Audrain County Associate Commissioner Leslie Meyer said it’s not often she is speechless, but that changed because of an award she received two weeks ago.

Meyer received the 2024 Commissioner of the Year award from the County Commissioners Association of Missouri. She has served on the commission since 2021, when she was appointed by Gov. Mike Parson, and she won election in 2022 and 2024.

“It was a total surprise,” Meyer said about the Commissioner of the Year award. “So people who know me know that I’m very rarely speechless, and in that moment, I was pretty speechless. So it’s very humbling. I think I’m still on cloud nine from it.”

Each year, the past president of the County Commissioners Association of Missouri selects the outstanding commissioner of the year, Meyer said. Boone County Commissioner Janet Thompson won the award two years ago, for 2022. Meyer said past president Zach Williams  considered a number of attributes for the award, such as Meyer’s many activities.

“He felt that I was a candidate he wanted to honor,” she said.

Meyer, a former reporter for The Mexico Ledger (1999-2001), has 20 years of involvement in and around the Audrain community, and among her current activities are the Main Street Mexico Board, Central Missouri Community Action Board, University Extension Council, Community R6 Booster Club and Miss Missouri Media Coordinator. Professionally, she is in a number of associations, including vice chair of the National Association of Counties’ Agriculture and Rural Affairs Steering Committee. Among her other accomplishments include being a graduate of the National Association of Counties Leadership Development Academy in 2023.

Meyer said her background in ag helped inspire her to be on the commission, and she appreciates how she and the commissioners and fellow elected officials work well as a team. She likes how the County Municipalities Program shows how people can work together as a team.

“I feel blessed every day to walk into the courthouse and be a member of the Audrain County elected officials group,” she said. “Every single officeholder we have is just absolutely phenomenal, and they’re the definition of public service. And so they help me strive to do the best that I can every day.”

She said when the hospital closed, it would have been easy for the commission to “take that hit and move on, but the commission didn’t.” She said the commission, for example, tried to find ways for area health care providers to meet and see whether there were ways for area residents to obtain health care.

“Every day that we move closer to that finish line of getting that hospital opened is a proud moment for all of us, I would say,” she said. 

She said commissioners seek to ensure that they are representing the residents and providing the services they need and trying to help with different projects communities are doing. When appointed, Meyer was the first female commissioner in Audrain County, and she appreciates the collegiality of her fellow commissioners: Alan Winders and Tracy Graham.

“They have been wonderful to work with, they’ve been a sounding board when I needed advice and they have been mentors when I needed it,” she said, adding that her recognition is for the commission as well as the rest of the county elected officials.

“They’re the ones that give me that example to push for,” she said.