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 June 17, 2015

Luber: In his own words

(Editor’s note: Since Second District Commissioner Cliff Luber has had several allegations leveled against him in the past few weeks; it is only fitting that he responds to the accusations. Those wishing to hear the entire audio from this news story source can find the link to the internet address at the end of the article. It should be noted by the reader that all of the accusations are Luber’s side of the story ONLY. The Reporter welcomes responses from any of the people that Luber has made accusations against in the following article).

By Jeff Thompson
CAMDEN COUNTY - Second District Commissioner Cliff Luber has come under fire recently from a number of sources, including Presiding Commissioner Greg Hasty and comments posted on various social media outlets.

Although he briefly responded to some of the allegations in a short letter to other media besides The Reporter, Luber spent last Friday morning on so-called Internet “radio” (lakeoftheozarksradio.com) firing back at his opponents.

(The lakeoftheozarksradio.com is an internet “radio station” that is only available on a computer or cell phone. It does not broadcast on any AM or FM radio frequency like a real radio station).

Luber regularly hosts a half-hour “radio” program Friday mornings online; his co-host on June 12 was Dave Raaf, a managing partner at the Internet-based LOTO Radio.

“I believe it’s time people hear the other side of story,” Luber said. “I just think it’s time.”

Luber wasted no time in singling out Hasty (and by association former county assessor Eddie Whitworth) and First District Commissioner Beverly Thomas, pointing out that many of the problems in the county are of their doing.

PRESIDING COMMISSIONER GREG HASTY
* Early in the program Luber dialed Hasty’s county-furnished cell phone. It went straight to a recording stating the voice mail account had not been set up. Luber said Hasty had insisted the commissioners all receive county cell phones to avoid Sunshine Law requests of private phone records, most recently requested by Theresa Townsend.

As it turns out, HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) requires government cell phones to be encrypted, Luber added. Later in the program Luber said “the joke around the office” is 46 unanswered voice mails on Hasty’s desk phone.

* Luber claims that Whitworth told Hasty that he would only have to serve one term as presiding commissioner to be able to retire, based on his years as a county surveyor. After confirming this in Jefferson City, Hasty has stated “I don’t have to worry about pleasing the people and doing what’s right,” according to Luber.

* The focus on Hasty continued, with Luber citing broken promises, being “grossly unprepared” for regular commission meetings (including a Road & Bridge impact fee snafu), not returning phone calls and missing scheduled meetings altogether.

“You have someone unwilling to make decisions for what’s best for the county and what’s best for the courthouse,” Luber said of Hasty.

* Luber also claimed that Hasty has been unresponsive to a potential convention center coming to the county - “They stopped calling him and started calling me and giving me grief,” Luber claimed - as well as creating a possible conflict of interest with the developers of a proposed ballpark near Macks Creek.

“The day we closed on the (ballpark) land (Hasty) sat there and tried to get surveying work for his company out of these two gentlemen and I was stunned,” Luber said. “To me, that’s a conflict.”

BEVERLY THOMAS
* Luber cites an example of Thomas abruptly changing her mind concerning a salary increase for Commission Secretary Donna Scheiter when Kris Franken was presiding commissioner. Luber said he had met earlier with Thomas who said she would support the increase.

A closed session was held to discuss the matter, with County Recorder Donnie Snelling in attendance. According to Luber, Snelling was “adamantly against it” and Franken and Thomas also came out against the increase.

“Essentially Bev Thomas went back on her word and folded,” Luber said. “If you’re going to be an elected official and make a promise to somebody, keep the promise.”

(Luber added that after Hasty was elected, the presiding commissioner chose to make the commission secretary an administrative assistant with an increase in salary. However, Hasty said he was “snowballed” into making that decision.

“For Mr. Hasty to claim he was ‘snowballed’ into signing Donna’s classification is an out and out lie,” Luber said.)

* Luber also claimed Thomas says one thing for public consumption and quite another behind closed doors.

“I wish Bev Thomas would come forward and speak some of the things she says in private,” Luber said. “From a public perspective, she’s got more splinters from riding the center of the fence, you could probably build a brand new bedroom set with all the wood.”

