May 16, 2024, Camden County Commission at 10:00 a.m.

I, the Gadfly, attended the May 16, 2024, Camden County Commission at 10:00 a.m.

Commissioners Gohagan and Skelton were present. After a quick review of the agenda, this meeting seemed innocent enough. I was thrilled because I had to get to an Osage graduation lunch for my daughter.

It turned out to be what Camden County politicos refer to as “a banger.” Let’s just say that calves were licked more than twice over. So much for my plans. Mrs. Gadfly was not going to be happy with me.

The first agenda item was Second public hearing – speed limit reduction on Southern Cherokee Drive and West Lake Park.

A couple who reside on Southern Cherokee Drive were present to again stress to the Commission that they did not want the speed limit on the street reduced below 35 MPH.

A resident of West Lake Park spoke to the Commission and was in favor of reducing the speed limit on his road to 25 MPH.

The commissioners said there would be one more meeting scheduled to discuss this matter and they would then make their decision regarding any speed limit changes.

The second agenda item was Bid Award – Assessor’s annex building – siding.

According to the County Assessor, there appeared to have been some confusion on the part of the bidder concerning what the scope of work would be on this project. To avoid any confusion, the Assessor recommended the bid be rejected and put out for bid again.

The Commission voted unanimously to reject the bid and resubmit a new Request for Bid.

The final agenda item was Discuss potential restructuring of Elected Officials’ office space.

The Public Administrator had recently told the Commission that he needed more office space with private rooms to discuss confidential matters regarding his wards. There was some discussion about clearing out the old post office building for this purpose, but Presiding Commissioner Skelton mentioned that the Sheriff’s Office also needed more space to securely store evidence. Commissioner Gohagan proposed that the Public Administrator could be given the Auditor’s offices and the County Auditor could be moved into the old Treasurer’s office.

There was then a conversation about the need to keep budgets under control. Commissioner Gohagan pointed out that many people don’t have a good understanding of what the various elected officeholders do. He would like to see the elected officials host classes to teach the public what their jobs entail because otherwise, it makes it extremely hard for newcomers to run for an office when they don’t have a good grasp of what the elected position requires.

The County Attorney mentioned that a close examination of the requirements of these elected offices might identify even more responsibilities. He stressed the need for the county to perform more inventories as an example. Commissioner Gohagan stated that the County Auditor had hired an employee to specifically perform inventories as his main job function. A year after that person was hired, the inventories still had not been completed.

Gohagan said, “There is a lot of fat in this county and there is a lot that could be cut out.”

Presiding Commissioner Skelton mentioned that their recent efforts to reorganize the Road and Bridge Department had raised concerns about the difficulty in keeping county salaries competitive with private industry. County truck drivers are starting at $17/hour and equipment operators are starting at $18 or $19/hour. Materials have become more expensive and the Road and Bridge Department is having to search far and wide for quarry rock. Skelton felt that trimming budget costs would be more effective than trying to go to the public to ask for increases in tax revenue. People shouldn’t expect city amenities and services at rural county tax rates.

Phishing Emails

Commissioner Gohagan wanted to discuss his recent experience with phishing emails. This really grabbed the attention of the County Assessor until somebody told him that this was the wrong kind of phishing.

The county has been targeted by several phishing email attacks posing as county employees. According to Commissioner Gohagan, the former Human Resources Director received a phishing email that was designed to look like it came from him. The phishing hacker requested a change in the commissioner’s direct deposit banking information. The HR Director emailed the hacker a direct deposit change form and once he completed the form via email, forwarded it to the payroll department. Once Commissioner Gohagan became aware that his paycheck deposits had been diverted, the investigation into the phishing attempt was assigned to the Camdenton Police Department.

The HR Director told the Camdenton PD investigator that Gohagan came to her office in person and asked for a direct deposit change form. She claimed that she walked Gohagan to the forms and advised him that when he returned the forms, his direct deposit information would be updated. She said that Gohagan later returned the forms to her and she told him that the change would be effective by the next payroll. Gohagan denied that he ever came into her office to ask for any direct deposit forms.

Gohagan explained that what actually happened was that the HR Director received an email from a “jamesgohagan@outlook.com” and she gave the “spam account” the direct deposit information. She then took the form that the hacker filled out and submitted it to Payroll. Gohagan insisted that this form was a forgery that was signed with a signature that looked nothing like his signature. The commissioner said there had been a “lot of rumor and innuendo that I stole from the county in this manner.” According to Gohagan, this was completely false and other county employees had been similarly defrauded. As a result of these fraud attempts, the county has changed its policy to require that all direct deposit changes have to be made in person.

A citizen from the audience asked if the HR Director was going to be called back in by the investigators and questioned about why her statement conflicted with the email evidence? Gohagan told him that was up to the investigators. The citizen complained that it seems like there is a lack of effort and enthusiasm on the part of the investigators when it comes to these types of cases.

Gohagan commented that he suspects that he is currently the target of an investigation by law enforcement. He mentioned that the Camden County Sheriff’s office requested thirty days of video footage from the interior and exterior cameras of the Commission Building. Presiding Commissioner Skelton confirmed this. Commissioner Gohagan said, “It’s all political. I know that. I don’t take offense to it or anything, but it does get old after a while. It really gets old.”

