TKC EXCLUSIVE!!! JACKSON COUNTY DRAMA AFTER HIGH RANKING SWITCHEROO!!!

Another wild week @ Jackson County evokes strong emotions among insiders and, as always, our blog community is here to help the denizens of local government work through it.

To wit . . .

CHECK EXCLUSIVE BEHIND THE SCENES DEETS OF THE JACKSON COUNTY PROSECUTOR'S OFFICE AND CHATTER REGARDING MEAN JEAN AFTER A RECENT HIGH RANKING DEPARTURE!!!

Our blog community was FIRST to break this inside baseball courthouse biz and now we have a bit of perspective on the behind the scene reax . . .

Here's the scoop . . .

It seems that the scuttlebutt among denizens of the courthouse is that the recent change up of Prosecutor Mean Jean Peters Baker's top dude Caleb Clifford AND HIS SURPRISE DEPARTURE TO THE EXEC'S OFFICE as the Chief Of Staff job for Frank White has caused some serious tension.

The job change up seemingly came as a surprise to Mean Jean and now there's RAMPANT talk that "this has all proven to be terribly embarrassing for Jean as the Caleb-Frank negotiations had seemingly been ongoing for over a month and Jean had no earthly idea." 

Check this important perspective that's worthy of consideration:

"It is VERY rare that the 2nd in command to a public official would begin negotiating their exit without first at least giving their boss a perfunctory face saving heads-up. Furthermore, it is a SEVERE breach of protocol amongst high ranking public officials to steal someone else's key staff without some degree of prior notification."

"All of this has already created drama in the courthouse. Some say Caleb had initially thought he would take 30 days to "transition" to the 2nd floor, but upon learning the shocking news . . . She seems to want him out and its clear, privately, that she is furious with Caleb and Frank. Publicly, she has promised to play nice but this has already created much behind the scenes wrangling and conflict that may soon begin to bubble to the surface.

"All of this is a clear indication that Caleb and others see better opportunities for themselves by jumping ship from the declining Baker regime. The collapse of KCNOVA and historic rise in homicide rates, an unprecedented string of not-guilty verdicts, the ethical failure of the office to turn over evidence in cases, and the fact that Baker at best seemingly has part-timer hours, all point to the very negative glide path of the county prosecutor. Caleb cut his deal and got out while he still could."
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And so . . .

DESPITE A LACK OF DEMOCRATIC COMPETITION . . . IS MEAN JEAN'S STAR FALLING AMONG THE JACKSON COUNTY POWER PLAYERS???

The most important thing here is a reference to rising crime and all this political drama reminds us that more local murders isn't the only challenge confronting this local power player lady who hoped to blame increased gun crime on Missouri Republicans in Jeff City but now seems to be facing challenges to her political leadership closer to home.

Developing . . .