Update: I spoke with the Maries County Advocate reporter today, who stated she had reached out to one council member immediately following receiving the resignation letter, not regarding yesterday’s story. She also stated she hadn’t spoken with the other council member regarding the matter. I did not learn this until after the recording. My apologies for not having that information correctly.
June 10, 2021 – 10:39a
On June 9, 2021, the Maries County Advocate released a story regarding the resignation of former Mayor Steve Vogt and former Treasurer Theresa Taylor.
In preparation for this story, a Maries County Advocate reporter contacted Mayor Pro Tem, Jeaneatte Struemph, for an interview, as well as the Public Works Director and Office Manager. Not once did I receive a phone call, text message, or email asking for an interview. I was also later informed that the Advocate reached out to two other council members as well.
I find it interesting that they would approach the Public Works Director before they would approach council members. At this past Tuesday’s city council meeting, two representatives from the Advocate attended and still not one question to me.
Journalism used to be about reporting the news, but as we’ve seen throughout the last year and half in mainstream media, it’s not what it once was. It appears to be so in big cities and small towns.
With that said, I will now step off my soapbox regarding this matter and move on to the next.
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Let me first say this. Former Mayor Steve Vogt has been an asset to the Belle community for many years. He has a passion to serve and I admire him for that. The time and effort he has poured into making Belle a better place has not gone unnoticed. It is no secret that I have not agreed with everything Mr. Vogt did during his time as Mayor, but that doesn’t take away my level of respect for all the things he has done well.
With that said, I am deeply saddened by his choice to not take complete responsibility for his recent actions.
On May 20, 2021, Mayor Pro Tem, Jeaneatte Struemph reached out to me regarding the pictures that were found on Mr. Vogt’s printer in his office. We then met later to discuss the issue and I saw the pictures. I was not convinced at that point that he had printed those pictures. The math wasn’t adding up. He was on a trip in D.C.
As Struemph mentioned her “heart sank” in the article, so did mine. For the rest of the weekend, I had a thousand thoughts rolling through my head. Maybe he did do it. Maybe he was set up. I was leaning further into the second thought.
On Monday, May 24, 2021, we met as a council to discuss the findings. Let me stop here and say that the City Council isn’t always in unity, but the men and women who showed up to that meeting were all unified in one thing: we were sad, confused, tired, and concerned about Mr. Vogt.
We processed through multiple scenarios together. If he didn’t do it, why would someone set him up? Who would it be? If he did do it, what is our next move? Do we ask him to resign? Do we tell him not to do it again?
We had reason to believe that word had already gotten out to the public regarding the matter, while Mr. Vogt was still in D.C., and wanted to find the best way possible to deal with the situation quietly because we didn’t yet know all the facts, and protect Mr. Vogt’s reputation. At that moment, we were once again unified; we didn’t know what the right thing to do was at that point. I wouldn’t wish that responsibility on anyone.
During this time, I went to Mr. Vogt’s computer to check his history and see if the photos were printed from that computer. All the history from the last month had been removed. After realizing the pictures were not printed from the computer because it was not installed on that computer, I came to the conclusion that they were either printed from a phone or someone else put them there. At this point, I was not convinced he did it.
When we confronted Mr. Vogt with the photographs on Tuesday, May 24, I did not expect his response. Without hesitation, he took responsibility for the photographs. His words were, “I printed them on my printer with my ink.” When asked how he printed them, he stated he had done so from his phone.
From that point, Mr. Vogt proceeded to explain that it wasn’t really that big of a deal. I explained that though he had used his own printer and ink, he was printing those pictures in a city building, paid for by taxpayers. Vogt did not seem concerned with that issue.
Now, before I go any further, let me say this. Is his decision to do so in a building paid for by taxpayers something he should either be impeached or resign over? No.
Are the pictures themselves something Mr. Vogt should have been impeached over or resigned? No.
But… let’s talk for a second about those pictures. There appears to be an argument as to how “pornographic” they are. There was no nudity. Perhaps that makes them less offensive. I’m not one for sugarcoating things, so let’s just call it what it is… Someone doesn’t print pictures in that regard with plans to simply put them on the wall and stare at them. I’ll let you figure out the rest.
