Security and policy issues collided last week at the Texas County Administrative Center after camera equipment was removed unknown to the officeholder who installed it.
A security system at the Texas County Administrative Center was partially removed last Tuesday night without the knowledge of the official, Tammy Cantrell.
Cantrell said video on an electronic storage device, which was left behind, shows Presiding Commissioner Fred Stenger, Associate Commissioner John Casey, Texas County Sheriff’s Department Travis Davis and Lee Smith, a county maintenance worker, present when the hidden cameras in exit signs near the collector’s office were taken.
The $2,000 system, which was installed in July 2012, included four cameras and a device that recorded activity in a hallway and within the office. It does not have audio capability. One camera was not removed by the four.
“I guess my stance on that was that, we are responsible for the building and we should know what is going on with the building. She was told no and she put them in anyway. She pretty well does what she wants to do,” Casey said. “I don’t know if it is illegal or not, but I know it is not right.”
On Monday night, a further search of the building was done by the Missouri State Highway Patrol. Nothing was found, Casey said.
Video released Monday by Cantrell of the removal of the equipment — Casey called them “spy cameras” — shows Smith in a hallway, Stenger sitting on a bench and Davis standing and later taking pictures of a device near the stairs. Casey is the last to arrive. The video then goes blank at about 5:40 p.m. last Tuesday. Office employees had left for the day; Cantrell was at a meeting for collectors.
Casey said a cleaning employee first made the discovery when changing a small camera-equipped clock as the result of Daylight Savings Time. A wire and transmitter were found.
Cantrell said the move is the last straw in a running battle with the three-member county commission. She installed the system because of security concerns, she said, after the commission refused and no agreement was reached. While visible cameras surround the Texas County Justice Center, no such system was in place at the Texas County Administrative Center, Cantrell said.
“There is nowhere in the statutes or their personnel file where I have to ask permission to secure my offices,” Cantrell said. She said the funds came from her budget.
“It wasn’t like we put it off lightly,” Casey said of the deliberations of putting security cameras in the Grand Avenue building. “We decided not to put cameras in the public. If she wanted to do it, in her public area, in her office, I didn’t have a problem with that.” Casey said veterans and students taking drivers’ license testing might have been caught on video, and the commission opted not to do the installation.
Cantrell’s office collected more than $9 million in tax money last year from the basement of the county building.
“For the taxpayers and the subdivisions, I think they probably want security. I do. I don’t want someone come in the front door, come down and hit us in the head and go out the back door with the money,” said Cantrell.
Cantrell, who released a one-page typed press release at the beginning of the week blasting the commission, said she installed the security system because the majority of county operational revenues are collected at the administrative building. She said she contacted the Texas County Sheriff’s Department and the county maintenance staff after its installation.
Cantrell, in the press release, said she’s tired of disputes with county commissioners and called their actions harassment. The county commissioners are Republicans. Cantrell is a Democrat.
Casey is not sure how long the investigation — involving the county sheriff’s department, highway patrol and Texas County prosecutor’s office — will take. Cantrell said she’ll formally request a separate independent inquiry.
PDF: Collector-treasurer’s press release