[Italics added for emphasis]

City Administrator Wes Young: “We have some challenges ahead if we don’t [pass water and sewer rate increases]. . . . [Proceeding with the] infrastructure work that we need to do just accelerates our insolvency. . . . I really have to express serious concerns at this point about our ability to maintain solvency into [2026] if we don’t do something soon.”

Mayor Troy Smith: “If we don’t get something passed, can you paint the landscape of what 2026 may look like?”

City Administrator Wes Young: “I’d assume [by June we’d] be negative. . . . Once [the water and sewer fund] is depleted, we can either prop it up with [the general fund], which then causes a problem for general operations, or we start [addressing] the questions of cuts, austerity, [and] how to keep the system alive, with a potential sale of [the water and sewer systems] to a private company. June might be too generous; it might be early in ‘26.”

They then discuss what a sale to a private company might look like.

Discussion begins at the 39:00 minute mark:

An independent study of water and sewer rates was completed in August. The study recommended rate increases that would have dramatically raised the rates of rural customers vis-à-vis in-city customers (unjustifiably so, in my opinion).

After rural customers expressed concerns, several subsequent revisions were made to the study to try to strike a closer balance between in-city and rural rates, similar to the existing ten-percent premium that rural customers currently pay. Subsequent Board votes to raise rates have either failed to reach a consensus or been delayed due to Board absences.

The Board will again consider implementing rate increases at their meeting on January 13, 2025, at 6:30 PM.

Skip ahead to the section “Examples of typical bills…” to see how much more you would be paying if the proposed increases take effect.

Holy myocardial infarction, Batman!

The City of Willard recently released a much-needed rate study of its water and sewer systems. The study, completed by Carl E. Brown of GettingGreatRates.com, recommends a new rate schedule for water and sewer with per-unit rates that disproportionately affect rural customers vis-á-vis in-city customers. Rural customers are those located outside the city limits, e.g. in The Meadows, Clear Creek Estates, the county, etc.

The rates being proposed are even higher than what I anticipated when I wrote about the issue back in December. Additionally, rather than implementing the increases via a “stepped plan” like Strafford, Willard is proposing to implement the increases all at once.

For reference, a “unit” is 1000 gallons. Under the existing rate schedule the per-unit rates for water and sewer are marginally higher for rural customers vis-á-vis in-city customers. But under the proposed schedule, if adopted “as is” by the Willard Board of Aldermen, that gap will dramatically widen — more than doubling the per-unit sewer rates for rural customers, while their per-unit water rates will also rise by nearly 90%. In-city customers will also see significantly higher per-unit rates for sewer and water, but they will not see nearly as much of an increase as rural customers.

Why the wider gap?

The study claims that it’s “generally more costly to serve [customers] outside of the City,” and therefore Willard’s current marginally-higher rates for rural users “should be restructured to make them fairer.” In other words, the gap needs to widen to account for the higher cost of service.

Per the study, once the new rate hikes are implemented, additional increases of 4% will be needed annually to offset inflation beginning in 2025. As a reminder, all the above recommended increases are in addition to the 10% hike to water and sewer rates that occurred in April.

If the numbers in the rate study are accurate, Willard Utilities serves:

• 2,522 in-city water customers

• 2,140 in-city sewer customers

• 1,189 rural water customers

• 280 rural sewer customers

I’m assuming a large share of rural water and sewer customers live in or around The Meadows/Villa Park Heights area.

Bear in mind that as Willard’s approximately 1200 rural water and/or sewer customers are located outside city limits, they do not elect the Board members who manage the water and sewer systems, and therefore have had no say in past decisions or in the rates being proposed. But rural users will be individually burdened with a disproportionate share of the costs compared to their in-city counterparts. Is that fair? The rate study claims that it is.

So what would the proposed per-unit increases for rural and in-city customers look like if approved?

151% per-unit increase for rural residential sewer

The rate that rural residential sewer customers pay for every 1000 gallons would explode from $7.00 to $17.58. The minimum charge would also increase from $31.37 to $38.50.

82% per-unit increase for in-city residential sewer

The rate that in-city residential sewer customers pay for every 1000 gallons would dramatically increase from $6.44 to $11.72. The minimum charge would slightly decrease from $28.83 to $25.67.

88% per-unit increase for rural residential water

The rate that rural residential water customers pay per 1000 gallons would increase from $3.12 to $5.87. The minimum charge would increase from $16.63 to $18.86 and would no longer include the first 1000 gallons of use as it currently does.

37% per-unit increase for in-city residential water

The rate that in-city residential water customers pay per 1000 gallons would increase from $2.86 to $3.91. The minimum charge, although it would decrease from $15.28 to $12.57, would no longer include the first 1000 gallons of use as it currently does.

…to be followed by more increases

The rate study also recommends additional increases of 4% be implemented annually beginning in 2025. Again, all the above increases are in addition to the 10% hike to water and sewer rates that occurred back in April.

Below, I’ve included several examples of how the proposed rate increases would affect typical monthly bills, along with posting screenshots of two charts included in Carl E. Brown’s report —charts that show billed amounts for water and sewer before and after the proposed rate increases.

In his report, Mr. Brown recommended the City share these two charts with their customers. Thus far, the charts have not been shared separately on either the City’s website or its official Facebook page. The charts remain buried in his 83 page report linked here on the City’s website. Additionally, the linked report is an older version that contains rate increases that are lower than those currently being proposed. The more recent charts in the images seen further below were obtained from a Board meeting packet shared with Willard aldermen and staff.

Added 9/26: the City’s website now includes the updated report here.

Examples of typical bills before and after the proposed increases

Your Willard Utilities bill is made up of two main parts — a water charge and a sewer charge. Though not shown on your bill, both these charges are comprised of a minimum charge and a per unit charge. Again, the per unit charge is for each 1000 gallons of use.

The figures below do not include tax. All numbers have been rounded to the nearest dollar. All figures shown are based on Mr. Brown’s charts which vary slightly from the rates being proposed by the City.

5000 gallons of usage per month is considered the average. Your usage may be higher or lower and can easily be found on your most recent bill.

Rural - 5000 gallons of water & sewer

Your bill would immediately increase from $89 to $175. An increase of $86 per month.

Rural - 5000 gallons of water only

Your bill would immediately increase from $29 to $48. An increase of $19 per month.

Rural - 8000 gallons of water & sewer

Your bill would immediately increase from $118 to $244. An increase of $126 per month.

Rural - 8000 gallons of water only

Your bill would immediately increase from $38 to $66 An increase of $28 per month.

In-city — 5000 gallons of water & sewer

Your bill would immediately increase from $82 to $116. An increase of $34 per month.

In-city — 8000 gallons of water & sewer

Your bill would immediately increase from $108 to $163. An increase of $55 per month.

In-city — 50,000 gallons of water & sewer

My assumption is the Washboard Cafe uses an average of around 50,000 gallons of water/sewage per month. Their bill would immediately increase from $474 to $813. An increase of $339 per month.

For other usage amounts

For other usage amounts, please see Mr. Brown’s charts pictured below. Click each image for an expanded version. To figure out your approximate new bill, find your monthly gallons of use and add together the “Billed at Model Rates” amount for both water and sewer.

Who’s spreading misinformation?

In December 2023, I wrote here about how a then-proposed 10% increase to water and sewer rates (eventually implemented in April 2024) was “only a starting point on the road to impending future hikes.” I also explained why additional larger hikes were necessary. It’s an article worth checking out if you’d like to better understand the reasons behind the explosion in rates.

Not long after that article was published, a member of the Willard MO - City News & Issues Facebook group asked then-mayor Sam Baird whether there would be more rate increases beyond the 10% being proposed at that time. The mayor replied:

Baird shared the above response despite having attended prior meetings during which the Board heard discussion of the need for substantial rate increases. Necessary increases that rose well beyond 10%.

Why did he leave a false impression by making no mention of those discussions in his reply?

A good question, particularly given the size of the increases being proposed less than eight months later.

Below are links to the unfunded needs lists of MoDOT, SMCOG, and OTO, indicating a desire for the study of a James River Freeway North Loop around Willard and over to Highway 65.

Further below you’ll find a few questions for attendees to keep in mind at the public meeting regarding transportation studies and planning in northwestern Greene County scheduled for Thursday, August 8 at 7 p.m. at the Willard First Baptist Church, 202 W Jackson Street in Willard.

Ozarks Transportation Organization

Ozarks Transportation Organization (OTO) — Board of Directors — May 2024 meeting agenda - Tab 5, page 91 - linked here.

Southwest Missouri Council of Governments

Southwest Missouri Council of Governments (SMCOG) — Transportation Needs List — 2024 - page 1 - linked here.

Missouri Department of Transportation

MoDOT’s High Priority Unfunded Needs List - July 2024 - page 10 (11) - linked here. Per anonymous emails, the $1.5 million transportation study was attached to Route WW. The sender stated they “do not think WW is an indication of alignment but MoDOT just had to attach it to a road.” Each of the dollar amounts shown are multiplied by $1000.

A FEW QUESTIONS TO KEEP IN MIND

If no serious consideration has been given to pursuing a James River Freeway extension through northern and western Greene County, then —

Why are OTO, SMCOG, and MoDOT requesting funding for a transportation study?

Why did $1.5 million for a transportation study nearly become part of Missouri’s 2025 budget?

Why does the Greene County Commission desire to update the county’s land use plan to include a James River North Loop?

Addendum

In a KY3 interview on August 7, Commissioner MacLachlan refers to “misinformation”. You can read that article here.

TL;DR and a few things to keep in mind

First, given that a transportation study has yet to even be funded, let alone the entire project, any eventual pathway could be completely different from what appears on the map below.

When I asked Commissioner MacLachlan if I could take a photo of the highlighted tentative route on the laminated map** he’d brought to our meeting, he politely declined, understandably concerned that it could create unnecessary anxiety for landowners given the early stage of the project being pursued.

Although I didn’t take a photo, I wrote down the relevant intersecting roadways and then recreated the route from memory when I returned home. The image below is a close - - though not exact - - approximation of the tentative pathway contained on the original map.

Second, per MacLachlan, a James River North Loop would, depending on the availability of federal funding, take 10 to 30 years from now to complete at an estimated cost of $800 million. It would likely be implemented in different phases over the course of a number of years.

Third, a public meeting regarding transportation studies and planning in northwestern Greene County has been scheduled by the Greene County Commission on August 8 at 7 p.m. at the Willard First Baptist Church, 202 W Jackson Street in Willard.

Background

I first heard about a James River North Loop (abbreviated JRNL for the purpose of this article) when it was mentioned by State Representative Bill Owen during a brief address he gave to the Willard Board of Aldermen in December 2022:

“As we’ve talked before, I think, I’ve talked to you about that I’m working with the County Commission and Senator-elect Curtis Trent on trying to get the monies for a [transportation] study to bring James River Freeway up around Willard”.

You can find the audio of Owen’s address here. He mentions the JRNL at the one-minute mark. The minutes of the meeting are here and state under Citizen Input that Owen would “like to ultimately extend James River Freeway to Willard”.

In June 2023, Owen again mentioned the JRNL extension in another brief address to the Willard Board:

Each year, the Missouri Legislature is required to pass a budget by early May, and the governor generally signs the budget by late June after vetoing any earmarked items he finds objectionable.

A transportation study would determine the necessity and potential route for future development of a JRNL. However, the study Owen mentioned in June 2023 didn’t occur. Given the timing of his address, I’m assuming the money for that study was either vetoed by the governor prior to signing Missouri’s Fiscal Year 2024 budget into law (shortly after Owen spoke to the Board in June 2023) or his comments were entered incorrectly into the meeting minutes found here.

In November 2023, I emailed Owen to request an update (though I can’t recall why) and to ask if there was a map of a potential route. He replied:

In early May of this year, the Missouri Senate passed their Fiscal Year 2025 Budget. The budget includes funding (most of which was later approved by the governor at the end of June) for the I-44 project Owen mentions above as being an impediment to “working on [a] James River Freeway” extension - - a JRNL.

At the end of May, two weeks after the I-44 project was funded, I received an encrypted and anonymous email about the JRNL effort. The sender shared detailed information and expressed concerns with and skepticism of the necessity of a new corridor, and they requested that I make the public in and around Willard aware of the effort. Over the next couple of months we exchanged several more emails until last Friday when the encrypted account went dark - - deleted by the sender.

