LEADINGTON, Mo. — Over the last few weeks, more than half of the city of Leadington's workforce has resigned, the city hall was locked up and their finances appear to be in deep trouble.
Monday, city leaders were notified that the city clerk and police chief joined a list of employees to resign that includes a city judge, city prosecutor and court clerk.
"I know there’s a lot of stress, a lot of worry," said Alderman Gary McKinney.
McKinney said he can't speak about personnel matters, but that a contributing factor may be the fact that Leadington is more than $100,000 in debt.
"If we don’t fix that and we don’t get expenses under control, we won’t have a city," says McKinney.
A few months ago, a group of concerned citizens submitted a sunshine request for the city's credit card. They found that Mayor Dustin Winick spent $67.77 at a laser tag facility in Leadington, using taxpayer dollars.
That's not all that alarms Kathy Manion.
She found several Amazon purchases linked to Mayor Winick's personal account, plus an expensive meal at a Jefferson City Red Lobster that cost taxpayers $125.84.
Mayor Winick reportedly told the Board of Aldermen that he spent that to take two other local mayors to dinner.
A claim, the former Mayor of Leadington claims on video is a lie.
“I’ve never had dinner with the mayor of Leadington,” former Mayor Dennis Parks said in the video obtained by 5 On Your Side.
The other mayor in nearby Linn Creek sent a notarized letter confirming he also never binged cheddar bay biscuits with Mayor Winick.
We wanted to ask Mayor Winick directly about these allegations. He didn't answer the door but we were able to give our contact information to a family member.
Alderman McKinney is now hoping the Missouri State Auditor will step in to investigate.
"We need a forensic audit. We need everything counted,' he said. "Leadington just doesn’t have the budget to spend any extra money."
There was supposed to be an emergency meeting Monday night about all of the sudden resignations, but because of public notice laws, it was postponed to Tuesday night.
On Tuesday morning, Mayor Winick submitted his resignation. There was supposed to be a rescheduled meeting Tuesday night, but it has been postponed again, according to McKinney.
“Mayor Winick just submitted his resignation and tried to leave city hall with a stack of paperwork but was stopped by officer powers and told he could not take and documentation from city hall,” Alderman Gary McKinney said in a statement 5 On Your Side.