I attended the October 13, 2026, Camden County Commission meeting at 10:00 a.m.
All commissioners were present.
The first agenda item was “Public Administrator Budget Amendment $12,000.00.”
The Public Administrator requested that $12,000 be added to his administrative fee revenue line and his Miscellaneous appropriation line. He will use the money to pay for maintenance and landscaping. He stated that he is allowed to spend 25% of the administrative fees his office collects.
An audience member asked how much the Public Administrator’s Office had paid so far on its new building?
The Public Administrator answered that they had paid the county back $84,395 in 2024. He had collected $33,820 in 2025 and those funds went into General Revenue.
Incoming County Auditor Kris Franken asked if this building payment was an annual end of the year payment? The commissioners confirmed that it is paid annually toward the end of the fiscal year. Presiding Commissioner Skelton noted that the revenue is supposed to go towards building maintenance.
The Commission approved this item unanimously.
The second agenda item was “Purchasing Budget Amendment $57.30.”
These amendments are usually reimbursements from the MU Extension for office supplies. The fact that I know this fact is a warning sign that I may have attended too many Commission meetings.
This item was approved unanimously.
The third agenda item was “MetLife Renewal Approval.”
Camden County’s insurance broker from McGrath Insurance recommended that the Commission renew Met Life as the county’s insurance provider for dental, vision, and life insurance. The county’s insurance committee reviewed the offerings from other vendors and decided that Met Life was still the best of the available insurance providers based on cost and quality of services.
The Commission approved Met Life unanimously.
The fourth agenda item was “Surplus Interpleader Lawsuit Approval.”
This item involved a dispute over a property tax sale and who should receive the surplus funds from the transaction. James Crowe addressed the Commission and made the argument that there should be no surplus to award because the transaction had been a redemption instead of a tax auction sale. It sounded like the owner had signed a purchase agreement with Crowe, but the property was sold at auction before the deal closed escrow. Crowe asked the Commission to table this item for two weeks and the Commission agreed to table it. Probably a good idea because this sounded like a property issue that might end up in an actual courtroom.
And what’s an interpleader? It’s when a stakeholder deposits money or property with a court so rival claimants can fight it out with each other in court instead of individually suing the party holding the money or property.
See the third paragraph of the Missouri statute in this link.
The final agenda item was “Sunshine Request Policy.”
Presiding Commissioner Skelton explained that this new version of the policy clarified where Sunshine Law requests would go when they were received. All requests would be processed through the County Clerk. They would only be sent to the lawyers if redaction was needed or if the request was deemed to be improper or not in compliance with the Sunshine Law.
Commissioner Dougan asked if the policy could be reviewed first by County Clerk Rowland Todd? The Commission agreed to table this item until Todd could review it.
In Public Comment, Kris Franken spoke to the Commission about the previous week’s budget meeting with the Commission. Apparently, some of the feedback from county elected officials about the Commission’s unanimous vote for a county hiring freeze has been negative. Franken recommended that any modifications to the hiring policy should be publicly noticed and voted upon. The recommended goal at that same budget meeting was to cut department expenditures by 10% across the board.
Presiding Commissioner Skelton stressed that there needed to be an effort to cut administrative costs in the county and re-allocate those funds to the Camden County Road & Bridge Department.
The Commission will place the hiring freeze on Thursday’s agenda and vote on it after publicly noticing it on the agenda. Presiding Commissioner Skelton wanted to be sure that there was no confusion about whether the earlier hiring freeze vote had been properly noticed.
And that was that.
