Meet our Commissioners

Herbert M. Kohn, Chairman (Democrat - Kansas City) is senior counsel at Bryan Cave LLP where he practices corporate, business and banking law concentrating in the areas of acquisitions, financial transaction bank and public finance. He is a former member of the firm’s Executive Committee. Mr. Kohn was Chairman of Kansas City, Missouri Mayor Kay Barnes’ transition team in 1999 and Chairman of the Mayor’s Charter Review Commission in 2000. He also is a member of the Civic Council of Greater Kansas City, and previously served as Chairman of the Kansas City Art Institute, and Chairman of the Missouri Cancer Commission. Mr. Kohn also served as trustee of the Truman Library Institute and director of the Richard and Annette Block Cancer Foundation.

Brian Jamison, Vice Chairman (Republican - Columbia) is the manager of the Post Consumer Plastics Division of St. Joseph Plastics. Brian Jamison has served as an appointed member of the Missouri Board of Probation and Parole from 2008 to 2013. Previously, he was deputy director of the Missouri Department of Public Safety for three years, and a Missouri State Highway Patrol trooper for 14 years. Mr. Jamison is married with two children and five grandchildren. He serves on the board of The Crossing in Columbia, Missouri.

Larry D. Hale (Democrat - Glencoe) is the principal and owner of The Hale Law Firm in St. Louis. He is a graduate of Wartburg College, Waverly, Iowa and St. Louis University Law School, St. Louis, MO. Mr. Hale is a trial attorney, who practices primarily in the areas of corporate, institutional and insurance defense. He was an Assistant United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Missouri from 1979 through 1986, and served as an Assistant Special Counsel in Senator John Danforth's investigation of the Government siege at Waco Texas from 1999 to 2000. Larry Hale has received numerous professional awards and has served on several professional, educational and community boards. He is a former instructor in trial advocacy at Washington University Law School and has provided such instruction at Emory Law School in Atlanta, GA. Mr. Hale is the proud father of three children and four grandchildren.

Thomas Neer (Republican - Defiance) most recently served as the Sheriff of St. Charles County from 2005 to 2014. A native of St. Charles, he joined the sheriff’s department as a deputy in 1974, working his way through the ranks as a sergeant, lieutenant and captain before being elected sheriff. Neer’s experience includes professional law enforcement training on the local, state and federal level. He received the Medal of Valor, Meritorious Service Medal, and Optimist Club Officer of the Year and numerous other awards and commendations. Mr. Neer has served on many boards and task forces, and proposed the voter approved St. Charles County Police Department. Tom Neer attended William Jewell College, Southeast Missouri State University, and is a graduate of the FBI National Academy. Mr. Neer is married with one son, and one grandson.

Richard F. Lombardo (Democrat - Kansas City) is one of the founding partners of the Shaffer Lombardo Shurin law firm in Kansas City. Over the 34 years that he has practiced law, Mr. Lombardo has practiced in the areas of business litigation, professional liability, insurance litigation, products liability and personal injury. He began his career as an assistant prosecuting attorney in Jackson County, Missouri. Mr. Lombardo is a graduate of the University of Kansas and the University of Missouri Kansas City School of Law. In 2008, Mr. Lombardo was inducted into the American College of Trial Lawyers. Mr. Lombardo is married and has two sons.