I can perhaps offer Mr. Vogt an extra level of grace in this matter since I myself struggled with a porn addiction for many years of my life. But whether he was printing fully naked pictures or simply provocative pictures, he was printing pictures of someone’s daughter, sister, friend, and perhaps even someone’s mother. Let that sink in for a second.
Now, back to whether or not Vogt should have resigned over the pictures. At the time, I knew this to be the first issue with Mr. Vogt having this kind of material in the office. I would have been okay with telling him that it was completely inappropriate, no matter the fact that he used his own equipment, and made it clear that he needed to never do it again. It’s his choice to do what he wants in private, but not in a government office.
So, why accept his resignation, then? As I previously stated, we were already concerned that word had gotten out to some of the public regarding the matter. The last thing I wanted to see was Mr. Vogt’s reputation ruined over gossip.
In a small town, it often goes something like this: I tell you one thing, you tell someone else, and by the time it gets to the third or fourth person it’s so far removed from the truth it’s not even funny. Let me give you an example. I tell you that Mr. Vogt was caught with inappropriate pictures. You tell someone else he was caught with porn. That person tells someone else he was looking at child porn. See how fast that escalated? And guess what? We’ve already had to clear up that rumor.
As we processed through options with Mr. Vogt, his resignation seemed to be the most appropriate. We were concerned about the actions of others pursuing this matter further, and if Mr. Vogt’s name was going to be drug through the mud while he was still Mayor, we thought it would be harder on him. We all processed through what that would look like, Vogt included. He was just as concerned as we were how this was going to look. Would he be accused of further accusations, have his name smeared for false information, and end up losing his ability to lead the D.C. trip, lead other organizations, etc? Our goal was to both protect the City of Belle and the integrity of Mr. Vogt, because at the end of the day, he hadn’t committed some heinous crime.
Mr. Vogt had the full opportunity to make his own decisions. He did not have to resign. It was an option on the table. We also told him he didn’t have to make the decision right away, but he insisted on going to his office immediately and writing his letter of resignation. He decided he would resign due to “personal” reasons and we as a council agreed we would honor that. If someone wanted to know the full story, they could ask him, as it wasn’t our story to tell.
Unfortunately, Mr. Vogt chose to make phone calls and other announcements, all the while throwing the city council under the bus – the very people who had worked hard to keep his integrity intact.
He said in the recent article, “The council didn’t ask me to resign. They were obviously in favor of it because they voted for it.” I’m sorry, Mr. Vogt, but did you want us to beg you to stay? That’s not how that works. We honored your decision. I would hope that you would have honored ours.
He also stated that “it shouldn’t have been a big deal. Some people want to make things out to be scandalous and want to ruin somebody’s reputation for whatever reason.” This statement, Mr. Vogt, is both false and true.
Your statement that it wasn’t a big deal is false. It was indeed a big deal, regardless of how you paint it. In regards to wanting to “ruin somebody’s reputation for whatever reason,” that is accurate. I’m sorry that this has happened. Some people choose vindictive actions and I wish I could change that, but I can’t.
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Now, I will address the resignation of former City Treasurer, Theresa Taylor, along with her statements and accusations. There are several things she either forgot to mention, or the Maries County Advocate didn’t include.
Taylor claims this is not the first time she reported something like this to her supervisor, the city’s Office Manager. The council was unaware until the May 27th meeting that this was not the first time material like this was found.
This is not an accurate statement, as there was no Office Manager in November of 2020. Taylor’s direct supervisors were the Mayor and City Council. Instead, she showed the material to other office staff and never contacted anyone about it. Now, should the staff have contacted the City Council regarding the matter? Perhaps. But it was portrayed as though it wasn’t a big deal and therefore no one reported it.
The second time Taylor found the materials on May 20, she did not contact her supervisor then, either. The Office Manager was not working that day. The appropriate steps of action would have been to either call the Office Manager or the Mayor Pro Tem. Neither of those actions were taken. Instead, Taylor pointed the images out to another co-worker in the office, then told the Public Works Director to go into the Mayor’s office and look at his printer.
Now, if you were a male who just walked into the city leader’s office and saw inappropriate pictures on his printer, and you’re the only guy in an office with two women, what would you do? I hope your answer would be to call someone else, which is exactly what Public Works Director, Tony Baretich, did.
