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At the end of the last day to file for local public office, seven people were certified as candidates for the Neosho City Council election on April 3.
The deadline was Tuesday.
They are, in alphabetical order, Heather Bowers, Bill Crowe, Richard Davidson, Mike Franks, Dr. Andrew Hamby, Steve Hart and David Ruth.
Of these, Crowe, Davidson, Franks and Ruth are running for the two three-year terms that are open. Meanwhile, Bowers, Hamby and Hart are contenders for the single one-year term available.
Davidson, Hart and Ruth are incumbents. Davidson was elected in April 2009 and seeks another three-year term. He has served as the city's mayor since 2010. Neosho mayors are selected by the other members of council.
Hart was appointed by the council in April 2011 to fill out the remaining term left by Bowers, who had been elected in 2009 but was removed from council two years later for missing three meetings in a row, as stipulated by the city charter. Bowers contested her removal at a public hearing, arguing that she had given notice, minutes before each of the first two meetings, that she was either going to be late or absent due to sick children at home.
Davidson said he did not receive the first two messages until after both respective meetings had adjourned. At the third consecutive meeting, Bowers arrived, she said, 17 minutes late, after giving notice that she wouldn't be there on time, which notice was acknowledged as having been received. However, the meeting had officially adjourned four minutes before, according to the minutes. Council members said the meeting was extraordinarily short due to a very light agenda and no visitors. Bowers said she believed it ended early on purpose. At the public hearing afterward, the council voted 3-1, Ruth dissenting, not to retroactively excuse Bowers for the third missed meeting.
Bowers has now filed not for her old three-year-seat but for the one-year term. That seat is the one-year unexpired term of former councilman Chris Wright, who was elected in 2010 but resigned in January, 2011 after accepting a new job that took him out of town for extended periods of time.
Acting under the city charter, the council appointed Ruth to fill Wright’s slot until the next general city election. However, by then it was already past the candidate filing deadline for the April 2011 ballot, based on the state election calendar. Ruth, who was a city councilman in the 1990s, was appointed by the council over Buzz Ball and David Holley
Ruth has now decided to try for a three-year-term, while Hart will run against Bowers and Hamby for the one-year left on Wright’s old term.
At the end of the last day to file for local public office, seven people were certified as candidates for the Neosho City Council election on April 3.
The deadline was Tuesday.
They are, in alphabetical order, Heather Bowers, Bill Crowe, Richard Davidson, Mike Franks, Dr. Andrew Hamby, Steve Hart and David Ruth.
Of these, Crowe, Davidson, Franks and Ruth are running for the two three-year terms that are open. Meanwhile, Bowers, Hamby and Hart are contenders for the single one-year term available.
Davidson, Hart and Ruth are incumbents. Davidson was elected in April 2009 and seeks another three-year term. He has served as the city's mayor since 2010. Neosho mayors are selected by the other members of council.
Hart was appointed by the council in April 2011 to fill out the remaining term left by Bowers, who had been elected in 2009 but was removed from council two years later for missing three meetings in a row, as stipulated by the city charter. Bowers contested her removal at a public hearing, arguing that she had given notice, minutes before each of the first two meetings, that she was either going to be late or absent due to sick children at home.
Davidson said he did not receive the first two messages until after both respective meetings had adjourned. At the third consecutive meeting, Bowers arrived, she said, 17 minutes late, after giving notice that she wouldn't be there on time, which notice was acknowledged as having been received. However, the meeting had officially adjourned four minutes before, according to the minutes. Council members said the meeting was extraordinarily short due to a very light agenda and no visitors. Bowers said she believed it ended early on purpose. At the public hearing afterward, the council voted 3-1, Ruth dissenting, not to retroactively excuse Bowers for the third missed meeting.
Bowers has now filed not for her old three-year-seat but for the one-year term. That seat is the one-year unexpired term of former councilman Chris Wright, who was elected in 2010 but resigned in January, 2011 after accepting a new job that took him out of town for extended periods of time.
Acting under the city charter, the council appointed Ruth to fill Wright’s slot until the next general city election. However, by then it was already past the candidate filing deadline for the April 2011 ballot, based on the state election calendar. Ruth, who was a city councilman in the 1990s, was appointed by the council over Buzz Ball and David Holley
Ruth has now decided to try for a three-year-term, while Hart will run against Bowers and Hamby for the one-year left on Wright’s old term.
Incidentally, Hamby was one of four Neosho citizens, including Hart, who had sought appointment in April 2011 to Bowers’ seat. Hart, who had lost a council election bid earlier that month to current councilman Charles Collinsworth, was picked by the council over Hamby, J.C. Herrell and Bill Slade.
Crowe is a former long-time Neosho Parks and Recreation director. Franks is a former member of the Neosho R-5 School Board and the Missouri State University Board of Governors.
This is the first city council election since at least 1973 that won’t be preceded by a primary election to narrow down the field of candidates. Neosho voters decided in April 2011 to do away with the city primary, which city officials believed may have been an unnecessary expense, especially considering chronic low turnout.
