The Festus City Council on Monday changed some of its rules of decorum, such as the deadline for visitors to sign up to speak, but tabled other proposed changes, like reducing the time limit for visitors to speak.
Meanwhile, tensions remained high at the meeting as they have been for months over the proposed data center development project by CRG of St. Louis. Since the project became public knowledge last fall, the project has been a source of controversy, leading many citizens to speak against it at meetings.
During the time for public comments at Monday’s meeting, data center opponent Dana Bowers of Franklin County and Mayor Sam Richards had a tense exchange when Bowers continued talking after Richards said her allotted five minutes to speak had ended.
He said, “Ma’am, please sit down.”
At that point, Police Chief Doug Wendel and two other officers approached her at the dais.
Bowers protested and remained at the podium.
Richards did not have Bowers removed from the meeting. But another data center opponent, Travis Layton, urged Bowers to leave the podium and escorted her back to a seat.
Richards on Tuesday said he was acting under the city’s existing rules of decorum, which he said he intends to see enforced more stringently.
“We will enforce our existing rules,” he said. “When they are speaking at the podium, they may say anything they want under the First Amendment. But, if they’re speaking from their seats or their time is up and they continue to speak, I can have them escorted out.”
After the meeting, data center opponents like Judith Ivery of Festus said they did not appreciate the confrontation.
“Three cops converged on a woman,” Ivery said. “That should not happen. Especially with things being so volatile, they should give a little bit of leeway, maybe allow an extra 30 seconds.”
Later in the meeting, the council discussed proposed changes to its rules of decorum.
Council members had discussed amending the rules during a July 27 work session.
One point of contention had been reducing how much time citizens would be allotted during the public comments section of the meeting. The existing rules allow five minutes; the change would have allowed three minutes. The council on Monday did not alter the time allotment in the revised rules.
The revised rules were passed by a 4-3 vote with council members Dave Boyer of Ward 1, Allen McCarthy of Ward 2, Kevin Dennis of Ward 3 and Mike Cook of Ward 4 voting in favor and council members Karl Weekley of Ward 1, Dan Moore of Ward 3 and Rick Belleville of Ward 4 voting against. A Ward 2 seat vacated in April remains open.
Brian Malone of Lashly and Baer, the city’s law firm, said the changes he drafted in Monday night’s resolution were the ones “of general agreement” among the council members at the work session.
The rules of decorum changes include:
■ People may sign up to speak for the visitor remarks section by filling out a request to speak form (available on the city’s website) until 2 p.m. the day of the regular meeting, a change from the prior rule in which they could register until 5 p.m. Wednesday prior to the meeting on non-agenda topics and 2 p.m. the day of the meeting for agenda topics.
■ Stating that remarks to the council must be “for topics germane to the city of Festus.”
■ Providing for a sergeant of arms (the chief of police or his designee), rather than the mayor to enforce rules.
■ Adding a rule prohibiting visitors from bringing firearms to the meeting regardless of whether they have a concealed carry permit, to be consistent with Missouri law (with firearms already banned and Festus police officers using metal detector wands to uncover any potential weapons of those entering meetings for months).
In other business
A motion to approve the preliminary plat for a proposed 129-house development at 2351 Buck Creek Road fell one vote shy of the five votes it needed to gain approval.
The 4-3 vote included “yes” votes from Weekley, Dennis, Cook and McCarthy and “no” votes from Boyer, Belleville and Moore.
Malone said the council vote on the preliminary plat was a “ministerial” action and council objections to the development could be pursued as the process progressed.
Belleville said he wanted to table the vote until Sept. 28 to give the developer, KAB Construction of Hillsboro, time to address issues, particularly concerning traffic on Buck Creek Road, brought up by concerned neighbors of the proposed development.
In September 2025, the council approved the developer’s request to change the zoning of the property of about 84 acres along the north and south sides of Hwy. A, just west of the Pasta House restaurant on the west side of town, to a planned unit development (PUD), from R-3 residential, after approving the voluntary annexation of the property in July 2025.
KAB Construction did not respond to the Leader’s request for comment about the planned unit development.