It was during this time that Office Manager, Frankie Hicks, was contacted by another employee regarding the situation. Taylor did not contact her.
It was then reported that Taylor had spoken with her husband that day, telling him what had happened. Should she have told him? Perhaps. But doing so in a public environment, where others could hear the conversation, before even the City Council knew about the issue, in my opinion, is completely unprofessional.
Before one other council member knew about the issue, five others were involved. That is unacceptable.
So, why confront Mrs. Taylor regarding this issue during the May 27th closed session meeting? It wasn’t just this issue that was going to be addressed in the meeting with Taylor. There were several other incidents regarding her actions that were going to be confronted, including her inappropriate language in a public place, her interactions with other city employees (calling them inappropriate names both to their face and behind their backs), her disregard for authority, and her overall disrespectful attitude in the workplace.
Taylor had been causing dissension and strife in the office for a while, and some of her words and actions regarding the issue with Mr. Vogt was the final straw.
We did give Mrs. Taylor the opportunity to talk about how she felt regarding the incident with Mr. Vogt, just as we did with every other employee. If someone feels threatened or unsafe, it is our responsibility to address that.
But the problem is that Mrs. Taylor couldn’t keep her story straight. According to her, she thought the incident with Vogt was funny. Then she stated that she was uncomfortable being around him. It’s definitely possible that Taylor had a variety of emotions, and I will not argue with that, but what Taylor didn’t mention was her conversations with another employee regarding the humor of the situation.
What Taylor also didn’t mention is that the morning of the May 27 meeting, she laughed when she learned that Vogt had resigned. Not only did she make it known she was excited about it, she made it known that his resignation was the fault of another employee and she wanted people to know that.
I must have a different sense of humor, because nothing about the situation is funny. Nothing is funny about a man who has devoted many years of his life to public service resigning from office. Nothing is funny about calling a man a “pervert” to other employees, then turning around and acting like it’s no big deal. Nothing is funny about the numerous foul things Taylor had to say regarding the matter in a public office. Nothing is funny about a council wondering if they made the right decision. Nothing is funny about knowing no matter what decision was made, nobody wins. Nothing is funny about gossip to the public before the matter is dealt with. I could keep going.
Mrs. Taylor treated this issue like it was a joke and that is completely unacceptable.
When Taylor was confronted about her behavior, regarding all matters (language, name calling, stirring strife), she was immediately defensive. Instead of answering questions regarding her actions in other matters, she was quick to put blame on others. Mrs. Taylor was caught in a lie and instead of facing the issue head-on she became defensive and walked out of the meeting.
Taylor’s statement that she was bawling when she left the meeting is false. Unfortunately, she remembers the conversation very differently than the rest of the council.
What Taylor also forgot to include was that when she left her keys on the desk, along with her resignation note, she told no one she was leaving and left all the doors to the administration building unlocked, including the cash register. Her actions could have caused a lot of further damage.
If Mrs. Taylor desires to bring attention to what policies the council has not followed, I will be happy to hear them. I can only take responsibility for myself, but if there’s something I have not followed appropriately as a representative of the City of Belle, I will take full responsibility for my actions.
The City of Belle’s policies and budget are open to the public. Please feel free to look at them and share your concerns/comments. We are here to serve the public, not ourselves.
As I’ve said previously, at the end of the day, nobody wins. Many people were hurt and many are still being hurt. Our words matter. Our actions matter. How we approach situations matter. Every decision we make affects someone’s life, either for the good or for the bad.
Great things are happening in Belle. I firmly believe our city is coming back to life and will only get better. I believe we are going to continue flourishing, but it takes a community to keep a community strong.
Where there is gossip, there is no strength. Where there is dissension, there is no strength. Where there is strife, there is no strength. Where there is vindictiveness, there is no strength. But where there is unity, whether we agree on everything or not, there is strength. Where there are real, raw conversations taking place, with the goal of resolving issues instead of running from them, there is strength.
Let’s choose strength together, despite our differences. The generations after us are counting on it.
If you have questions or concerns, I encourage you to reach out. Let’s talk about it, even if it’s hard. Because at the end of that hard thing is something great. My number is 573.578.2885.
Thank you,
Your Ward 2 Alderwoman,
Sundi Jo Graham