Finance group appointed in Poplar Bluff

POPLAR BLUFF, Mo. -- Poplar Bluff city manager Heath Kaplan has offered the creation of a finance committee to serve as a "litmus test" for city spending policies.

The committee is his attempt to respond to residents' concerns over city spending, he said.

"We talk about how supposedly I'm spending the city into oblivion, into bankruptcy," he said.

"Why don't we get the opinion of this group and see if I'm really spending the city into bankruptcy? I don't think I am. ... Since there's people that feel otherwise, let's tap into a resource that I hope will provide credibility."

The finance committee will serve as an advisory board for the city council, similar to the operation of the Municipal Utilities Advisory Board, Kaplan said.

Those named to the committee are Mayor Angela Pearson; developer Jim Bailey; Ken James, chief executive officer of Poplar Bluff Regional Medical Center; financial consultant Sharon Kissinger; Matt Funke, executive vice president of Southern Bank; Marty Michel, pharmacist and owner of Key Drugs; and Paul Duckett, a developer and retired businessman.

"We want to empower this group to really dive into ... what I'm doing or anything the city is doing," Kaplan said. "With the expertise of these individuals, I don't see how anyone could say we don't have credibility."

This was his suggestion, Kaplan said.

"One of the things that has, I think, been trumpeted by some local individuals and the local media has been this concern over local spending," he explained. "I'm trying to communicate with individuals that have concern and I think it's not being productive, so I wanted to find a more productive way to talk through differences of opinion."