A political communications professional recently accused state auditor candidate Susan Montee of “breaking the law” because of late filings sent to the state on behalf of her husband’s business, The Montee Law Firm.

Jeff Roe of Axiom Strategies said in a recent press release, “Filing an annual report is a simple task. It can be done online 24 hours per day. Yet, she ignored it for almost a year, and during that time, the Montee Law Firm broke the law every time official business was conducted.”

Sandra Thomas, Platte County auditor and the Republican candidate for Missouri state auditor, has employed Jeff Roe and Axiom Strategies to assist in managing her campaign effort.

Susan Montee, the Democrat Buchanan County auditor and candidate for state auditor against Thomas, has repeatedly acknowledged to the public and media that she audited the books and personally handled the administrative matters of her husband, James Montee, and his law firm.

Montee said that the Secretary of State’s annual statement fell within her scope of responsibilities, as her responsibilities relate to her husband’s law firm.

Susan Montee failed to file the annual statement—a one-page form with attachments—with the Missouri Secretary of State’s office in November 2003 for the 2003 tax year.

Montee Law Firm then missed the extended deadline of Jan. 12, 2004, which caused the Missouri Secretary of State to “administratively dissolve” the Montee Law Firm on Feb. 19, 2004.

Susan Montee is not an officer of the Montee Law Firm nor is she a full-time employee of the firm, James Montee said. A fact confirmed by employees at the Secretary of State’s office.

Thomas says it doesn’t matter that Montee was not an officer of the Montee Law Firm.

“The fact that she wasn’t an officer of the corporation doesn’t change the issue,” Thomas told The Landmark on Tuesday morning. “She admitted that she handled all the accounting and reporting for the Montee Law Firm, so it’s her responsibility.”

Susan Montee was busy campaigning and referred comment for this story to her husband, James Montee.

James Montee acknowledge to The Landmark that Susan was late in getting the 2003 annual report sent to the Secretary of State but said that the notice to file was easily overlooked because it was sent on a postcard and could easily have been buried under the hundreds of individual items of mail his law firm receives every day.

“I think we probably accidentally threw it away,” Montee said.

The late filing is only that, a piece of paper mailed late to the government, he said.

“On it’s face, it’s true. I don’t think that it was a significant event. It could have brought up a situation that if someone had sued the corporation, would they have been suing a sole proprietorship or a corporation?" James Montee said.

Bridget Guth, director of corporations for the Secretary of State’s office, said that state articles of incorporation are designed so the business owner does not personally take on the liability of the business.

Because of that corporate protection, if, for example, a business is sued or declares bankruptcy, the owner does not personally have to accept that responsibility.

Guth acknowledged to The Landmark that after a corporation is administratively dissolved, the business is technically violating the law by conducting any other business other than wrapping up loose ends to close up shop.

Administrative dissolutions are very common in Missouri however, said Guth. The state dissolves an average of 12,000 Missouri corporations yearly for failure to file an annual statement.

In Montee’s case, in Jan. 2005, Susan Montee applied for reinstatement, the firm paid the approximately $100 reinstatement fee. The firm was officially re-instated on Feb. 1, 2005.

“It’s not uncommon for dissolved businesses to continue to conduct business as they apply for reinstatement,” said Stacie Temple, communications director for the Missouri Secretary of State’s office.

In the case of the Montee Law Firm, 11 months elapsed from the time the firm was administratively dissolved and when Susan Montee applied for reinstatement of the firm.

Both Temple and Guth sought to minimize the legal significance of a corporation failing to file an annual statement and consequently being administratively dissolved.

When asked why the state dissolves corporations for failure to send in an annual statement, Temple replied “because the law tells us we must.”

Both women also acknowledged that violating the administrative dissolution is a misdemeanor crime under Missouri law.

The penalty, according to section 351.720 of the Missouri Revised Statutes, states:

“Any person convicted of a misdemeanor for violation of any of the provisions of this chapter shall be punished by a fine of not less than one hundred dollars nor more than one thousand dollars, or by imprisonment in the county jail for a term of not less than thirty days nor more than six months, or by both such fine and imprisonment.”

Neither Guth nor Temple could recall an instance when any Missouri corporation was actually charged with and prosecuted for the crime.

Both Guth and Temple reiterated that most of the 12,000 Missouri business administratively dissolved each year continue to practice business as usual because they intend to apply for reinstatement.

In addition to paying $100 reinstatement fee and completing the missing annual statements, the dissolved business must show a letter from the Department of Revenue that demonstrates that the business does not owe any back taxes.

Montee Law Firm met all the reinstatement conditions in January 2005, Temple said, as the firm did during a previous reinstatement.

Temple noted that Montee Law Firm also failed to file an annual statement in 1996, its first year as a legal corporation, and was administratively dissolved for a period after that year’s deadline was missed by Montee.

To Republican candidate Thomas, the issue at hand is not broken laws or overlooked paperwork but “competence.”

“It talks about the issue of competence. Susan Montee wants to be the state auditor, and she has not filed a simple one-page form. There are a lot of forms the state auditor had to do, and they have to do it on a specific schedule,” Thomas told The Landmark.

“She’s been the Buchanan County auditor for six years and says she’s going to do things as state auditor, but she hasn’t done anything as county auditor. There are simple changes that haven’t been made (in Buchanan County public auditing practices),” Thomas said.

Montee, on the other hand, has questioned the competency of Thomas after an external audit pointed to errors by Thomas' office as a major part of the recent $195,000 discrepancy on the books in Platte County. The discrepancy was eventually located after an additional external audit was conducted at the county's expense.