Commissioner cites past meetings in feud with colleague

In fall 2005, the Cape Girardeau County Transit Authority was negotiating to buy Kelley Transportation Co. Inc. to expand public transportation.

The price was high and money was short. To find extra cash, transit authority chairman Doug Richards met Presiding Commissioner Gerald Jones, 2nd District Commissioner Jay Purcell and Senior Citizens Service Fund Board chairman Dale Rauh at Cedar Street Restaurant. The question was whether Rauh could help fund the purchase from his board's dedicated property tax.

Now, almost five years later, Jones uses that meeting, and others like it, to accuse Purcell of hypocrisy about the Sunshine Law. While Jones said he really doesn't believe there was anything wrong in what they did, Purcell regularly accuses him of violating the Sunshine Law. Purcell's most recent complaint is that Jones and 1st District Commissioner Paul Koeper met with members of the Cape Girardeau County SB40 Board without posting a meeting notice.

Commissioner Jay Purcell speaks at a Cape Girardeau County Commission meeting. (Fred Lynch)

"According to his interpretation of the way Paul and I are doing things, he is guilty of a multitude of sins," Jones said.

Purcell said he didn't remember the specific meetings but doesn't deny they occurred. But he said he knows better now and those meetings were, indeed, Sunshine Law violations.

Purcell did file a lawsuit against the commission body over Sunshine Law issues, but only after it was discovered that a secret recording he made of a closed meeting could be considered a misdemeanor crime if the meeting was properly closed. The case made it to the Missouri Supreme Court, but the court said Purcell was suing himself and ruled against him. In that case, Purcell played a major part in discussions that appear to have strayed off topics allowed by the Sunshine Law.

"In the past there are things that happened that shouldn't have," Purcell said. "The problem is the other members of the commission refuse to change."

It was Purcell's first year in office. He and Jones worked well together at the time. But that cooperation is gone, replaced by a feud that colors every action of the commission. Jones made the Sunshine Law accusation, and issued 13 other complaints about Purcell's job performance in an opinion article published May 25. He wrote that Purcell does little to earn his $67,661 annual salary.

In November, voters will replace Jones, who is stepping down after 16 years. Purcell, who has two years left on his current term, is one of six candidates to replace Jones in the Aug. 3 Republican primary. And Purcell knows how to win in a crowded field. He won his current job by beating eight other contenders in the 2004 Republican primary. He won by 29 votes.

On June 9, Purcell's response was printed. He cited the transit authority deal, completed in March 2006, as one of his major accomplishments. He also said he settled a lawsuit over road taxes between Jackson and the county and spearheaded the campaign to pass a sales tax to fund county road improvements. In an interview, he said Jones has frustrated his efforts to accomplish more.

Complaints now about the transit deal are an attempt to smear him, Purcell said. "I feel like a guy who was in the mob and once he turned state's evidence the mob turns on him."

Sunshine Law violations weren't the only problem with the Kelley deal, Jones wrote. He also accused Purcell of intervening at key moments in the negotiations to help Terrence and Kim Kelley, Purcell's longtime political supporters, sell their business for more than it was worth.

After initially asking $750,000 and receiving a counteroffer of $125,000, the Kelleys lowered their price to $475,000, Richards said last week. The transit authority board was ready to cut off negotiations.

Further negotiations resumed Oct. 22, 2005. Richards and board member Ray Duffey arrived for a meeting with the Kelleys to find Purcell in attendance. After saying little for most of the meeting, Purcell told the Kelleys the county would guarantee a loan to buy the business and that the transit authority would not be allowed to serve Cape Girardeau until a deal was struck.

Duffey resigned immediately afterward.

"That statement he made caused me to take a totally different look," Duffey said last week. "We worked for him, and that eliminated the negotiation. I didn't want to be involved in it anymore."

In January 2006 an appraiser estimated the value of the business at $324,500, Richards said. The final price, backed by a county loan guarantee, was $360,000.

"Did those statements affect what we ended up paying for it? I don't know, but it put us at an extreme disadvantage," Richards said.

