County Committee Votes Behind Closed Doors

In an odd chain of events, the Camden County Republican Committee met Monday night to discuss who they wanted to recommend for the open positions of County Auditor and County Collector. Before calling the meeting to order, committee members met around a table to discuss how to proceed because of the large crowd in the courtroom. They then called the meeting to order and held a vote to ban the public from recording any of it. After the vote, they sent those running for the position of County Auditor to the hallway, bringing them back inside one at a time to essentially be interviewed by the committee members, during which time the public was not allowed to speak. Four people put their names in for County Auditor, Michael Dorf, Jimmy Laughlin, Karen Cloptin, and Kris Franken. Following the auditor interviews was the interviews for collector, which Nathan Williams, Theresa Murray, and Committee Chairman Brent Salsman are in the running for. Salsman had recused himself from being chairman for the meeting but not from voting. The committee then voted to go into a closed session, forcing the public to leave before voting. At this time, who the committee voted for is unknown.