I am thankful...

To the wonderful people of Boone County. 
You went out of your way to exercise your right to vote in this uncertain time. I cannot tell you how much it means to me that you have entrusted me once again to represent you on our County Commission. I do not take your support lightly. I am humbled and honored to continue to serve you for the next four years. As always, I will endeavor to earn the trust you have placed in me.

To my opponent. I am proud of the campaigns that we each ran. Despite the heat of this election season, he set an example of civility and maturity that many other politicians would do well to emulate. 

And to my supporters. I could not have succeeded without the support of Boone County’s best who volunteered their time, talent, and resources to my campaign. Whether you made a contribution, or put up a yard sign, or wrote postcards on my behalf, THANK YOU. Your faith and support keeps me going.

We are embarking on a new era in Boone County. It is inspiring to see an entire community working together to keep our democracy strong in the face of a global pandemic and our collective national anxiety. Your confidence only reaffirms my commitment to the seriousness of this job, and to the people who have placed their trust in me. Your example of courage and commitment will guide me in doing my very best for you as we move forward. Together, we will make Boone County the envy of Missouri. I am convinced there are good times ahead, beyond the many challenges we currently face, and I look forward to sharing them with you.

Thank you!

Sincerely,
Janet  

As 2019 wound down, the Boone County Bicentennial Committee prepared for a year-long celebration of our county’s history, a culmination of work that had begun in early 2018. We had almost finished the 30-foot tall mural entitled “Treasures of Boone County,” to be hung in the Boone County History & Culture Center throughout 2020. Our calendars were already filled with events, deadlines for preparation, checklists, and sticky notes with contacts still needed to be made, connections confirmed, and plans finalized.

Those of us on the Committee had planned that the mural, along with a monument in the courthouse plaza commemorating the date on which the county was organized, and another monument to be placed at the KATY Trail trailhead just north of Jefferson City, celebrating the bicentennial of Boone, Callaway, and Cole counties, would be the primary lasting and tangible ways in which we would celebrate the bicentennial. Everything else, as our calendars reflected, were to be events experienced first-hand, for the enjoyment and education of residents and visitors alike.

As the shadow of COVID-19 began to spread ever more deeply across the country in early 2020, we were still able to host an actual (not virtual!) unveiling of the mural in early March, 2020, and, just a few days earlier, a “sneak preview” of a performance of an original dramatic work conceived, created, and performed by the women of Stephens College. And then COVID-19 hit Boone County and plans for in-person events—from a day-long celebration on July 4th, to a wheat-threshing and butter-churning event at the Woodlandville Methodist Church, to a re-creation of an 1820’s
meal—with heat source, pots and pans, food, and preparation during the Heritage Festival—all hit the STOP button.

As our Bicentennial Committee wondered, “Now what can we do?”, our answer was to take a page out of who we know the people of Boone County to be—resilient in the face of adversity. We pivoted. We pirouetted. And we found a way to share the events and experiences we had planned in this COVID-19 environment.

Working with a local production company and musicians, and with funding for a portion of the work from Central Bank of Boone County, we created a series of videos, all of which will be hosted on the Boone County History & Culture Center’s YouTube channel, as well as on the committee’s Facebook page and website. While we had wanted to have an in-person experience for Boone County to enjoy, this necessary pivot has made a more permanent presence for these experiences available to those interested in the history of Boone County, both near and far, without the limitations of time or distance. When faced with adversity, our Committee did what Boone Countians have done for the last 200 years––we pivoted, we refocused, and we made it work. Enjoy!

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You can see the latest virtual celebration of the history of Boone County with the video, “Show Me Missouri Women”, available at www.BoCoMo200.com or at on YouTube (here). The entire video series will be released throughout the next two months of 2020 as we continue to celebrate 200 years of Boone County history. For more information about Boone County’s Bicentennial Celebration, please visit www.BoCoMo200.com.

Every week, I receive an email from my church diocese. Even in these times, with a veritable tsunami of messages hitting my inbox, I think it’s important to take time to sit, read, and consider the implications of its message. This week’s email, entitled “Special Election Edition,” particularly caught my eye.

It read, in part:

“Cast your vote, not on a partisan basis, not based on your biases… Vote the values of human dignity and equality. Vote the values of the rock on which this country was built. Vote.”

Sounds easy, right? It should be. But, too often, the sound and fury of an election seem to get in the way. Instead, politicians and others seek to use highly charged rhetoric to fan the flames of emotion so that voters will act, not utilizing their best judgment, but by casting their vote based on fear. Still others refuse to vote, out of apathy or ill-conceived principle, thinking their non-participation will somehow punish those with whom they are not in perfect accord.

