JEFFERSON CITY — State Rep. Bennie Cook recently hosted about 15 local people at the Capitol for a tour and a chance to observe the state government in action.

Maries County Day was the third of its kind that Cook had hosted during this legislative session. He previously had people from the other counties in the 143rd District, Phelps County and Texas County, in Jefferson City to observe and interact with state officials.

“This is an idea I had last year to get everybody more involved,” Cook told the group.

The day’s events were supposed to begin with the Maries County group watching the House session and receiving an introduction by Cook. However, a dispute on the House floor about a previous vote delayed the day’s business. The tour group had to leave the House and head for a meeting room in the basement.

Attorney General Andrew Bailey greeted the group upon entering the meeting room. He was the first in a series of speakers whom Cook had asked to meet with the Maries County group. Bailey began by sharing some of his background. Gov. Mike Parson appointed him as Missouri’s attorney general after the last person in the role, Eric Schmitt, left Jefferson City for Washington D.C. in January 2023 following his election to the United States Senate.

Bailey grew up in Columbia and attended the University of Missouri on a U.S. Army scholarship beginning in 1999. His plans to attend law school changed following the 9/11 attacks. He volunteered for the Army and trained on tanks before his deployment to Iraq. Eventually, he became a company commander, a role in which he oversaw about 300 soldiers across 13 platoons.

“Those are real-life leadership and management skills that I learned in the United States Army that I find really beneficial to the work that I do now at the AG’s office,” he said. “We’re an organization of 300 employees (and) five regional offices.”

After serving in the Army, Bailey worked security at one of the courthouses in St. Louis. Eventually, he returned to MU on the Post-9/11 GI Bill to pursue a career in law.

“All I ever wanted to do is be a prosecuting attorney,” he said. “My grandfather was a sheriff’s deputy, and he used to take me to court with him to watch him testify. I grew up thinking that working with the police to lock bad guys up was the coolest job on Earth.”

Following graduation from law school, Bailey worked as an assistant prosecuting attorney with the Attorney General’s Office. He worked special prosecutions all over the state. When he wanted to settle somewhere, he took a job as an assistant prosecuting attorney in Warren County where he worked for four years.

Working with the Warren County Juvenile Court inspired Bailey and his wife to become foster parents. Bailey realized he needed to make more money to support a family, so he took a job with the Missouri Department of Corrections when Parson took office. Parson brought Bailey onto his staff, and Bailey said he was “in the right place at the right time” to take over when voters elected Schmitt to the U.S. Senate.

After Bailey shared some of his experiences as a foster parent with the group, he said it is a priority of his office to make Missouri one of the safest states in the nation for children.

Bailey also shared some statistics about his office. He said 60 percent of the work the office does is representing state agencies in civil defense. The office delivered six complete defense verdicts in one year in St. Louis and Jackson counties, which Bailey described as “tough venues for employment law cases as a civil defense firm.” Since Bailey took over, the vacancy rate in the office has dropped from 24 percent to 8 percent. The office reduced its turnover rate by 10 percent. The office has increased its criminal prosecutions by 133 percent.

“That’s traveling circuit by circuit, meeting with prosecutors, sheriffs, police chiefs and explaining the resources that we have to deploy in the fight against violent crime and where we can help in building those relationships,” he said. “And those have paid dividends.”

Bailey said one of the “signature moves” of his office during his term was last year’s resignation of former St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner, who Bailey and city officials requested resign after a pattern of dismissals and repeated offenses.

“It was a problem for all of us because it was an economic drain on the entire state of Missouri, and it undermined the credibility of the criminal justice system,” Bailey said.

Another case that Bailey said was cause for “a victory lap” happened about a month ago when a federal judge provided a court order that President Joe Biden’s administration must use funds that Congress allocated to build a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border.

“I’m really proud of that,” he said. “I think that’s really significant that Missouri is leading the way.”

Bailey said that Missouri’s spot in the center of the interstate highway system makes it a “hotbed” for both human trafficking and drug trafficking. A member of the group asked if Missouri ranks among the top states in the country for human trafficking cases. Bailey said the data his office has supports that claim though many instances of human trafficking go unreported.

“But when you have 1,110 reported instances, that’s a significant problem,” he said. “It’s because the cartels run the border instead of the president. So we have to get a handle on that and those lawsuits; we have to get the federal government to enforce the issue at the border.”

Last week, Bailey unveiled his office’s new efforts to work against human trafficking after the previous task force in the General Assembly expired last December.

“We’re going to pick up the baton and run with it and make sure that we’re getting the resources in place to support our local law enforcement officials and be there to back them up as they investigate and prosecute those crimes,” he said.

