Debate over Azotea’s sales tax license, appreciation for Peck dominate Hannibal candidate forum

HANNIBAL, Mo. — Several candidates appearing on the ballot for Hannibal’s next municipal election on April 8 participated in a nearly 2 1/2-hour forum hosted by the Northeast Missouri Conservative Group Monday night at the American Legion. 

Participants were:

• Darrell McCoy, candidate for mayor;
• Charlie Phillips, candidate for mayor;
• Euhlan Leeders, candidate for 4th Ward Council Member;
• Amy Powell, write-in candidate for 4th Ward Council Member;
• Tammy Riley, candidate for 2nd Ward Council Member;
• Earl Hughes, candidate for 2nd Ward Council Member; and
• April Azotea, candidate for 2nd Ward Council Member.

Dobson produces document showing Azotea’s sales tax license was revoked

After the candidates responded to a question regarding their assessment of the city’s financial situation and what skills they’d bring to the City Council to improve it, 2nd Ward Council Member Mike Dobson raised his hand to ask a question.

“I know for a fact that we’re at least a million dollars upside down,” he said. “That’s due to a couple things. Health insurance is a big factor … The fire department, you know, got their raise.”

He cited health insurance and recent salary raises for the police and fire departments as the main factors that have led to the city’s current financial situation. His focus then shifted to Azotea’s comments at recent council meetings regarding the fire department’s raises, first in support of such raises.

“Then you came back and, you know, were critical of the city manager of the budget because the fire department got their raise,” he said as he pulled a piece of paper from his pocket.

“I guess I ask you, budgeting-wise, Nov. 5, I believe, of last year, your sales tax was revoked on your business for failure to remit your tax to the state,” he said. “It’s what’s right here in papers.”

“That’s news to me,” Azotea claimed from the panel.

Dobson, who was ordered to pay a $1,000 fine to the Missouri Ethics Committee last year for violating state statute, then asked Azotea why voters should trust her as a council member.

“That’s news to me,” she repeated with a puzzled look. “I know nothing about that.”

“Here in black and white,” he said as he held the piece of paper.

The paper was a printout from the Missouri Department of Revenue that showed the sales tax license for Azotea’s business, La Azotea Lounge, had been revoked in September, not November, 2024.

In a statement given to Muddy River News since the forum’s end, Azotea said Dobson’s allegations caught her off guard.

“I literally had no idea what he was talking about,” she said. “After many phone calls between my accountant, the city and the state, I was able to finally get to the bottom of it.”

Azotea said she should have paid more sales tax in November 2021 and in October 2022. 

“I give all my sales tax info to my accountant monthly, and both my accountant and I were unaware of this,” she said. “While Dobson’s statement apparently ended up being right, he was 110% wrong in not only his approach to informing me about this from how he did it, the place and time all the way down to his motive behind doing so — especially considering he is the councilman to all the small businesses on Main Street.

“It was slander and defamation of character at best. His uncalled-for and unprofessional actions speak volumes on his part, and many citizens have reached out to me reiterating their vote and support for me.”

Azotea said she has received the necessary form to fill out, and she has learned the amount of money she was short during those two months. 

She said Dobson’s claim that her business was “shut down” in November is untrue. 

“The last two years I have closed in the winter due to (business) being slow, and I have been closed since January,” Azotea said. “Typically I reopen the first or second weekend in March. However, I decided to stay closed to focus on my campaign as well as work through some negotiations in selling my building.”

Within hours of the forum, an attendee had posted on social media calling for Azotea to withdraw from the race due after hearing Dobson’s claims. The post’s original author claimed Tuesday that the council was “abiut [sic] to have a closed meeting, and her business tax will be part of the discussion.”

In response to a comment that said the post was untruthful, the original poster said, “replies from the city suggest otherwise.”

