Menu
Area candidates answer during weekend forum
The Vernon County Republicans hosted a candidate forum Saturday afternoon at the Fox Playhouse, in Nevada. The forum included candidates for U.S. House of Representative (Neal Gist); State Senate (Jack Bondon and Rick Brattin); State House of Representatives (Stephen Biles and Patricia Pike); Northern Commissioner (Jason Claspill and Cindy Thompson); Public Administrator (Kelsey Westerhold, Brett Dawn, and Beverly Beaty); and Sheriff (Jason Mosher).
The following are some of the candidates questions and answers:
–– Question for Sheriff Jason Mosher ––
"Why do we have out-of-county inmates and no room for locals? Are there any safeguards in place to protect Vernon County citizens from those inmates?"
Jason Mosher's answer
"That's a good question because there's been a misconception that our jail is overcrowded or full, or that we turn local inmates away so that we can house other inmates for money. I'll make it real clear right off the bat — our jail is not overcrowded. We have never turned away inmates. There has never been anyone who has not been arrested because we don't have room in our jail. If the local inmate is arrested in our county and they’re arrested on a county warrant or they’ve committed a felony in our county, by statute in Missouri, the county sheriff has to take custody of that inmate. So, those inmates are taken into custody.
If we ever end up at a point where we don’t have room to hold all of our inmates and inmates we’re housing for other counties, we’ll start sending those inmates back to other counties. We’ll always make room for our local people in our jail if that’s where they choose to end up at. When it comes to safeguarding citizens here, the contract we have right now with Kansas City is the safest and best contract for our county that we’ve ever had. From all the contracts I’ve seen in speaking with other sheriffs at the sheriffs’ conference, that’s one of the best jail contracts that I think has ever been created. We are not housing any inmates from Kansas City who commit felony crimes.
We are only housing misdemeanor charged inmates from the city of Kansas City. Those inmates are brought down here for housing only. So, we’re not doing the bonding. We’re not doing the releasing and we were able to get Kansas City to write in the contract that Vernon County shall not release any inmate in Vernon County. Those inmates, if they come to Vernon County and they’re going to bond out or get released, they have to be taken back to Kansas City and that process has to be done by the city — not by Vernon County Sheriff’s Office. Not only did that create a safe environment for our citizens for holding inmates, but that generated even more revenue for our county because then they contacted us and said, ‘We can do this contract, but now we don’t know how to get our inmates back and forth.’ So, not only does Kansas City pay us a daily amount for holding those inmates, but they pay us a flat sum of $24,000 a month just to drive them back to Kansas City.
That’s regardless of how many transports we do. During the virus, our transports went way down but they still paid us the $24,000 a month. That’s just for transportation to make sure they get back to Kansas City. They also pay us the full day amount for each inmate, regardless of how long they are here. That revenue is important because it directly effects the law enforcement services that we can give our community. There's not enough revenue to keep our patrol cars replaced; training for our officers; and gear. We have to have that revenue and this is our way of providing that."
—— Question for Public Administrator candidates ——
"Do you plan to make any beneficial changes in the operation of the public administration office? Any changes to the office personnel?"
Beverly Beaty's answer
"I can not say I would make any beneficial changes at this time because I'm not in that office. You need to go in and see how the office is running. I feel like I'm coming in on the opposite side. I'm coming in on the education part, maybe not so much with the legal and the banking, but I've been in business for 20 years with my husband doing his accounting and books. I want this office to be represented by a person who is going to work in the best interest of the community. We need to treat everybody with respect. I don't see any changes needed right now in personnel because why would you change somebody that's been there, know what their doing — let them help you get established and then see if you need to make any changes."
Kelsey Westerhold's answer
"I do not plan to make any changes to the office personnel. The staff on board are qualified and I feel that they are up-to-date on everything. Any training opportunities for myself or the staff, I feel that we will be going to that just to stay updated and current so we can give the best community service to our clients.”
Brett Dawn’s answer
“I’d like to make four changes in the Public Administrator’s office. I’d like to institute a checks and balances. Right now, there is a one signature mandate and I would like to add a second signature for checks and balances. This would also give security to our clients. The second thing I’d like to change is to declutter the office — getting the files that are in there now and get them into a digital file so we can maximize our space in the office we would currently have. The third thing — I’d like to send the employees to trainings because, as I understand, they don’t go to many if any at all. I’d like them to go to mental awareness trainings, crisis intervention trainings, and also it would be beneficial because they would be able to better suit them and understand what they are going through. The fourth thing I would like to add, I would ask the commission to add another full-time or part-time employee as mandated or the option by state statute.