A Missouri lawmaker from Springfield says there will be a move to force Speaker of the House Rod Jetton to step down when the new legislative session starts in a few weeks.

That comes after Jetton finally speaks out about a controversial new law concerning the creation of villages that has worried county commissioners across the Ozarks.

They're concerned because this change in law would take control of planning and zoning for privately owned land out of the hands of elected county commissioners.  But Rod Jetton calls it a boring state statute that was really no big deal at the time he apparently added it to a large spending bill in the last days of the legislative session.

But apparently Stone County residents think it's a big deal.  A lawmaker who represents Stone County, Dennis Wood, has been getting calls from concerned constituents about the land on Highway DD.  Owner Robert Plaster filed a petition to incorporate it into a village the same day the new change took place.  Representative Wood did some checking and found it was Rod Jetton who added the language in.

In an email to Greene County Commissioner Dave Coonrod, Jetton says the amendment was a small change in a big bill and that other legislators didn't seem to think it was a significant change.  He goes on to say "a little research can see that law was changed in committee on April 17.  But KOLR/KSFX’s research shows otherwise.

Representative Charlie Denison of Springfield was a member of that conference committee and says the village issue was not a part of the spending bill when it entered the committee; it was not introduced in committee nor was it debated as the law requires.

"Should have been debated and discussed and approved and it was approved without any discussion what so ever and 163 of us approved it.  And so 163 of us missed the wording?" says Representative Denison.

Commissioner Coonrod adds, "He (Jetton) is very much misinformed on how local government and state government work together and that's too bad that someone in that kind of a position has disregard, and perhaps disrespect for county commissioners."

Coonrod says the email doesn't address why Jetton added this amendment and that he must not have understood the implication and damage it would create for local governments.

Jetton says there are some commissioners in Missouri who want the power to decide who and how things are developed in their county, but those commissioners would argue that is how the system works, commissioners are elected, planning and zoning laws are passed by the people and it's not power but "controlled" growth to protect the citizens that's at stake here.

KOLR/KSFX has made repeated requests for a comment from Jetton on this issue, but he has not returned any calls.