In Boone County as across the country, there is a particular urgency in this election. Your vote is needed in every race, on every issue. In this election, your vote is your badge of honor. As November 3 rd approaches—whether you are mailing your ballot, placing
it in a collection box, or going to the polls--please stop to consider the weight of your single vote. Does it honor those overarching values that each of us hold dear and upon which this country was founded? Does it honor: Integrity? Hard work? Human dignity and equality? Respect for others?

As you prepare to darken those ovals, ask whether the candidate, the initiative, or the proposal advance those values.

Should each of us vote with these values in mind, the outcome—no matter what it may be—will ensure that the best outcome is achieved and you will have voted with honor.

Vote.

VOTE411, a project of the national League of Women Voters, is "committed to ensuring voters have the information they need to successfully participate in every election. Whether it's local, state or federal, every election is important to ensuring our laws and policies reflect the values and beliefs of our communities."   

They recently conducted a candidate survey for the voters of Boone County. Over the next couple of days, I'd like to share with you my responses. Here is the second question in the series.

-Janet

What would be your funding priorities for the next year?
Since COVID-19 will undoubtedly still affect our community, we must first find ways--with or without state or federal resources--to protect the health and safety of those in our community, especially the most vulnerable. Only then can we experience economic prosperity. We must also ensure that core services, including road and bridge maintenance, law enforcement, the courts, and community services-- of Boone County are not disrupted, despite the impact of COVID and the loss of revenue from our inability to capture taxes on remote sales.

VOTE411, a project of the national League of Women Voters, is "committed to ensuring voters have the information they need to successfully participate in every election. Whether it's local, state or federal, every election is important to ensuring our laws and policies reflect the values and beliefs of our communities."   

They recently conducted a candidate survey for the voters of Boone County. Over the next couple of days, I'd like to share with you my responses. Here is the first question.

-Janet

Why are you qualified to serve in this office?
I have served Boone County in this capacity for the last eight years, leading efforts to better align systems and share data to reduce the number of detainees with mental illness in our county jail, while ensuring the safety of the general public.

I have utilized my training as a lawyer, a mediator, and an arbitrator to craft policies and procedures to improve our purchasing process and make it ever more accountable and transparent; to decrease the rate at which children of color are referred to the juvenile system by instead finding alternatives to detention; to ensure that all voices are heard and regulations are followed when land use issues are raised.

I have worked with regional and national groups to bring resources to Boone County to promote upward mobility, and I have fiercely advocated for policies that promote ethics in government.

Should Boone County be successful in making the final cut and receiving this grant, the 18 months of technical support will help us implement the best practices possible in decreasing disparities, increasing upward economic mobility, and providing greater opportunities across all sectors of our community. It would also place Boone County front and center as leading the nation in our commitment to the economic mobility of historically disadvantaged populations.
 
-Janet

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BELOW IS TEXT OF COUNTY COMMISSION PRESS RELEASE
 
Boone County Commission
Daniel K. Atwill, Presiding Commissioner
Fred J. Parry, District I Commissioner
Janet M. Thompson, District II Commissioner
 
Roger B. Wilson
Boone County Government Center
801 East Walnut, Room 333
Columbia, MO 65201-7732
573-886-4305 * FAX 573-886-4311
 
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Media Contact:
Michele Hall
Administrative Coordinator, Boone County Commission
Phone: (573) 886-4312
Email: MHall@boonecountymo.org
 
BOONE COUNTY NAMED FINALIST FOR
URBAN INSTITUTE’S UPWARD MOBILITY COHORT
October 22, 2020 – Boone County has been named a finalist for the opportunity to be a part of the Urban Institute’s Upward Mobility Cohort. The Urban Institute, with funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, is looking to partner with a cohort of up to 8 counties to use metrics to inform local strategies to boost economic and social mobility and narrow racial and ethnic equity gaps.

Upon learning of this opportunity, and of the quick turnaround required for applications, Commissioner Janet Thompson convened a meeting of partners from throughout the community. In less than a week, representatives from REDI, Cradle to Career, Central Missouri Community Action (CMCA), Women’s Business Center (CMCA affiliated), City of Columbia Housing Programs Division, the Columbia/Boone County Department of Public Health and Human Services (Steve Hollis), and the Boone County Community Services Department collaborated to develop an initial response and submit it to the Urban Institute.

Boone County is one of 26 counties selected as finalists for this opportunity. From these finalists, eight counties will be chosen to participate in the program, which will provide $125K and 18 months of tailored technical assistance from experts at Urban. The support will help counties put the mobility metrics to use to inform decision making, develop a cross-sector mobility coalition, and create a Mobility Action Plan that identifies key local mobility challenges and presents actionable strategies to improve outcomes. Cohort counties will also participate in peer-learning activities and provide feedback that informs future improvements to the metrics. 