City Clerk Melissa Cogdal said Azotea’s business was not shut down by the city, and even if the city planned to shut down her business, the City Council would “never ever ever” go into a closed session to discuss such matters. A closed session meeting was held select an interim city manager, which was announced Tuesday night.

Attendees quick to praise Peck during forum

Peck, who will be leaving in May for a new job in Salem, Ill., was mentioned in a couple shoutouts throughout the evening. Many were quick statements of recognition and appreciation made on the way to a greater point. Some attendees opted to provide Peck with praise or make statements in her defense rather than asking the candidates questions.

“I don’t really have a question for anyone. I just kind of wanted to say, we do have our city manager here, and she’s done a phenomenal job getting grants for our city,” one woman said. “It is going to open the door for new leadership, so I hope that we do find a new city manager who is going to help us with grants as Lisa has done for us.”

Peck presented a few dollar figures she’d played a significant role in securing for the city:

• a $1.6 million contribution to an infrastructure project by the Army Corps of Engineers;
• a $5 million grant with a $10,000 match; and
• a $3.5 million federal budget appropriation that had been secured by U.S. Congressman Sam Graves (R-6).

Azotea shifted to the topic of bond ratings, which the city has significantly improved upon throughout Peck’s tenure with the city. Azotea said the positive bond rating would plummet if the city continues to pull from the reserve fund, which it recently had to do to cover emergency salary raises for the police and fire departments. She invited anyone from the city to comment or correct her on the matter.

“Alright, so as a couple of people have alluded to, the reason we have a deficit budget is because of the raises that were pushed by a former council person for police and fire that ended up getting extended to the entire city that were 10 percent,” Peck said. “Prior to that, we did not have a deficit. Now we do.”

Peck explained that the bond rating will go down if the city continues to pull from the reserve fund and it dips below 25 percent. If the funds drop to such levels, they wouldn’t be “in the position to bond anything out anyways” because their limited revenue streams would prevent or severely limit their ability to repay those bonds.

City finances were among top challenges listed by candidates

Finance-related issues were among the top concerns of nearly every candidate when asked what they viewed as the city’s main challenges.

Economic stagnation, public safety and the storm water system were the top concerns for Leeders. He said he planned to come up with proposals to revitalize the south side, attract new businesses and ensure that the fire stations are “fully staffed to protect our neighborhood.” 

He claimed he had a conversation with President Donald Trump on Facebook in 2019 about the city’s financial situation.

“He got to asking questions about my side of the town. He was looking at his maps. He said that the riverfront (project)… was a good deal,” he claimed.

Powell said she’s been looking over the city’s budget. 

“Elect a few moms and business owners to this council, and we’ll do what we do in a personal aspect of going line by line. Does this make sense to spend money on this right now?” she said. “I bring practical experiences. I have to budget for my family… If it doesn’t make sense to spend money somewhere, then you ought not to spend it. If you can reallocate it, do it. It’s pretty simple. It’s pretty easy.”

Riley stated that the city’s finances were in better condition than they’d been in some time, citing the city’s healthy reserve fund and positive bond rating.

Hughes acknowledged another round of salary raises would be needed for the police and fire department.

“Where’s the money at? That’s the biggest problem we face as a city — finances,” he said. “We have to grow our revenue, and the best way to grow revenue is by growing population.”

 He proposed building more houses, which would, in turn, stimulate growth in the city across the board.

“When we build houses, we bring people to our city,” Hughes said. “You can look at other cities similarly sized or even larger where they raise tax rates but don’t raise their revenue because raising tax rates runs people out and your revenue goes down.”

Azotea agreed with Hughes, saying the lack of growth and subsequent revenue increases were an issue. She added that transparency and accountability for people on the City Council and in City Hall also was a big issue.

“I realize that as a City Council member, there’s limited things that we can and cannot disclose, but I just think that honesty is the best policy, no matter if it’s the answer they want to hear or not,” she said. “It’s important to always be honest with the citizens.”

