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You are here: Home / Archives for Kevin Engler

Legislature proposes measures to make mental health workers safer (VIDEO)

May 20, 2014 By Mike Lear

The state legislature has approved bills meant to protect staff at the state’s maximum security mental hospital and staff and patients at its treatment facilities for violent sexual offenders.

Representatives Jeanie Riddle (left) and Linda Black (right).

Representatives Jeanie Riddle (left) and Linda Black (right).

One proposal, HB 1779, will allow advance practice registered nurses at Fulton State Hospital order that physical or chemical restraints, isolation or seclusion be used on a patient as long as that nurse collaborates with an attending licensed physician. Currently only such physicians or the head of the facility can order such measures.

Representative Jeanie Riddle (R-Mokane) says the bill would make working at the Fulton hospital safer.

“[Those nurses] are closer,” says Riddle. “Fulton State Hospital is a number of buildings and the physician or [Chief of Operations] may be in another building when a violent situation arises. This will allow an advanced practice nurse to be able to de-escalate that situation and hopefully eliminate or lessen the injury rate that’s going on.”

Riddle says staff at the Fulton Hospital are not allowed to defend themselves if attacked by patients who are sometimes violently mentally ill. She is looking for more ways to change policy regarding that.

“I intend to work with the Department [of Mental Health],” says Riddle, “what are the things that we can do that de-escalate violent situations and how do we maintain quality employees and not lose them because they got injured?”

Language from a bill sponsored by Representative Linda Black (D-Desloge) and added to SB 852 would make it a Class “B” felony for a sexually violent predator committed to the Department of Mental Health to attack a Department employee or another offender at the Sexual Offender Rehabilitation and Treatment Services (SORTS) facilities at Fulton or Farmington. The same language would also make it a class “C” felony for offenders at SORTS to knowingly damage state property. Black says the language brings punishment for such incidents in line with what happens when inmates at the state’s prisons attack guards or other inmates.

Representative Kevin Engler (R-Farmington) supported that language. He says offenders consider going from a SORTS facility to a prison, “Much worse conditions most people, so it’s a deterrent to keep them from destroying property, from acting out or hurting employees.”

Both proposals await action by Governor Jay Nixon (D).

Filed Under: Health / Medicine, Legislature, News Tagged With: Farmington, Fulton State Hospital, Jeanie Riddle, Kevin Engler, Linda Black

Legislature sends proposed transfer fix to Gov. Nixon

May 15, 2014 By Mike Lear

The state legislature has passed a bill meant to fix the state law that lets students transfer out of failing school districts. The proposal has been a priority for many lawmakers who say that law is bankrupting unaccredited school districts, particularly Normandy and Riverview Gardens in the St. Louis area.

Representative Rick Stream (photo courtesy; Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)

Representative Rick Stream (photo courtesy; Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)

The bill contains a controversial “private option” for Jackson County, St. Louis and St. Louis County that could result in it being vetoed by Governor Jay Nixon (D). It would have the state accredit school buildings as well as districts. Students in an unaccredited school within an unaccredited district would first have the option to transfer to an accredited building in the same district. If no slots were available in those, one option would be for students to transfer to a nonreligious private school with local tax revenue from the sending district used to pay tuition. 

Nixon has suggested he would veto any bill that includes any mechanism sending tax dollars to private schools, saying that is where he had to “draw a line.” The bill received a strong enough vote in the Senate to overturn a veto, but fell 20 votes short of that mark when the House passed it on Thursday. Neither chamber’s vote followed party lines.

See how House members voted on the legislation

Representative Clem Smith (D-Velda Village Hills) said he was the only lawmaker in either the House or the Senate who represents the Normandy School District, and he opposes the bill. He says it shouldn’t be called a transfer bill, joining other critics who said it was really an attempt to break the barrier keeping tax dollars from going to private schools.

“You’ve got kids in Normandy and Riverview that have been used to push vouchers,” said Smith. “And it’s a forced voucher, because you can vote it down in an unaccredited district but after three years it’s forced, it’s rammed down your throat … in my view, that’s all this bill is about.”

Some Republicans were also opposed to the private option. Representative Jeff Grisamore (R-Lee’s Summit) says he campaigned against using tax dollars in private schools when he first ran for the House, but said he was “torn” on how to vote on the bill.

“Public schools should be publicly funded and private schools should be privately funded, period,” said Grisamore. “And why would we take away funding from public education, give it to private education, when we are not meeting our obligations fully for the formula for public education.”