Matt Jenne, Chair of the REDI Board, says, “As the chair of our county-wide economic development board, I have called on our local leaders to strive for equality through economic opportunity. Our county will be able to use this windfall to align our priorities to our equality goals and give us necessary tools and lessons learned to get there quickly.”

Full proposals from the finalists are due on November 24, 2020. The selection of the cohort will be announced by December 31, 2020.

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I used to find it mildly annoying—a crossword puzzle that wouldn’t load or an email attachment that never appeared—but since the advent of COVID-19, the impact of inadequate and unreliable internet service has been real, often disrupting, and sometimes overwhelming. 

As COVID-19 has forced an increased reliance on Zoom, Skype, and Webex for meetings about County business; meetings with diocesan church leadership; board meetings of local and regional agencies; and countless committee and task force meetings, I realized what every parent in this country (and probably the world) already knew—where you live, and thus whether you have high quality, high speed internet—defines the “haves” and the “have nots.” It’s as much, if not more, of a game-changer than was electricity in the early 1900s.

I had known of, and experienced on a somewhat limited level, what it meant to be a “have not” prior to COVID-19. When I was in the Public Defender’s Office, I knew that, while I could write a brief for the Missouri Supreme Court at home, I certainly couldn’t do the online research from there. In more recent years, I knew that I couldn’t watch a webinar from the National Association of Counties (NACo) or any of the other national organizations with whom NACo partners like the Pritzker Foundation, the Corporation for Supportive Housing, or the Urban Institute. But I wasn’t a “have not” to the extent that so many others—families and individuals—experience day in and day out.

When COVID-19 hit, the inequities in internet access gave our country a collective gobsmack. The work that had been going on to create a real and robust internet system throughout this country was put in the spotlight as schools turned to online learning, families were forced to turn into home-based IT experts, and telecommuting became the norm. The fact that millions of dollars had been thrown at the issue by the federal government made our lack of service become ever more apparent.  

One of the problems before COVID-19 was that people just didn’t comprehend that so many of us have miserable to non-existent internet service where we work, live and play. According to the FCC, 80% percent of the 24 million American households that do not have reliable, affordable, high-speed internet are in rural areas. This situation was in part obfuscated—and seriously underestimated--by FCC definitions of internet access in which internet service companies reported an area as having service if one person within a zip code had access. REALLY?

The program that NACo began several years ago—“Test It”—designed for each of us to use our mobile phones in every location we can find, to ascertain the level of service available at that place, became a real tool for highlighting internet deserts. I learned about the program and brought the information home to Boone County, where we immediately put information about it on the County’s website. Boone Countians began to “test” and we, along with people across the country, began to demonstrate through fact gathering, the actual state of internet inadequacy. Yes, Virginia, there is no reliable, let alone high speed, internet at my house—and I am not alone.  

Ironically, here in Boone County many of us suffer from being “too rural” for decent internet service, but “not rural enough” to entice service providers to extend broadband service.

To actually get us connected, it’s going to take two things—well, actually three: money—spent wisely and with oversight; one or more local internet service providers willing to make the leap; and a sense of civic responsibility. The federal government continues to allocate funding for internet access in the form of both grants and loans, but it will take a local provider to secure the funds and invest in the technology.

USDA has been investing in rural telecommunications for decades. Their 2019-2020 ReConnect Program offered more than $1 billion for modern broadband e-connectivity in rural communities in loans and grant funds. In addition to ReConnect, the Rural Utilities Service administers three other rural broadband connectivity programs: The Telecommunications Infrastructure Loan Program, the Community Connect Grant Program, and the Rural Broadband Access Loan and Grant Program, not to mention the CARES funding most recently made available for broadband internet expansion.

Depending on the funding source, federal money to extend broadband to rural areas is available to co-ops, non-profits, mutuals, for-profit companies, LLCs, states, local governments, or “any agency, subdivision, instrumentality, or political subdivision thereof”.

Let’s finally make broadband internet service a reality for rural Boone County and help bring potential providers together to lead the way!  

NEWS RELEASE

For immediate release:                                                         
October 20, 2020                    
 
Thompson Receives Realtor Endorsement

Janet Thompson, candidate for re-election as Boone County Northern District Commissioner, is pleased to announce the endorsement of the Columbia Board of REALTORS®. As rationale for thei endorsement, the CBOR Government Affairs Committee and Board of Directors cited the importance of experienced leadership on the County Commission, especially in light of COVID-19 and its effect on the local economy.
 
The endorsement decision was based on questionnaire responses submitted by all four candidates for Northern and Southern District Commissioners.
 