Commissioner Gohagan stated, “You’ve got to think. Okay, here’s an investigator that’s watching thirty hours of us sitting in our office, working, drinking tea. I mean, it’s amazing.”

“Pretty exciting stuff,” quipped Commissioner Skelton.

County Attorney Green’s jaw was locked firmly in place and his gaze was fixed on a spot on the wall I could almost imagine him kicking Commissioner shins under the table.

Presiding Commissioner Skelton explained that phishing email schemes like these are why the county spends money on Huber to improve the security of their computer systems. Skelton argued that these phishing attempts are also difficult to investigate because the IP addresses are difficult to track and trace. Skelton told the elected officials to make sure their employees are vigilant and wary of the techniques used by hackers to compromise the system. Skelton pointed out that the language used in the Gohagan phishing email contained unusual phrases that should have provided some clues that it was not legitimate.

County Attorney Green also stressed that if county employees do encounter these phishing techniques, they should not be reluctant to come forward and report the incidents. It’s much better to immediately report the issue right away than to wait six months to reveal that it occurred.

Commissioner Gohagan concurred, stating, “All the time that was wasted on this little lie? I mean, come on. It’s ridiculous. You know, she got this email September 8^th. I talked to her about it. I asked her several times. ‘I never was in your office filling this out.’ You know, it was her word versus mine, but she was lying. What a shame.”

I obtained a copy of the email chain between the hacker and the HR Director. How did I get it? Maybe I obtained this email by assuming possum-form and digging through the dumpsters behind the Commission Building? Maybe I sent a Sunshine Request? Who knows? I don’t like giving up too many clues as to my modus operandi.

I’ve included a redacted copy here, but a close examination of the email exchange makes it look like a classic phishing scheme. After 20 years as a member of the Los Angeles Electronic Crimes Task Force and the Los Angeles High Tech Crimes Unit, I have seen quite a few of these emails.

You should read it from the bottom to the top.

The suspect created or “spoofed” a fake email account using publicly available email information from the county website. The language in the body of the email uses phrasing such as “change to my direct deposit details.” “Details” is a word commonly used in British English. Not commonly used in the Ozarks.

Starting the email with “Good Day” is also a little odd. These are strong indicators that the suspect might be Nigerian, a nation that began as a British colony and whose most successful export is internet crime.

I spoke with Commissioner Gohagan about this direct deposit fraud. The crime diverted two of his paychecks to a well known internet bank. He has since been reimbursed by the county. The theory that Gohagan might have intentionally diverted the deposit of his paychecks to an internet bank account belonging to someone else is obviously absurd.

I’ve also learned that the Human Resources Director for Camden County has since been terminated, but nobody has been able to confirm if she was terminated because of this incident.

And then it was on to the rabies discussion.

Commissioner Gohagan mentioned that Ordinance #7119 establishes a rabies policy for Camden County.

Dennis Bruns came forward and clarified that the victim of the dog bite was his son who works as a lineman for Laclede Electric. The dog bite made a small scratch on his son’s arm. His employer’s policy was to go see a doctor for a dog bite so he had the injury cleaned out at a walk-in clinic. His son talked to the dog owner, but the dog owner was not sure if their dog was up to date on its rabies vaccination. When he went to the Health Department, they sent him to Camdenton because the bite happened within the city limits. The city instructed him to go back to the doctor.

The bite victim asked for the records from the dog’s veterinarian, but the veterinarian told him they could only give those records to the dog’s owner. Brun also explained that it seemed like the Health Department was following a different rabies protocol than the hospital doctors were following. He felt that there should be one common set of procedures to follow.

They eventually learned that the dog had its rabies vaccinations, but it was expired. The victim ultimately decided to just take his chances and see what would happen.

There was a discussion about the current rabies policy. Commissioner Skelton suggested that there should also be some type of cost fee associated with housing a quarantined dog.

(Frankly, the current ordinance is pretty clear and lays out what is supposed to happen when a dog or cat bites or injures a person. If all parties involved would just make themselves familiar with the existing ordinance, there would be a lot less confusion.

If a dog bites a person and has a valid rabies certificate, it must be quarantined in the care of the owner for 10 days.

If it does not have the rabies certificate, the dog must be quarantined for 10 days at an animal control facility or at a veterinary facility of the owner’s choice. I’m sure most veterinarians would not be really excited about having a possibly rabid dog housed at their kennel.)

Ambulance District Maps

Dennis Bruns also is involved with an ambulance district and he mentioned the previously addressed problem that the district and sub-district map boundaries don’t match the map boundaries that the County Clerk is using. County Attorney Green explained that there is an existing process for changing the map boundaries. He suggested that the easiest approach might be for the ambulance district to adopt the map boundaries used by the County Clerk. Brun stated that he just wanted to make sure that their maps matched the Clerk’s maps.

Presiding Commissioner Skelton questioned why two maps of the same district would be different. Especially when both maps had the same date on them. The County Assessor offered that the differences might have been created because the maps were simply drawn rather than being based on a legal description. Nobody seemed eager to pay for the surveys that might be needed to create those legal descriptions.

And that was that.

So the final questions are:

Why is the Camden County Sheriff’s Office investigating the Camden County Commission?

Why did they request 30 days of interior and exterior camera footage for the Commission Building?

When will Camden County law enforcement learn to stay out of Camden County politics?

Haven’t they had their paws burned touching that fire enough?