Hey y'all, it's me Buddy Huggins right here in Ozark, Missouri.
I just watched Greg Reese drop that video "The System Being Built While the World Burns" — you know, the one laying out how they're wiring up the whole damn control grid with Palantir AI, carbon markets, digital IDs, smart cities, and prison expansions for anybody who won't play ball. And I'm telling you straight: I'm watching the same exact thing unfold right here in our town.
Right now Ozark is a 4th-class statutory city. That means we're locked into Missouri state law — mayor and aldermen terms are fixed at 2 years, our powers are whatever the state says we can do, and everything runs by the book with no real wiggle room.
This April 7 ballot is asking us to vote YES on forming a 13-person Charter Commission to start drafting a home-rule charter (the final vote on actually adopting it wouldn't even happen till April 2027). A charter city is basically Ozark writing its own "local constitution." It gives the city way more power — we could set our own rules on government structure, elections, and yes, even change the mayor and aldermen terms to 4 or 6 years if the commission writes it that way. Sounds like "more local control" on paper... but it also hands whoever's in charge a lot more flexibility to run things their way.
Here's what makes me side-eye the whole thing: this push is being sponsored and paid for straight out of the mayor's office — City of Ozark, Mayor Donald Currence, all the education meetings, the little otter videos, the full-court press on Facebook and the city website. And it just so happens to pop up right around the time word gets out that I might be thinking about throwing my hat in the ring for mayor.
I'm not saying that's the plan. I'm not calling anybody a crook. I'm just saying it looks damn suspicious as hell.
We got real issues in Ozark — growth, roads, taxes, keeping our freedom. Before we hand the keys to a new charter that could lock in longer terms and bigger local power, we better damn well know exactly who's writing it and why.
What do y'all think? April 7 is right around the corner. Hit me with your thoughts — I'm reading every one. Stay awake out there, Ozark.
#OzarkMO #CharterCity #KeepYourEyesOpen