Proponents argued that the private option was a small piece of the legislation and called the bill a compromise that would stave off disaster in failing schools. Representative Kevin Engler (R-Farmington) says opponents of the bill including Nixon don’t have a plan of their own that would pass the Senate.

Engler argued if the bill does not become law, school districts in danger of becoming bankrupt would have to be supplemented from state General Revenue.

“We’re going to have to put money in the budget that’s going to come from my school district to keep them alive,” says Engler. He says opponents of the bill including Nixon don’t have a plan of their own that would pass in the Senate.

Representative Vicki Englund (D-St. Louis) worked on the conference committee that came up with the final version of the bill. She urged Nixon to sign the bill but said whether he signs or vetoes it, he should act quickly.

“Get it over with, get it done, because then we need to call a special session to fix it,” said Englund. “Because if we are truly about solving these problems we need to come up here and do it.”

See the legislation here

Filed Under: Education, News, Politics / Govt Tagged With: Clem Smith, Jay Nixon, Jeff Grisamore, Kevin Engler, Missouri House of Representatives, Missouri State Senate, student transfer, transfer, Vicki Englund

House Committee hears LGBT nondiscrimination bill

March 13, 2014 By Mike Lear

A Missouri House Committee has heard debate on legislation that would add sexual orientation and gender identity to the state’s Human Rights Statute’s definition of “discrimination.”

Representative Kevin Engler (photo courtesy; Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)

Representative Kevin Engler (photo courtesy; Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)

The proposal, HB 1930, would specify that the statute covers unfair treatment based on race, color, religion, national origin, ancestry, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, age as related to employment, disability or familial status as related to housing. It makes discrimination based on a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity an unlawful discriminatory practice.

The bill, HB 1930, is sponsored by Representative Kevin Engler (R-Farmington), who tells the committee discrimination still happens.

“If you don’t believe that, I’d ask the members when they’re on their spring break this next week, go and ask your friends, “Did you know that Missouri is one of a handful of states that still has it on the book that if you as an employee admit to being a homosexual, you can be fired for just cause. You can’t claim unemployment because it’s for just cause,” says Engler. “They will be shocked.”

Among those testifying against the legislation were the Missouri Chamber of Commerce and Associated Industries of Missouri.

Chamber General Counsel Jay Atkins tells the committee the Chamber has a number of members whose company policies include protections for the LGBT community and it encourages that to grow among its members.

“But there is a dramatic difference,” Atkins told the committee, “between having such policies as a matter of policy in the workplace, and creating an entire new cause of action that exposes all Missouri employers to further liability under employment law.”

Chamber board member and Governmental Affairs Director for Monsanto, Duane Simpson, says at the board’s last meeting, Chamber Vice President of Governmental Affairs Tracy King said the chamber has no official position on the Missouri Nondiscrimination Act. 

AIM President Ray McCarty echoed the concerns Atkins outlined about creating a new statutory protected class and the line of lawsuits that could come with it.

The Missouri Catholic Conference also testified against the legislation. General Counsel Tyler McClay told lawmakers his organization’s objection to the bill is not with how it would apply to housing or employment, but with how it deals with public accommodations.

“There needs to be space in the law,” McClay testified, “There needs to be space for people to say, ‘I can’t, as a matter of conscience, participate in a same-sex wedding ceremony, for example.”

Representative Stephen Webber (D-Columbia) calls McClay’s position “indefensible.”

“I think it’s pretty much impossible to pull out a legal argument that allows what you want to have happen without defending segregation,” Webber tells McClay. “I know you don’t want to support segregation … but your argument does.”

Appearing in favor of the bill were PROMO, the Missouri Attorney General’s Office and Monsanto.

Governor Jay Nixon (D) expressed support for nondiscrimination legislation in his State of the State Address in January, when he observed that such a bill was passed in the Senate in 2013 but didn’t reach his desk. 

Nixon said in his address, “Let’s get it done this year.”

Engler tells the committee he wants the language to become part of a larger bill dealing with multiple business issues.

Filed Under: Legislature, News Tagged With: Jay Nixon, Kevin Engler, LGBT, Missouri Chamber of Commerce, Missouri House of Representatives, Missouri Nondiscrimination Act, MONA, Stephen Webber

House endorses tax credit increase for pregnancy resource centers

March 12, 2014 By Mike Lear

The House has given initial approval to a bill that would increase the amount available in tax credits for pregnancy resource centers from $2-million a year to $2.5-million beginning in fiscal year 2015.

