Gov. Matt Blunt called a news conference today to announce that he was awarding the “Missouri Medal of Valor” to four law enforcement officers.

At 2:30 p.m., reporters gathered in the governor’s second-floor Capitol office and waited for Blunt. And waited.

After a 20-minute delay, Blunt sent his public safety director, Mark James, to announce that there had been “a snafu.” Someone forgot to notify the award recipients of the ceremony. So it would have to be rescheduled.

The press release, which had already been distributed, lists them as: Deputy Carl Beier of the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Department; Officer Frederick Guthrie of the Missouri State Water Patrol; Trooper Grant Hendrix of the Missouri State Highway Patrol; and Officer Daniel Romig of the Platte County Sheriff’s Department.

The release provided no details of their heroism, saying only that each was selected by a public safety review board for displaying “exceptional courage, extraordinary decisiveness and presence of mind, and unusual swiftness of action, regardless of his or her personal safety, in the attempt to save or protect human life.”

Reporters had gathered primarily to ask Blunt about other matters, such as why he plans to veto a student curator bill and when he plans to act on a bill repealing campaign finance limits.

But alas, he never entered the room. His spokeswoman, Jessica Robinson, said he immediately became busy with another meeting and couldn’t take questions today.