CWEP board issues response to emergency city council meeting that removed entire current appointed members

Editor’s Note: On Friday, June 16, 2023, the City of Carthage posted a press release on the Carthage, Missouri official Facebook Page. The release was shared on The Carthage Press Facebook Page. This is a letter from the CWEP Board in response to that release.

We, the six members of the Carthage Water and Electric Board of Directors, would like to set the record straight concerning the attempted dissolution of the Board by the City Council on June 15th, and the subsequent unsigned press release issued June 16th.

On advice of legal counsel, we believe this was not a lawful action by the City Council and that we remain the duly appointed members of the CWEP Board.

1. It is completely untrue that we failed to comply with the city’s request for CWEP salary information. Mayor Dan Rife sent a letter to our Board president May 18 “kindly asking” for salary information for all CWEP positions and the planned adjustments for the next fiscal year. Upon receipt of that letter, our president emailed Mr. Rife suggesting we create that document and deliver that information by June 1, to which Mr. Rife replied that he appreciated the “prompt response” and agreed to that date. A salary report was delivered May 31, of approximately 200 pages detailing each CWEP position, salary, job description, and industry comparison by position.
2. City Attorney, Nate Dally, also in May, notified us that he had re-interpreted a long-standing, well-established ordinance which changed the way CWEP should report payroll detail to the council. Although we have opinions from multiple respected Missouri law firms who specialize in Municipal and Utility law that his new interpretation is wrong, we complied with the request as pointed out above.
3. All allegations made in the press release from the city are, therefore, untrue.
4. Why did the city call an emergency closed session under the guise of discussing city personnel issues and then come out of that meeting and attempt to dismiss the CWEP Board?
5. We view the actions of the council as a personal attack upon our character and believe that a public apology is in order.
6. We are incredibly proud of the 125 years of excellent utility services provided by the hardworking men and women at CWEP and don’t want to see our utility disrupted by politics or personal agendas.

Brian Schmidt, Danny Lambeth, Ron Ross, Steve Beimdiek, Pat Goff and Darren Collier the CWEP Board of Directors.