According to those emails, $1.5 million in funding for a transportation study for a James River North Loop had originally been included in Missouri’s 2025 budget. The earmarked $1.5 million made it all the way through the entire budget process, but then, at the 11th hour, it was cut just prior to passage by the Senate.

Owen had mentioned the estimated $1.5 million transportation study for a JRNL in his November email, and $1.5 million for a study very nearly made it into the approved Missouri 2025 budget. But where did that $1.5 million figure come from?

A conversation at Big Momma’s

Enter Greene County 1st District Commissioner Rusty MacLachlan.

The Greene County Commission is composed of three elected members - - a presiding commissioner, a commissioner for District 1 for western Greene County, and a commissioner for District 2 for eastern Greene County.

On June 20th, I contacted Rusty via email to ask if he’d pushed for the funding for a transportation study to be included in the Missouri 2025 budget, and if he’d be willing to answer questions regarding the JRNL effort. He responded:

A few days later we met at Big Momma’s Coffee & Espresso Bar. I always try to be ten minutes early to meetings. Upon arrival, I purchased a coffee and headed for the back, only to discover Rusty already seated at a table. He carried with him a half-inch thick file folder, and introduced himself with a confident and friendly tone. I liked him immediately. He’s very much a forward thinker and politely critical of political bodies that operate reactionally. A seventh-generation home builder, you can learn more about Rusty here, here, and here.

What follows are my notes of our conversation, along with a few explanations for clarity.

“At OTO we voted and approved unanimously to place [a transportation study for a JRNL] on our Tier 1 unfunded needs,” Rusty said. Tier 1 needs are OTO’s highest priority.

Per OTO’s website, the Ozarks Transportation Organization is the transportation planning organization for the Springfield region and includes local elected and appointed officials from around the area as well as technical staffs from the state and federal level.

Per Rusty, the OTO didn’t initially have an interest in the JRNL effort, but now they see “the impact and potential it would have.” He said that Sara Fields, Executive Director at OTO, helped him reach out to engineering groups to develop a budget for a study. Once a study is completed, it would make the effort “shovel ready” for federal funding.

I’m assuming the $1.5 million figure came from those discussions.

“We had our $1.5 million in the Missouri budget this year, and we made it to the final cut,” Rusty said. “We really thought we had it, but it got cut at the very last minute.”

So with help from OTO and State Rep. Bill Owen, and by explaining the “big need” to state representatives, senators, the governor and lieutenant governor - - just talking to the right people - - Rusty’s efforts to acquire funding for the study were nearly successful.

But the 11th hour defeat hasn’t deterred him.

“I know what I need to do now.”

Since then he’s met with people at Convoy of Hope and with John Griesemer of Springfield Underground. Rusty says that both organizations are very supportive of the project for transportation reasons. And he continues to communicate with the OTO and SMCOG (discussed below). For the 2026 budget year, he feels he’ll be much better prepared to push for funds for a transportation study.

Earlier in the effort, when Rusty first sought the support of Bill Owen, he originally envisioned only taking a James River North Loop as far as Highway 13. Bill considered the plan and told Rusty, “Let’s take it all the way to Fair Grove.”

Owen has long pushed for the expansion of I-44 to six lanes through Springfield. Now that funding for I-44 is included in the 2025 budget, those efforts have proven fruitful.

I asked Rusty if Presiding Commissioner Bob Dixon and Commissioner 2nd District John Russell were like-minded on pursuing a JRNL.

“Really, we are of one mind on that,” he responded. “It’s a great team.”

When asked if there were others on board with the effort, Rusty responded:

“We’ve not received any direct pushback that I’m aware of. I have beat this drum about everywhere I’m at. Any feedback I’ve gotten has all been positive.”

He’s also met with the Springfield mayor and a few members of city council who support the idea. He says the City of Republic, in particular City Administrator David Cameron, is very excited about it.

The estimated cost and a tentative route

Rusty opened his file folder and revealed a laminated map** that included a highlighted tentative route, and he emphasized how it was just a working guess and very preliminary.

He explained that Sara Field at OTO had helped him speak with a number of engineers to research a cost estimate for a complete James River North Loop - - a route extending from where James River currently meets I-44, to around Willard, and then all the way to Highway 65. The estimated cost - - $800 million.

Like OTO, the Southwest Missouri Council of Governments (SMCOG) also now has a JRNL study on their own “number-one-needs” list. SMCOG is an association of local governments and stakeholders, and is the federally-designated Economic Development District for Southwest Missouri, overseeing the growth and development of the region and providing professional services and info to assist cities and counties.

Rusty explained how SMCOG had, at some point, requested funds for a transportation study to improve Highway CC, and how he suggested to SMCOG that the study should be done as if it were a divided highway. That way, if SMCOG’s efforts to acquire funding for a study were successful, an eventual expansion of Highway CC could possibly become phase one of a JRNL.

Rusty eventually began recommending to SMCOG that they pursue funding for a study of an entire route for a JRNL rather than one that only encompassed Highway CC. If that study were funded, it would enable engineers to figure out what would make the most sense for the different phases of a JRNL.

A potential future Partnership Industrial Center

Rusty’s thoughts then turned to the railroad, specifically the rail line that runs through Elwood to Ash Grove.

He’d spoken with Jack Stack, president and CEO of SRC Holdings Corporation, and asked if childcare was a problem for his employees. According to Rusty, Jack told him that he would love to have a childcare facility close to an industrial park to assist their employees.

He’d also spoken with Dr. Lyle Foster, Assistant Professor of Sociology at MSU and owner of Big Momma’s Coffee and Espresso Bar, about the issue of generational poverty. Foster explained to Rusty that when children see both their parents working, they’re more inclined to join the workforce and have that as a goal for themselves. Per what Foster told him, many in the Springfield area would like to find full-time employment, but a lack of affordable housing and childcare in close proximity to a place of employment are a big impediment to doing so.

Rusty then explained how the Industrial Revolution and military personnel returning from WWII both created a need for “workforce housing” - - a term for affordable housing for households with earned income that is insufficient to secure quality housing in reasonable proximity to the workplace (see Wikipedia).

Based on these conversations and his extensive experience as a home builder, he sees a JRNL as part of a potential remedy for generational poverty.

Pointing to the area of the map near Highways TT and EE southeast of Bois D’arc, he explained, “We’d have wide open space with railway and [eventual] highway infrastructure.”

He asked (and this is a paraphrase), “Could we build a partnership industrial center [PIC] with a full-time childcare facility that’s surrounded by workforce housing?”

He sees a PIC that includes childcare and workforce housing as a pilot program and means of attracting federal funding. It “rings a lot of bells at the federal level” and could become a model for future industrial areas around the country. Rusty said he isn’t looking to compete with the existing PIC sites, but thinking ahead to the future and looking for the next one.

Rusty has “strategically” placed himself on the transportation committee for NACO - - the National Association of Counties - - and he listens for the terms and phrases that indicate where the federal government would like to spend money.

“How many of these [boxes] can I check off?” The more he can check off, the higher a JRNL rises on the federal funding list. But a JRNL needs a transportation study in order to attract federal funding, and funds for that study will likely have to be obtained from the state.

As an aside, he mentioned that the existing Partnership Industrial Center on the west side of Springfield has sold more lots in the past six months than in the past four years. He believes the area is primed for growth. And, as I’ve written about before, if you look here at Springfield’s highest priorities for annexation, nearly all the indicators point to westward expansion.

Protecting family farms

Because half of Rusty’s family are farmers, he places a very high value on the county’s family farms.

He explained that he drew the line from north to south along Farm Road 79 because it was a long, straight line of property boundaries that minimized splitting parcels of land. Coupled with an east/west route composed of Highways CC and BB, it looked like a reasonable space. But again, it’s only a working guess, subject to change and heavily dependent on attracting federal funding.

But Rusty sees no reason St. Louis and Kansas City should continue to get a majority of federal funds, and he feels it’s time those funds start coming back to Greene County.

“We’re one of the fastest growing areas in the state, and we need to make sure we’re ready for that.”

“There are going to be industrial areas, there are going to be hotel and entertainment districts. And then there is going to be farmland that we want to try to preserve and protect.”

The county has a land use plan that needs to be updated. He feels the commission needs to plan for a James River North Loop to be able to manage future growth for the next 30+ years. To plan for it now rather than reacting to pressing needs in the future.

When I asked Rusty about how soon a JRNL could be completed, he said he’d been told that it could be as short as ten years and as many thirty. Again, it just depends on the “traction” the project can get at the federal level.

Some of the advantages

Per Rusty, a JRNL would provide the area with a better presentation for travelers from Kansas City and beyond. It would improve access to the Springfield-Branson National Airport, provide better access to the Republic region, and much faster access between northwestern and southeastern Greene County (for example, imagine how quickly you could travel from Walnut Grove to Rogersville). Willard in particular - - if the city chose to - - could become an area for an entertainment zone, hotels, and restaurants for those traveling to Springfield for sporting events or to the airport. And it creates opportunities for those from counties around Greene - - Polk, Dade, Dallas, etc. - - to be able to get to the area more quickly.

An upcoming public meeting and an apology

After my June conversation with Commissioner MacLachlan, I’d intended to write an article about the JRNL effort that would have coincided with a then-upcoming town hall about how residents of Willard and northern Greene County would “be impacted by the current budget bill”. That meeting was to be attended by Rep. Owen, Senator Curtis Trent, and others and was supposed to have occurred at the Willard Fire Protection District’s headquarters on July 13. Rusty told me that he had also been asked to attend. However, the town hall was either cancelled or never officially scheduled.

Now, a public meeting regarding transportation studies and planning in northwestern Greene County has been scheduled by the Greene County Commission for Thursday, August 8 at 7 p.m. at Willard First Baptist Church. I understand that Representative Bill Owen and Presiding Commissioner Bob Dixon will be in attendance.

Lastly, I owe Rusty an apology.

Not long after our conversation, I shared what he had told me - - along with the map I’d recreated - - with a friend who resides west of Willard. They asked if it would be okay to share the info to a small Facebook group. At the time, I didn’t consider the possibility that my friend would share the map along with the information. But that is my fault, not my friend’s. Shortly after, a concerned resident of western Greene County who saw my friend’s Facebook post started a blog about the effort here. Until eventually the information - - and map - - made its way to the considerably larger Willard MO - City News & Issues Facebook group. At which point it garnered much attention and caused many phone calls to be placed to Rep. Owen and the Greene County Commissioner’s office.

Unfortunately, and despite the best efforts of my friend to reiterate that the route wasn’t set in stone, some looked at the map and may have assumed that it was. Additionally, others unintentionally spread misinformation about the effort. Then, to top it all off, two members of Willard’s Planning and Zoning Commission, rather than being helpful, chose to be rude on Facebook and offer area residents no explanation whatsoever. It took the phone calls and emails of regular citizens to find out information for themselves.

Were I not banned from the Willard MO - City News & Issues group, I’d have been happy to correct the misinformation and answer any questions. But when authorities intentionally exclude some from the conversation because they don’t like or fear what they have to say, this became an illustrative example of what can happen. Then the banners blame “Facebook misinformation” and regular citizens when they themselves are the real problem.

If you live in or around Willard, ask yourself this:

Why should you be hearing about a two-year-old effort to pursue a JRNL from a guy who lives in Strafford rather than from the elected representatives in your city who are supposed to keep you informed? Commissioner MacLachlan and Representative Bill Owen have certainly made no secret of it. It’s been mentioned at several Willard Board of Alderman meetings in the past two years. And I’ve mentioned it at least twice in my own Facebook group. To me, it seems like something that people would want to know about. And were I your alderman, you’d have heard about it a long time ago.

G.K. Chesterton observed, “It is very difficult to become a politician and continue to be a citizen.”

He was right.

**Commissioner MacLachlan emailed me after the release of this article to remind me that his map was not laminated. I had recently ordered a laminated map of Missouri, receiving it in the mail a few days before finishing this article, and apparently conflated the two.

Not long before I quit writing articles about the City of Willard’s wild political scene, I promised the folks who organized the petition drive that I would help promote their first major event to gather signatures. They need 386 signatures for the Missouri State Auditor to be able to initiate an audit of the City.