The centers offer doctor services, counseling on alternatives to abortion, and assistance with finances, budgeting and long-term support to women primarily between the ages of 16 and 24 who are dealing with unexpected pregnancies. Proponents say the centers keep those women from having to get such support from the state and so represent a good use of state tax dollars.

The centers have been criticized, however, by supporters of abortion rights, who say some centers present deceptive information regarding abortion. Those who oppose the bill say the state should not support such activities with tax credits.

Representative Genise Montecillo (D-St. Louis) raised that issue to the bill sponsor, Representative Kevin Engler (R-Farmington).

“Most of them do wonderful work,” says Montecillo, “I just want to make sure women are getting good and accurate medical information so they can carry their children to term safely.”

Engler says he shares her concern.

“Most of the bills that your members are going to focus on from that area are going to get killed. That’s just the reality,” Engler tells Montecillo. “I’d like to work with you on coming up with something … maybe not legislative … that we can put out and say, ‘This is what you can do. You are getting tax credits from the State of Missouri, therefore you need to have some responsibility of doing things.”

Engler says the award of tax credits to those organizations and whether they are presenting accurate information becomes an issue of upholding the State Constitution in his mind.

Another favorable vote would send that measure to the Senate.

The bill is HB 1132.

Filed Under: Health / Medicine, News Tagged With: Genise Montecillo, Kevin Engler, Missouri House of Representatives, tax credits

House gives initial approval to voter photo ID

February 25, 2014 By Mike Lear

The state House has given initial approval to legislation aimed at requiring voters in Missouri to have photo identification at the polls on election day.

Representative Tony Dugger (R-Hartville) and Representative Stanley Cox (R-Sedalia) offer the voter photo ID bill and the proposed constitutional amendment that would allow it to become law, respectively.  (photos courtesy, Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)

Representative Tony Dugger (R-Hartville) and Representative Stanley Cox (R-Sedalia) offer the voter photo ID bill and the proposed constitutional amendment that would allow it to become law, respectively. (photos courtesy, Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)

One piece is a proposed change to the state Constitution that would allow the other piece, the voter photo ID bill, to become law. The legislature passed such a requirement several years ago but it was ruled unconstitutional, which is why supporters want to now change the Constitution to allow it to become law. The fact that such a change would be necessary is one of the arguments made by opponents against its passage.

Representative Chris Kelly (D-Columbia) told a Republican supporter of the legislation it is based on false arguments.

“The real purpose of this is to keep older black women from voting, but your purpose is to cure voter impersonation fraud.”

As Democrats have done in years past, Kelly challenged Republicans to provide evidence of at least one case of voter identification fraud having happened in Missouri. They did not offer such evidence.

Democrats argue that many older black women for various reasons might not be able to obtain the source documents needed for them to acquire photo IDs.

Representative Kevin Engler (R-Farmington) says that argument is insulting to such women.

Engler tells a fellow Republican, “For these districts’ [representatives] in urban and the St. Louis area to say their women are too dumb … they can’t get IDs, ‘They’re smart enough to decide whether to have an abortion or not. We want them to have that decision, but they’re not smart enough to get an ID.’ How callous is that?”

Another favorable vote will send the voter photo ID proposals to the Senate. The proposed constitutional change would require voter approval if it clears the legislature.

The legislation is HB 1073 and the proposed constitutional amendment is HJR 47.

Filed Under: Elections, Legislature, News Tagged With: Chris Kelly, Kevin Engler, Missouri House of Representatives, Stanley Cox, Tony Dugger, Voter Photo ID

House gives initial approval to prescription drug monitoring program

February 11, 2014 By Mike Lear

Missouri was one of the first states to consider installing a program to monitor prescription drug sales. Now it’s one of the last to still be considering it.

Representative Kevin Engler (photo courtesy; Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)

Representative Kevin Engler (photo courtesy; Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)

Representative Kevin Engler (R-Farmington) tells his fellow legislators Missouri is the last state in the union to not have a prescription drug monitoring program, the intent of which is to stem one way abusers of prescription drugs get their supplies.

Engler says even Guam has such a program in place.

“We have turned into the doctor shopping capital of the country,” Engler tells his fellows in presenting his proposal, HB 1133.

A one-time sponsor of the legislation, Representative Keith Frederick (R-Rolla) now says he doubts its potential effectiveness.

“The incidence of death and overdose, in several studies,” Frederick says, “have shown that it really doesn’t go down in states that have a prescription drug monitoring program.”

