OAK GROVE, Mo. — Jackson County Executive Frank White Jr. said in a statement Monday after the county legislature passed an ordinance to call a special election that he believes the effort to recall him is a result of his opposition to a stadium sales-tax extension, which failed in April 2024.
But Stephanie Coen, one of the women who gathered thousands of signatures in the effort to oust White, said that’s simply not the case.
“I didn't know anything at all about the stadium taxes,” Coen said Tuesday at her Oak Grove home. “When I opened my bill in early July of ‘23 and saw my excessive taxes, I thought, ‘This has to be a mistake.’”
She quickly discovered that it wasn’t — and she wasn’t alone in her anger.
“I got online and started searching for Jackson County and found a group of other people who were having the same issues,” Coen said.
She turned her anger over Jackson County’s 2023 property assessments into action.
“Mostly, it was because of the stories I heard of the elderly and those that weren't computer literate,” Coen said. “They didn't know how to file the appeals. The appeals process kept changing. Nobody knew what they were doing, including the county. People needed a way to fight back, and nobody had a way to fight back, so I was trying to create an avenue for everyone to fight back by providing a petition for people to sign that would hopefully gain enough signatures that we could all fight back.”
White became the target of her ire because she believes the buck stops with him.
“Frank is the end-all, be-all,” Coen said. “He is the one to assign the administration. He appoints people who are skilled or unskilled at their jobs. He is the one who is solely responsible at the end of the day ... for what happens in our country.”
Dressed in a white “Recall Frank White” shirt and with signs adorning her car, Coen spent hours gathering many of the more than 42,000 signatures required to get the recall effort before voters.
“Well over 100 (hours) — well over,” she said. “Two hundred, I don't even know. ... People would flock to me when they would see those signs on my car. They came to me — I didn't go to them — and I would get a ton of signatures.”
The Jackson County Legislature unanimously voted Monday to put the recall question before voters in a special election on Aug. 26, though White may try to veto the measure or tie it up in court.
“I hope it's over,” Coen said. “I don't ever trust that it's over until I see that the date is actually set, and I haven't seen that it's actually set yet. So, I mean, there's just been so many setbacks that I don't believe it until I see it happen.”
But Coen remains hopeful that Jackson County voters will get the chance to cut short White’s term.
“It would mean everything,” she said. “I’ve worked hard for that day to come. I want everyone to be able to have their say on that. If it doesn't pass, then the people didn't want it badly enough; they didn't want it as badly as I thought they did. But I believe it will pass.”
Coen and her husband were forced to sell some rental property they owned after getting hit with a massive property-tax bill. They eventually plan to leave Jackson County to escape skyrocketing taxes.
“It makes me angry,” she said, “but, at the same time, I'm kind of over it now because we can reestablish somewhere else. There are people in this county who are not able to do that. Those are the people I worry about.”
And the people for whom Coen fought so hard.
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KSHB 41 reporter Tod Palmer covers sports business and eastern Jackson County. Share your story idea with Tod.