This Tuesday, April 2, the ladies and their audit petition will be alternating between both Willard polling locations—the Willard Community Center and the First Baptist Church. So if you live within the city limits of Willard and are out voting for school board candidates or for mayor, consider giving them your signature. And if you don’t see them at one polling location, just look for their sign and balloons at the other. The polling locations are 1/2 a mile apart. They’ll be in the parking lot, somewhere outside the electioneering zone.

For questions or for more information about the audit petition, and for the latest updates on Tuesday’s weather to make sure signing opportunities are still scheduled, follow the Citizen Group - City of Willard on Facebook.

Thank you, Willard!

In 2022, I decided to begin exploring potential careers that met with my interests for after I’m finished homeschooling my daughters. I settled on a couple of choices that were poles apart.

Investigative journalism seemed the less-scary of the two—the one much more aligned with my head than my heart—but if it held my interest for a year, I’d pursue a degree.

I began writing about Willard in July 2022, and it soon became obvious that pursuing a career in journalism was the wrong choice. But finding myself increasingly locked within and confounded by the City of Willard’s problems, I felt obligated to continue. Besides, I’d made a choice and a commitment and needed to stick by them—part of an ongoing effort to rid myself of the indecision and lack of persistence that had plagued so much of my earlier life.

My articles made some people happy and others angry. Of the latter, it seemed like many didn’t believe me. What I wrote caused a great deal of controversy, and I often wondered if I were doing Willard a service or the opposite. When July 2023 arrived, I gladly unhanded Willard’s ongoing struggles, told my head that our relationship was finished, and began following my heart.

But soon thereafter, in September 2023, everything I’d written about finally started coming to a head: The Board attempted to impeach the mayor. Not long after, the former-mayor-then-alderman resigned his aldermanship and pled guilty to embezzlement. Then, hours before the mayor was to be impeached, he resigned, too.

In the preceding weeks, many residents had unanswered questions. Some contacted me privately, asking if I would step back into the role that I’d abandoned. I was torn. I needed to move on, but what was happening in Willard worried me to the point where I couldn’t focus. Eventually, obligation and curiosity got the better of me, and I decided to temporarily jump back in.

I told my wife and kids that it wouldn’t be for long. But the days turned to weeks. A new mayor was appointed. Based on what I’d witnessed earlier, I felt his appointment was the least-best choice. The weeks turned to more weeks. I watched missteps turn to more missteps. But I needed to find an exit. I decided that if by the end of December the newly appointed mayor hadn’t registered to run in ‘24, then New Year’s Day I’d take the off-ramp.

Looking back at the highway

Prior to October 2023, Willard had long been stalled at a crossroads. A majority of its elected officials were at odds with one another—pulling in opposite directions and unable to focus on what the city should become. There was too much self-interest and too little service. A few members of a Board dead set against a mayor, and a mayor dead set against them—leaving Willard waiting alone in the middle of the road, wounded and bleeding.

The side that won was left to deal with the accumulating wounds. Newly appointed Mayor Sam Baird seemingly ignoring the role he played in causing them, while his predecessor who had assisted in the bloodletting—partner-opponent Mayor Sam Snider—narrowly avoided impeachment and announced he would run again in ‘24.

In some ways, the culture of Willard’s elected government has long been in a fallen state—with standard practices frequently ignored and laws too often unfollowed—and beware if you’re with the rabble who doesn’t like it. It’s a culture that has infected even some of the Board members elected in April ‘23. Yet I choose to believe they just don’t know the difference, that it’s simply what they’re familiar with, and what has been learned can be unlearned. But as to how and when it got that way, I have no idea.

Elected officials are just people. We’re all just people. Each of us is flawed. And that in and of itself is the biggest problem. One that necessitates that coercive government be regarded as a singularly dangerous animal that should always remain caged and untrusted even when overseen by “the best of the best” of friends.

The culture of Willard’s elected body needs to change, and that can only happen by making it observe better habits.

Driving on

In 2022, I chose to follow my head. I’m a curious person who enjoys asking and finding answers to questions that most don’t have time to ask, but I found little enjoyment in doing so. It’s difficult to find reward in pointing out the flaws and faults of others when you have so many of them yourself. It only leads to inner torment, and my efforts began to feel more like an ongoing illness than a choice for a career. Though I do believe someone needs to fill that role, it isn’t for me. I want to help people see and feel things that make them happy.

Even though my efforts never made a dime, I consider myself lucky for a couple of reasons. First, I made several new friends—including the “malcontented” moderators of City of Willard-Citizen Group. They’re two people I can’t say enough good things about, and I would run out of room if I tried. Second, I got to write about Willard—a place that more than any other holds so many of the keys that open up my fondest memories.

I’ll probably still write articles occasionally, just not those dealing with Willard’s government. And because I’m no longer focusing on that, I may have time to work on Willard behind the scenes. Or maybe not. We’ll see.

For too much of my life, I’ve let the fresh face of each new year become a blurry and unrecognizable image of what I originally set out to do. Yet, despite the sentiment of the final line of the poem below, I will do better in the one to come. And I hope that you do, too.

Happy New Year!

P.S. Here. I’ll even do the mayor a solid and share his latest greeting. Hopefully, he’ll get plenty of clicks.

The Facebook group Willard MO - City News & Issues disappeared from MoM’s life at around noon on Saturday, December 30, when he was banned shortly after sharing this News-Leader article about the upcoming sewer and water rate increases. It’s an excellent article, and you should probably read it, particularly if you’re a Willard Utilities’ customer.

Two days ago, I submitted the post below to City News & Issues. Why? Because I very much want (and need) to stop writing about Willard’s government, and was hoping to give residents an alternative source for city news—a Facebook page managed by two residents who frequently attend the meetings of Willard’s Board of Aldermen.

On that page, City of Willard-Citizen Group, you could find discussion of the rate increases, whereas on the City News & Issues page you could not—probably due to myself and others being too afraid to post the article I’d written about the issue, fearing we’d be banned just as others have been.

At the time, I didn’t think the above post would cause much controversy, but it apparently didn’t sit well with the current admin of City News & Issues—the spouse of Willard Alderman David Keene. Reading my post again just now, I guess that’s understandable. She’d already had me blocked for several months from being able to see her posts, comments, etc., and my Man of Missouri account has never been reinstated after having been banned last summer by former mayor and alderman, Corey Hendrickson. But I was still able to use my personal account to be able to see and post in the group after a resident invited me to participate last fall.

Anyway, the admin posted a response to the above in which she makes a number of factual errors (but I’m not worried about those). I couldn’t see her post because she has me blocked, but a resident sent me screenshots, so I posted the images to my page along with a short response. My response and larger images of the admins’ post can be found here, along with a lot of comments from residents. Additional comments from residents can be found here in the City of Willard-Citizen Group.

Late last night, I posted a missing-person report to the admin’s page, and then this morning posted a link (with no commentary) to the News-Leader article mentioned above. Shortly thereafter, I was banned. Why that particular article? I don’t know. Maybe the admin is just simply tired of dealing with me.

Additionally, as of this afternoon, both admins of City of Willard-Citizen Group are also now banned.

But no one is banned from my page.

City officials and the admin of Willard MO - City News & Issues are welcome to continue to read, post, and comment therein. And MoM is always happy to respond back.

• Sewer and water rates do need to increase and probably by a lot (I’ll explain why below).

• Local elected officials, city staff, reporters, and myself all make mistakes. When we do, it doesn’t make us villains. Like everyone else, we also have the ‘Three Fs’—friends, family, and feelings. And yet that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t be called to account for our mistakes.

• Only part of the responsibility for the increases lies with Willard’s elected officials. Most of it lies with Federal Reserve and federal government monetary and fiscal policies respectively. Both sets of policies were already highly inflationary prior to 2020, but their negative effects on the buying power of money were greatly exacerbated by the government response to Covid 19. Stated differently, everything—replacement parts, labor, electricity, etc.—costs a lot more than it did just a few years ago.

• Of the smaller share of responsibility that does lie with Willard’s elected officials, five of the six current board members have been aldermen for less than a year. The problems they’re tasked with correcting have accumulated over many years, not months. Much more of that share of the responsibility lies with past boards than it does the current one. As one attendee at the December 11 meeting put it, “If the stupid sons of bitches had any foresight, we wouldn’t be here.” Now, to some degree, I suppose that’s true—but even historically well-managed cities like Strafford are facing substantial rate increases.

• Lastly, despite the interim city administrator mishandling the City’s responsibility to make the public aware of the December 11 hearings and despite her earlier intent to initiate the increases January 1 without the required statutory public notice, I still believe the interim CA and current Board are making a serious, albeit flawed effort to deal with a very big problem. In other words, they’ve made mistakes, but they’re trying, and I don’t want to miss the forest for the trees.

KY3 is on your side ALL, er…most of the time

Willard resident Angie Wilson attended the December 11 meeting and recorded audio on her phone of the public hearings and the Board’s accompanying discussions. Over the next few days, she grew increasingly concerned by the complete lack of attendance she’d witnessed at the hearings and with the realization that the Board fully intended for the hikes to take effect only three weeks later on January 1, 2024—hikes which are likely the largest one-time rate increases in Willard’s history—so she contacted KY3 News.

On December 18, an hour before being interviewed by KY3, Wilson shared with a reporter the audio recordings mentioned above. She also contacted another resident, Lisa Godfrey, to ask for permission to share Lisa’s contact information in case KY3 wanted to hear the perspective of someone who had not attended the meeting. Godfrey was later interviewed as well. But unlike Godfrey’s interview, Wilson’s interview never aired.

Now, if you’re a Willard resident or utility customer who pays exclusive attention to the corporate press and either watched or read KY3’s December 18th reporting about the “potential” increases, you’ve learned the following misinformation:

• If approved, the rate increases won’t take effect until “spring 2024,” “next spring,” etc.

• Utility customers only face “potential” rate increases

• The “potential” sewer rate increase is mainly the fault of the processor of Willard’s wastewater, that is, Springfield

• The interim CA always intended for there to be two “reads” of the ordinances to be held at two separate meetings a week and a half apart—the first, December 27, and the second, January 8

• If approved, the rate increases were intended to take effect in February (and not January 1)

• These “potential” increases must have been the only ones discussed at the December 11 meeting because no other potential future increases are mentioned

• And to top it all off, if you’ve watched the video, what’s perhaps most concerning is the existence of a James-Bond-esque villainess named “GoldFinger”—er, I mean “GoldFryer,” who lives among Willard residents and appears to be spreading paranoid conspiracy theories about city government.

We’ll return to all the above—including the villainous Mrs. GoldFryer—further below.

The transcript and audio of the December 11 meeting

So did KY3’s reporting end up being in close agreement with the concerns that Wilson shared with the reporter about the December 11 meeting?

Hardly.

However, what KY3’s reporting did serve to accomplish was to unintentionally provide cover for the interim CA’s mistakes (we’ll get to those further below, too) and to make Mrs. Godfrey, a.k.a. Mrs. GoldFryer, look ridiculous. On the positive side, it did serve to at least make more residents aware of the “potential” increases—a task the City can’t seem to do itself, despite having the tools and the statutory responsibility to do so.

A transcript of the audio from the December 11 meeting is below in the photo gallery; the audio itself can be found at these links: part one, part two, and part three.

Though all of the discussion is eye-opening, you really only need to read the blue text on page two of the transcript or listen (you’ll need earbuds) to the first ninety seconds of part three of the audio to understand how the City initially planned to implement the rate increases on January 1. That is, until someone who “doesn’t even live in Willard” publicized their intent to do so.

FYI: “Stewart” is Interim CA Donna Stewart, “Baird” is recently-appointed Mayor Sam Baird. Biellier and Lancaster are alderwomen, and Hall, Smith, and Swatosh are aldermen. Applegate and Wilson are residents. “Ordinances” are municipal (city) laws.

The City (and KY3) versus the audio recording

It’s clear from both the transcript and the audio recording that on December 11, at the behest of the interim CA, the Board voted to direct staff to write ordinances that would, when passed, increase sewer and water rates by 10% starting January 1—not “in February” as claimed in the KY3 article, and certainly not in “spring 2024”—and that she planned for the Board to vote to approve those ordinances at their next meeting, that is, on December 27.

A few problems with that plan:

First, a proposed ordinance becomes law only after: A) a “first read” and a “second read,” B) the affirmative vote of the majority of the elected members of the Board, and C) the signature of the mayor. But although both reads may occur at a single meeting, it’s standard practice that if a proposed ordinance is controversial—and obviously these are—the two reads ought to occur at different meetings held on separate days. Though the interim CA told KY3 she’s planning to have the first read occur on December 27 and the second on January 8, she must have originally intended, per the meeting audio, for both reads to occur on December 27. That would have been the only possible way for both reads to happen before the ordinances went into effect January 1, 2024.

