Now that Edgard Springs resident Rebecca Varney has retired, she’s focused on keeping the local government transparent and accountable by attending open meetings and reviewing public records. But not everybody is happy about how Varney spends her golden years.
On April 12, 2018, Varney received a no-trespass notice, prohibiting her from entering Edgar Springs City Hall building except to attend City Council meetings.
“I wish I could say that this situation was unique, but it's not,” Freedom Center of Missouri litigation director Dave Roland said. “Part of the reason we decided to take this case on is we have heard of other similar issues popping up. I received a potential case form two weeks ago from the little town of Madison and they've tried to ban a whole set of people from City Hall. Usually, it’s people who are seen as being gadflies.”
In response, Roland filed a lawsuit on Nov. 9 in the Circuit Court of Phelps County 25th Judicial Circuit against Terry Austin and Joseph Hohner in their official capacities as Edgar Springs mayor and police chief, respectively.
“Their conduct indicates that these are people who don't like oversight and who have a blatant disregard for the state's government transparency laws,” Roland told the St. Louis Record.
According to the complaint, Varney is seeking nominal damages of $1 and $50 for violations of the state's open records laws.
"My organization, the Freedom Center of Missouri, is a public interest firm and we do not sue for money," Roland said in an interview. "We include the nominal damages to make sure that we are preserving claims."
When State Auditor Nicole Galloway evaluated the finances of Edgar Springs, she found issues with the city's accounting practices as well as other government operations, according to a statement online. The reporting, which took place after Edgar Springs residents filed a request with Galloway’s office, resulted in a poor rating.
Varney’s interest in the local government was piqued when she was ticketed by police while driving.
“Rebecca was given a ticket for rolling through a stop sign but she swears up and down that she stopped and she was so angry about it that she started looking into the statistics for how frequently the city was ticketing people for rolling through stop signs,” Roland said. “One thing lead to another, and she realized that the city was openly flaunting a state law that limited the number of revenue towns are allowed to generate through traffic citations.”
In 2015, legislators passed Senate Bill 5 into law to stop alleged speed trap tactics used to raise funds through abusive traffic tickets and other violations.
“Edgar Springs sits right on a highway and it was apparently making tons of money by issuing traffic citations to people who were driving past,” Roland added. “So, Rebecca exposed that and then kept going down the rabbit hole of city finances where she continued to find all kinds of improprieties.”