda item was Potential Ratification of Employee Handbook.
This handbook has been an ongoing issue for Camden County and the biggest point of contention has been how the issue of employee sick time and vacation time will be handled. The old system allowed employees to bank large reserves of vacation and sick time which they could then cash out when the left employment with the county. The sick time was reimbursed at 50%. This meant that whenever an employee decided to leave, their department might suddenly be faced with a big budget hit because senior employees had banked significant blocks of time.
A committee was formed which changed the time system to a PTO system, but they encountered difficulties adapting the county payroll system to process the new policy. As a result, they reverted back to the old system. Presiding Commissioner Skelton made it clear that he wants to reform the current time payout system, but there was a lot of wrangling back and forth because any employee handbook needed unanimous support by the other elected officials. There wasn’t any resolution on this issue at this meeting, but it sounded like they’re going to work on it with Commissioner Skelton as a new member on the committee.
The final agenda item was Discuss Veregy Contract.
Veregy has still not completed the final required items on their construction contract, but they are asking for final payment from Camden County. Among several issues, Veregy did not put expansion joints in the concrete work and the Wastewater Department (ironically) has been experiencing a lot of groundwater flooding since Veregy worked on their building. The Commission has proposed paying some of the money up front as an act of good faith and then paying the rest once Veregy has completed the work to their satisfaction.
(Honestly, at this point, it might be easier to just hire someone else to finish the work rather than keep flogging the Veregy horse.)
And that was that.
Among the Dogwoods 