JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — Before Donna Scheulen, legislative assistant for Rep. Chris Kelly, D-Columbia, came to the Capitol as an assistant, she came as something else. For 33 years, Scheulen worked for the Department of Revenue, specifically in the Department of Motor Vehicles. She recalls a quote from her first supervisor.
“Whenever I ask you to do something work-related, don’t ever tell me that’s not my job because everything I tell you to do is your job.” Scheulen said, serving 17 different Directors of Revenue during her employment at DOR.
Combined with her experience for 12 years as a legislative assistant, Scheulen has worked in state government for 45 years, although technically, she’s semi-retired.
“I like being around people, I like the work, if I spend more than two days at home, I get so bored,” Scheulen said of her desire to work part time after her retirement. She enjoys doing constituent work and helping others as that has been a major part of her whole working career.
Her later years have not been without adversity. She’s had nine surgeries for various ailments and now uses a motorized wheelchair for the long walks down the halls of the Capitol, or up to the House gallery on the third floor.
“People say I go so fast in this wheelchair that they need speed bumps for me,” Scheulen said. “I tell them that when you work for Chris Kelly, you better be moving fast.”
Her husband, Dan, still works their 90-acre farm outside of Meta, Mo., where they’ve lived for decades. He’s had his struggles, too, like when he was involved in an accident with one of the farm horses, suffering a traumatic brain injury that doctors initially thought would end his life.
“They gave him his last rites,” Scheulen said. “We thought we were going to lose him, but instead he came back. We cried a lot and we laughed a lot and we got better.”
Two years of physical therapy, which Donna Scheulen said literally involved helping her husband re-learn his ABC’s, and Dan Scheulen still works the farm full time, driving equipment, and maintaining the property and spends a lot of time hunting with their son, Ben.
The two like to take one and two-day road trips to nearby towns, sites, or random stops on the highway. They like to get out and enjoy their semi-retirement. She said they especially enjoy spending time with their seventeen-month old grandson, Drew.
Retired state employees who wish to return to the Capitol can only work 1,039 hours per year and still collect their retirement, meaning Scheulen works her full 1039 hours and the rest of the time she works either at the Capitol or at home or while on vacation is considered volunteer work for the state legislature. She said if she were going to be volunteering her time, she’d want to do it for someone like Kelly, who appreciates the work.
“Four days after my official retirement in December 2001 from the Department of Revenue, I started working part-time for the House of Representatives,” Scheulen said. “Leaving my family at Revenue was a bit challenging but I knew I was coming to a wonderful family at the Capitol because I had been their liaison for over 20 years and knew most everyone. It was like leaving one family to join another family and I still love it”
Scheulen worked for Rep. Kelly’s predecessor, Rep. Judy Baker, for four years who eventually left the House to run for Congress. She worked for Rep. Phil Willoughby from Gladstone for three years prior to working for Rep. Baker. He left the House to run for the Senate.
Rep. Kelly called her during the summer of 2008 and asked her if she would consider working for him if he won his race in November 2008.
“I knew Chris a long time and he asked me if I’d come and help out if he won,” Scheulen said. “So after he won his election, I came and interviewed with him and he offered me the position.”
During her time at the DMV, Scheulen served both as a legislative liaison to the capitol as well as an employee in the licensing operations. Scheulen was in charge of handling the paperwork for legislative license plates, as well as the specialty, “low number,” plates (usually ranging from 1-999) that the Governor’s office gives out.
“Until the term limits, I knew about 90 percent of all the LA’s and the officials in this building,” Scheulen says. “Now if you stick around more than a year or two, you’re considered a long-timer.”
Perhaps it’s no surprise then that Scheulen would go to work for the one House member who has managed to escape term limits. Kelly served from 1980-1992, exceeding the new eight-year limit on House members, before returning to the legislature in 2008. Because term limits did not apply to those who had already served office and left, Kelly was able to return for a maximum of eight years. Because of his past experience, Kelly has 17 years as a state representative, more than double the limit and far exceeding anyone else in the building.
“He is just so respectful and knowledgeable,” Scheulen says. “He doesn’t care if you’re a Democrat or a Republican, he will work with both sides of the aisle to get things done that he believes in. He is honest, cares about his constituents and the General Assembly. He will do all he can to help them and is extremely intelligent when it comes to the budget.”
Collin Reischman was the Managing Editor for The Missouri Times, and a graduate of Webster University with a Bachelor of Arts in Journalism.
