The continuing quest to move the municipal court back to Holden took one step closer to reality at the city’s police committee meeting and public hearing last Tuesday night at City Hall, but according to new mayor Mike Wakeman, “it won’t happen unless we find that it truly benefits Holden.”

“We’re not looking to make a lot of money on moving the court back, but we don’t want to go broke either,” explained Wakeman.  “My question is whether the cost of setting up a court here - with prosecutor, judge, court reporter and other costs - far and beyond outweighs what we’re reaping from the present system.”

He continued, “If we’re only looking at a 15 percent margin, I have to ask myself is it worth it.  But, if it’s more like 30 or 40 percent, maybe it will be cost-effective.”

To that end, the mayor set another public hearing June 27 at 7 p.m., to discuss the matter, and  charged Holden Police Chief Ed Bone to present a cost analysis at that time.  Bone stated that he would provide a printout of fines collected over the last two years, as well as a cost analysis of manhours spent by Holden police officers in the Johnson County Court.  He stated that there were a lot of wasted manhours spent in the court system.

“I’d like to get this off the ground by January 1, if possible,” stated Wakeman.  “But if we do it, we’re going to do it right.  If we’re not ready by January 1, we’ll wait.  We’ll let the attorneys tell us when we’re ready.”

Wakeman did report to the committee that he had received inquiries from  Pleasant Hill attorney Ed Clemmons about a possible judgeship.  When asked what the cost would be, Wakeman stated that it would be somewhere between $100 and $175 per hour.  He also said that the judge would probably work approximately six to eight hours per month on the high side.

Council woman Brenda Stumpff still wants to investigate the possibility of using a Central Missouri State University criminal justice professor as a judge, like is done in Knob Noster.  She also stated that she had only positive comments about moving the court back to Holden.

Conversely, councilman Butch Shore reported that he had received only negative comments.  “I remember what we had here when the court was in Holden before - and it was bad.  To be fair, however, I attribute a lot of that to the judgeship being an elected position.”

Chief Bone agreed, but stated that we won’t allow that to happen again.

“It’s a confidence issue with Holden’s citizens,” explained Wakeman.  “They remember what happened in the past and that’s why we need to educate them on what we’re doing now to insure it’s a good system if we move the court back.  We have to win their confidence back - we have to show them that we’re going to do it right this time.”

In preparation for the public hearing in two months, Wakeman asked Stumpff and police officer Lisa Ambrusko, to study other municipalities of Holden’s size and smaller and report on how their court systems operate.

Ambrusko had already researched Bates City, a town with a population approximately one-tenth of Holden’s size.  She reported that they had netted $60,000 of $90,000 in collected fines.

In a related conversation at the meeting, Wakeman reported to the committee that he would be meeting with the law firm of Kapke, Willerth and Leonard, L.L.C. of Independence this week about the possibility of their firm acting as city attorney.  He stated that the firm had 27 years specializing in municipal law and represented such cities as Liberty, Claycomo and Raymore. 

“The beauty of their system is that they have many attorneys who specialize in different areas of municipal law.  By retaining them, we would have access to all attorneys in the firm.”

He reported that their cost would be a flat $150 per hour, while Holden pays the present city attorney $125 per hour and support staff $65 per hour.  Wakeman will report on his meeting at the next city council meeting.

By Steve Sullins
Editor

A teacher who says she “loves the kids, the subject matter she teaches and her co-workers alike” was recently named the Holden Teacher’s Association (HTA) 2005-2006 Teacher of the Year.

Terry Sisk, a seventh-grade civics teacher at the Holden Middle School, was presented a plaque commemorating the honor at the HTA banquet held last week at the First United Methodist Church in Holden.

Inscribed on the 12-year teaching veteran’s award was, “Terry is the type of teacher who loves her students, and that love is reciprocal.”

Sisk began her teaching career at Holden Elementary in the spring of 1993 where she taught basic skills to first-graders.  The next school year she moved to the middle school and taught eighth-grade language arts and seventh-grade civics for two years.  In the 1996-1997 school year she settled into her present position as a civics instructor to seventh-graders.

“To be a good middle school teacher, I believe you have to be a teacher, a middle-schooler, and a parent,” explained the honored teacher speaking of her philosophy on teaching.  “You have to be able to relate to the kids.  You can’t over-react to what the kids do, because a lot of the time they don’t know why they’re acting the way they are.”

According to HMS principal Gregg Montgomery, “Terry’s greatest strength is she treats her students as if they’re  her children.  This is a well-deserved honor for her.”

She seems well-suited to teaching civics, as she states that she loves her subject matter.  “I like discussing current events - what’s going on in the government and what we see on the news.  I also like discussing the principles our country was founded on and how they’ve changed over the years.”

Sisk also stated that she enjoys working with all the other middle school teachers and staff.  “I was born and raised in Holden.  My kids went to school here.  It’s my town and I love it.  Everybody here at the middle school gets along.  When we have a get-together it always includes everybody - we really have a good time together.”

Montgomery continued, “Terry is very genuine in her caring about people.  She is honest, and she tells it like it is to kids, parents and colleagues.”
Sisk started her teaching career a little later in her life than many as she says that with a husband and kids, she really didn’t have time to go to college.  “I always wanted to be a teacher, but I always had good jobs,”  she relates.

She worked at AT&T for eight years in Lee’s Summit, before her job was relocated overseas.  She was offered a re-training program and was sent by the company to college to get an associates degree.  While completing her two-year degree, she applied for and was given a scholarship at Central Missouri State University, where she continued and received her Bachelor of Education in 1992.  Since then, she has continued her education and has obtained a Master’s Degree in Education from Webster University.

She is married to Glenn Sisk, owner of Sisk Heating and Cooling.  They have two children, Jacob, who works with his dad, and Josh who lives in Burbank, CA, and works as a zoo keeper at the Los Angeles Zoo.

Sisk, who also likes to talk about her own children, explained that Josh will be going to Mexico to round-up prong-horn sheep to bring back to the LA Zoo.  She also stated that he may be going to Africa in the future.

By Steve Sullins
Editor