The Reporter newspaper, Camdenton Missouri

The Reporter covers Miller, Morgan and Camden County in Central Missouri's Lake of the Ozarks and is published once per week on Wednesdays.

Published July 16, 2014

Luber vs Franken: tempers boil over at meeting

(Editor's note: Originally at the end of this article a comment credited to Becky Farris from the County Clerk’s Office was actually said by Spree Hilliard, a reporter from The Lake Sun. With the amount of voiced speaking at one time and the general chaos a mistake was made. This article has been corrected. The Reporter regrets the error).

By Jeff Thompson
CAMDEN COUNTY - On the heels of a calamitous meeting with local business owner Theresa Townsend, two county commissioners ended up throwing angry accusations at each other and two others -a Lake Sun reporter and a County Clerk staff member - were drawn into the disturbing confrontation.

After he had Townsend removed from the meeting room by a Camden County deputy, Presiding Commissioner Kris Franken asked if there was any further discussion on the last agenda item.

“Yeah, I have some few things …” Second District Commissioner Cliff Luber replied.

(First District Commissioner Beverly Thomas was recovering from a surgical procedure and was not present at the Thursday morning meeting.)

Luber said he had recently made a request via email to Rowland Todd at the County Clerk’s Office for the commission meeting minutes for 2012. He commended the County Clerk for furnishing the records, but Luber was not altogether pleased with what he allegedly found.

“What I find disturbing, somewhere between the clerk’s office and your (Franken’s) office is that an email gets generated from you to Joyce Miller, the Lake Sun Leader,” Luber said, “where you accuse me of printing those copies for Mrs. Townsend so she doesn’t have to pay for them.”

Luber said he should be able to request items from the County Clerk’s office without it coming to Franken’s attention “before I’m back across the hall”.

He further claimed that the matter hadn’t come up until a Facebook posting by Amy Wilson (editor of The Westside Star) in which Townsend denied she ever asked for the commission minutes of 2012.

(Both the Lake Sun and Westside Star are owned by Lake Media, which in turn is owned by Gatehouse Media.)

“I really didn’t know what that was all about and really didn’t even cross my radar until your email,” Luber said, “you emailing Joyce Miller and making false accusations against me once again.”

He also mentioned a June 2013 email from Lake Sun reporter Spree Hilliard about a public comment “that wasn’t discussed prior with Commissioner Thomas or myself and you responded back that this was asked for by a group of citizens.

“Well, I know who the group of citizens are now, they’re the PAC (Political Action Committee) that are putting absurd advertisements in the paper every week, slandering me, coming after my family.”

Franken didn’t understand the connection Luber was trying to make.

“How does this pertain to our agenda today, Mr. Luber,” Franken asked.

“I’m coming around to it, Mr. Franken,” Luber replied.

The second district commissioner then discussed the process of determining fees for Sunshine Law requests (presumably from Townsend), saying that apparently the fees had been set by Franken and the law firm the county hired for Sunshine Law proficiency.

He also claimed not to have seen any letters from the State Attorney General’s office concerning Townsend’s claims.

Luber added that it was “obvious” county citizens are not being treated equally. As an example, he pointed to Townsend’s requirement of a $250 deposit before viewing the requested emails.

He then spoke of an email from William Pragman to Franken asking for certain statistics to be researched and Franken had replied getting the stats was harder than he expected.

Luber stated that since Townsend was being charged for research time, he asked if Pragman had been similarly charged.

“That’s two totally different things, Cliff,” Franken said. “It’s totally different things. As usual you can’t make a fluid point.”

“Okay, very good, Mr. Franken, thank you once again for criticizing me and demeaning me as you’ve done in your other emails,” Luber replied.

The second district commissioner further stated that Pragman had requested a P&Z district map to counter any points Luber might make in a letter Pragman had sent to the Lake Sun.

“I’d be curious to know did he ever receive that map and did he pay for it,” Luber asked.

Luber also claimed another email stated Franken had waived a $500 Board of Adjustment fee but Franken denied it.

“My quandary is I have agreed and you agreed that I would come in on my own time and I would go through these (approximately 6,000) emails,” Luber said. “Now I’ve just about done that.”

The statement caught Franken by surprise.

“So you’re going through my emails?” he asked.

“Oh absolutely, you agreed to that,” Luber replied.

