Judges: Clay County Commission underfunding of sheriff ‘disturbing,’ ‘indefensible’
A panel of Missouri Court of Appeals judges issued a stinging rebuke of two Clay County Commissioners and a high-ranking administrator Thursday for what it called their “bad faith” decision to cut the sheriff’s department budget.
In finding that the Clay County Commission committed “intentionally bad behavior,” a unanimous decision by three appellate court judges supported a trial court’s order that the commission adequately fund its sheriff’s department. The sheriff has been unable to pay vendors who are providing food and healthcare to county inmates since two of the three commission members voted to cut the sheriff’s budget.
The appeals court went further, determining that the Clay County Commission should pay $200,000 in legal fees incurred by Sheriff Paul Vescovo, who sued the county at the trial court level. The trial judge declined to force the county to pay the fees.
“The County exceeded its discretion by deliberately, unreasonably and in bad faith, providing inadequate provisions to a department,” the court ruling says.
“It is not normally the business of the courts to get in political decisions like budgets,” said Vescovo’s attorney, Fritz Riesmeyer. “But they were so egregious...what they were doing the courts reluctantly had to step in. That’s how far out of bounds these two commissioners have been acting.”
The two commissioners Riesmeyer referenced are Luann Ridgeway and Gene Owen, a majority of the three-member panel who voted on a 2019 operating budget for Vescovo’s department of $1.79 million, far less than the $3.17 million he requested.
Presiding Commissioner Jerry Nolte voted against the budget and has remained critical of his colleagues for their decision. Nolte was represented by his own county-funded attorneys in the sheriff’s litigation because his position differed from that of Ridgeway and Owen.
The $1.79 million allocation was an idea that originated with Laurie Portwood, the chief budget officer for Clay County. Portwood was investigated by Vescovo in 2017 after the Clay County Clerk alleged that someone in Portwood’s office tampered with public records by cutting commissioner’s signatures off of financial documents.
Vescovo referred the matter to the Missouri Highway Patrol, which charged Portwood and others with tampering with public documents. Portwood entered into a deferred prosecution agreement to resolve the matter.
The sheriff’s department’s budgets in 2018 and 2019 were also cut, despite increasing county revenues.
The appeals court decision seized on that fact, saying that the county has made no attempt to argue Vescovo’s claim that political retaliation motivated the county’s budget cuts.
“The circuit court’s conclusion that the County’s decision to cut the Sheriff’s budget was retaliation against a law enforcement officer for engaging in a fruitful investigation into criminal behavior of Portwood and others is supported by the record,” the ruling said “Despite the County’s impassioned argument that these facts are irrelevant...we cannot overlook facts as egregious as these.”
Asked for comment on the ruling, as well as an explanation for why taxpayer funds continue to be expended on three teams of attorneys to litigate over the sheriff’s budget, the county issued a one-sentence statement on behalf of the commissioners and Portwood: “The County is in the process of reviewing the decision by the Missouri Court of Appeals and therefore we have no immediate comment at this time.”
The county could ask for a full panel of Missouri Court of Appeals judges to review the case, and could appeal to the Missouri Supreme Court. But Riesmeyer said Thursday’s ruling left little latitude for the county to persuade judges to hear the case.
“If it was a close call on the law, maybe,” Riesmeyer said. “But this is too overwhelming.”
Thursday’s appellate opinion is another example of the fractious political dynamics in Clay County playing out in public and in the courts.
Missouri Auditor Nicole Galloway has attempted to take stock of the county’s finances and other matters after more than 9,000 Clay County residents requested a state audit. Residents have complained that Clay County government wastes taxpayer money and ignores public needs.
The audit started in December 2018, but progress has been slow as county officials have fought Galloway’s access to certain documents in Cole County Circuit Court, which ruled in her favor.
Galloway’s office has resorted to issuing subpoenas to compel testimony from county officials and to receive official records. But the auditor’s office still lacks key documents that it has been seeking.
Clay County assistant administrator Nicole Brown, who on Nov. 8 received a subpoena to testify, did not show up for a scheduled deposition on Nov. 25, prompting Galloway’s office this week to ask a judge to enforce the subpoena.
This story was originally published December 5, 2019 at 11:09 AM.