Second, Missouri law requires that the public be given at least thirty days’ notice of any Board-approved rate increase before that increase may take effect. The thirty-day clock begins ticking from the date of the passage of an ordinance for a rate increase, not from when a Board first started discussing an increase.

In other words, the City may not pass ordinances raising water and sewer rates on December 27, and then make the rate increases effective a mere five days later on January 1, 2024. Prior discussion of the rate increases, including those that occurred on December 11, do not count toward giving notice. Again, the clock for giving notice doesn’t start when rate increases are first discussed—it starts when the ordinances are passed. Nor may the Board pass a rate increase, make it effective soon thereafter, and claim the notice requirement will be satisfied because customers won’t receive their first bill until a month later.

Stated differently, the Board must first pass the ordinances, then the City is required by Missouri law to wait at least thirty days before the rate increases become effective. And, per the December 11 meeting audio, it’s clear the interim CA originally intended to ignore that requirement. Probably due to inexperience.

Third, Missouri law requires that a public hearing be held for any proposed rate increase. Now, if I were planning a big New Year’s Eve party, yet put the invitations in a drawer where none of my friends would bother to look, I’d be sadly ringing in the New Year by myself when none of them showed up. Notice of the public hearings was posted in the equivalent of “a drawer”—on the December 11 tentative meeting agenda—a place hardly any normal resident bothers to look. And even if one did, the relevant agenda items made no mention of how big the proposed increases were, nor of when they would take effect. And, not surprisingly, at the hearings no one showed up to speak.

At the December 11 meeting, the interim CA stated that she intended for there to be expanded public awareness of the hearings. Perhaps she did (and still does), but notice of those hearings hadn’t even been posted to the Public Hearings or Public Notices sections of the City website (and still isn’t). It hadn’t been mentioned on the utility bills for November that preceded the meeting. And it hadn’t been posted to an official City of Willard Facebook page—a highly useful tool the City does not have (or so they claim)—unlike every other municipality in Greene County.

As an aside, the City says it doesn’t have the staff to manage an official Facebook page. Yet when former mayor-then-alderman Corey Hendrickson resigned after entering into a plea agreement with the federal prosecutor on October 24, recently-appointed Interim CA Donna Stewart replaced him as moderator of Willard MO - City News & Issues.

That raises a few questions:

If the interim CA had time to moderate that Facebook page, one with 10,000 members, how did she not have time to moderate an official City of Willard Facebook page? And if City News & Issues hasn’t been serving as the de facto “official” Facebook page for the City of Willard, and she intended only to use her personal time to manage the page for her own enjoyment, then why, when asked by a resident if members (including me) who had been banned by Mr. Hendrickson could be reinstated, did the interim CA respond:

“I’ll need to ask the mayor.”

That is, then-newly-appointed Mayor Sam Baird.

But please understand, reader, that just because the City of Willard has no official Facebook page, that Willard MO - City News & Issues—despite being founded and moderated by an alderman, moderated by a mayor and an alderman, moderated by a mayor-turned-alderman, temporarily moderated by the interim CA herself (until I complained), and now moderated by the wife of an alderman—has never been used as the City of Willard’s de facto “official” Facebook page.

And, unlike a government entity’s official Facebook page where free speech must be allowed, the moderator(s) of City News & Issues may exercise the ban hammer at will—which includes blocking critics and criticism of the City of Willard and its officials.

Let’s not forget to return to the interviewee that KY3 mistakenly dubbed “GoldFryer”—a resident whose actual last name is not ‘GoldFryer’ but ‘Godfrey.’ KY3, by deciding to leave out any of the backstory of what had occurred at the December 11 meeting, and in juxtaposing Mrs. Godfrey’s concerns with the comments of composed Interim CA Donna Stewart, inadvertently made Mrs. Godfrey appear a bit unhinged. Personally, were I “Mrs. GoldFryer,” I’d be so peeved that I’d use my new superpowers as a Bond villain to leave KY3 far behind and relocate to another state (something I hear she fully intends to do).

Lastly, for anyone left confused by KY3’s article (or mine), the City now intends to make the rate increases effective in early February—not January 1 as originally planned, nor in “spring 2024” as claimed in KY3’s article. As a reminder, spring begins on March 19, not in early February. But talk of “spring” does lead us to what’s probably going to come as a shock to many:

After the City conducts a first-quarter rate study, additional increases, beyond those mentioned above, will likely occur in the spring. And, afterward, over the next few years, larger-than-normal annual increases are likely to follow.

THE BAD NEWS

If you listened to the above audio, you heard the interim CA mention “stepped increases” occurring annually over the next 3 to 5 years. So what would that look like?

Though I own a home in Willard, I don’t live there. Rather, I live in Strafford. Last summer, the City of Strafford began educating its customers about the dire need to increase sewer and water rates. They explained why those increases were necessary and held informational and public hearings. Strafford’s plan is here. It’s a series of proposed stepped increases to be implemented over the next five years.

So what are we facing in Strafford?

Well, by 2028, under the proposed plan, my water and sewer bill will increase by 87%—from roughly $72 now to $135 in 2028, and that’s before taxes. That’s a lot!

Those increases are necessary for several reasons, and something similar is very likely necessary in Willard.

First, like Strafford, Willard sends its sewage to Springfield’s Northwest Treatment Plant. Springfield, due to inflation and other factors, is raising the cost to process sewage by 8% every year for the next 5 years—a cumulative 40% increase. One-third of your utility bill pays for water; the other two-thirds, the largest share, pays for sewer. The cost of Springfield’s increase will be passed on to you. There are other costs associated with operating and maintaining Willard’s sewage system, so Springfield’s 40% rate hike by itself won’t cause a 40% increase in your sewer bill, but it will still be a substantial factor.

Second, like Strafford, Willard has “critical issues with aging infrastructure.” Some representative paraphrases and quotes from recent Board meetings:

• Per Public Works Director Justin Sorgen, Willard’s sewer and water infrastructure is held together with “band-aids.” His crew “makes it work” but “everything we deal with is in a rough state.”

• “We just put out fires and try to keep as many fires from starting as we can.”

• Though I can’t remember which staff member said it, “The water system is on the verge of being inadequate.”

• And, “Existing infrastructure will require years-long repairs.”

• Per Alderwoman Joyce Lancaster, the City has continued to subsidize the Willard Parks Department by $2.5 million dollars over the past decade when, according to the now-13-year-old state audit from 2010, the City’s focus is supposed to be on infrastructure.

• As a result “We’ve got water towers that we could spend $400k on right now. We have street issues and water/sewer issues that we're not getting taken care of.”

• During summer months, the pumps for the water system run 18+ hours a day, and Willard must build an additional water tower/storage area to spread the demand.

• And then there’s that broken force main issue

Bear in mind that none of the above speaks to the cost of any future growth; it’s only about maintaining what Willard currently has.

One other interesting factoid is that Strafford currently only has $100k in long-term debt; Willard has $6.5 million.

Third, that government-created inflation monster. When attending Board meetings, I cringe every time I hear the words “grant money.” Every cent of the money that municipalities and other entities collect in the form of grants from the federal government has been printed out of thin air, increasing the size of the money supply and further destroying the buying power of the existing money in circulation. And, as a result, prices rise in response in direct proportion to how much money the government prints and gives away. Yes, it’s great that the City received a $500k grant for the Better Together Playground, but the money being used for these projects is simply a hidden tax on you and your family that will eventually show up in the cost of housing, food, and everything else—including your utility bill.

Strafford arrived at their proposed schedule of stepped increases after having an outside firm conduct an engineering study of their infrastructure and after a rate study to determine whether present rates for water and sewer could support current and future needs. Given the increases in their proposed plan, the answer, obviously, was a resounding ‘No.’

Every year during their annual inspection of Willard’s water system, the Missouri Department of Natural Resources recommends that Willard conduct a rate study. Though Willard ordinances require an annual review of their rate schedule, I don’t believe an actual rate study has occurred in a very long time. I spent two days calling various state agencies to try to find the answer but came up empty-handed. All I really learned is that although various state agencies recommend rate studies, they don’t require them. I also learned that the Missouri Rural Water Association will perform rate studies for free.

But at least municipalities like Willard and Strafford are proposing annual stepped increases rather than hitting residents with a big one-time jump as St. Louis did in June when it raised rates a whopping 44%, or as Fort Smith, Arkansas, plans to do in 2024 by increasing their water rates by 50% along with a 0.5% tax that would be in effect for 20 years.

Another difference is that Strafford had not increased rates in a decade, whereas Willard has passed small increases every few years. But were those small increases enough to offset the burden that Strafford and many other municipalities are facing?

Given the explosion in the cost of parts, of labor, and other essential items, the much-needed and costly repairs to Willard’s infrastructure, and the Parks Department continuing to suck funds away from needed maintenance and improvements despite Director Jason Knight’s best efforts, I seriously doubt it and believe Willard’s customers are going to be in for a very unwelcome surprise after the rate study is completed early next year.

And what about businesses like the Washboard Cafe who practically live and breathe water? Well, they’ll likely bear a substantial cost, one their customers will ultimately pay.

As an alderman, I began warning a decade ago about an inflation spiral and the eventual effects of Board mismanagement on the water and sewer systems. The Board and others at that time had no interest in hearing my concerns or considering my suggestions. But I don’t really blame them; then as now, I’ve always been the odd man out.

Willard has a great public works department, but they cannot make up for the decisions made by past elected or appointed officials at the local, state, and federal levels. All they can do is apply band-aids, put out fires, and hope for better decisions to be made.

The current Board and interim CA seem to be making a serious effort to address those long-standing and worsening issues with water and sewer. And I know that at least some of the current Board members recognize the need for better communication.

Now more than ever, the City of Willard needs to do a much better job of providing channels of communication that directly connect to its citizens, and its Board needs to conduct its business the correct way, not “the Willard way.”

Wilson, after her failed effort to use KY3 to bring public awareness to what had happened at the December 11 meeting, echoed those sentiments when she shared with me her concerns and audio recording, stating:

“That's what keeps going through my mind right now. And that's why we feel disrespected. They don't feel like they have any duty to communicate what they're doing. [Communication] is just respectful to all Willard residents or property owners.”

As the chart below demonstrates, utility customers aren’t used to experiencing 10% rate hikes followed by additional increases a few months later. The City of Willard has a responsibility to make people aware of these issues and explain what’s going on. Expecting them to search for and decipher meeting agendas and minutes or to sit through hours-long board meetings to find out is unrealistic and antiquated.

Establish a newsletter—use bill stuffers—maintain a Facebook page—record your meetings.

Communicate.

Otherwise, the villainous Mrs. GoldFryer may one day return and smite this city into oblivion.

At their December 11 meeting, the Board voted for a sewer and water rate increase of 10% across the board that will go into effect January 1, 2024, with more increases likely to occur after an early-2024 rate study.

A public hearing was held. Surprisingly, no one showed up to speak on the issue**. Which itself is really no surprise after having a look at my family’s most recent Willard utility bill and after examining the city website.

Of course no one planned to speak—because they didn’t really tell anyone about it.

The only public “notification” seems to be the words “Sewer rate increase” and “Water rate increase” that were included on the tentative agenda for the December 11 meeting. And there was no mention on that tentative agenda of how much the increase would be, nor any mention of when it would take effect. Additionally, no mention is made on the agenda of any new ordinances that would modify Willard’s current sewer and water rate ordinances:

On the sewer rate increase, all the aldermen and alderwomen voted “yea.”

On the water rate increase, Aldermen Scott Swatosh, Troy Smith, Landon Hall, and David Keene voted “yea.” Alderwomen Casey Biellier and Joyce Lancaster voted “nay.”

**Note: Two citizens who were at the meeting for unrelated reasons, after witnessing no public input during the sewer rate hearing, did decide to speak during the water rate hearing.

Willard vs. other municipalities

Strafford recently raised rates and plans to implement additional stepped increases over the next several years. However, unlike the City of Willard, Strafford sent residents a colorful notice of the intent to raise rates along with an explanation of why it was necessary. They also posted a notice of the proposed increases on their city website. Willard? Not that I can find.

