FOUNDATION TO PROCEED WITH FEE OFFICE; BOARD MEETING PRODUCES NO CHANGE IN PLANS

The Southeast Missouri University Foundation will move ahead with plans to operate the Cape Girardeau and Jackson license fee offices, university and foundation officials said Tuesday.

The announcement followed a two-hour, closed-door meeting of the foundation's board of directors, some of whom had expressed concern about their executive committee's decision to accept the offer from Gov. Mel Carnahan.

About 24 of the foundation's board members attended the afternoon meeting, held at the Show Me Center. The board has about 45 members.

Carnahan last week awarded the fee offices to the foundation and named political supporter Norma Wildman of Cape Girardeau as office manager.

The license fee offices had been operated by the Cape Girardeau and Jackson chambers of commerce for the past dozen years.

Some foundation members had expressed unhappiness over the governor's decision to take away the fee offices from the chambers.

"We had a frank and open discussion," said Rebecca Cook of Cape Girardeau, vice chairman of the foundation and a Carnahan supporter. Cook chaired Tuesday's meeting.

Cook said it was not a formal meeting of the foundation board and, as such, no vote could be taken. "This was an informational meeting," she said, held to explain the situation and the foundation executive committee's action.

Cook said that at Tuesday's meeting there was "no strong push" for a subsequent meeting to reconsider the issue.

Several foundation board members, who last week had publicly expressed concern about the situation, offered "no comment" as they left the Show Me Center.

University President Kala Stroup said Wildman, the new license bureau manager, will be asked to put together a financial and personnel plan regarding operation of the license fee offices.

Stroup said that both foundation and university officials will review the plan.

Operation of the license fee offices should net about $30,000 to $40,000 annually for the university foundation, said Stroup. The money, she said, will be used for scholarships, expenses associated with the planned business building and operation of the Small Business Development Center. The latter is already partially funded by the foundation, she said.

Stroup vowed that the university and foundation would work to help alleviate the burden placed on the chambers by the loss of the license fee offices.

Cape Girardeau attorney Don Dickerson, a Southeast Missouri State University regent and long-time Carnahan supporter, had suggested the governor award the license fee offices to the foundation.

Dickerson attended Tuesday's meeting of the foundation board. Upon leaving the meeting, Dickerson told reporters that Carnahan had made it clear that the chambers were going to lose the license fee offices.

Dickerson said the loss of the fee offices should have come as no surprise to the chambers. He said he told officials of both the Jackson and Cape Girardeau chambers shortly after Carnahan's election last November that he would be "astounded" if the governor didn't make a change.

Dickerson said the license fee offices have historically been operated under a political patronage system.

He pointed out that chambers of commerce traditionally have not supported Democratic candidates on a statewide basis. On top of that, Cape Girardeau County went to Republican gubernatorial candidate Bill Webster by about 2,500 votes in November, Dickerson said.

He said the foundation's executive committee and university officials were not at liberty to disclose the governor's offer because that could have derailed the whole plan, leaving the fee offices to be awarded strictly to an individual.

"I think some of them (foundation members) will begin to realize it couldn't have been handled any other way," he said.