I attended the October 24, 2025, Camden County Commission meeting at 9:00 a.m.
All commissioners were present.
The only item on the agenda was “Dispatching Agreement with City of Camdenton.”
This was an agreement for the Camden County County Sheriff’s Office to supply radio dispatching services to the City of Camdenton. Presiding Commissioner Skelton explained that there was a change in the agreement that would increase the cost 5% each year beyond 2026 and would be capped at a 15% increase.
Renee Kingston, City Clerk for Camdenton, stated that she appreciated what the Sheriff’s Office does for the city. She recommended that future dispatching contracts be based on CPI increases.
Sheriff Edgar mentioned that they had been making an effort to update their dispatching contracts with the county’s municipalities. He’s willing to work with those agencies and doesn’t want to put a financial strain on them.
This new dispatching agreement was approved unanimously by the Commission.
In Public Comment, the Sheriff informed the commissioners that the current Missouri sheriff pension system requires him to contribute 5% of his pre-tax salary to fund the pension plan. He hoped that the Commission might consider having the county make that contribution instead.
(A recent ballot measure that was supposed to fund the Missouri sheriffs’ pension with a $3 fee on all court cases was soundly defeated by Missouri voters. An earlier version of this court fee had previously supported the pension, but it was declared unconstitutional by the Missouri Supreme Court in 2021. Legislation passed in 2025 has maintained the pension contribution at 5% of Sheriff salaries and $1.75 from the per diem the state pays to house prison inmates.
To be clear, this is a issue that impacts only the actual sheriffs of Missouri’s counties, not their deputies.
These pension problems cropped up due to 2021 legislation that raised the salaries of all sheriffs in 1st and 2nd class counties to 80% of the salary of an associate circuit judge. This is currently $130,720. At the time, this pay raise was a windfall for many sheriffs, but having the base salaries of so many potential retirees leap forward would put a strain on any defined benefit pension plan.
To give you an idea of the impact this had on Camden County, the Sheriff’s salary rocketed overnight from $72,000 in 2021 to $117,449.54 in 2022 [Camden County 2023 Budget])
There was some discussion of possible solutions to this issue. Presiding Commissioner Skelton observed that the Missouri Sheriff pension was supposed to be partly funded from inmate per diem payments. Skelton suggested that the Sheriff should let him know when he would like this issue to be put on the Commission agenda for a formal discussion.
And that was that.
Among the Dogwoods 