Controversial Missouri Public Administrator suddenly resigns.

Loretta Rouse, the subject of my investigation, has tendered her resignation. Coincidence?

Loretta Rouse will not be the Public Administrator for Pulaski County, MO for much longer.

Loretta Rouse, the controversial target of my recent investigation, has suddenly tendered her resignation.

The news was broken by Darrell Maurina, the proprietor of the Pulaski County Daily News.

Rouse is the Public Administrator for Pulaski County, Missouri.

The Public Administrator was, “established in 1880 by the General Assembly, State of Missouri, as an elective office, such election to be held every four years. The Office follows the statues in the Probate Code, to carry out the duties and responsibilities of the office,” according to the website of the Missouri Association of Public Administrators (MAPA).

I first started writing about Rouse in September 2023, and I have produced three articles.

In several cases, I found that the hearings to determine that someone was incapacitated and in need of guardianship were shockingly short with Rouse, who took out the petition, also acting as the so-called expert.

Rouse also has a habit of selling real property under market value.

Greg Lee, whose mom’s home was sold from under her, provided me this statement.

Loretta Rouse's resignation is long past due. In her 19 years of being Public Administrator, one can only imagine the number of Pulaski County citizens that have been placed in what might be called involuntary servitude by her, with the assistance of the courts. In many cases, she has personally petitioned the courts to gain control of wards. Many of her past and current wards have been placed under guardianship without proper service, or a proper hearing for that matter. All of which was based off of hearsay by the Public Administrator or her staff.

A full investigation needs to be made by all entities necessary, into the actions of the Public Administrator's office. This would include Public Administrator Loretta Rouse and her Deputy Public Administrator Rebecca Allen, regarding the handling of wards and their estates. My Mom's case is not an isolated incident and is just one of many, in a pattern that has developed over the last 19 years. As the Deputy Administrator has been complicit in the actions of the Public Administrator, she should resign as well. Shirley Butler and the citizens of Pulaski County deserve better.

Darrell called Greg a rabble rouser, “Yes, I am aware that Loretta has attracted a local antagonist who has been involved in a long series of court battles with her, but our local judges have pretty strongly rebuked him and told him his litigation does not have merit.”

Now, Rouse has very little time left as an elected official. Here is part of Maurina’s Facebook post.

County Public Administrator Loretta Rouse submitted a letter of resignation from her position, effective in 30 days (Jan. 4).

Responding to questions, Whittle -- whose wife is a declared candidate for public administrator -- said he was unaware of Rouse's planned resignation.

Late in the meeting, Rouse arrived personally to explain her letter, citing family issues as the reason for her resignation. While she does have family members living out of state, she has no plans to move out of the state.

Rouse told the commissioners that her office will need to have a temporary officeholder appointed since checks need to be written and bills paid for the county's wards, and that can't wait the several months it will take before Governor Michael Parson is able to appoint a permanent replacement to serve until the end of her term in December 2024.

The letter of resignation was succinct.

Maurino downplayed any role my investigation had in her sudden resignation, when I reached him by email.

I'm not aware that the situation with Loretta Rouse's resignation is anything controversial. Her mother has been in and out of a care facility and the situation is not good. This is not new, her health has been declining for quite a while, Loretta announced long ago that she wasn't going to run for re-election in 2024, and two candidates have announced that they plan to file for the Republican primary in August (which in our county, is de facto the real election since the Democrats no longer even bother to run candidates for most county offices).

Rouse had previously announced she would not be running for reelection, but she would have served until the end of 2024. Now, she’s resigning in less than a month. Maurino explained it this way.

Yes, you're correct that "there is a difference between not running for reelection and resigning."

We've had quite a few mid-term school board and city council resignations for a wide variety of reasons -- I don't think a year goes by without half a dozen or more of them. One of our county's five cities had three different people resign as mayor during the two-year mayoral term. In another city, the resignation of a council member who supported the mayor during an internal city fight changed the vote totals required for impeachment and led to the city council majority bringing articles of impeachment that successfully removed the mayor from office. Without that resignation, the mayor would never have been impeached and the council probably wouldn't have tried, knowing they didn't have the required supermajority of votes.

In the words of the great Leroy Jethro Gibbs, “there’s no such thing as a coincidence.”

I’ll take credit.

There are two announced candidates to replace her in the 2024 election: Rebecca Allen and Melissa Whittle.

Postscript

Here are the previous articles in this series: article one, article two, and article three. Please check out the fundraiser for this campaign and help me provide maximum exposure and increase that number.