A dispute over the hiring of a Ray County employee continued as commissioners publicly asked the local resident who filed a recent lawsuit to dismiss the case.

The lawsuit, filed earlier this month by Kurt Croix, challenges the commission’s hiring of a road and bridge administrative assistant, alleging the position was filled without the full commission’s approval and violated Missouri law.

After Croix asked several questions about election watchers and the process for observing absentee ballot counting during the upcoming election, Presiding Commissioner Sheila Tracy raised a separate matter involving his recently filed lawsuit.

“I would like to just ask you if you would consider dismissing the lawsuit against myself, the commission, Jane Doe and Melissa (Holloway), as we answered all the questions and we did go through the correct process,” said Tracy. “It’s going to cost you money, it’s going to cost us money and we have been advised everything we did was correct.”

Croix explained his h…