TWO REGENTS OPPOSED TO RUNNING FEE OFFICES; PELTS, DOMBROWSLI VIEW IT AS PARTISAN POLITICS

Two Southeast Missouri State University regents said Thursday they opposed the idea of the school's foundation operating license fee offices in Cape Girardeau and Jackson.

Regents Mark Pelts of Kennett and Ann Dombrowski of Cape Girardeau said they opposed the plan because it smacked of partisan politics. But neither would discuss their opposition at length.

"I don't want to discuss them (my reasons) in the newspaper, basically," said Dombrowski.

Late Wednesday, Gov. Mel Carnahan announced that he was turning the Cape Girardeau and Jackson license fee offices over to the Southeast Missouri University Foundation.

For the past dozen years, the offices have been operated by the Cape Girardeau and Jackson chambers of commerce.

During a closed-door meeting on Aug. 6, the Board of Regents concurred with the foundation executive committee's approval of the plan.

The vote was 4-1. Board President Donald Harrison, and members Lynn Dempster, Don Dickerson and Patricia Washington cast yes votes. Dickerson, a longtime supporter and former law school classmate of Carnahan, had suggested the idea to the governor.

Pelts cast the lone dissenting vote. Dombrowski was absent from the meeting, but she said Thursday that she would have voted against it had she been at the meeting.

The Southeast Missourian interviewed five of the regents Thursday. The sixth, board President Donald Harrison of Cape Girardeau, was out of town and could not be reached to comment.

Pelts said, "I was 100 percent against this and I voted against it. I think it's a terrible mistake."

He said partisan politics is only one of his concerns about the situation. He declined to discuss his other concerns.

"It's worse than partisan politics," he said. "It's patronage politics. When you get patronage politics, that's where people are bought and paid for in the political business."

Carnahan has appointed Norma Wildman of Cape Girardeau to manage both fee offices. She has been working as a cashier at Capital Bank and is the wife of Walt Wildman, executive director of the Cape Girardeau Regional Commerce and Growth Association, and a longtime friend of the governor.

Despite Dombrowski's opposition to the fee offices plan, she said it's important to look to the future.

"I think we can't look at the arguments, yes or no," said Dombrowski, noting that the governor has acted. "This unfortunately or fortunately is over and now we have to come together as a community and a chamber and make this work for everybody."

Dempster, of Sikeston, said the vote by the regents followed a "heated discussion" among board members.

University President Kala Stroup, several regents and other university officials stressed Thursday that they supported the idea of the foundation operating the fee offices because it had been made clear to them that Carnahan was not going to allow the chambers to continue operating the offices.

"The foundation would not have gotten into it in the first place if the chambers would have been considered," said Dempster.

Regent Pat Washington of St. Louis said, "Every one of the regents, including Mark (Pelts), was concerned that we not be perceived as taking something away from the chambers of commerce."

Dickerson, a Cape Girardeau attorney who was appointed to the Board of Regents by Carnahan, was a key player in the whole affair. He said he met with the governor in Jefferson City in late May or early June to urge funding for construction of a business building at Southeast.

"He mentioned to me at the time that they had been in the process of reviewing some of the fee offices and that he had made up his mind he was going to make a change in Cape and Jackson," Dickerson said.

Dickerson said he subsequently recommended the governor award the fee offices to the university foundation. He said Carnahan was receptive to the idea.

In mid-July, the foundation's 10-member executive committee unanimously approved the plan, said Robert Foster, the foundation's executive director. The issue was then brought before the regents on Aug. 6 for its endorsement.

"It was going to go somewhere and I was pumping very hard for the foundation to have it," said Dickerson. "I think it can be worth a great deal of money and it's a responsible organization."

Foster said estimates are that the foundation initially might realize a profit of $50,000 a year from the fee offices.

Dickerson said Carnahan gave no particular reason for removing the fee offices from the control of the two chambers.

The Cape Girardeau attorney said the state Chamber of Commerce had endorsed Bill Webster, Carnahan's Republican opponent, in the last election. But Dickerson said, "I got the feeling that he certainly had no real quarrel with the chambers here."

Dickerson said that since Carnahan had decided to make a change, he was glad the governor had settled on the foundation.

"It certainly fits with Gov. Carnahan's stand on upgrading education in Missouri," he said. "I think that's what appealed to him most about it."

Pelts, an attorney, said the regents discussed the matter in closed session, presumably because it would involve a contract with the state.

That view was also echoed by Art Wallhausen, assistant to the president at Southeast. He said Cape Girardeau attorney Joe Russell, who represents the university, had indicated it was an appropriate subject for closed session.

Stroup stressed the tentative nature of the governor's offer and indicated it was important to brief the regents in private. The issue was discussed in closed session "to avoid the board being caught off guard," said Stroup.

Chamber leaders in Cape Girardeau and Jackson have expressed their unhappiness over losing the license fee offices.

Foster said university and foundation officials did not feel at liberty to discuss the situation with chamber leaders when there was no certainty what Carnahan would do.

"I wish I could have talked to them about it," said Foster, a former chairman of the Cape Girardeau chamber board. "We could have avoided a lot of hard feelings."