Frederick sponsored such a proposal in 2011 and 2012 before opposing it now. He agrees with other critics who have expressed fears that the proposal would result in a database of Missourians and their prescriptions that could be used for things lawmakers don’t intend.

“With the reach of executive branches of government now,” Frederick says, “it’s just the stroke of a pen or a call on a telephone that can repurpose a law that we pass to accomplish other goals.”

Frederick tells lawmakers, “Perhaps one day you walk in to buy a firearm or some ammunition and they see the list of medications you’re on and no firearm for you, no ammunition for you today.”

Engler argues those databases already exist except for those who pay for prescriptions with cash.

The legislation has received one favorable vote in the House. Another would send it to the Senate, where it failed two years ago after a filibuster.

Filed Under: Health / Medicine, News, Politics / Govt Tagged With: Keith Frederick, Kevin Engler, Missouri House of Representatives

Legislation to create the crime of ‘revenge porn’ brought back for 2014 session

January 23, 2014 By Mike Lear

The state legislature again has the opportunity to put on the books a law to deal with something called “revenge porn.” That is generally defined as when someone posts intimate photos or videos of a former significant other on the internet to embarrass or harm that person.

Representative Kevin Engler (Photo courtesy; Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)

Representative Kevin Engler (Photo courtesy; Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)

“They’re out there,” Representative Kevin Engler (R-Farmington) says of websites dedicated to this particular genre of pornography, and he tells a House committee there is nothing in Missouri law that defines posting images or videos of an ex on them as a crime.

“In several cases, women knew that [their former partners] were going to do this,” Engler tells fellow lawmakers. “They were in a long-term relationship and maybe they took a video, or they had taken pictures, or they had taken one of these glamor calendars in semi-nude, and the lover or spouse had told them they were doing to do that. They go to the police and the police have no basis to stop them.”

Engler says he knows of a case in which it happened to a teacher in his district.

“Now if you’re going to live in a town my [town’s] size,” says Engler, “and you’re going to be a grade school teacher and you had this happen, tell me that would not be devastating to you. Yet, we have no law that deals with it.”

Engler says it is because of the extent of embarrassment and damage that can occur to people in these instances that in his bill (HB 1203) he proposes making the crime a class “D” felony, which carries a maximum penalty of four years in prison.

Colleen Coble is the CEO of the Missouri Coalition Against Domestic & Sexual Violence. She testified that revenge porn is a real problem. “For a lot of women, primarily, in abusive relationships, it may seem that those pictures were taken with their consent, but it was under duress with coercion and threat of violence.”

Not everyone agrees with Engler, however. Representative Mike Colona (D-St. Louis City) says a new law is not necessary.

“If I took the picture of you and I didn’t have your permission to take the picture and I go out there and put it on the internet, I’ve committed a crime. You don’t need this law,” Colona tells Engler. “If I take a picture of you and you’ve given me permission to do that, it’s my picture. I can do with it what I want.”

Colona says such a crime would be particularly hard to prove in domestic dispute cases.

No vote has been taken on the legislation.

Filed Under: Legislature, News Tagged With: Kevin Engler, Mike Colona, Missouri House of Representatives

No attempt made to override veto of sex offender legislation

September 12, 2013 By Mike Lear

Legislation that would have given some sex offenders an opportunity to get off the state’s registry has died in the House without an attempt to override its veto.

Representative Kevin Engler (R-Farmington) Photo courtesy; Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications

Representative Kevin Engler (R-Farmington) Photo courtesy; Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications

The sex offender registry language was attached to a bill sponsored by Representative Kevin Engler (R-Farmington). He says there are problems with the registry that must be addressed, but says too many people were not comfortable with the way the bill was written.

He used the opportunity to criticize the Governor for not working with the legislature on the bill during the session.

“We finally got the second floor to admit there is a problem. I would challenge the Governor to work with this body to come up with a bill that we can introduce this December that will address the problem. You need to lead from the front, not from the rear.”

Representative Mike Colona (R-St. Louis City) says he is encouraged that the Governor has reached out to lawmakers about working with them on the issue. He says the registry as it stands denies a second chance to young offenders that is supposed to be afforded by the juvenile justice system.

“You’re no longer moving to reforming. Instead … no rehabilitation … instead it’s more like retribution. You’re telling those kids that they can’t go forward and succeed because their name is always going to be there on that registry for something … for the most part … something stupid that they did years ago. Granted there are some of those egregious crimes but those are the exception more than the rule.”