Maries County Sheriff’s Office Chief Deputy Scott John was one of the local people at the Capitol that day. He spoke about the difficulties local law enforcement agencies deal with when they encounter undocumented people during their work. When local agencies find someone who is undocumented, their only move is to contact the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). John said if it is only one undocumented person or a few undocumented people, then ICE is not interested in doing anything about it. He said he has talked with legislators about giving local agencies the power to arrest undocumented people and force them to leave the state.

“Law needs to catch up,” Bailey said. “We need to keep the law keeping pace with changes in our culture to address these issues.”

Bailey said transporting undocumented people in or through Missouri is a federal offense, and his office would assist local prosecutors with enforcing that law. His office would also pursue legal action against any business knowingly hiring undocumented workers.

Next, Bailey opened the discussion for anyone in the group to ask questions or comments. Someone thanked him for his office’s stance against children undergoing gender transition treatments.

“Missouri is the first state to successfully defend a ban on child sterilization and mutilation,” Bailey said. “I’m really proud of the work we did. Missouri is leading on so many of these important issues. The media is never going to give us credit because they don’t like that. But these are important issues to protect kids and put a stop to this kind of woke experimentation on our children.”

John commended the office’s cold case squad, which he said has been helping the sheriff’s office with “difficult” crimes that prosecutors in third-class counties may not have experience prosecuting.

Bailey said his experience in a county prosecutor’s office helped him to know the challenges of local offices.

“I like talking about the criminal justice stuff because that’s where my heart is,” he said. “That’s the world I come from.”

Maries R-1 Board of Education member Denise Wilkinson brought up the Biden administration’s recent expansion of Title IX, which includes new protections for students from discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity. Although the new changes to the policy do not include a planned rule that would forbid schools from barring transgender girls from competing in girls’ sports, Bailey focused on the implications the policy could have for transgender athletes.

“We’re going to file a lawsuit,” he said about the policy change. “That’s ridiculous. It wants to pervert our children and make it unfair. It wants men to be able to compete in women’s sports. Not on my watch.”

After discussing the Title IX changes, Bailey had to leave for an appearance on Fox News.

Later, Sen. Justin Brown, whose district includes Dent, Laclede, Maries, Phelps, Pulaski and Wright counties, took a few minutes to talk with the group. He led with information pertinent to Maries County.

“For the people from Belle here, you’ll be happy to know that we did get the money in the budget to fix the sewer and water problems there,” he said. “So as soon as the governor signs it -- he has until August to sign those budget bills -- you will receive that money this year.”

Brown said that the Senate has not accomplished much during this session. Infighting has kept the body from working on much besides the budget. He mentioned one of his sponsored bills, which would provide more funding to regional planning commissions across the state, as a bill that probably would have easily passed in another year.

“About three individuals stymied this process,” he said. “Deals like that, it’s not headline-grabbers, but it really makes a huge difference on how our area gets funding. For things like this, you can thank (Sen.) Bill Eigel and company.”

Eigel, a member of the group of senators known as the Freedom Caucus, has developed a reputation among his peers as someone who prevents the Senate from passing legislation. He is also a candidate for governor in the Republican primary.

“Remember that when you go to the polls,” Brown said. “Don’t vote for Bill Eigel.”

Other legislators who talked to the Maries County group included state representatives Don Mayhew, Bill Hardwick and Hannah Kelly and Sen. Andrew Koenig.

Treasurer Vivek Malek also talked with the Maries County group. Parson appointed him to the office last year after Scott Fitzpatrick, the previous treasurer, became the state auditor. He outlined his goals for the office through a program he called the “Three Ps.”

First, Malek wants to protect taxpayer dollars.

“Any decision we make regarding investments in the treasurer’s office, we run it by that principle,” he said.

Second, Malek wants to provide opportunities through the office. Third, he wants to “promote the promise of America.” He told the story of his arrival in the United States as a master’s student at Southeast Missouri State University. Malek, a native of India, was the first in his family to study abroad. He arrived in the country with only $300 and two suitcases. Eventually, he got both a master’s degree and a law degree.

“My journey has been what I call a living American Dream,” he said.

One of Malek’s signature programs is the unclaimed property database run by the treasurer’s office. The state has $1.5 billion in unclaimed property waiting for its owners to file a claim. Missouri residents can search for their names on showmemoney.com to see if they are one of the 10 percent of residents who have unclaimed property.

“My philosophy of getting into public service is to give back all the blessings that I received in this country, and I find the treasurer’s office is the perfect place to do that because it is all about giving back,” Malek said. “Whether it is investing the money rightly to give back to the state in higher interest or giving back in terms of funneling money back to Missourians or it is giving back to farmers and small businesses in terms of your tax dollars.”

Following the meetings with officials, the Maries County tour group received a tour of the House led by Rep. Bruce Sassmann. Brown also took the group to the floor of the Senate.