“No, I did not agree to that.”

“Well, I’ll read the minutes …”

“No, I said ‘under the right circumstances.’ So you’ve been going through my emails and you’re pulling them out and reading them; when am I going to go through yours?”

“Have at it, have at it, Mr. Franken.”

At this point both Luber’s and Franken’s tempers started to rise.

Luber asked what it was he was supposed to redact from the emails and Franken said Luber allegedly violated what the (Sunshine Law) attorney has told the county concerning Sunshine Law records.

“You’re not supposed to have access to my emails,” Franken said.

“They sent them to me, Mr. Franken,” Luber said.

“Who did?”

“Keith (of the county IT Department).”

“Well at your request, I’m certain. Did you request my emails from Keith Thorton, yes or no?”

“You don’t raise your voice at me, Mr. Franken.”

“I’ll do as I please.”

“No I don’t think you will!”

“I will!”

“No you won’t!”

Luber asked once again what he was supposed to redact from the emails, pointing to one in particular that apparently dealt with employee issues that was allegedly sent to Kim Krostue (president of the local PAC) from Franken.

“I don’t think there’s anything left to redact other than legal,” Luber said, “now you’re more than welcome to give your opinion …”

Franken said he had three points to make. Number one, Luber had unauthorized access to his emails (“Well, that’s your opinion,” Luber said); number two, Luber was acting against everything the commission is supposed to be doing, and; number three, the fact that Luber doesn’t know what to redact is - (Luber starts to interrupt again) - “Cliff, I am speaking. I’ve allowed you to speak, I get my turn.”

Franken repeated his third point.

“The very fact that you don’t know what to redact shows that you are not qualified to perform that work,” he said.

Franken continued, saying that since Luber had gone through all the emails, “you ought to be well qualified to continue to inform Mr. Hasty (Greg Hasty, opposing candidate for presiding commissioner) of everything you need to do.”

Luber said he had not sent anything to Hasty, but Franken countered that Luber had sent emails through his personal email account using the county computer servers. Luber asked Franken to prove it.

“It’s a fact,” Franken said.

“Put it on the table,” Luber said.

“I can print them.”

“Print them!”

Luber continued, circling back to the discussion about Townsend.

“What you have clearly done is you have taken your authority as a presiding commissioner and you have gone after Mrs. Townsend,” he said.

Franken denied the allegation, as well as another allegation claiming he sent CCSD officers to harass Townsend.

Luber and Franken became angry, talking over each other, trying to make their allegations and replies, ranging from Townsend to the Old Kinderhook $44,400 fee snafu.

“I’m not going to put up with this anymore,” Luber said.

At that point Hilliard asked to speak on the record, noting a time constraint she was under. Franken said that would be fine before the end of the meeting.

Franken and Luber then accused each other of mischaracterizing situations and facts to fit their respective arguments.

“A productive conversation with you does not exist, that’s just a fact.” Franken said to Luber. He then prompted Hilliard to make her statement.

She requested a full recording of the July 10 meeting. She also asked about clarification or copies of emails mentioning her or Miller “because I feel if we’re going to be talked about that we need some verification.”

Luber said he was certain the emails could be found on the Lake Sun’s computer server.

“But I don’t know what you’re referring to, if you’re blaming us for something,” Hilliard said.

Luber denied blaming Hilliard, Miller or the Lake Sun of anything, he was simply stating the documents he requested from the County Clerk’s Office were the subject of an email between Franken and Miller.

“I just feel like if the Lake Sun is going to be mentioned in something, we probably should know about that,” Hilliard said.

Luber again brought up the alleged Pragman email and asked if he had been charged the same research fees as Townsend. Franken said Pragman was not asking for documents.

“As usual you’re trying to draw a lateral line (between Pragman’s and Townsend’s request) that doesn’t exist,” Franken said.

Hilliard then pointed out that after the June 24 meeting, Franken had indeed changed his mind and did not want Luber going through the county emails

“You said no,” Hilliard said to Franken.

“I did say no,” Franken agreed. “I told you, you did not have access to my emails,” Franken said to Luber.

Luber denied being told, but Hilliard backed up Franken’s claim.

“I didn’t hear that, Mr. Franken,” Luber said.

“I’m sure you didn’t,” Franken replied.

Franken then abruptly asked that the meeting be adjourned.

Luber agreed.