March 13, 2025
Dear Mr. Wheatley,
Your recent open letter to the residents of Bates County, published in the Tribune and Times on March 5, 2025, is a disheartening display of deflection, excuse-making, and a refusal to own the consequences of your actions. It is clear that your tenure as Presiding Commissioner has reached a breaking point, and for the good of the county, I must call for your immediate resignation.
Your admission that you "dropped the ball" on the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) paperwork— endangering $3.2 million in critical funds is not a minor oversight; it is a gross dereliction of duty. For years, you ignored 92 emails, a certified letter, and countless warnings from the U.S. Treasury Department, only scrambling to file the necessary documentation at the eleventh hour on March 3 and 4, mere days before a deadline that could have plunged Bates County into financial ruin. Your claim of working "well into the night" to fix this mess does not absolve you-it exposes the negligence that created it. The people of Bates County should not be forced to applaud a last-minute save when the crisis was entirely of your own making.
Worse still, your decision to skip the March 5 commission meeting-where residents gathered to demand answers-speaks volumes about your unwillingness to face those you serve.. You dismissed their presence as a mere opportunity to "publicly chastise" you, yet leadership requires courage, not cowardice. Your fellow commissioners, John Gray and Trent Nelson, stood before the public while you hid behind a Facebook post. This is not the behavior of a leader; it is the retreat of someone unfit to hold office.
The stakes here are not abstract. Your failure to manage these funds threatened to bankrupt the county. Residents have launched a petition with over 600 signatures calling for your ouster, and I stand with them. Bates County cannot endure another day of your excuses or the embarrassment you have brought upon its government.
Mr. Wheatley, your refusal to resign despite this cascade of failures is an affront to the trust placed in you. The people of Bates County deserve a presiding commissioner who prioritizes their needs over personal pride, who acts with diligence rather than desperation, and who respects their right to accountability. You have proven yourself incapable of meeting these basic standards. I urge you to step down immediately and allow fresh leadership to restore integrity and competence to the Bates County Commission.
The time for apologies has passed. The time for action-your resignation is now.
Sincerely,
Rick Brattin
Senate District 31