• • Why is the Commission paying the Chamber of Commerce to partner with them?
• • Who is John Newby, what is a DMO, and what kind of tourism will he be promoting in McDonald County?
• • Why is our Commission giving approval to two “entrepreneurs” to mark, map, and promote our dirt roads as “the premier gravel destination in the nation”?
• • Why are our elected officials bending over backward to accommodate this race organization when they bring no value to McDonald County?
• • How does McDonald County benefit from any of this?

24-hour notice is required per RSM0 610.020

This agenda was never released publicly until 8/17/26 via Sunshine Law request

This is the first public mention of the DMO proposal.

“The commissioners met with the Chamber regarding regional growth and the I-49 corridor. The Chamber proposed a dedicated economic-development budget line and requested a partnership providing $2,000 per month for a Destination Marketing Organization (DMO)…

The commissioners stated they would review the request alongside other departmental budgets before making 2026 decisions.”

The public has no indication the DMO proposal will be discussed at this meeting.

8:00am   General Business of the County

The public has no way of knowing what was discussed at this meeting until 3 weeks later.

Minutes are not posted until 2/02/26

All actions associated with this invoice occurred prior to any documentation being made public or subject to comment.

Not released publicly until 8/17/26 via Sunshine Act request

• • • lump sum invoice totaling $20,000

• • • contract, quarterly reports, any/all deliverables requested – we were told they did not exist and would not be provided

• • • invoice sent via PayPal to a personal gmail account of a Commissioner

• • Voucher Record provided as proof of payment with no means to reconcile to a specific line item or payment

Due to statute updates, line items are no longer required to be published.

The Commission adopts the 2026 budget.

These minutes were not made public until after the DMO proposal had been accepted and included in the approved 2026 budget. The general public had no knowledge or means of asking questions prior to approval.

“Presiding Commissioner Hall moved to allocate $20,000 for a DMO for the McDonald County Chamber with 2026 Budget appropriations. Western Commissioner, Rick Lett Seconds. All in Favor. Motions Carried.”

A resolution is required for the State to recognize an organization as a DMO. Shouldn’t the Chamber be paying the County?

The resolution states that the organization had “shown and demonstrated evidence of its on-going tourism marketing activities and plans for promotion of McDonald County.”

It then designates Chamber Director, John Newby as the designee and recognizes the Chamber as the “single representative organization” to solicit and service tourism in McDonald County for participation in Missouri Division of Tourism programs.

9:00am   Rotty Mott [sic]- Biking Trails
12:00pm – 2:00pm — Chamber Luncheon Meeting – Southwest City

The 2/11/26 Chamber luncheon event, “Vision 2026” features “Opportunity Zone Impact Analysis” as a topic.

“Rowdy Mott” has purchased 48+ tracts of land in McDonald County. Large private investors commonly use others for land acquisition to keep their plans private.

One week after the DMO Resolution is signed, the trail map has been pitched, reviewed, and supported by the Commission and Sheriff, and the Chamber is pitching Opportunity Zones.

Franklin Jennings and Rowdy Mott meet with the Commission to present their proposal for developing a designated biking trail system throughout McDonald County.
Jennings and Mott…are requesting Commission approval to independently develop and mark selected County roadways as gravel trailways.

Their vision is to position McDonald County as the premier Gravel Riding destination in the nation…Sheriff Evenson has already reviewed the proposed roadways and expressed support.

The McDonald County Chamber posts their “big reveal” announcing a NEW BUSINESS aka “Rowdy Mott’s” membership-only country club catering to elite cyclists as well as the online GPS mapping of McDonald County dirt roads he, the Commission, and the Chamber will be promoting.

Not released publicly until 8/17/26 via Sunshine Act request

McDonald County / Chamber Tourism Vision & Strategy
Give it a good read – then read it again and take note of who will be providing the funding for McDonald County’s Tourism initiative and who will be benefiting from the investment – spoiler alert: it isn’t the people of McDonald County.

• Ultimately, the documents were not provided to me personally (as requested and paid for) but uploaded to the County website beginning on 8/17/26.

• The ’12-03-2025 Agenda’ was not posted nor available on the website until provided within this linked .pdf. All agendas state their date of posting as the date required per statute, not the actual date posted – it’s a template.

• The ’12-03-2025 Commission Minutes’ are not a signed, approved version and differ slightly from the version posted online (the title and date have been added.)

My candidacy became “Facebook official” and as you can see, I was gearing up to talk about TRANSPARENCY and the DMO but the bicycle races took precedence and led us to this point!

As I have stated before – the bicycle races are the Trojan Horse for the plans to come – the distraction from the shell game.

It should be much more clear now WHY the bicycle races are such a big deal to the Commission and the Chamber – if there’s money to be made for the County from bike racing, why aren’t they producing numbers?

Because it doesn’t help the underdog – the large businesses will be capturing those tourism dollars, and it’s all smoke and mirrors – go ask Mena, AR.

They don’t want us talking about Opportunity Zones and how we should be preparing.

They don’t want us working together to put new people in place.

Why?