SB40 BOARD WILL LET COMMISSION DECIDE WHO WILL REMAIN

PERRYVILLE, Mo. -- The nine people on Perry County's Senate Bill 40 board will not choose three of their members to leave, as requested in a July lawsuit settlement. The Perry County Commission will do it for them, said Patrick Naeger, board chairman.

Although Naeger would have preferred that the selections were made by the board, several members were uncomfortable with the idea, he said.

The makeup of the board, which allocates about $190,000 in county tax money annually for the disabled, has been in question since April. That's when commissioners agreed to dissolve the board for noncompliance with a state statute. Commissioners had said all the former board members except one had not been reappointed according to the statute.

However, a lawsuit brought by old board members resulted in a settlement that reinstates three of them on the new board.

Sylvester Bucheit, one of the three to be reinstated, said he is waiting to hear from Naeger before he attends any meetings.

Three members from the current board have to resign by Aug. 15, which is 20 days after Circuit Judge Robert J. Dierker Jr. of St. Louis, Mo., signed the settlement.

Bucheit said he regretted that it was necessary to file a lawsuit. But it was the only way he and other former board members could clear their names from accusations about their job performance.

"It's a shame that it had to happen," Bucheit said.

Along with Bucheit, Edna Ponder and Ted Ballman have also been reinstated to the board.

Three other members of the old board, Jim Lottes, Adrian Moll and Naeger, filed applications in April and were also reappointed.

Naeger has said as chairman he welcomes Bucheit, Ballman and Ponder to the board.

So far, Moll has not attended any of the new board's seven meetings. Although the state statute for Senate Bill 40 boards says that a member may be dismissed for missing five consecutive meetings without a good reason, the current board decided not to consider the issue now, said Ruth Tinker, the board's secretary. The board will wait to see what happens after the former members officially join them, Tinker said.

Joan Regelsperger, whose disabled son has been at the workshop since it started in 1976, told the current board members during their Tuesday meeting that any of them who leaves will be missed.

"I'd love to come in here and see your faces all the time," she said.

Any current board members who are dismissed are welcome to join the board for the Perry County Sheltered Workshop, Inc., said Bob Ray, board chairman and executive director of the Perry County Industrial Development Authority.

The new non-for-profit workshop board replaced VIP Industries of Cape Girardeau as operator at the beginning of July.

Regelsperger said she has heard concerns expressed about the return of the former board members. Regelsperger has heard these comments from disabled workers at an informal prayer group that she leads at St. Vincent de Paul Church in Perryville.

When the board's makeup changes again, Regelsperger told her prayer group that she'd be watching out for them.

"I'll be there at every meeting, watching everything they decide to do," she said.