County commissioner says colleagues tried excluding him from COVID-19-related meeting
BOONE COUNTY, Mo. (KMIZ)
A conference call scheduled for elected officials in Boone County was canceled Wednesday after its legality was brought into question.
Boone County Commissioner Fred Parry claims fellow commissioners, Janet Thompson and Dan Atwill, tried to leave him out of the call. He told ABC 17 News he had no knowledge of the meeting.
ABC 17 News learned Thompson approved a new meeting slate Tuesday, but Parry claims he was never informed.
The conference call, which was scheduled for 11 a.m.Wednesday, ended up being canceled after a reporter questioned how legal it was under the Missouri Sunshine Law.
The law requires public governmental bodies to post a notice and a tentative agenda for each meeting at least 24 hours in advance of the meeting, according to the Missouri Attorney General's Office.
While the meeting was listed on an updated version of the commission's calendar, ABC 17 News was unable to find an agenda.
Atwill questioned Parry last week over his possible connection to a recently filed lawsuit against the county's health director over COVID-19-related restrictions.
ABC 17 News reached out to Thompson and Atwill for comment. Thompson said the meeting was canceled over concerns with open meeting law conflicts, but did not respond when asked if she tried to exclude Parry from the meeting.
The commission is scheduled to hold its regular meeting over a conference call Thursday at 1:30 p.m. An agenda for that meeting is available on the commission's website.
