Gorin Community Seeks Answers
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By Echo Menges
Scotland County, MO – A group of citizens living in and around the tiny town of Gorin have been making waves for the Gorin City Council and Mayor over the last several weeks.
The trouble began with an unassuming Facebook post by one of the city’s eldest residents, Dorothy Teel Kussman.
Kussman commented about street conditions after the heaviest snowfall of the winter season on January 23, 2024, which was followed by dozens of comments.
On February 3, a group of citizens hosted a community meeting at the Groin Baptist Church to discuss and bring up questions about how the city was being operated, how tax dollars and donations earmarked for the city park were being spent, and trying to determine who was on the City Council, if City Council council members were holding regular public meetings, if the City received any COVID-19 American Rescue Plan Act related funding, how it was spent, how trash collection services are being paid, and trying to determine how City equipment was being used – and by who.
Community meeting organizer Teel Pflum, a granddaughter of Kussman’s, began the process of contacting several state level agencies and submitted
Sunshine Law requests to Gorin Mayor Teresa Norton, which were served to the Mayor by the Scotland County Sheriff’s Office.
Mayor Norton has since requested the assistance of an attorney, Scott Summers, Esq. of Kahoka, MO, to help fill the requests and give legal advice on how to proceed.
Two weeks after the first community meeting, on Saturday, February 17, another Gorin Community Meeting was held at the Gorin Baptist Church to discuss any progress made and how to proceed with requesting information from the City and to determine what is necessary to push for an audit of the City finances from the Missouri Auditor’s Office.
In total, 15 people attended the most recent meeting including this reporter, nine registered voters from Gorin, three citizens from elsewhere in Scotland County, and two children.
A video record of the February 17 Gorin Community Meeting is available to the public on memphisdemocrat. com and the Memphis Democrat and NEMOnews Facebook pages.
According to the Mayor of Gorin, a public meeting has not been held by the City Council for some time. The exact date of the last public City Council meeting was not known.
The Mayor told the Memphis Democrat there is between $8,000 and $10,000 in the City’s General Fund and between $500 and $600 in the City’s Gas Tax Fund.
Mayor Norton also relayed the four City Council members currently serving on the Board are Katie Lamb, Frank Nicholson, Glen Davis, and Britt Crawford.
“They had three years to come in and ask about city business, and none of them ever did,” said Gorin Mayor Theresa Norton.
Norton reported being away dealing with a family emergency, her dying brother, when the snowstorm happened, which took the Norton’s out of state for nearly a full month. Norton also reported it was hard to get the Council together for public meetings and at least one of them had health issues, which made it difficult to establish a quorum of three voting members.
According to Norton, Gorin City Council members have been the targets of intimidation by the community group.
According to Pflum, members of the community group have also been targets of intimidation from a Council member and members of the Norton family.
The Mayor reported that the next City Council Meeting would be attended by local law enforcement to keep the peace at the Gorin City Hall.
According to Norton, she has been performing most of the duties of the City Clerk as a volunteer, and her husband and son have been plowing the City streets as volunteers, and none of them have not been paid for those duties.
Norton also reported that one of the Council members does the mowing for $150 per month during mowing season, and that member has abstained from voting on matters related to the mowing duties.
Nortin was appointed as Mayor in 2021 and reelected to serve in the position in 2023. Her current term in office will expire in 2025.
About the City of Gorin
The City of Gorin is listed as South Gorin by several online entities including Wikipedia and the US Census Bureau. According to the 2020 Census, only 62 people reside within the city limits, which is a drop of more than half of the City’s population since the 2010 Census.
According to Scotland County Clerk Batina Dodge, there are 50 registered voters within the City of Gorin.
According to Dodge, Gorin is slated to have two City Council seats on the Scotland County Municipal Election Ballot every year. One eastern and one western Council seat, each a two-year term, should go up for election annually. The two-year term seat of Mayor should be on the ballot every other year.
This year, the filing deadline had not been met by the City of Gorin and no City Council seats were slated for the April Municipal Election Ballot.
This is a developing story. More information will be released as it becomes available.
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