November 13, 2025, Camden County Commission meeting at 10:00 a.m.

I attended the November 13, 2025, Camden County Commission meeting at 10:00 a.m.

All commissioners were present.

The first agenda item was “Contract for Services – IV – D County Reimbursement Cooperative Agreement – Child Support Enforcement.”

This was an agreement between Camden County and the Missouri Department of Social Services for child support enforcement that would extend through 2028.

The Commission approved this agreement unanimously.

The second agenda item was “Lipp Law, LLC – Sarah Lipp Introduction – Camden County Real Estate Attorney.”

Presiding Commissioner Skelton stated that Sarah Lipp will be contracted by Camden County to provide assistance real estate and property issues. Lipp graduated from Lindenwood and Mizzou Law School. She was previously employed by the Missouri Department of Labor and has experience with the practice of real estate law.

She will specifically be assisting with the county’s zoning laws and delinquent tax properties. Her services will be available to the county’s elected officials and her billing rate is $200/hour.

The commissioners unanimously approved this contract.

The final agenda item was “Renewal of Missouri Association of Counties.”

It’s time to renew Camden County’s membership in the Missouri Association of Counties (“MAC”).

Presiding Commissioner Skelton observed that the annual membership was $10,000 and he questioned what exactly the county received in return for that money.

Commissioner Gohagan replied that they did receive MODOT training from MAC, but the county no longer uses MAC for any legal services.

County Auditor Laughlin pointed out that if the county wanted to use any of MAC’s insurance training, they would have to be members. The conference also offers many opportunities for networking.

Skelton said that each of the elected officials have their individual associations. In his opinion, the MAC lobbyists don’t work for the taxpayer. They work for larger government and more spending.

Camden County Public Administrator Tom Gorsline noted that MAC would move their conference from Margaritaville to Branson if Camden County dropped its membership. Commissioner Dougan said that the conference was a $200,000 boon to the local economy.

Nobody else seemed too worried about the loss of the conference. Gohagan wondered if there might be some benefit to staying in MAC instead of leaving. He felt that conservatives too often cede their ground and leave organizations instead of staying involved.

The Commission ultimately voted unanimously to renew Camden County’s membership in MAC.

In Public Comment, I asked about some issues that were discussed in past meetings.

From the April 10, 2025 meeting, was it ever determined if Camden County owned the Pier 31 boat ramp?

According to Commissioner Gohagan, the matter was investigated and the ramp is not county property.

Will a Commission meeting be scheduled to discuss UTV’s on county roads?

In the finest tradition of Missouri discussions, this triggered a fifteen minute conversation regarding UTV’s, but eventually the Commission decided to schedule a meeting for November 25 (Tuesday) at 2:00 p.m.

And just as the meeting was about to make a safe and peaceful landing, Commissioner Gohagan mentioned that he would like to discuss the county’s flag protocol. Gohagan read a post made on Facebook by Commissioner Steve Dougan wherein Dougan stated that an official order was issued by the President and the Governor to fly the flag at half staff in honor of former Vice President Dick Cheney.

According to Gohagan, he reviewed the presidential proclamations and there was no November 3 presidential proclamation to lower the national flag to honor Vice President Dick Cheney. There was a proclamation regarding Charlie Kirk and Gohagan observed, “Let’s be real, Steve. You didn’t want anything to do with that.” Gohagan felt it was disingenuous for Dougan to allege in a post that the Commission had disobeyed a presidential order.

Gohagan explained that Presiding Commissioner Skelton receives the emails from the Governor’s Office directing when the national flag should be lowered to half mast.

Commissioner Dougan responded that the White House did fly the national flag at half mast for Cheney. Dougan acknowledged that while the President never issued a Cheney proclamation, lowering the flag for him was the right thing to do, “the Christian thing to do.”

Gohagan complained that that there had been three days of public meetings afterwards, and Commissioner Dougan had never mentioned anything publicly about the issue.

Commissioner Skelton stated that flag etiquette has changed a lot over the past years. He was off from work when the email came in about Cheney. He was contacted by Commissioner Gohagan regarding it. In his opinion, the honor of the lowering of the flag should be reserved for fallen military members and heroes. He wasn’t necessarily a big fan of lowering the flag for Charlie Kirk but felt that it might be as appropriate or more appropriate than lowering it for other political figures. He agreed to lower the flag for Kirk because Kirk reflected many of the common values of this community.

Skelton was willing to put such decisions to a vote in the future.

In recent years, he observed that the flag was up and down at half mast virtually every other day. Even on Memorial Day, the flag is only supposed to be lowered for the morning. Skelton felt that it would have been preferable if Commissioner Dougan had discussed his feelings on the matter with him before posting about it on Facebook. And even better if he had discussed it before Dougan went to the county courthouse on his own initiative and lowered the flag himself.

Gohagan also informed Dougan that normally the State Flag should be removed when the national flag is lowered to half mast. Gohagan said he had received numerous calls from citizens complaining about that issue.

And that was that.

As the Camden County Gadfly, I usually take great pleasure in watching the facial expressions of county attorneys when the political hijinks of Hooterville start to go a bit sideways and what seemed like a normal meeting comes in for a crash landing. To her credit, Sarah Lipp maintained a pleasant countenance the entire time as she sat up at the Commission desk. She appeared unfazed throughout the deep dive into flag and Facebook posting protocols. She apparently knew what she had signed up for.

And when I went outside and walked to my truck, I saw the flag was still only halfway up that flagpole.

And it might have been a trick of the light, but I could swear I saw two ghostly figures wrestling over the halyard.