If you visit the “Public Hearings” page of the City of Willard’s website here or the “Public Notices” page here, you’ll find no mention of a hearing or the intent to raise rates.

In the first photo below, Parkville, Missouri, is currently notifying their citizens of an upcoming public hearing for a proposed sewer rate increase, whereas Willard’s public hearings page is completely blank.

Now, if the City of Willard had an official Facebook page—an action item that was strongly recommended in Willard’s 2019 Comprehensive Plan—they could have at least notified citizens through an easily accessible forum that many frequently visit. But the City doesn’t have an official Facebook page. Well, technically they do. But it, too, is blank.

Now, I know enough about the City’s finances to understand that sewer and water rate increases are necessary (but I won’t go into that here). But wouldn’t it be nice to know about the increases ahead of time to have the opportunity to be heard on the issue? Or to at least plan for it? Particularly if you’re a business owner or someone on a limited budget?

I think so.

Subsequently, then-mayor Snider fired the appointee—an act not allowed under state statute without Board approval. Then the Board rehired Ms. Stewart and censured the mayor for having fired her. Soon after, the Board filed articles of impeachment against the mayor. Mayor Snider later resigned on October 26, a few hours before his impeachment hearing.

At least one citizen complained to the Missouri Attorney General’s office about the manner in which the appointment was made.

On December 4, the Attorney General issued the City a letter of warning:

Our office has serious concerns about the composition of the City's tentative agenda, particularly when it comes to matters of serious public importance, such as the expenditure of public funds and the appointment of an interim city administrator. Adherence to the Sunshine Law's requirements of transparency is necessary for City residents to be able to attend City public meetings and know what its representatives are discussing and deciding.

The Attorney General continued:

Given that this is the first potential violation of the Sunshine Law brought to our office's attention as far as we can tell, the Attorney General's Office is prepared to close this complaint under the condition that the City agree to undergo Sunshine Law training by the Attorney General's Office in the near future. The training will be provided at no cost to the City or to its taxpayers. We also reserve the right to reconsider this resolution decision if future violations are brought to our office's attention.

The Board should strongly consider agreeing to the Attorney General’s offer, because the September 11 incident isn’t the only time they’ve been observed violating the Sunshine Law. In the Missouri Revised Statutes, section 610.027 provides specific consequences for each violation:

“Knowing” violations may result in civil fines up to $1,000.00, plus court costs and attorneys' fees. “Purposeful” violations may result in civil fines up to $5,000.00, plus court costs and attorneys' fees.

Sunshine Law violations don’t come cheap, and my guess would be that an audit conducted by the State Auditor’s office would uncover additional violations from the Board’s past open and closed sessions. It would be better for the Board to get that training in now and get transparency back on track before a state audit occurs.

A copy of the AG’s letter:

A GoFundMe me campaign for the family of Kallista Fisher can be found here. A statement from the family via KY3 can be found here.

Mr. Budnovich remains hospitalized with serious injuries at Mercy in Springfield.

Please click the gallery images below for more:

Crawling around in other people’s toilet waste might not be your idea of how to spend Thanksgiving Day, but when Willard’s infrastructure breaks, somebody’s got to do it, and that responsibility falls to the team at Willard Public Works—24/7—including major holidays.

What’s another reason for Willard residents to be thankful? Here they are spending their holiday making yet another major repair.

If you weren’t aware, Willard’s force main—the system that transports sewage under pressure to Springfield for treatment—is an ongoing disaster. You can read more about it here.

At this point, I’ve lost count of how many major breaks have occurred, but the number must be approaching twenty by now.

One resident even has a video of a force-main failure from a while ago that includes a human-waste geyser allegedly spraying 15 feet in the air. I may see if he’ll let me post a copy of it.

Hopefully, the team that spent their holiday fixing this mess were able to enjoy a good Thanksgiving dinner and a much-needed rest.

Thanks for all you do, PW crew!

Sixteen months later, in February 2023, the Springfield Police Department handed the case over to the United States Secret Service in the hope that federal prosecutors would be able to successfully charge Mr. Hendrickson for crimes committed against his “army of victims”.

But during those six years, beginning with his election in April 2015 to the end of his third term in April 2021, Hendrickson, as mayor (and later for an additional year and a half as alderman beginning in April 2022) was considered by many residents to be Willard’s most valued and respected elected official. Even around Prime’s facilities, Corey came to be known by many employees as simply “the Mayor”.

And for nearly nine years, everything in Willard appeared to be okay until, on October 24, 2023, a blinding flash of federal charges against Mr. Hendrickson made it glaringly apparent that it was not.

After the recent revelations, many residents are asking whether Mr. Hendrickson’s ill-gotten gains were limited to his employer, or whether they extended to his position as mayor as well. I don’t know the answer to that. And while I understand the limited access a mayor typically has to city funds, if I were a resident of Willard, I would certainly be asking that question, too.

Despite safeguards to prevent municipal embezzlement, a simple Google search demonstrates that Missouri mayors have been convicted of stealing from city funds on numerous occasions. For just a few examples, see here, here, and here.

What it would take to initiate a state audit

Per their website, the Missouri State Auditor is an “independent watchdog agency” working “to ensure the proper use of public funds and to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of Missouri government by performing audits[.]”

The City of Willard already has its financial statements audited annually by an independent certified public accountant. In recent years, audits have been performed by KPM CPAs & Advisors. On October 23rd, the Board voted to accept a bid from the CPA firm Decker & DeGood for auditing services.

Granted, auditing services performed by a CPA differ in scope from those conducted by the state auditor’s office. For example, a CPA firm, unlike the state auditor, only looks at a city’s financial health, whereas the state auditor also investigates compliance with Sunshine Law and state statute.

To see examples of how the Missouri State Auditor has exposed corruption in political subdivisions around the state, please see this article and this article from The Kansas City Star.

A state audit can be initiated in one of the following three ways, listed by order of difficulty:

#1 - Willard’s Board of Aldermen could request an audit

The simplest way to initiate a state audit is for the Board of Aldermen to request one from the Missouri State Auditor.

If you feel recent events have made it necessary to pursue a state audit, you should email your Ward representatives using the following contact information. To determine which Ward you live in, please see here.

For Ward 1:

Alderwoman Casey Biellier - cmbiellier@gmail.com

Alderman Troy Smith - tsmith@cityofwillard.org

For Ward 2:

Alderman David Keene - dkeene@cityofwillard.org

Alderwoman Joyce Lancaster - jlancaster@cityofwillard.org*

*per Joyce, this email has yet to be activated

For Ward 3:

Alderman Landon Hall - lhall@cityofwillard.org

Alderman Scott Swatosh - sswatosh@cityofwillard.org

#2 - The State Auditor may eventually be able to initiate an audit themselves

In the spring, the Missouri Legislature considered a bill that would have allowed the Missouri State Auditor to initiate an audit without a petition from citizens. Per the Kansas City Star, that legislation didn’t pass before the end of the session.

However, a resident who spoke directly with the Missouri State Auditor’s office reports that the auditor can use bank records to conduct “a preliminary investigation to determine if there is potential for fraud.” If potential fraud is found, “the state auditor will write to the [Board of Aldermen] and recommend they pass a resolution to request an audit.”

On October 31st, the above resident filed a Sunshine Request with the City of Willard, asking that bank records be submitted to the Missouri State Auditor:

#3 - Willard citizens could petition for an audit

If the Board of Aldermen doesn’t agree to a state audit, the last resort is for citizens to use the petition process to initiate an audit on their own.

The number of signatures required to initiate an audit is based on a percentage of Willard voters who cast ballots in the last gubernatorial election—15% to be exact. According to the Greene County Clerk’s office, 2567 Willard voters cast ballots for governor in 2020. 15% of that total would mean that the signatures of 386 registered voters living within the city limits of Willard would be required to automatically trigger a state audit. It’s also prudent to have extra signatures to ensure against any signers that are later disqualified.

For Willard residents, that process would work like this:

• A petition would need to be requested from the Missouri State Auditor here. The requestor isn’t required to be a resident of Willard.

• After the petition is requested, the chief petitioner (defined below) has one year to provide the auditor’s office with the required number of signatures plus extras.

• Those who gather signatures are not required to be Willard residents.

• The individual who submits the petition must live or own property within the city limits of Willard. This individual is know as the “chief petitioner.” Their name becomes public record.

• After the petition is submitted, the Missouri State Auditor’s office works with the Greene County Clerk’s office to verify the eligibility of the signatories. Given the required number of signatures are found to be valid, the petition is added to the list of upcoming audits for future scheduling, but it is often several months before the audit can be scheduled.

• For additional information and an FAQ, please visit the State Auditor’s website here.

Note: The above steps borrow from the reporting of The Kansas City Star.

A state audit is a major pain for city staff, and it wouldn’t come cheap

First, a state audit is embarrassing. In the mind of the public, there is always a stench attached to a state audit, a stench that would pervade City Hall and reflect negatively on staff—and that’s simply not fair. After all, it isn’t their fault that a long-time elected official committed crimes against his outside employer.

Second, ongoing staffing vacancies have likely stretched city staff to the limit as it is. Having to participate in a state audit would induce even more strain. Granted, an audit wouldn’t occur right away, but it would still be an additional burden even once those positions are filled. To use a retail reference, if you’ve ever had to conduct an hours-long overnight inventory, imagine scheduling that inventory during business hours, and then having to complete it while also serving the public and performing your regular duties as well. And then imagine doing it every day for a couple of weeks.

Third, read the valid points made below by an anonymous participant in a post to the new Facebook group City of Willard-Citizen Group. Given the specificity of the recommendations, I would assume the anonymous poster is some past or present member of city staff, perhaps themselves concerned by the objections I raised above.

The poster is correct. A state audit is expensive. Costs vary depending on the size and scope of the entity and the audit, but the cost could be substantial, and the City would be required to bear all of it.

As examples, the 2022 state audit of the City of Belton, pop. 23,116, was expected to exceed $100,000. The 2022 state audit of the City of Town and Country, pop. 11,640, was estimated to cost between $100-$130k. The 2018 state audit of Seymour, pop. 1921, was estimated between $30,000 and $50,000. Though I did not check the final price tags, based on the estimates above, a state audit of the City of Willard would not come cheap.

However, the funds managed by the City Of Willard come from and belong to the taxpayers within its boundaries and beyond. Under the circumstances, it’s understandable that taxpayers would like someone to step in from the state level—even despite the expense—to verify that Mr. Hendrickson’s illegal activities were limited to only his employer, and to clear the air back to some semblance of normalcy.

What might a state audit look at

Per the Missouri State Auditor’s website, “The scope of the audit is partially based on information provided, including concerns from the chief petitioner and citizens.”

The objectives of an audit might include:

• Evaluating the city's internal controls over significant management and financial functions.

• Evaluating the city's compliance with certain legal provisions.

• Evaluate the economy and efficiency of certain management practices and operations, including certain financial transactions.

Per the 2010 audit report (see below), the audit might include “reviewing minutes of meetings, written policies and procedures, financial records, and other pertinent documents; interviewing various personnel of the city, as well as certain external parties; and testing selected transactions.”

The 2010 state audit

The most recent state audit of the City of Willard was performed in December 2010 under former state auditor Susan Montee. It was initiated via petition, but I did not Sunshine the identity of the chief petitioner. The summary is on pages 2-3 here.

Some of what the 2010 audit found:

• Sunshine Law violations, including inadequate open and closed session meeting minutes and discussing business in closed session that should have been discussed in open session

• The Park Fund was in poor financial condition, primarily due to decisions made during financing of the pool

• Inaccurate accounting records and poor budgeting procedures, including the issuing of $81,000 of insufficient checks and failing to submit required annual financial reports to the State Auditor’s office

• A failure to advertise or solicit bids for numerous purchases

• Significant weaknesses in control procedures related to utility system funds

• The mayor occasionally waiving water and sewer fees, and instances where utility service for the mayor and the mayor’s mother were not disconnected when their payments were delinquent

Conclusion

In the space of less than three weeks, Willard residents have watched their former long-time mayor resign his aldermanship on the pathway to prison. They’ve watched their most recent former mayor, a mere two days later, resign hours before his impeachment hearing, declaring that he will run again in April.

Those resignations have dramatically shuffled Willard’s elected government, where now all but one of its six aldermen have less than six months of experience (two have less than a week). The City still does not have a permanent city administrator; it has no planning and zoning director. An election looms less than five months away. And the Board is in the middle of its time-intensive annual budgeting process.

