BELLE — Belle Mayor Daryl White, Jr., at 10:05 a.m. on Thursday, called an emergency closed session meeting on Aug. 24 to discuss “personnel” following the previously scheduled tax rate hearing.

The meeting was called with less than 24-hours notice. According to Missouri Sunshine Law,

Chapter 610.020(4), “When it is necessary to hold a meeting on less than 24-hours’ notice...the nature of the good cause justifying that departure from the normal requirements shall be stated in the minutes.”

However, no mention of the reason why the meeting was an emergency was listed in the minutes.

Following close of the tax rate hearing, the board opened its emergency meeting. Prior to going into a closed session, Alderman James (Pudd) Mitchell asked the mayor and clerk to enter his “request to have objection to closed meeting entered into minutes” become part of the official record. According to the minutes, there was no vote to enter the closed session hearing.

When asked why he objected to the emergency meeting, Mitchell said he wanted to make sure he was covered.

“I want to make sure that if our meeting wasn’t legal I was covered under Sunshine Law,” Mitchell said later. “I knew the meeting was called for personnel.”

According to the minutes, after the clerk collected the form from Mitchell, White, “asked City Clerk Frankie Horstman, city treasurer, and Marshal Jerry Coborn to leave the meeting for now.”

The board went into a closed session at 6:50 p.m. with the door locked. Shortly after the meeting began, Charro Reasor, city treasurer, was called in. Reasor later came out, sent Belle Marshal Jerry Coborn into the meeting, and promptly left. Coborn came out around 8 p.m. and City Clerk Frankie Hicks was called in shortly after. Coborn was sent home. The meeting remained in closed session until 9:30 p.m. when the aldermen, mayor and the clerk dispersed. The minutes did not reflect that the board returned to open session to close out the meeting, nor did they call the public back into the chambers before dispersing.

According to the Aug. 24 minutes, no action was taken.

Missouri Municipal League (MML) Policy Director Stuart Haynes said on Friday morning that the window of reasons to hold an emergency meeting is small.

“I use the example that if the public water tower fell down and the town had no water,” Haynes said. “Sure, in terms of personnel, if it is something that can’t wait. Something instrumental to running the city or is detrimental to running the city.”

Haynes said whether or not action is taken makes no difference, in his opinion.

During the Aug. 8 monthly meeting, White mentioned to aldermen that they could reach out to Meramec Regional Planning Commission (MRPC) about a Sunshine Law Class.

MRPC Director Bonnie Prigge said on Friday that the city has reached out.

“The mayor has reached out about doing a Sunshine Law class,” Prigge said. “We were looking at doing one for the region with MML (Missouri Municipal League) and not charging the city membership hours. We haven’t done one for a while.”