Commission ups juror pay

Circuit Clerk Vicki Weible approached the commission about increasing the pay and mileage reimbursement to jurors.

“We currently pay $18 a day if you are selected as a juror, and $12 a day if you’re not serving, and 7 cents per mile, which sounds a little ridiculous when you say it out loud,” she said.

Weible stated that the mileage reimbursement is based on zip code instead of actual mileage. Residents in the Farmington zip code receive no mileage reimbursement.

“We are reimbursed by the state $6 per day per seated juror,” she said. “We’ve started a program where we are doing the payments by debit card and it seems to be working out pretty well and saving us money.”

According to Weible, the pay has been the same since she started in 1991.

“It’s by statute, the 7 cents per mile, it’s the minimum," she said. "I’ve talked to (Judge Wendy Wexler Horn) about this and we agreed that it’s probably time to raise it.”

In her report, Weible said her office calls about 2,000 jurors every three months.

“When we send out for those 2,000, we get about 600 qualified jurors. Next year, we are going to every four months," she said. "In the last year, we have had 32 days of jury trial, we probably won’t have as many next year.”

The commission approved Weible’s recommendation of $20 per day for all jurors and 20 cents per mile reimbursement effective Jan. 1.

Highway Administrator John Gross of Road and Bridge asked the commission to purchase a new 6110 John Deere Tractor from Sydenstricker Nobbe with an articulated boom mower.

The contract is through the National Association of State Procurement Officials. Gross said it is a competitive contract that MoDOT is starting to use that takes 24% off the manufacturer's suggested retail price of equipment. The cost is $156,448.46 and the tractor is expected to be received in May.

The commission approved a five-year contract with Axon Enterprise for tasers for the sheriff’s department for $87,457.46. The contract provides full support for 26 tasers.

Collector Pamela Williams asked the commission to approve $3,000 for completing the automation of uploading online/integrated voice recognition payments into the GovernMENTOR system.

“When people pay online, we would get the report and manually enter the receipts,” she said. “This would save a lot of time, the people would get an email right away with confirmation that their taxes were paid.”

The commission approved the payment.

In a report to the commission, Sheriff Dan Bullock supplied minutes from the St. Francois County Law Enforcement Restitution Fund Board meeting. The board recommended buying flock cameras to install in the county to read license plates to apprehend criminals. The board approved the purchase of the cameras up to $91,000.

The next St. Francois County Commission meeting will be Tuesday at 10 a.m. at the courthouse annex in downtown Farmington.