Some groups that had supported other versions of sex offender registry changes agreed with the Governor in opposing this bill, calling it too broad.

Filed Under: News Tagged With: Kevin Engler, Mike Colona, Missouri House of Representatives, Sex Offenders, veto

House version of workers’ compensation, Second Injury Fund bill passed

May 3, 2013 By Mike Lear

The state House has passed its version of workers compensation reform and a Second Injury Fund fix, setting the stage for a conference with the Senate.

Representative Todd Richardson (photo courtesy; Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)

Representative Todd Richardson (photo courtesy; Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)

Both versions of the bill would have claims made by workers who incurred a disease because of their job fall under the state’s workers’ compensation system, to protect employers from lawsuits. They include a plan to create a fund to pay for part benefits to people who suffer from diseases related to exposure to toxins.

Representative Kevin Engler (R-Farmington) says the Senate proposal would have every employer in the state pay into that fund, an idea he opposed when he was in the Senate and still opposes.

“Whether you deal with chemicals or deal with anything else, every employer in the state will have a tax to take care of the fund that was caused by the people that brought chemicals in that caused these occupational hazards.”

The House proposal would support that fund with a surcharge to the workers’ compensation insurance premiums of only employers with 15 or more employees.

The state’s Second Injury Fund compensates workers with disabilities who sustain job-related injuries. It is supported by a surcharge on employers’ workers’ compensation insurance premiums that the state capped in 2005 at 3 percent. The fund is now insolvent, and the bill proposes raising that cap to 6 percent to replenish it.

The House sponsor of the bill, Representative Todd Richardson (R-Poplar Bluff) says that fund is more than $20 million out of balance.

“There are more than 800 claimants right now that aren’t getting paid and there are more than … 30,000 unresolved Second Injury Fund claims.”

Richardson says the House and Senate are in agreement on the portion of the bill dealing with the Second Injury Fund. He expects the Senate to request a conference to work out differences on the workers’ compensation and occupational disease language.

Filed Under: Business, News Tagged With: Kevin Engler, Missouri House of Representatives, second injury fund, Todd Richardson, workers' compensation

House gives initial approval to $25 billion budget, Medicaid expansion rejected

March 27, 2013 By Mike Lear

The House is poised to send the Senate a $25 billion budget that does not include Medicaid expansion. House Democrats offered several amendments that would have plugged the Governor’s proposal to expand Medicaid in Missouri back into the new state spending plan but they were all defeated along party lines.

House Minority Leader Jake Hummel (D-St. Louis City) offered several amendments Tuesday attempting to plug Medicaid expansion back into the House's FY 2014 budget proposal.

House Minority Leader Jake Hummel (D-St. Louis City) offered several amendments Tuesday attempting to plug Medicaid expansion back into the House’s FY 2014 budget proposal.

Minority Floor Leader Jake Hummel (D-St. Louis City) sponsored several of those amendments.

“We’re talking about the creation of 24,000 jobs, $8.2 billion of federal investment to this state, 300,000 Missourians with access to healthcare.”

Representative Jill Schupp (D-Creve Coeur) says Medicaid expansion is widely supported.

“The hospitals, the (state) Chamber, insurance groups, advocates for the poor and the working poor, mental health groups, the Catholic Conference, Metropolitan Congregations United … non-partisan, disparate groups who have come together and said, ‘This is the time, this is the opportunity, this is the moment to do what is right for the people of the State of Missouri.'”

Republicans say accepting expansion rather than pursuing reform would hurt the state in the long run. Representative Caleb Rowden (R-Columbia) says that could see the state in the future having to choose between the two greatest parts of its budget: education and healthcare.

“Which schools are we going to shut down because we’re giving $100 million or $200 million dollars out of the schools’ budget to expand a blatantly flawed system?”

Democrats say if the federal government does not keep its promise to pay for expansion for the first three years, and most of the cost after that, the expansion can be scrapped. Representative Kevin Engler (R-Farmington) says the last time a vote was taken to remove people from the Medicaid rolls he was there voting for it, but Democrats did not.

“I want to know which ones of you are going to be willing in three years to vote to take 300 and something people off of Medicaid. I want to be here waiting for that. It is not going to happen. You won’t do it. You didn’t do it in the past. You won’t do it in the future.”

The House is expected to vote on Thursday whether to send the budget to the Senate.

Filed Under: Legislature, News Tagged With: budget, Caleb Rowden, Jake Hummel, Jill Schupp, Kevin Engler, Missouri House of Representatives

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