Needless to say, all of the above has compounded and left in its wake a great deal of turmoil that I’m sure is difficult to deal with, and difficult to watch.

Would a state audit make things better? Or would it make things worse?

Is a state audit even necessary? Or, under the circumstances, would it be completely irresponsible not to have one?

I can only tell you this:

I’m glad I’m not on the Board of Aldermen, stuck with having to decide the answers.

In Willard, there are vacant Board of Aldermen seats in Ward 1 and Ward 2 due to the resignation of Alderman Corey Hendrickson and the appointment of Alderman Sam Baird to the office of mayor. Mayor Baird has called a special meeting—per state statute—to fill those vacant seats as soon as possible.

The meeting will be held November 2, 2023, at 7 pm [it’s since been changed to 6 pm] and was announced Wednesday morning in a post in the Facebook group Willard MO - City News & Issues:

The Board is required to have six aldermen—two from each of Willard’s three wards.

If you’ve been paying attention to the Board of Aldermen for the past year and a half, you may have noticed how quickly these vacant ward seats are being filled versus the last ward vacancy that occurred in June 2022. 

A vacancy that was never filled. 

Again, state statute requires a special meeting be held as soon as possible to fill vacancies in any elected office. The purpose of that immediacy is to prevent residents of a ward from being denied full representation in Board decisions related to city business and making law.

In interviews, Mr. Baird has spoken of breaking “logjams.” That is, being able to move the city forward now that former mayor Sam Snider has resigned, and now that he himself is mayor.

Yet he, along with former mayor Snider, is responsible for those logjams. As an example, let’s look at the June 2022 board vacancy that occurred as the result of the resignation of Ward 1 alderman Tyler Kelly.

Former mayor Snider brought forward only one candidate to fill that vacancy, Karie Johnson-Phillips. Ms. Johnson-Phillips stood before the Board for consideration, yet she wasn’t asked by the aldermen even a single question pertinent to being appointed an alderwoman. Instead, the Board—including Mr. Baird—allowed her candidacy to die for lack of a motion. Why? Because the Board had repeatedly insisted—both before and after her proposed appointment—on only one candidate to fill that vacancy, former alderwoman Donna Stewart (Willard’s newly-appointed interim city administrator).

You can read more about the deadlock that surrounded the June 2022 vacancy at the links below:

https://www.manofmissouri.com/p/blocked-aldermen-staff-resignations

https://www.manofmissouri.com/p/nothing-new-under-the-sun

Additionally, then-mayor Snider never called for a special meeting as is required by state statute, nor did the Board hold him accountable for not calling a special meeting. Why? Because what would have been the point? Mayor Snider made it abundantly clear that he would not appoint Stewart, and the Board—particularly Mr. Baird—made it abundantly clear that the only candidate they were willing to accept was Stewart.

At any time, the board could have reconsidered the mayor’s candidate, Karie Johnson-Phillips, to fill the open alderman seat. Conversely, former mayor Snider could have reconsidered the candidate the Board repeatedly insisted on, that is, Donna Stewart.

Neither did so. As a result, both men are responsible for leaving Ward 1 residents without adequate representation for nearly a year. A “logjam,” in other words.

During that time, Ward 1 residents did at least have partial representation—Alderman Corey Hendrickson.

Or did they?

I suppose that would be true had Mr. Hendrickson been living in the ward to which he was elected, at either the time of his election or afterward. But—based on the available evidence—it appears that he did not. It also appears that no one affiliated with the City of Willard ever bothered to verify where Alderman Hendrickson actually lived. 

In January 2023, I notified the aldermen that Mr. Hendrickson was under investigation for embezzlement (read here) and did not appear to be living in his ward. That notification also included two phone calls with Mr. Baird. During those conversations, Mr. Baird seemed much more concerned about his friend’s reputation than he did with investigating whether or not the allegations I made were true.

But now that Mr. Hendrickson may be going to prison, and Mr. Baird is mayor, the requirement that aldermen reside in the ward they represent seems to have become important again.

And that’s as it should be.

The post on Willard MO - City News & Issues seeking candidates for the vacant seats states: 

“It is particularly important to have a full board…” and “The candidate must live in the ward which they desire to represent…”

I guess those requirements matter now. 

Even if they don’t appear to have mattered back then.

The article I’d planned for this morning on the effort by some residents to initiate a state audit of the City of Willard—an effort that crystallized in the wake of former alderman Corey Hendrickson’s embezzlement of his former employer during five of the six years he spent as Willard’s mayor—wasn’t yet meant to be.

While you’re waiting, I’ll give you something else to chew on that I’ve been following for the past year or so but haven’t taken the time to write about:

Willard’s failing force main—the pipeline that carries sewage from the City of Willard to the City of Springfield—and that was installed circa 2018.

The Plaintiff

In a lawsuit filed in November 2021, the City alleges that, among other things, the contractor who performed the work over-inserted each section of pipe into the next section of pipe (known as over belling), causing the pipeline to fail around 10-12 times during the past several years. The City is suing the contractor, Hamilton & Dad, Inc., Hamilton’s insurance company, West Bend Mutual Insurance, and the engineering firm, White River Engineering.

Back in December, I visited the courthouse and obtained a copy of the suit. At that time, if I remember correctly (I’ve since thrown the paperwork away, as I thought I was done writing about Willard), the City was asking for relief initially in the amount of $750,000 with even more compensation (considerably more, from the way it sounded) being expected for ongoing damages.

From the lawsuit:

“The result of these breaks was environmentally destructive and extremely costly to Willard. The breaks have dumped hundreds of thousands of gallons of raw sewage into the environment, required emergency response from Willard's employees, and resulted in the Force Main not being fit for its intended purpose.”

The suit continues:

“The subject Force Main is also in such a state that it is unusable, and Willard will be forced to build a new Force Main to replace [it]…”

If you’ve seen digging or extensive excavation, you may have witnessed the Public Works crew hard at work getting the pipeline back under control. At one point, Willard’s sewage even had to be trucked to Springfield.

View the City’s suit here, or at least the iteration that was on the court docket in July.

The Counterclaims

The counterclaims of one of the defendants, West Bend Mutual Insurance, allege, among other things, that the City of Willard:

“…had or should have had an inspector at the site of the installation; if the pipe was over belled or otherwise wrongly installed, Plaintiff should have known and informed Hamilton prior to Hamilton finishing the job, but did not;

Plaintiff failed to have adequate presence during construction to inspect and observe the work and to monitor the work…”

And that:

Plaintiff failed to perform all necessary maintenance on the improvements[.]

View the defendants’ counterclaims here and here.

Disclaimer: I am not an attorney, and I take no position on the validity of any of the alleged claims or counterclaims. If you feel you’ve reached this article in error, please hang up and try again.

There is no one righteous, not even one…for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. - Romans 3:10 and 3:23

Update: The article below is from January 2, 2023. On October 24, 2023, Alderman Hendrickson resigned and entered into a plea agreement with federal prosecutors after being charged with stealing nearly $300,000 from 500 drivers at his former employer, Prime, Inc. See here.

“That’s a BULLSHIT EXCUSE!” Alderman Corey Hendrickson shot back at Mayor Samuel Snider during a tense exchange over a delayed appointment at the October 24, 2022, meeting of the Willard Board of Aldermen.

Ten seconds earlier, I’d had a much-needed change of heart, having decided not to continue to pursue a worrying city-government matter that had been bothering me since late summer. And, for a few moments at least, I felt my mood rising as if a burden had been lifted. But now, ten seconds later, Alderman Hendrickson’s outburst completely obliterated my short-lived relief, slamming me back down into ugly reality.

“Seriously!? I just want this to be over!” I lamented under my breath.

But the drama wasn’t anywhere near to being over. Far from it.

A dilemma

Though Alderman Hendrickson didn’t know it at the time, I’d spent that week researching a tip from a Willard resident (whose name is known to myself but who wishes to remain anonymous) that he did not live in the administrative ward he was elected to serve. And, by the beginning of November, I knew he did not appear to rent or own a residence in Ward 1, and I also knew he appeared to be spending the majority of his time in Ward 2 at the home of the former Willard city clerk, whose last day was in early October. But mere seconds before his outburst, I’d decided to just let the matter go because my conscience had been increasingly getting the better of me:

“The city clerk has five kids,” I kept telling myself. “What if it were me? How would revealing something like this affect my family?”

“He seemed like a good mayor, and he’s the most knowledgeable alderman on the board. Does it really matter that he doesn’t live in his ward?”

“You’re far from perfect yourself, Brad. Just leave it alone and move on.”

Each of us is a mixed bag of good and bad. The one thing I do not wish to inflict on anyone is the terrible feeling of being caught, of having to face the small world you live in while stamped on the forehead with the secrets you’ve been trying to hide. It’s a sick-in-the-pit-of-your-stomach feeling — an awful mixture of fear and helplessness — and you either fully swallow it all down and change for the better, or vomit pieces of it up in anger and don’t.

At different times in my life, I’ve faced both.

So, sitting there watching and knowing, it was hard to decide what to do.

Then, three weeks later, a much more serious rumor the tipster had shared about Alderman Hendrickson — one that seemed so far-fetched that I’d initially dismissed it — turned out to be true:

He was being investigated by law enforcement for allegedly embezzling from his former employer, Prime, Inc.

Two weeks after that, sitting in my office and examining what seemed like incontrovertible evidence of an ongoing investigation — a series of emails and a carefully-worded, non-committal voicemail from the investigating officer — I let out a heavy sigh of resignation.

Sometimes, we don’t get to move on, even when we want to.

Some necessary background and recent history

The Board of Aldermen is the legislative body for the City of Willard. Aldermen pass local laws (ordinances), consider rezoning requests, and approve the city’s approximately seven million dollar annual budget. The board consists of six elected representatives  — two from each of Willard’s three administrative districts, designated Ward 1, Ward 2, and Ward 3.

When filing for election, board candidates are required by law to reside within the administrative district (the ward) for which they are running. If elected, they are required by law to continue to reside in the district they serve.

I was once an alderman, having been elected to a one-year term in April of 2014. I had no interest in running again; I’d mainly thrown my name in the ring the year before because I was curious about how the process of being an alderman worked. My term ended in April of 2015.

A month earlier, in March of 2015, after making a few phone calls to ask the mayoral candidates for the upcoming April election some questions, I used the Facebook group Willard MO - CITY NEWS & ISSUES — a group I founded in July of 2013 — to support Corey Hendrickson for mayor in a crowded race that included Ron Mansker, David Roggensees, and then incumbent Mayor Wendell Forshee (now deceased). Mr. Hendrickson subsequently defeated Mayor Forshee and the other candidates.

Shortly after the election, I asked Mayor-elect Hendrickson and Alderman-elect Jamie Buckley if they would be willing to take over as administrators of the Willard MO - CITY NEWS & ISSUES Facebook group. They agreed, and, seven years later, Alderman Hendrickson is still administrator of that group with the help of moderator Betsy Buckley (Jamie’s spouse).

Corey Hendrickson served as Willard’s mayor for six years beginning in April of 2015. In 2016, he appointed then twenty-year-old Samuel Snider to fill a Board of Aldermen vacancy. Mr. Hendrickson was twice reelected and remained mayor until his defeat in April of 2021 by a familiar challenger — now incumbent Mayor Samuel Snider.

On April 5th, 2022, after having lost his mayoral bid for reelection a year earlier, Mr. Hendrickson was elected Ward 1 alderman by write-in with 51 votes.

By most accounts, former Mayor Hendrickson was a knowledgeable, well-liked, and well-respected mayor. And from my recent observations of Alderman Hendrickson at city board meetings, he often seems to be the most knowledgeable alderman in the room when it comes to the inner workings of city government and city services.

But two years earlier, in March of 2020, while still mayor, he filed for divorce from his second wife, Kate Campbell. The divorce was finalized on April 26th, 2022 — twenty-one days after his election as Ward 1 alderman — a piece of information that will become relevant below.

Where does he live?

On September 19th, before I learned about the active investigation or his residency issues, I published an article that questioned the recent resignations of city staff and an elected official that had occurred over the summer. A few days later, I was contacted by the aforementioned tipster who claimed to have information that might partly explain the odd undercurrent of hostility I’d sometimes observed between some of the board members and the mayor.