* He added that Thomas has told him she now hates coming to work and that she and Luber achieved quite a lot “when we were running the county for five months.”

According to Luber, Thomas has also stated “I wish we had Caroline Lorraine (presiding commissioner prior to Franken) back because we didn’t have those kinds of problems when Caroline Lorraine was in office.”

HASTY & THOMAS
The second district commissioner took both Hasty and Thomas to task for the recent firing of a county employee that had started out in October of 2014 at a temporary position with the Road & Bridge Department.

The employee was later moved to permanent part-time status, then to a full-time job. Luber said there had been no complaints about her work until suddenly there were six complaints; four verbal and two written grievances about her alleged rude behavior.

“I know how that courthouse works,” Luber said. “If you’re not from here, if they don’t want you, they’re going to get you out.”

Luber said that rather than call the employee in to discuss the matter, Hasty and Thomas voted to terminate her. He said he tried to talk to Hasty about it, but Hasty lost his temper.

According to Luber, Hasty shouted “Let me tell you something, this is over, Cliff!”

Luber stated he told Hasty that it was not over and if the former employee chooses to go to court over the loss of her job, “I would have to testify against you for terminating her.”

OTHER ALLEGATIONS
* Earlier in the program Luber indirectly addressed accusations of threats he may or may not have made against certain individuals. He said that Snelling had once yelled at Hasty and “threatened to whip his ass” but that Luber didn’t hear anyone complaining about that supposed threat.

* Firearms in the courthouse were also brought up: “There’s four elected officials that have guns in that courthouse because there’s no security in there,” Luber said. He added that he has been complaining about a lack of security measures in the courthouse but no action has been taken by either Hasty or Thomas.

* Luber addressed an accusation of taking on too much responsibility, especially with the Road & Bridge Department.

“I’ve been accused of micro-managing but then you take the other side and there’s NO managing,” Luber said.

Luber admitted speaking to Road & Bridge (R&B) after receiving a complaint about a roadway. He said he asked R&B personnel to “go ahead and fix it” then contacted the resident to see if the problem was solved.

AN AFTERTHOUGHT
Luber also spoke about receiving a face-to-face visit from a resident - not from his district - about the behavior of a Camden County Sheriff’s Department deputy and how strongly Hasty reacted about the outcome.

Luber said a 70-year-old man was recently stopped for running a stop sign, then was going to receive a second citation for not having proof of insurance (the driver’s insurance card was apparently outdated).

According to Luber, the driver attempted to show digital proof of insurance with his phone but the deputy took the phone away.

The driver refused to sign the ticket for lack of insurance and ended up being handcuffed, booked at the county jail and having to post a $100 bond, Luber stated.

Once again, Luber claimed to have been stunned.

“I don’t believe this is happening,” Luber said incredulously, “I just don’t believe it.”
Luber also claimed to have asked Capt. Kelly Luttrell to his office to hear the driver’s story, which he did.

Afterwards - according to Luber - the driver received an apology from both Luttrell and Camden County Sheriff Dwight Franklin and his arrest record was expunged.

Apparently Hasty did not take the news very well, according to Luber.

“Mr. Hasty got very ignorant with me over this - ignorant and rude - because this guy came to me instead of him and he calls himself a personal friend of this guy,” Luber said.

Luber said that the driver sent him (Luber) a letter of thanks.

Luber said “the reason he came to me: ‘I knew Hasty would stroke me, I knew my commissioner wouldn’t do anything for me so I came to you because I knew you would do something’.”

FINAL THOUGHTS
The second district commissioner had some final thoughts before the “radio” program ended.

“I’m not lazy, I work hard,” Luber said, “I’ve never lost my temper in that office.”
He also stated that there were some working actively against him.

“Our HR (human resource) person is now soliciting complaints, trying to get people to complain on me,” Luber said. “You talk about a courthouse out of control …”

Luber gave voice to one final comment.

“It’s been very difficult for me,” he said, “it’s been very disappointing.”

The entire “radio” show can currently be found on You Tube at the following address:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=jQ5XCU-TFbM

Or you can go to www.youtube.com and search for:

Luber Exposes Himself and Camden County