HERMANN — Gasconade County government administrators are continuing to research splitting the Circuit Clerk & Recorder’s Office into separate agencies.

With the office now a hybrid of state government and county government oversight, the division of the department has made for some confusing policy applications. The elected circuit clerk and recorder, Jennifer Schneider, is a state employee while her staff that works in the Recorder of Deeds portion of the office are county employees.

Gasconade County is one of about 16 of Missouri’s 114 counties that has a mixed operations configuration. A division of the office — which would mean having another countywide elected official — has been discussed regularly in recent years. The circuit clerk operates essentially under the direction of the presiding judge of the 20th Circuit and the Missouri Office of State Courts Administrator (OSCA).

Separating the office appears to depend on either voter approval of a ballot issue or a decision by the County Commission. While the exact method is not completely clear, Schneider at Thursday morning’s Commission session said she would continue to research the matter. The circuit clerk appears to be leaning toward a division of the office, but noted that any decision to formally split the department could take some time.

“I just don’t want it to be forgotten,” she told the Commission.

Presiding Commissioner Tim Schulte, R-Hermann, encouraged her to continue looking into the matter and work on plans “for moving forward on this.”

Meanwhile, another issue that affects the County Collector’s Office continues to hang fire with no immediate resolution in sight.

The implementation of a so-called property tax refund for homeowners 62 and older in Gasconade County — authorized statewide by legislation passed and signed into law in 2023 and reinforced through a law adopted in this year’s session of the Missouri General Assembly — continues to be sidelined pending expected legal challenges.

Commonly referred to as Senate Bill 190 — the 2022 legislation calling for property tax relief for senior citizens — would significantly affect the work of the Collector’s Office, which is responsible for sending out tax bills and collecting payment for county government and many local taxing entities, including cities, schools and ambulance districts.

Collector Shawn Schlottach has been urging the County Commission to convene a meeting of county officeholders to begin discussions on crafting a plan for the tax-relief program. One reason for the delay in developing a plan is a lack of a clear understanding of the state law on the part of county officials. The legislation is widely criticized by county officials statewide as being overly cumbersome and quite expensive in terms of new computer software to track what could be a confusing list of tax rates for the various taxing entities.

Initially, the legislation would have frozen the property tax rate of a person 62 or older at the level set by a county in the year the person applied for the tax relief. Now, as Schlottach told the Gasconade County Republican Thursday morning, it’s thought the law would freeze not the rate but the dollar amount owed in property tax.

The relief would apply only to a person’s primary residence, which means that person would have separate rates listed on his or her tax bill — one rate for the primary residence and another rate for any other property that’s assessed for taxation.

Another sticking point for county governments is how to put the tax-relief program in place.

SB 190 appears to set out two methods — either by citizen petition or by a county commission adopting an ordinance ordering the issue onto a ballot. However, third-class counties such as Gasconade do not have ordinance-making authority. That position appears to have been upheld in an email from attorney Ivan Schraeder, Gasconade County’s outside legal counsel, last week discussed during the Commission session.

Advice on this matter has been sought before from the county government expert, who has advised county officials to hold off on acting until expected legal challenges to the law play out in the courts.

That continues to be the attorney’s advice, noting in the email that the County Commission has no authority to put the issue on a ballot.

“Which means if it goes on the ballot, it has to be done by citizen petition,” noted County Clerk Lesa Lietzow, the county’s chief elections officer.

It also means the matter will be kept on hold a while longer, which, in turn, means Schlottach will have to wait for a meeting of elected officials to begin the discussion she feels is necessary to have in case the controversial law ultimately is upheld.

It’s worth noting that some of the state’s larger counties took steps shortly after the law was adopted to move forward with the tax-relief program, but subsequently stepped back when those county officials learned of the potential cost of putting the program in place.