I try to exercise a healthy sense of skepticism, particularly when someone wishes to have their name kept anonymous. But I decided to investigate the less far-fetched claim, thinking it wouldn’t take much effort to figure out where Alderman Hendrickson lived and be able to dismiss the claim as false.

But after several days of researching online public records and social media accounts, I kept coming up empty-handed. The only information I seemed to be able to verify was that Alderman Hendrickson was still using his ex-wife’s address on his voter registration, that he spent at least some of his time at a 65-acre farm (owned by his father in Utah) in Elkland, and that he maintained a post office box at the Willard Post Office.

So I asked the tipster if they knew where he lived.

“He’s living with Jen Rowe,” came the reply.

Jennifer Rowe — Willard’s city clerk for the past seven years, until she resigned in October.

I thought to myself, “But I like the city clerk. She does a great job! Surely that isn’t the case.”

Skeptical, I went ahead and consulted public records to see if she owned any property in the area.

She did. In Willard — Ward 2.

So I drove by late one evening, expecting to find nothing.

That is, until I saw the same white extended-cab pickup truck I’d seen Alderman Hendrickson driving to board meetings; the one with the custom rear license plate and distinctive missing paint on the front quarter panel.

“Maybe they’re just friends and he’s here for a visit.”

But it was past 10 p.m.

I shrugged, and decided I’d have to drive by again some other night to sort it out.

So I did — and on enough nights to overcome my skepticism. Eventually, two months and many trips later, I was satisfied that it at least appeared to be true.

During that time, Alderman Hendrickson didn’t always drive his white truck to board meetings; he mainly drove a black dually pickup with a different custom rear license plate. And one of those trucks was nearly always parked in front of the former city clerk’s house at night, while the other was usually parked at the farm in Elkland. He also once arrived in a white Ford Focus that was normally parked in the former city clerk’s driveway.

I cannot verify where Alderman Hendrickson was living prior to October, but he appears to have been living with the former city clerk since then. And if he does have a house or apartment somewhere in Ward 1, I wasn’t able to find it, despite having tried. According to my source, he also lived with the city clerk over the summer and was staying with her in Ward 2 when he was elected as Ward 1 alderman in April 2022.

A lack of paperwork

Normally, it would be quick and easy to check to see what address of residence a candidate used when filing for election: municipal candidates who apply by the filing deadline must submit to the city clerk a declaration of candidacy; similarly, most write-in candidates must submit a declaration of intent. Both types of declaration form require the candidate to provide their place of residence and a sworn signature. The signature of the election official is required as well — in this case, the city clerk’s.

But thanks to an intentional loophole in Missouri election law, if no candidate has filed to run for a particular office, then a person can run as a write-in and is neither required to fill out any paperwork that includes an address, or to swear to any paperwork at all — either before or after an election.

That explains why my Sunshine Request for all candidate paperwork for the April 5, 2022 election (a request I submitted to acting City Clerk Dona Slater at the beginning of December) was returned with a set of paperwork for every candidate except Alderman Hendrickson — who was elected by write-in for Ward 1 where no other candidate had filed.

It’s certainly entirely possible that Alderman Hendrickson wasn’t living with the city clerk in April 2022. I was able to verify only the following:

• his two-year-long divorce was finalized twenty-one days after the election

• he appears to rely on a post office box for his permanent address

• he still uses his ex-wife’s address on his voter registration

• his address for the April 2022 election is not on file with the City of Willard

• and he appears to have resided in Ward 2 since at least October

But all of that taken together — particularly in light of Mr. Hendrickson’s outright denials (further below) of any knowledge of an ongoing embezzlement investigation against him, and his insistence that in April 2022 he still lived at what is now his ex-wife’s home in Ward 1 — is difficult to ignore.

To quote former city clerk Jennifer Rowe from an April 4th interview with KY3 , “It’s then my job [after an election] to vet if [write-in candidates] live in that ward and if they’re eligible to serve in that position.”

Such being the case, I do not think one could be blamed for feeling it necessary to ask:

Where was Alderman Hendrickson living in April 2022? And where has he been living since then?

The potential, albeit apparently unverifiable answers to those questions made the tipster’s other allegation — that Alderman Hendrickson was being investigated for embezzlement — look much less far-fetched than when I’d originally heard it. So, eventually, I decided to look into that allegation, too.

An allegation

In mid-November, I received another message from the tipster claiming that the embezzlement allegation had now become an active investigation. The message included a photo of a business card belonging to a corporal with the Springfield Police Department’s Financial Crimes Unit.

Having grown increasingly less skeptical of the claim after having repeatedly observed Alderman Hendrickson’s vehicles in front of the former clerk’s house, I reached out to the corporal and left him a voicemail, offering to give him information I’d gathered while researching the residency issue.

After calling again a few days later and receiving no response, I decided to email the corporal instead, sharing the information I’d acquired and telling him I’d heard about the embezzlement allegation. He emailed back the very next day, saying he had left a voicemail a couple of days ago (the carefully-worded, non-committal voicemail mentioned earlier). But somehow, I had missed it.

The corporal remained completely professional in his email, never indicating what type of investigation he was conducting. He did, however, ask if I knew Alderman Hendrickson’s current phone number; the corporal had called the number he had on file, but had received no response. His email ended with:

“I’d like to interview him and get this case completed. It’s been dragging out for way too long.“

Sitting in my office, looking at the emails and listening to the voicemail, it was now clear that an active investigation was underway. But was it an investigation into Alderman Hendrickson’s alleged embezzlement of his former employer? Or was it something else? The corporal had never directly provided an answer.

A visit to the Springfield Police Department

Seeking the answer, on December 6th, 2022, I visited the Springfield Police Department and submitted a request to see if there was an incident report of a complaint of embezzlement made against him by his former employer.

The older female clerk sitting behind the thick glass tapped on her keyboard for a few seconds. She excused herself and left the front counter for several minutes, and when she returned, she politely informed me that since this was an active investigation, I would only be able to request the incident “reports” for the time being, and not the case file.

“Reports? Plural?” I asked quizzically.

“Yes,” she said. “There are two.”

Surprised, I pulled out my wallet to get $4 (copies of incident reports are $2 apiece), and discovered that I only had a $100 dollar bill. I excused myself and left to go to a nearby gas station to get change. When I returned and paid, she wrote the incident report numbers on the receipt, politely telling me that it could take between three to thirty days before I received a response, although our earlier conversation left me with the impression that it would probably only be a few days.

She was a very pleasant person to work with.

I thanked her and left.

As of January 2nd, 2023, I have not yet received copies of either incident report.

Updated: The incident reports can be found here.

A series of uncomfortable phone calls

On January 1st, 2023, I called each of the aldermen (and spoke with Ryan Simmons via Facebook Messenger) and asked if they were aware of the embezzlement allegation or the ongoing investigation. They were not.

I also asked if they were aware of Alderman Hendrickson’s questionable residency. They were not aware of that either.

Alderman Hendrickson, who I contacted last, returned my call around 10:40 p.m. We chatted politely for a couple of minutes, and then I asked him a series of prepared questions:

“Where were you living when you ran for alderman back in April?”

Alderman Hendrickson said he was living in what was then his soon-to-be-ex-wife’s house in Ward 1.

I’ve since contacted his ex-wife, Kate Campbell. She responded, “I don't really have a solid date on the move out. He would come to the house and sleep a few hours, take stuff he wanted, and then leave again. At least 6 months before that he only spent no more than a night or two a week at the house.”

My next question was, “Are you using a post office box for some reason?”

He said he has had a post office box for mail for five years “give or take”.

And on one of the latter occasions that I checked on his residency, he left City Hall after a lengthy meeting, stopped at the Willard Post Office and (I’m assuming) picked up his mail at 10:50 p.m., and arrived at the home of the former city clerk shortly before 11 p.m.

Next, I asked if he was aware of the embezzlement allegation and investigation.

He responded, “I’m not familiar with any active investigation on anything.” And added later, “First I’m hearing of it.”

In early December, the investigating officer said in an email, “I’ve tried to contact him [via phone], however I haven’t received any responses.” The officer had been calling the same phone number Corey was using to return my call.

Alderman Hendrickson also said that he “had heard all sorts of rumors about [his residency]” and that “My ex-wife is pretty good about that. She’s best friends with [Mayor] Snider apparently. He went to Ken Reynolds, the city attorney…”

I reached out to the mayor for comment via his city email, but haven’t received a response.

Next, I asked Alderman Hendrickson where he was currently living.

“Umm, I rent a room from a friend, uhh,” he paused for a second, “just there on the north side, up by the intermediate school.”

For clarification, I repeated some of his earlier responses back to him and then asked, “You’re not living with Jennifer Rowe?”

“No. She’s a pretty good friend. I keep a truck parked at her house, but,” he paused for a couple of seconds, “there’s nothing there [that hasn’t been] insinuated in the past either.”

I thought back on the times I’d driven by the former clerk’s house on my way to attend the board meetings, and then driven by again after the meetings were over on my way out of town: His vehicle was there before the meetings, his vehicle was driven to the meetings, and his vehicle was at the house again shortly after the meetings were over. Ms. Rowe drove separately.

During the phone call, Alderman Hendrickson remained polite and answered all my questions.

I thanked him, and we wished each other a good night.

A lack of a conclusion

Nothing I’ve stated above should be construed to mean that Alderman Hendrickson is guilty of either embezzlement or of not living in his ward when he was elected in April 2022. Nor should it be construed to mean that former city clerk Jennifer Rowe failed to do her duty as an election official by ignoring Alderman Hendrickson’s residency. But the information presented should raise questions, the answers to which could potentially directly affect the affairs of the City of Willard.

Only two candidates filed to run for Willard mayor by the December 27, 2022 deadline: Mayor Samuel Snider and former city clerk Jennifer Rowe. Over the past seven months that I have been attending board meetings, I have always found both of them to be helpful and likable.

But though I like Mayor Snider, I have not observed in him the same level of knowledge and experience that would seem appropriate from someone who had been an alderman for five years and a mayor for almost two. Alderman Hendrickson, on the other hand, is considerably more knowledgeable — more so, in my opinion, than anyone else on the board. Perhaps Mayor Snider keeps his experience to himself, or perhaps his priorities lie elsewhere. I do not know.

What I do know is that the City of Willard has serious challenges and needs serious leadership. Between needing $30 million dollars (more than 4x the city’s annual budget) to fund maintenance and necessary improvements to the water and sewer system, an ongoing schism between city staff and a majority of the board over what exactly does and does not constitute allowable economic development, the failure of even simple things like a working phone system during emergencies such as the recent cold snap, and other challenges, I have not witnessed much in the way of actual progress on the biggest issues the city faces. As things stand, the existing board and mayor haven’t even been able to work together to agree on a replacement for an open alderman seat that went vacant nearly seven months ago. Instead, they just sort of mutually gave up when Mayor Snider announced he would leave the matter for voters to decide in the April ‘23 election.

I like the mayor, the former clerk (running for mayor), and each of the aldermen — including Alderman Hendrickson. Having been an alderman, I know their job is often thankless and difficult. And several of these gentlemen have dedicated more than a few years of their lives to the task and should be thanked for that. But whatever the source of the distrust between them that I’ve witnessed while attending board meetings, the net result is the same:

It is unfair to the people of Willard, and to those in the surrounding area affected by it.

And it needs to stop.

Addendum for Ms. Rowe

Before publishing the article, I contacted Ms. Rowe via Facebook Messenger to ask for comment. She stated that she “was not aware of an investigation into Alderman Hendrickson.”

Earlier in the day, through an intermediary, she also stated that Alderman Hendrickson has never lived with her, either now or in the past.

Note: A follow-up article about the incident reports can be found here.

Most Recent Update: On October 24, 2023, Alderman Hendrickson resigned and entered into a plea agreement with federal prosecutors after being charged with stealing nearly $300,000 from 500 drivers at his former employer, Prime Inc. See here.

In addition to today’s earlier article (see here) about the case that appeared this morning on the federal docket against former mayor and alderman Corey Hendrickson (who resigned yesterday)—a case in which he appears to have been indicted for allegedly having embezzled nearly $300,000 from his former employer, Prime, Inc.—I received this press release shortly before noon from Mayor Snider:

WILLARD, Mo. - Mayor Samuel Snider will deliver relevant comments regarding the much discussed pending impeachment hearing scheduled for Thursday evening. Mayor Snider will speak at 4:00pm, Thursday, October 26th at The Hive, a dine-in café located at 304 E Jackson Street, Suite SE in Willard. The public and media are invited to hear these pertinent remarks regarding the hearing.

