This issue has already received formal press coverage, and as of this time of writing, there's been no follow-up published in The Beacon regarding this issue. To summarize, on April 8, 2025 Latrice Thomas was elected as Alderwoman of Ward 3 in Raytown, MO. She was present at every board meeting, from the evening of her swearing in on April 22nd up to the June 17th meeting. On the July 1st meeting and onward, her name was not called for roll or votes, her name was not accounted for on the minutes as either present or absent, her nameplate was missing from the dais, and her chair remained empty. In August, her name disappeared from the city's webpage of elected officials and the city's ward map. There was no disclosure of her removal to the public until Josh Merchant researched and published The Beacon article in September, where one other alderman spoke and the city clerk silently forwarded Merchant a letter from the Missouri Department of Revenue (that was not even addressed to the city). The first time any Raytown official addressed the public directly about this issue was during the November 11th board meeting, after multiple public comments from concerned residents, when one alderwoman summarized the laws on candidate qualification as "you have to have your taxes paid" and confidently claimed that "she didn't".

It must be said here that when someone files to be a candidate for an elected position, the filing paperwork does not request nor does the candidate provide any proof of the status of their tax balance or an authorization granting anyone access to their tax records; they sign an affidavit stating that to their knowledge they are not delinquent on their taxes.

Fast forward to the February 17th meeting, where a special counsel hired by the city - for more than $30K that was authorized by the board on February 3rd without discussion, advised the board that they should postpone this impeachment ordinance until March 17th, purportedly to give "an informal allowance for Ms. Thomas to provide me with information that may suggest one way or the other, whether the correspondence on which we are relying from the Department of Revenue is accurate", after which the special counsel remarked "We have no reason to believe it isn't". The special counsel's information request includes Ms. Thomas authorizing the him to access all her tax records so that he can determine, somehow, what her tax payment status was during 2025.

The Dept of Revenue correspondence that the special counsel is referring to is a letter dated June 10, 2025 that was addressed to the Jackson County Election Board (JCEB), not the City of Raytown, and on June 26th was scanned and emailed by the JCEB Republican Director to the Raytown mayor and city clerk. That letter was not signed by a judge. I spoke at the July 1st meeting, stating that I had urgent issues with the city that needed to be addressed and pointing out that my representative that I voted for was not in her seat. Not only do I have yet to receive any follow-up to my comment that day, it is clipped from the recording of that meeting on the city's website.

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