I attended the October 29, 2024, Camden County Commission meeting at 10:00 a.m.
Commissioners Gohagan and Skelton were present. Commissioner Williams wasn’t present (no surprise there) so Commissioner-Elect Steve Dougan sat in Williams’ chair. It was an interesting preview of how the 2025 Commission will look and I suspect it was not a coincidence since Dougan was wearing a suit.
(Keep your wigs on. He didn’t vote in the meeting.)
The first agenda item was “Gilmore & Bell – bonding agency renewal agreement for services.”
The Commissioner confirmed with the County Treasurer that she had reviewed the renewal agreement. The agreement fee was $1,750 per year for the next five years.
The Commission approved the agreement unanimously.
The second agenda item was “Southwest Missouri Forensics II, LLF. 2025 Medical Examiner services for Camden County.”
Camden County does not have a Coroner or a Medical Examiner so the county contracts with Southwest Missouri Forensics for their autopsies and other coroner services. The cost of the contract was $400,000 for unlimited autopsies in 2025.
(The old contract used to purchase a certain number of autopsies and then included an additional charge per autopsy if the county exceeded its limit. This new contract seems much less morbid.)
The Commission approved this contract unanimously.
The third agenda item was “Elliott Data Systems – card readers.”
Presiding Commissioner Skelton stated that upgrades to the county’s card reader systems were needed. The county’s old vendor refused to service the current system. Skelton asked the County Auditor if the county still had the $77,100 needed for this contract?
County Auditor Laughlin confirmed that the money was in the Building item line for LEST.
The Commission had approved this item unanimously at a previous meeting. They were just relieved that the county still had the money to pay for it.
In Old Business, Commissioner Skelton mentioned that the Sheriff’s Office had provided an example of an ordinance for UTV use on county roads. There was a discussion of whether the ordinance would require insurance for the UTV’s and who might be responsible for inspecting or permitting the vehicles.
The elected officials are still working on setting up a trust fund to segregate the LEST-2 sales tax revenue from the LEST-1 revenue to ensure it goes directly to the Sheriff’s Office as intended.
County Assessor McGuire asked if the Commission was going to address any tax abatements? Commissioner Gohagan confessed that he only told McGuire the abatements were on the agenda to get him to come to the meeting. Marty, as usual, was a good sport and everyone had a laugh about it.
The Commission then adjourned and confirmed they would meet later in closed session in the Commission Office under sub-section #2 (Real Estate matters).
And that was that.
Among the Dogwoods 