The Weekly Bulletin

December 12, 2016

Call to order: 12:05 by President Musterman

Invocation: C.O. Scheffer

Pledge: Pat Brown

Introduction of Guests:   

Guest speaker Tom Darrough introduced his wife, Cheri. She is a financial accountant accompanying Tom to listen to his presentation. In addition to her work, she is one of the lay members of this 18 member Missouri’s Appellate Judicial Commission. The Commission interviews qualified applicants for the Governor’s judicial appointments. They submit three names to limit the Governor’s choice.

Birthdays and Anniversaries

None

Mystery Person

Carl Alden gave the Hy-Vee card to Sid Sullivan for welcoming him to the Downtown Optimists with shared life and work experiences.

Greeter

In addition to a hardy greeting to lunch attendees, Jake Jolley gave a brief history of his time in Columbia. He came here in 1974 from St. Louis, worked at Shakespeare’s for 5 years before starting his career of 33 years at Ford Food Service and Restaurant Supplies. He is married to Laura Jolley and has a daughter, Sara, whom he frequently brings to Optimists events.

Announcements:

• Koeze Nuts – Steve Winters: Current sales totals are $99,081 (compared with ytd last year $107,002). When accounting for the loss of product last year and current Koeze Nut inventory, this is roughly equivalent to last year’s sales.
• Gift Certificates: – Jake Jolley will make 4^th and final request for restaurant certificates at noon on Tuesday. He has $300 in this final request and welcomes addition certificate requests.
• Christmas Trees – Jack Cruise reported there are still 200 trees on the lot.
• Kids First and Sunrise Optimists celebration dinner– President Musterman and his wife, Sue, will be attending this Dec. 14 event at the Sunrise Optimist Clubhouse
• Club Annual Dues: Members delinquent with their dues payment will be sent a reminder/invoice that dues are needed.
• DOC Holiday lunch: will be at the clubhouse next Monday, December 19. Doors open at 11:30 with a shorten business meeting starting promptly at 11:45. Larry Fick announced 41 members are signed up. Anyone wishing to help with the set-up on Sunday can contact Ed Musterman
• Respect for law committee. No volunteers so we’ll see what happens
• Standing Committee Chairs: – Carl Scott circulated the list of Standing Committee Chairs with a pen to facilitate sign-ups. There are still two vacate chair slots: Respect for the Law and the Food Bank volunteer coordinator.
• Board Meeting: – Thursday 11/15/16.

Today’s Speaker

December 12 – Tom Darrough – Bone County Treasurer Mr. Darrough gave a brief personal history of his time growing up in Columbia to his appointment as Boone County Treasurer. His mother moved Tom and his sibling from Minnesota to what is now the Taylor House B & B on Broadway when he was 5 years old. .He attended Russell, West Jr., and Hickman H.S. before graduating from MU-St. Louis with a degree in finance.  His initial career was in the banking software sector of computer science. He moved around the country with different companies until he and his wife decided to return to Columbia to be close to her family. He started his own construction company managing it for over a dozen year until the opportunity of the Boone County treasurer’s position opened when then treasurer, Nicole Galloway, vacated her position to accept an appointment by Gov. Nixon to be MO State Auditor.

Despite a governor’s appointment, Mr. Darrough said he never met the governor until a couple of weeks past. He made application for the position through one of the many citizens’ advisory commissions, received an interview at which he was able to sufficiently impress the commissioners to recommend him for a governor’s appointment. He’s been in the job since May, 2015.

Mr. Darrough describes his duties as managing a $100 million dollar portfolio to meet both anticipated and unanticipated cash flow needs. With the exception of taxes which flow to his office through the County Collector, all Boone County moneys are collected by his office. He oversees the investments and writes the checks to disburse those funds. He recently hired a new accountant away from Wm. Keepers, LLC to augment his small staff. He describes Boone as the richest of the 111 non-charter counties in Missouri. Many counties do not have more than $20,000 in their bank accounts. In addition to county funds, the treasurer’s office provides a courtesy management of funds for three other Bounty County taxing districts: Boone County Community Services, Boone County Regional Sewer District and Boone County Fire District.  .

County investment are limited by law to federal securities with a maximum of 5 year maturities (Fannie Mae, Federal Home Mortgages, Federal Farm Credits), CD’s and banks insured by FDIC for deposits under $250,000. He participates in the Missouri Securities Investment Program (MOSIP) to pool investment at an increased yield while maintaining a high degree of safety. The treasurer’s office also has a contract with Landmark Bank to securely hold up to $6 million of county funds.

The treasurer issues “old fashion” checks for all county expenditures at a cost of $1.17 per check . This includes the 500 county employees, contract employees including election workers as well as capital purchases. .However, he is instituting a cost saving program requiring all county employees accept their salaries through direct deposit. No more paper checks for them. And, starting February, 2017 non county employees including election workers and released jail inmates will receive their money on cash debit cards. Inmates in the county jail have inmate accounts contributed by family to cover commissary items. Currently the balance on many individual accounts is small sometimes as little as $1.00. With check cost the county $1.17 and a thousand checks each month, he expects this change will save the county thousands. And additional cost saving program will come when the county transitions from their current software program developed 30 years ago in-house to an Enterprise software program  in 2018. The acquisition price tag on the new program is estimated at $1.5 million. Mr. Darrough expects it to save his office $10 million.

UPCOMING SPEAKERS

December 19 – Christmas at the Club House 11:30

December 26 – No Meeting

January 2 – No Meeting

January 9 – Member Spotlight – Mary Dewey

January 16 – Mike Powell, Green Belt Land Trust of Mid-Mo

January 23 – SCW Murphy, MO Dept of Conservation/MO Parks

January 30 – Marnie Clark, Cancer Research Center

February 6 – Jenny Flatt, Director, Family Impact Center

Adjourn with the Creed: 1:05

Optimistically Yours,

Sid Sullivan