Updated 10/25 at 5:22pm — News-Leader article here.

Original MoM article from January 2, 2023, here.

Alderman Hendrickson resigned yesterday, October 24, 2023.

Election night — April 4, 2023.

Around 10 pm, the Greene County Clerk’s office releases the unofficial vote totals for Willard’s mayoral race:

Sam Snider - 314 votes

Jennifer Rowe - 281 votes

Mayor Snider wins reelection by a 33-vote margin.

With the contentious mayoral race finally over, and with three new aldermen being elected as well, I have high hopes for there to be—despite a few ongoing issues—a much-needed reconciliation between Willard’s mayor and the remaining three members of Willard’s board—Sam Baird, Landon Hall, and Corey Hendrickson.

“The voters have decided,” I tell myself. “It’s the perfect opportunity for a fresh start. Things will surely calm down now.”

But those hopes quickly prove to have been misplaced.

On April 10th—the very first meeting after the election—Alderman Hall approaches me after the meeting as I’m preparing to leave:

“You should look into the mayor’s personal property taxes and his form 5120.”

Inwardly, my heart answers, “Wouldn’t it be far better for everyone involved, now that the election is over with, simply to try to get along with each other and stop this endless oneupmanship?”

In hindsight, that’s what I should have told him. Instead, I tell him that I’ll look into it.

It would have been better to just forget about it

What is Form 5120? The Poplar Bluff-based Law Firm of KKR&Y explains:

“All candidates for elective office must file Department of Revenue Form 5120 – Missouri Candidate’s Affidavit of Tax Payments. The law requires all candidates to be current in the payment of any state income taxes, personal property taxes, municipal taxes, or real property taxes on the candidate’s place of residence.”

It would have required a Sunshine Request to obtain a copy of the mayor’s 5120. Wanting to avoid that process, I visited the Greene County Collector’s website to check his 2022 personal property taxes, hoping they weren’t delinquent. While there, and to be fair, I also checked the personal property taxes of the three aforenamed aldermen.

Two days later, on April 12th, I contacted Alderman Hall via Facebook messenger, hoping when I explained what I had found that he would just drop the matter and move on:

Confused by the stark difference between his reply and what I was seeing on the Collector’s website, I asked a couple of follow-up questions.

He never responded back.

To be clear, then-Mayor Corey Hendrickson’s 2020 personal property taxes—though paid a year late—were not delinquent when he signed his Form 5120 on December 15, 2020, as a candidate for the April 2021 mayoral election (which he subsequently lost to Mayor Snider). Hendrickson signed on 12/15/20 — The tax wasn’t due until 12/31/20 — He later paid the tax on 12/15/21.

We’ll dive into the personal property taxes and 5120s of Alderman Hall and Mayor Snider in a moment.

Anyway, given I didn’t hear anything back from Alderman Hall, I hoped he had just decided to drop the matter entirely. Because that’s what I did—hoping to see the aldermen and mayor focus their efforts on Willard, rather than on undermining each other.

But then the board decided to impeach the mayor…

Unless it has recently been updated, the Bill of Impeachment includes the following charge:

Unless there’s something I don’t understand, the above charge is completely false. The mayor didn’t sign his most recent Form 5120 while owing delinquent personal property taxes. Therefore, he did not commit perjury.

Much like what happened above with then-Mayor Hendrickson, Mayor Snider’s personal property taxes were not delinquent when he signed his Form 5120 on December 4, 2022, as a candidate for the April 2023 mayoral election. He signed on 12/04/22 — The tax wasn’t due until 12/31/22 — He later paid the tax on 10/20/23.

Definitely late, but not as late as then-Mayor Hendrickson.

But what I simply can’t figure out is why the above impeachment charge makes no mention of Mayor Snider’s 2019 personal property taxes or of the Form 5120 that he signed in December 2020 during his first run for mayor. At that time, Mayor Snider’s 2019 personal property taxes were nearly a year late. He signed his 5120 on 12/15/20 — His 2019 taxes were due on 12/31/19 — He later paid the 2019 tax on 03/26/21.

Nearly 15 months late.

Why no mention of that in the Bill of Impeachment? Is it because the Bill only applies to the mayor’s current term? I do not know.

Will the alderman be impeaching himself after he votes to impeach Mayor Snider?

What I do know is this:

Of the people mentioned in this article, the only one who appears to have committed perjury during their most recent election is — —

Alderman Landon Hall.

His 2020 personal property taxes were delinquent when he signed his Form 5120 on December 28, 2021, as a candidate for the April 2022 election. He signed his 5120 on 12/28/21 — His 2020 personal property taxes were due 12/31/20 — He didn’t pay his 2020 personal property taxes until 03/31/22.

A full 15 months after they were due.

Recall that Alderman Hall signed the Bill of Impeachment against Mayor Snider. Again, that Bill includes the charge of perjury:

The above charge against the mayor appears to be false. And Alderman Hall himself appears to be guilty of the same thing.

Given the above information, what will happen to the charge of perjury that has been brought against Mayor Snider?

And if the Board for some reason does impeach Mayor Snider on the charge of perjury, what does that mean for Alderman Hall? Should he be allowed to vote on the matter? Should he himself be impeached?

Also, how did the author of the Bill not realize that the charge of perjury leveled at the mayor was false?

Earlier today, I wrote here about another charge from the Bill of Impeachment that appears to be inaccurate.

Could there be anything else that the author of the Bill has overlooked?

Maybe I’ll write about that later.

That impeachment hearing was at least partially motivated by the combination of a questionable appointment made by the Board of Aldermen (discussed here) and the mayor’s subsequent firing of the appointee.

Prior to the hearing, I’ll try to knock out a few short articles regarding what I see as deficiencies in the Bill of Impeachment, along with how one of the aldermen spearheading the impeachment appears himself to be in violation of at least one count that’s been brought against the mayor.

No. 1 - Advertising

I do not know who authored the Bill of Impeachment (although the full Board did sign the document) but whoever it was should have at least consulted the Board’s own meeting minutes prior to doing so.

Regarding the ongoing search for a city administrator, under “Nonfeasance”, item #2 of the Bill reads as follows:

The city administrator position was left vacant in September 2022 after the resignation of former CA Brad Gray. It has been vacant for over a year—a very long time. Initially, the Board hired Steve Bodenhamer, Strafford’s former CA, to serve as interim city administrator until a replacement could be found.

Just to be clear, the Bill is referring to advertising from July through September ‘23. And the charge against the mayor is that he did not consistently advertise for the CA position during that time period. Remember those dates as the article progresses.

So how much advertising occurred prior to July 2023? I submitted a Sunshine Request to find out:

In February, March, April, and May of 2023, the City of Willard spent a total of $1645.00 to advertise the open city administrator position. In June, the City did not advertise the position. Why?

For the answer, let’s consult the Board’s meeting minutes from June 12th:

Now, it isn’t clear from the minutes who it was that said “it can get quite expensive if the [paid advertising] is just left to run.” Nor is it clear who suggested as an alternative the use of “free job posting websites.” But the above might explain why no monies were put toward advertising in June and, more importantly, why there was no paid advertising from July through September.

So, other than free advertising, how did the Board intend to find a new city administrator? The next item from the same meeting minutes tells us:

So it would appear that on June 12th, the Board decided to transition away from paid advertising and, instead, to “seek the services of a professional recruiter.” The Board even voted to do so. Note that two of the aldermen—Sam Baird and Corey Hendrickson—were not present at that meeting when those decisions were made.

But wait. It gets even more interesting. From the July 10th meeting minutes of the Board of Aldermen:

When the Board’s decision to hire a professional recruiter was made in June, it became the City Clerk’s responsibility to find potential firms to fill the role.

And, at the July 10th meeting, it isn’t one of the aldermen asking for an update regarding hiring a professional recruiter. Instead, it’s the mayor. And from the context of the meeting minutes, it sounds like this wasn’t the first time the mayor had asked the City Clerk for an update.

Again, note that Alderman Sam Baird is not present for this meeting either.

Finally, the minutes for the July 24th meeting of the Board contain this:

(The city planner—after less than a year with Willard—had tendered his resignation in early July.)

At the beginning of the discussion, it appears as if Alderman Baird isn’t aware that the Board had, in June, voted to hire a professional recruiter to find a city administrator, or that they had seemingly decided to abandon paid advertising.

Mayor Snider reminds him (and the rest of the Board) that they need to decide on “what [professional recruiting] firm…to use.” Perhaps Alderman Baird did not know about these decisions because he was absent from both meetings where the issues had been discussed.

Anyway, at the end of the proceedings, the Board determines that they “will evaluate and decide which direction to go at the next meeting.”

Wait! I thought the Board had decided in June to stop paying for advertising and to hire a professional recruiter (a very expensive proposition). And now that decision is up in the air? But I guess they’ll come to some consensus in August at their “next meeting,” right?

In August, there was only a single meeting—on the 14th. At the meeting, there is no mention of either advertising or of hiring a professional recruiter. The Board does not “evaluate and decide which direction to go” during this “next meeting.” And, once again, Alderman Baird is absent.

Then, of course, the meeting after that is September 11th. The mayor is out of town on city business. The Board, under the leadership of Mayor Pro Tem Sam Baird, appoints Donna Stewart as interim city administrator (click here to read about the questionable way in which that appointment was made). Mayor Snider fires Mrs. Stewart two days later on September 13th. Reportedly, two police officers are present as she leaves City Hall.

The day after the firing, September 14th, the Board holds a special meeting and votes to censure the mayor. At the following meeting on September 25th, Mayor Snider publicly apologizes, and Alderman Sam Baird introduces the Bill of Impeachment and sets a hearing for October 26th.

Getting to the point

Again, the key takeaway here is that when the Board made their June decision to pursue the services of a recruiter, it appears to have put an end to the Board’s desire for paid advertising. Yet the Board is currently seeking to impeach the mayor for, among other debatable charges, a lack of advertising from July to September:

And if advertising for the city administrator position is the direction in which the board did, at some point, decide to proceed, when did that decision occur? It’s not reflected in the meeting minutes. And what happened to their July 24th decision to “[re]evaluate [hiring a professional recruiter] and decide which direction to go?” That was three months ago.

They must have given up on hiring a professional recruiter in favor of advertising, right?

From the meeting agenda for later today, Monday, October 23rd:

The primary reason Willard has been without a CA for over a year

Quotes from two anonymous sources should provide some insight into how Willard’s elected government is viewed by at least some former staff and by other governmental organizations at large:

“Accepting a job with the City of Willard was the single worst decision of my entire career.” - Anonymous

“Willard is the most screwed up elected body we’ve ever seen.” - a paraphrase of remarks made by members of a governmental organization within this state

The City of Willard’s reputation among regional government and employment circles appears to have been so badly damaged by the long-standing inability of these four men—Sam Snider, Sam Baird, Landon Hall, and Corey Hendrickson—to work together (though to his credit, Mayor Snider has publicly apologized and taken responsibility for his actions) that I’d speculate that virtually no qualified candidate for city administrator has been willing to apply for the position. I’d also speculate that any qualified candidate that has applied very quickly realized they had made a mistake.

None of the responsibility for this fiasco lies with city staff. They have merely been stuck in the crossfire, probably left to grapple with whether to stick it out or quit, with many having chosen the latter option. Additionally, I know very little about the newer aldermen who took office in April 2023, so this isn’t directed at them either.

The supporters of the three seasoned aldermen continually find fault with the mayor; the mayor’s supporters seem to mainly fault the seasoned aldermen. The truth, at least as I see it, is that blame is shared by all four men.

And their inability to work together has turned the City of Willard into a “deeply poisoned well.” Particularly as it pertains to finding and retaining qualified key staff.

The City had, unfortunately, already acquired that dubious distinction prior to when I began writing about its elected government in September 2022. Even earlier, when I started attending meetings in June of last year, I recognized that something was wrong, even if I couldn’t put my finger on exactly what that “something” was. But what started out as a pebble in my awareness only grew, over many months, into a boardroom-sized boulder.

The public impeachment hearing is scheduled for Thursday at 7 p.m.

May city elections quickly followed by impeachments not become the “new normal.”