3 SB 40 MEMBERS TO RETURN

PERRYVILLE, Mo. -- Three members of Perry County's Senate Bill 40 board will be asked to step down to make room for three former members as part of a lawsuit settlement, an attorney said Friday.

Sylvester Buchheit, Ted Ballman and Edna Ponder will reassume their membership on the board that appropriates money to the county's sheltered workshop, said attorney John Oliver of Cape Girardeau.

Current board chairman Patrick Naeger said he welcomes the three.

"As chairman I will do my part to be responsive to every member of the board," said Naeger, a state legislator. "All the old and new members have shown the level of commitment needed to do the job."

The nine-member board had been dismissed and asked to reapply last April by Perry County commissioners when records from the county clerk's office showed that eight members had not been reappointed according to statutory law.

The settlement stipulates that Buchheit, the former board's secretary, will serve a full three-year term, and current board members Jim Lottes and Adrian Moll will remain on the board, Oliver said.

Moll and Lottes had been members of the old board. After Moll was dismissed, he reapplied and was accepted by the Perry County Commission. Lottes' appointment to the former board had been done according to statutory law, so reapplication wasn't necessary.

Naeger, a Senate Bill 40 board member since 1996, reapplied and was accepted like Moll.

This will ultimately give the board a composition of six old and three new members.

It is unclear which three board members will step down, Naeger said. He has asked the other eight members to consider voluntarily leaving, and a decision is expected soon.

"It's a sad time for the members who will be replaced," Naeger said.

The selection of Buchheit, Ballman and Ponder to go back to the board was decided in private conversations among the plaintiffs, Oliver said.

The settlement also states that the new sheltered workshop operator will remain as long as it fulfills its contractual obligations. Perry County Sheltered Workshop Inc. has replaced the former operator, VIP Industries of Cape Girardeau.

"Keeping the present contractor in place is vital," Naeger said.

Some former board members still feel that they let down VIP Industries and its operator, Hillary Schmittzehe, Moll said.

The new Senate Bill 40 board had declined to renew VIP's contract to manage the workshop last April. VIP had operated the Perryville workshop since its inception in 1976.

In a joint statement, Oliver and Perry County Prosecuting Attorney Thomas Hoeh said that both sides in the lawsuit regretted that the incident took place. They hope that rumors about the plaintiffs and defendants will be forgotten, the statement says, and that everyone involved can work together for the best interests of the disabled served by the sheltered workshop.

It had been reported Thursday that Al Cearlock stated none of the former board members involved in the lawsuit would be reinstated. Any misinterpretation of comments made after the settlement's announcement on Wednesday was an unintentional misunderstanding, said Cearlock, former board chairman.