The Kelleys were professional throughout the sale negotiations, Richards said. "In my opinion, the Kelleys were doing nothing that any other business owner wouldn't do, trying to get the most they could for their business."

Purcell defends the deal and the price. The negotiations had to be pushed along to the end to provide public service, he said.

"When I was a city councilman, the need for public transportation was No. 1 on the list for the United Way," Purcell said last week. "I had a mandate from the people."

The Southeast Missourian also looked at other points raised by Jones:

* He wrote that Purcell does not attend local meetings except the commission meetings and does not attend regional, state or national meetings.

The commission posts a weekly schedule of commissioner activities. A review of 46 schedules from the past year showed, excluding commission meetings and political events, that Koeper has reported 153 events, Jones has reported 52 and Purcell has reported 29. Jones and Purcell can both make a strong case that they haven't been diligent about reporting their activities. Purcell attended, but did not include on the weekly schedules, seven of 10 meetings in 2009 of the Cape Girardeau Area Magnet Board of Directors. Jones said he, too, left many meetings off, saying he goes to 200 to 225 events annually representing the county.

Jones goes annually to state and national association meetings and goes monthly to regional county commissioner meetings. Koeper is chairman of the regional group. Those meetings provide training and a chance to hear what is and isn't working in other counties, Jones said.

"If I just pick up one idea, to me that has been a beneficial trip, and most of the time I pick up way more than one idea," Jones said.

Purcell, however, sees the state and national meetings as a waste of time and money. "It is an excuse to get out of town, stay in expensive hotels and eat fancy meals on the taxpayer dime."

* Jones wrote that Purcell never uses his office in the Courthouse Annex in Cape Girardeau. The county spent $2,784.90 to furnish the office, including $1,488 on a computer and $1,000 on a desk. The desk was purchased from the Rite Group, owned by T. Robin Cole, also a Purcell campaign contributor. Jones wrote that the purchase was made without competitive bidding. State law, however, only requires competitive bidding for purchases of $6,000 or more and Purcell said he documented higher prices for other desks before making the purchase.

The computer hasn't been used since March 2009, Jones said.

Purcell replies that he uses a laptop and cell phone to stay in contact and that the office is too cramped to be useful.

"To be honest, it is not something I am real proud of for what kind of office I have for the citizens of Cape Girardeau," Purcell said.

* Purcell has never completed a project he started, Jones said. As examples, in an interview he cited the county's effort to buy the federal building at 339 Broadway and an assignment to evaluate the county Juvenile Justice Center for possible replacement.

The county began talking about obtaining the federal building during construction of the new Rush H. Limbaugh Sr. U.S. Courthouse. Purcell was supposed to secure the FBI and DEA as ongoing tenants and take the lead on dealing with the General Services Administration in hopes of getting the building at little or no cost. The federal government rejected the county's request to get the building free, and Jones said Purcell never contacted either agency about remaining in the building.

On the juvenile center, the director reported that Purcell would never make time to meet, Jones said. "We still haven't seen a report yet."

While Purcell claims solid accomplishments from his first three years in office, the last three years have been hard because of the schism with Jones that frustrates his efforts, Purcell said. For much of 2008, Purcell was stripped of all regular duties.

"The problem is not me," Purcell said in an interview. "The problem is that there is one commissioner in particular with such hard feelings that they will vote against everything I do no matter the merits."

Jones views it differently and said Purcell doesn't follow through on assignments.

"To tell the truth, it is pretty aggravating whenever two of us have to do all the work," Jones said.

Jones has said repeatedly during the feud that Purcell's charges that corruption permeates county government damage the county's reputation without cause.

"Tell me what we are hiding? What am I hiding? Nothing, absolutely nothing," Jones said. "I am getting damn tired of being the bad guy."

Purcell, for his part, said he's not going to be quiet when he feels the public interest is threatened. "I am the barking dog," he said. "Anytime I see something wrong, anytime I think the citizens' interests are not being adhered to, I am going to bark. But the people I am dealing with want a sleeping cat."

rkeller@semissourian.com

388-3642

Pertinent address:

1 Barton Square, Jackson, MO