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Where’s Michael Reuter?

Since 2014, Reuter has been the elected circuit clerk of Jefferson County. He’s running for his fourth term next year.

But there have long been whispers that Reuter doesn’t spend as much time in the office as one would expect for such an important job. Circuit clerks oversee the offices that handle much of the daily business of the court system — processing records, taking payments for fines and other costs, and keeping a record of those transactions.

Because of the longtime speculation about Reuter, the curious Jefferson County resident filed a Sunshine Law request with the county. He shared the results with me, asking that I not use his name because he fears retaliation.

What he found from key-card data from the county is that Reuter appears to spend a lot of time out of the office. In January 2023, for instance, Reuter used his card access to the building on just eight days, the records show. The next month, he used it on 10 days. Several other months between 2022 and 2025 show similar results.

Reuter makes $87,000 a year in his elected job. On Sept. 1, he gets a raise to $94,000.

What many voters in Jefferson County might not know is that he has a second full-time job. Since January of this year, Reuter has been a police officer in the city of Leadington, about 40 minutes south of Hillsboro, in St. Francois County.

Reuter told me in an interview that he took the job because he’s going through a divorce and needs the money. Reuter is married to state Rep. Renee Reuter, R-Imperial. She first filed for divorce in 2020, but that case was dismissed. A second case is making its way through the courts, though it doesn’t show up in publicly available court records.

“Money gets tight, and lawyers eat up all your money,� Reuter said. “I had to take a second job to offset all of that.�

There is no state law that bars circuit clerks from holding a second job.

Voters have long known about Reuter’s connection to law enforcement. When he first ran for office, he was a volunteer police officer in Pacific, , working occasionally on nights and weekends in a reserve capacity. The full-time job in Leadington pays him $45,000 a year. Reuter said he works an overnight shift two nights a week and on weekends.

But that doesn’t account for his third job, or at least the one he used to have.

In the early morning hours of Jan. 1, Reuter was working as a security guard at the Wheelhouse Bar in downtown St. Louis. That was the night a raucous New Year’s Eve party spilled into the street, with fights that were caught on video, becoming fodder for stories about downtown crime. One patron was shot and killed by another off-duty Leadington police officer who was working security that night with Reuter.

That night also created a different problem for Reuter. He didn’t have the proper licensing to work as a security guard in the city of St. Louis. In February, the city charged him with an ordinance violation, a misdemeanor, for unlawfully acting as “a private watchman or similar security personnel.�

On Aug. 1, Reuter pleaded guilty in St. Louis municipal court to a reduced charge of violating a “miscellaneous health and safety� ordinance. He paid a $500 fine.

Reuter says he isn’t working private security anymore.

“I stopped that right after the shooting,� he said. “I didn’t want to be involved in that stuff anymore.�

Reuter said he’s heard about “a small group� of critics raising questions about his second job, but he insists the police work does not affect his duties in the courthouse.

“I make sure that the circuit clerk job comes first and foremost and nothing interferes with that,� he told me.

Reuter also offered an explanation for why the key-card data doesn’t show him in the building on many days. He says he is being treated for leukemia, and the chemo pills he takes sometimes make it difficult for him to climb stairs, which the primary employee entrance has. So, Reuter says, he enters the courthouse most days through the front of the courthouse, and staffers often open the door to his office for him.

“I go in and out the main front door and a badge is not required,� he said.

That explanation raises more questions than it answers, though. That’s because on the days his key-card data registered, it showed Reuter moving around multiple locations: his office, courtrooms and various building entrances. So if he’s going through the front entrance on other days, why isn’t key-card data still showing him moving around the various locations?

Several residents and people involved in Jefferson County politics told me they believed Reuter was taking advantage of taxpayers by not dedicating enough time to the job he was elected to. “If his assistants are doing all the work, why are we paying him?� one asked.

The voter who filed the Sunshine Law request said the issue is “about fairness.�

“The rest of us don’t get paid for sitting around doing nothing all day,� he said.

Reuter, though, is defiant in the face of the criticism. Nobody, he says, has pointed to any deficiencies in his job performance.

“Am I performing the duties as circuit clerk of Jefferson County? Absolutely,� Reuter says. “I’m just trying to get through this tough time.