In acknowledgement of the endorsement, Thompson responded:
 
“I am deeply honored by the support of the Columbia Board of Realtors in my re-election bid for Boone County Commission and in their acknowledgement of my commitment to this community, to its progress, and to the careful stewardship of its growth.”
 
Thompson further noted:

“I am pleased that the realtor community understands the importance of bipartisanship in local governance and the necessity for experience in safely guiding Boone County’s future. A county the size and complexity of Boone requires a steady, knowledgeable hand and the willingness to work with a diverse group of essential community partners in meeting the challenges before us.” 
 
Thompson’s responses to the CBOR questionnaire can be found here.

The endorsement press release from the Columbia Board of Realtors® can be found here.
 
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For additional information, please contact: thompsonforboonecounty@gmail.com

Transparency is absolutely essential, as is accountability, in government, but a full understanding of any situation in which transparency is called into question is also critical. Sometimes a glimpse behind the scenes gives us a better perspective on why government officials take the actions they do, as in a recent action in which a proposed meeting was scheduled (but not held) involving only two of the three Commissioners.

Despite his protests to the contrary, Fred Parry's emails, sent through multiple personal email accounts, proved that our Southern Commissioner orchestrated the lawsuit recently brought against the Health Department Director in opposition to the COVID restrictions imposed on Columbia businesses—a Health Director who is contracted to serve the County’s citizens. Including Fred in a meeting intended to brief county officials about the lawsuit that he himself had instigated would have been frivolous.

​Including him in any meeting to discuss how the County should reply, craft a responsive pleading, or determine the strategy for dealing with such a lawsuit would have served the personal interests of one Commission member and denied our responsibility to serve, first and foremost, the best interests of Boone County citizens.

As a lawyer and member of The Missouri Bar, I am required to complete a certain number of hours of training every year to remain in good standing with the Bar and the Courts. While most of the hours of Continuing Legal Education (CLE) can be in any number of fields, every lawyer is also obligated to obtain hours of ethics and bias/diversity training on an annual basis. In most years, the options for ethics training are few and, because of their rarity, are also very expensive.  

This year, The Missouri Bar held its annual meeting in mid-September virtually, with online meetings held over several days. When I reviewed the offerings before the meeting, I saw, to my delight, that among the sessions were both ethics and bias and diversity training and, even better, the sessions were FREE!!! I immediately signed up and logged on.

The first session was entitled, “Strategies for Well-Being: Now More Than Ever.” The presenter, a lawyer in recovery since December 2009, began by explaining what she meant by well-being and how that concept relates to ethics.  “Well-being” in this context means prevention of impairment, whether from substance abuse or mental health challenges or both; treating impairments when and as they occur; and preventing relapse or reoccurrence. 

Well-being, as we now know, is an integral part of ethical behavior because it is a key element in professional competence and fitness to practice since it minimizes the incidence and effects of burn-out and increases productivity. On a more holistic level, a feeling of well-being is also necessary for lawyers, their work colleagues, their friends, and their families to be able to function in a stressful environment.  

I can attest to the stress associated with the practice of law. In my prior practice as a Public Defender, the stress arose from the knowledge that my clients’ freedom, and often their lives, depended on my performance.  My friends and former colleagues still experience that stress day after day. But, this year, that stress has been exacerbated by COVID-19.  

On a national level, for the third week of July, the National Center for Health Statistics and the Census Bureau’s Household Survey showed that 36% of adults were exhibiting signs of anxiety disorder, up from 8% in 2019; 30% of adults were exhibiting signs of depressive disorder, up from 6.6% in 2019; between 40 and 50% of workers reported feeling burned out; and 60% of adults reported being more tired than ever before. As the presenter acknowledged during The Missouri Bar meeting, since March 2020, most people’s “check engine light” has been on.  

Stress exists in everyone’s life and, like this year, stress levels can rise to the point they affect our physical and emotional well-being, our relationships with others, and our professional performance. The question becomes how and whether we address stress, in our own life and in the lives of those around us. For many of us, across many professions, and in many communities, even acknowledging that our “check engine light” is on is difficult or even impossible.  
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As we navigate the next few days, weeks, or months, please take the time to acknowledge the stress in your life and make use of the many resources in our community that can help you combat its effects. Whether you make use of an Employee Assistance Program at work, take up mindfulness meditation, step up your physical exercise, or consult with a professional, it is important to care about and for yourself. 

At the same time, when a colleague, a family member, a friend, or an acquaintance speaks, writes, or acts in a way that highlights negative emotions, resist the urge to reply in the same vein. Ask yourself first if the speech or conduct might be based in an emotional outburst. It might just be that their “check engine light” is on too.