Muddy River News asked the mayoral candidates how they’d increase transparency to address perceptions by constituents of corruption within the city’s government. 

Phillips said such concerns could be mitigated by one of the foundational pillars of his campaign: unity. 

“If we involve the council to a greater degree and if we involve the unified council to a greater degree with the staff, I think that City Hall as a whole will be much more effective and by that very nature, a more transparent working entity,” he said.

McCoy said that in his recent interactions with community members, he’s found that when people who have such concerns “actually take the time to stop and ask questions, to go to City Hall, to go to the fire station, to call me, to call anybody up here, they quickly find out that is not the case.”

He proposed creating monthly forums open to the public for the sole purpose of asking questions.

“Transparency is a big thing. We should be doing more of that, and I feel like, if I’m lucky enough to be elected, I would really like to lean on the council to do more of that. … Let’s get together,” he said.

Both candidates agreed, however, that such a perception was held by a small group of “malcontents,” as Phillips put it, who constitute a large chunk of the city’s online discourse.

“This perception — I’m glad (Muddy River News) brought it up, because there is. There is a perception, and social media is a great thing until it’s not, and we’ve all seen how that works out,” McCoy said.

Attendee Kathleen Haycraft stated a concern for social media comments critical of Peck. 

“Unless you guys do something to fix this toxic situation that some of you have created — you know, you’ve just got to say, ‘No karma, we’re moving forward.’ OK? Because if everybody keeps stirring things, nothing can get done,” she said. “These people work for nothing, and they spend so much of their time, and they’re not appreciated. We as the city, we have to appreciate these council members and our mayor.”

She claimed the criticisms Peck has received were “morally wrong” and have “affected her health and other things.”

“It should never happen again,” she said to cheers of applause.

House Bill 866 hasn’t moved since January but Senate Bill 104 gaining traction

Muddy River News asked the mayoral candidates about their backup plans for funding the police and fire departments if lobbying efforts in Jefferson City fail. Hannibal Mayor Barry Louderman responded from the back of the room.

“It was actually answered at the last City Council meeting, if you were paying attention,” Louderman said. “We’re actually tagged onto another bill that is going to the governor’s office.”

Azotea inquired during the council’s March 18 meeting about House Bill 866, which would have allowed Hannibal to enact a public safety sales tax to fund the police and fire departments. Louderman said he believed it passed. 

Peck then corrected Louderman at the meeting and said HB 866 was not moving forward and that a similar bill, Senate Bill 104, was. However, details of that bill’s status were difficult to understand because of poor audio quality in the livestream of the City Council meeting. 

Azotea asked what would happen if that bill didn’t pass.

“Honestly, I cannot answer you that,” Louderman said at the meeting.

He said he’d have to discuss it with the rest of the council, then said a few options that had been previously mentioned, such as increasing real estate or sales taxes, were possible.

After the forum, Muddy River News asked Peck for more information on the city’s placement in and the status of SB 104. 

“I don’t think so,” she said.

A few women gathered around her in a chorus of “No,” accompanied by beaming grins.

“No, no, no, no, no. That would be a no,” one woman said.

Multiple grievances were then voiced by Peck and the others regarding a recent article in Muddy River News about her new job. (EDITOR’S NOTE: Peck opted not to provide comments or perspective for that story despite being asked roughly 48 hours before publication.)

She said after the forum she had no information to provide and, among other comments, suggested that Muddy River News do its own research.

“And you can write this up into your article all you want,” she said.

Research concluded that SB 104 has not, in fact, passed and is not “going to the governor’s office” — at least not yet. 

State Rep. Louis Riggs (R-5) confirmed this week that, while SB 104 is moving in the Missouri Senate, it is only in the perfection stage. Several steps are still needed before the bill heads to Gov. Mike Kehoe to sign. 

HB 866 has not been completely taken off the table, though it hasn’t moved since January and hasn’t been referred to a committee.

Click here for a full transcript of Phillips and McCoy’s responses.