By Joe BarkerRecord Staff WriterMarthasville Mayor David Lange said he was just trying to save the city some money, but Alderman Mike Kloeppel said he violated city ordinance and the Missouri Sunshine Law.During Wednesday’s board of aldermen meeting, Kloeppel confronted the mayor about whether Lange removed public records from city hall without permission. Lange admitted he had taken some to read and review at home.Under a section in the city’s ordinance, which is copied from the state’s Sunshine Law, public records can’t be removed “from the office of a public governmental body or its custodian without written permission of the designated custodian.”City Clerk Carla Heggemann said neither she nor Assistant City Clerk Lisa Irwin gave Lange written permission to take the records home.“He did not have permission to take those,” Heggemann said.If found guilty of violating the Sunshine Law, Lange could be subject to a fine of up to $1,000. The court could also make Lange pay the legal fees of the party pointing out the violation.When pressed at Wednesday’s meeting, Lange admitted to taking the old meeting minutes home.“I took them. I apologize,” Lange said at the meeting.Following the meeting, Lange told The Missourian that he was trying to locate some old records. He said the park board has discussed paying for a survey of park grounds, but before the board spent money, Lange suggested seeing how surveys had been completed in the past.Lange said he began to look around city hall for the surveys and decided to consult old meeting minutes from 1991 to 1997 to see if he could find mentions of previous work that would help narrow down his search.“I took an old minute book and took it home to read it instead of sitting up here at the table for six hours; I took it home and read it from the comfort of my chair,” Lange said.The mayor said he doesn’t consider his actions a “mistake.”“They’re not supposed to let the records out,” Lange said. “I shouldn’t have took them home, that’s why I apologized.”Heggemann said Lange asked Irwin on Monday, Oct. 19, if he could look at some past meeting minutes. Heggemann said Irwin gave him two books and he took them into the board’s chambers to read.When Irwin returned to work Tuesday and went to lock up the books, she couldn’t find them, Heggemann said.“She just figured whenever Dave was done with them, he’d just leave them on the table,” Heggemann said. “He took them into the board room, but he never asked to take them.”One of the books was returned Tuesday and Heggemann said the second one was brought back Wednesday.Lange said the issue wasn’t a big deal and said Kloeppel was just “picking on” him.“It’s bull...t,” he said. “He’s just trying to make me look bad.”Kloepple said the mayor violated both city and state ordinance.“To me, it’s not a small deal.”Kloeppel said with the chain of custody unaccounted for, the contents of the minutes could have been altered.“He took them home and it compromises everything as far as, are they getting tampered with,” he said.Heggemann said the Attorney General’s office has been contacted about the alleged violation.Marthasville