July 10, 2008

Commission looks at possible park land sale

Cape Girardeau County commissioners will have a full agenda today, highlighted by a potential sale of county park land and the selection of a vendor to provide radio dispatch services from the new Cape Girardeau firehouse. Both items have generated opposition as well as questions about adherence to Sunshine Law procedures. ...

KIT DOYLE ~ kdoyle@semissourian.com The football game of fourth graders from West Lane Elementary took them past the property line at Cape Girardeau County Park North Wednesday, May 7, 2008 that the County Commission is considering selling to Drury Corp.

Cape Girardeau County commissioners will have a full agenda today, highlighted by a potential sale of county park land and the selection of a vendor to provide radio dispatch services from the new Cape Girardeau firehouse.

Both items have generated opposition as well as questions about adherence to Sunshine Law procedures. Additional Sunshine Law questions surfaced Wednesday about the radio dispatch contract after Richard Knaup, emergency operations coordinator for the county, said the E911 Advisory Board has reaffirmed its original recommendation that the contract go to Warner Communications of St. Louis.

Reg Swan, co-owner of JCS Tel-Link, went to the commission July 3 with a binder full of questions about and objections to the Warner proposal. Swan represents Motorola and its bid for the contract.

"The entire committee went over those concerns and looked at them and feel confident that the system will work and work properly and perform for us what we expect," Knaup said.

Asked when and where the E911 board met and how the meeting was posted, Knaup said no formal meeting was conducted. Instead, he said he went to each board member individually for discussion and each signed a letter to be presented to the commission today affirming their selection of Warner.

The Missouri Open Meetings and Records Law, known as the Sunshine Law, requires that boards and commissions make their decisions in formal meetings, posted at least 24 hours in advance.

"I didn't feel there was a Sunshine Law problem," Knaup said. "There was no formal meeting. Nothing was done to be done behind the back of the public."

The sale of county park land has also raised Sunshine Law issues. The commission voted 2 to 1 in an April closed meeting to accept a $300,000 from Mid-America Hotels for the 1.24-acre strip of land from County Park North. Mid-America Hotels owns the adjacent land between the park and Interstate 55.

The commission's vote, with Presiding Commissioner Gerald Jones and District 1 Commissioner Larry Bock joining to approve the sale, came after a series of individual meetings among county's Board of Park Commissioners. In those meetings, District 2 Commissioner Jay Purcell outlined the sale and heard concerns of board members.

After the vote became public in May, Jones said he believed all park board members but one supported the sale.

But Purcell and board members said they had not taken a stand. And the park board met in early May to discuss the sale without posting the meeting.

On May 19, the park board met again with Jones but again did not take a stand on the sale. On Wednesday, Jones again said he was comfortable that the park board supports the sale, but he will ask them to discuss it again. No park board meetings have been held since the May 19 session with Jones.

"After we have discussed it, I will talk to those guys," he said. "I am not ready or prepared to get into another controversy."

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Jones said the commission will discuss a new appraisal of the land as part of the consideration today. The $300,000 price tag is the amount offered by Mid-America Hotels, which has said its appraisals show the land to be worth much less than it is offering.

Purcell said he has not changed his position that the park land sale must go through a thorough public review. "We should not sell park land without public hearings or the park board being involved with whether we should sell or not. We will see how it goes."

The proposal for the 911 dispatch system is a decision on how to spend approximately $250,000. The system under review would be installed at the new Cape Girardeau firehouse on North Sprigg Street and will be the central dispatch system for the the city. Dispatching is currently housed in the police department building at 40 S. Sprigg St.

The proposal from Warner Communications of St. Louis will meet the county's needs, Knaup said.

But Swan said he intends to appear again before the county commission to list the areas where he feels the Warner Communications equipment falls short of the requirements listed in the request for proposals.

On Wednesday Jones said he had "another night of reading" to digest Swan's concerns. Purcell said he will "rely heavily" on the 911 board for guidance.

rkeller@semissourian.com

335-6611 extension 126

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Approximate area of land to be sold

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