The four candidates for office who withdrew from the primary race after a miscommunication led to their near removal from the ballot by the county commission have filed to run as independent candidates.
According to a press release issued last week, on Friday, July 17, Dale Brouk for presiding commissioner, Holly Sayer for collector, Chris Kendall for treasurer and Kevin Robinson for auditor submitted their petition signatures to the Platte County Board of Elections. A statement to the public will be released after certification by election officials, wherein the candidates will be placed on the November ballot as independent candidates, provided the signatures on the petitions are approved by the Board of Elections.
Brouk, Sayer, Kendall and Robinson, all Republican candidates, withdrew from the race before the Monday, May 4 commission administrative session when they were among seven candidates the commission planned to consider removing from the ballot.
Mary McKenna, running as a Democrat for presiding commissioner, Gena Ross, running as a Republican for presiding commissioner, and Russell Wojtkiewicz, running as a Republican for county clerk, chose to remain in the race and on a two-to-one vote were permitted to stay in the race.
At the heart of the situation was an ordinance renewed by the Platte County Commission in 2025 and possibly incomplete information provided to candidates by the Platte County Board of Elections.
Re-adopted in June 2025, the order established procedures to disclose potential conflicts of interest and substantial interests, which in this case were to be filed with the county clerk’s office by April 21. This requires a separate filing from the standard personal financial disclosure filed with the Missouri Ethics Commission. The ordinance states that the clerk shall provide a copy of this ordinance to the Platte County Board of Elections to be made available to all candidates filing for elected office within the county. While candidates were apparently provided a filing packet by the BOE containing the notice indicating they needed to file with both MEC and the county, a cover sheet on the packet did not clarify the separate filing requirements and implied an electronic filing with the MEC fulfilled requirements.
At a work session held Thursday, April 30, commissioners discussed this ordinance and identified the seven candidates they said were in violation. By the end of that day, seven ordinances had been added to the commission’s Monday meeting agenda to remove the candidates.
District Commissioner Allyson Berberich said she was surprised candidates withdrew before the vote, and she had thought over the matter and consulted with the MEC, other officials, citizens and others. While she believed everyone, particularly candidates for office, needs to follow the letter of the law, there are extenuating circumstances in this instance. Specifically, that there were three pieces of misinformation regarding the process. Firstly, the wording of the ordinance renewed in 2025 is confusing. Secondly, the cover sheet provided by the BOE did not specifically state that a separate disclosure needed to be filed with the county. Third, an email was sent out by the Platte County Clerk’s office stating paperwork needed to be filed by May 1, not April 21.
She asked that the commission revisit its ordinance, and whether or not that ordinance is even needed. She also asks for better communication with the BOE to ensure that the correct information is disseminated.
District Commissioner Joe Vanover said as he looked into the situation it became less of an open-and-shut case. He blamed the BOE for providing misinformation to candidates. He also quoted a case from 2000 in Independence where a candidate was disqualified. In that case, the court found that, “The purpose of the personal financial disclosure requirement is to make available to the public information on potential conflicts of interest, not to provide a mechanism to exclude from public office those who are less informed or less diligent.”
Presiding Commissioner Scott Fricker disagreed with Berberich and Vanover, standing by the county’s ordinance re-adopted in 2025.
By the end of the meeting, Berberich and Vanover voted no on each of the seven proposed ordinances, with Fricker voting yes.
The Platte County Republican Central Committee announced Thursday, May 7 that it had censured the four candidates, declaring them persona non grata.