LEGISLATIVE EFFORTS IN THE STATE CAPITOL
As the legislative session continues, the Missouri Senate is working to improve inefficiencies in our state constitution that limit our role in the impeachment process. The Missouri Senate recently approved Senate Bill 9, a proposal that reforms the requirements for impeachment of elected officials. I believe this piece of legislation does a good job of tightening up our state’s existing impeachment process. Under Article VII, Section 2 of the Missouri Constitution, the governor or member of the Supreme Court will be tried by a special commission of seven eminent jurists to be elected by the Senate. In order to impeach an elected official, five out of seven jurists must concur with the final ruling.
Ultimately, I believe Senate Bill 9 improves the impeachment process by allowing the Missouri Senate to make a final decision on whether or not an elected official has misused or abused their elected office or has committed a crime while holding their position in office. Under current law, the Legislature is required to rely on the final judgement of the Supreme Court in certain circumstances, which I believe proves to be inefficient because the impeachment process is not a judicial issue. Upon approval of the Missouri House of Representatives, the proposal would then be placed on the ballot to be voted on by Missourians.
If Missourians accept the proposed changes to the constitution, the proposal would require a two-thirds vote in order to impeach judges and a three-fourths vote for other statewide officials. The chief justice of the Missouri Supreme Court would preside over impeachment trials regarding the governor or lieutenant governor.
In the Veterans and Military Affairs Committee, we heard House Bill 547, a proposal that would require every circuit court in the state to establish a treatment court division before August 2021 and include a veteran’s court. Almost all of our judicial circuit courts have some form of treatment court but only 12 of the 46 have a veteran’s court. Veteran’s treatment courts take a different approach than a regular adult treatment court and therefore veterans going a specified veteran’s court have much higher rate of successful reintegration into society. I support the establishment of a veteran’s court within each treatment division but, where not economically feasible to do so, I encourage two or more circuits to agree to create a joint veteran’s court sharing the costs.
COMMUNITY RELATIONS
On March 30, 2019, I traveled to Joplin to present the Joplin High School Army Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps with a resolution for the celebration of their 100th anniversary.
In March 27, 1919, the United States Army formally approved the establishment of the Joplin High School JROTC. As a result, the Joplin High School JROTC is the oldest, consecutively run JROTC program in the nation, and has left a mark on thousands of families and countless members of the Joplin community. I was proud to share this moment in history with the Joplin JROTC program.
