From October 2016: Joplin city employees resent money poured into Joplin Chamber, O'Brian projects

With Wednesday's entry of Joplin Area Chamber of Commerce President Rob O'Brian into the 32nd District State Senate race, it seems an opportune time to revisit an October 2016 Turner Report post.

The post was published during a time when Joplin city positions were being eliminated and employees were facing an increase in their insurance rates and were getting nowhere with city officials, despite those same officials' willingness to spend money in areas that failed to benefit the city.

There is also a growing resentment that the City Council continues to rubber stamp a quarter of a million dollars a year to the Joplin Area Chamber of Commerce for economic development. 

Though the money comes from a different part of the city budget, the big buck giveaway to a private entity with a president, Rob O'Brian, who pulls in a salary of more than $175,000 a year, continues to bother some employees. 

One city employee told the Turner Report the anger over the way money has been spent with city employees being given short shrift has been growing for a long time and has boiled over with the announcement of job cuts and the insurance increase. 

City employees have watched over the past few years as city officials have shown a willingness to throw away millions of dollars in taxpayer money on renovating Joe Becker Stadium in the pursuit of a professional baseball team, and on a shady master developer.

It should be noted that that O'Brian was responsible for serving the pursuit of a professional baseball team, predicated on a faulty study and that shady master developer to the City of Joplin and the taxpayers.

The information on O'Brian's salary I found in a Form 990 filed by the Joplin Area Chamber of Commerce with the Internal Revenue Service from 2015.

The most recent Chamber 990 does not provide O'Brian's salary.