Griesheimer: Jetton Should Publicly Apologize for Village Law Legislation

Here's another interesting tidbit from the EMissourian.com article flagged this morning about the now-very-public conflict between Sen. John Griesheimer (R-Washington) and State Rep. Brian Nieves (R-Union).  Remembering their meeting last summer, Griesheimer says he asked Nieves to ask former Speaker Rod Jetton to apologize for the controversial village law legislation passed in 2007.

As far as our conversations about Jetton, I wanted him to ask Jetton to publicly apologize for his role in the Village Law.

Scott Dieckhaus (R-Washington) referenced the same conversation in his blog post about the conflict at WashMo.com:

Griesheimer expressed concern to Nieves about his lack of legislative action and work ethic, his lack of interest in working on local issues, his ties to consultant and former Missouri House Speaker Rod Jetton (this meeting took place during the summer of 2009 and centered on Jetton’s role with the “Village Law”)...

The legislation in question was summarized in the News-Leader last year as follows:

The village law, which made it easier for a single landowner to bypass local control and create a village, was added to a 400-plus omnibus Senate bill in 2007.

"We have yet to this day have any knowledge of who promoted that change," Wood told the committee. "We can't prove who made that change in the bill, but it happened. (We) can't find a place where it was ever voted on, but it happened."

While Wood and most lawmakers have pointed to former House Speaker Rod Jetton as the village law culprit, they've never been able to prove it was him. And despite his many denials, Jetton has never offered documentation to prove it wasn't him.

"If there's an ability to place things in a bill unbeknown to the representatives who are asked to vote for it, it's wrong. It's wrong," Wood told the panel.

The bill's origin remains unknown. Documents show it was never voted on in committee and wasn't added on to the bill as an amendment, yet ended up in the final version of the bill -- unbeknownst to Wood and other lawmakers who voted for the entire bill.

A News-Leader investigation of the paper trail turned up a two-page amendment without a name on it. But summaries of the bill when it was in committee -- obtained by the paper -- showed missing sections where the village law eventually ended up.