Amid controversy, councilwoman calls for development streamline

Tim Smith: Plans to improve processes predate Fulnecky’s election.

Time is money, as the saying goes, and embattled Springfield City Councilwoman Kristi Fulnecky wants to save local developers as much as she can.

Since being elected in April, Fulnecky, an attorney and owner of a construction-management consultancy, has worked with city leaders to identify ways to improve the local development process.

These efforts, part of Fulnecky’s so-called proactive approach to city management – along with her public comments questioning the mayor’s honesty related to a controversial indecent-exposure ordinance and the subsequent lawsuit by the American Civil Liberties Union – have made her the target of a public investigation, according to the councilwoman.

Back fees
On Nov. 2, five Springfield City Council members issued a public statement explaining why they requested an independent hearing examiner investigate Fulnecky’s eligibility to serve in her general council seat.

The charge: Fulnecky Enterprises LLC was at the time of her April election roughly seven years behind on its city business license fees. Under city charter, no person who is in arrears for any city taxes is eligible to hold office.

The councilwoman has since paid three years of back fees – as much as she could on back fees under city code.

Even so, Fulnecky feels the back fees are a civil matter, not a legal one that could push her out of office. “People may not realize you can rectify a business-license issue by paying,” Fulnecky said.

Following any findings or conclusions issued by the hearing examiner, retired Judge John Holstein, council may seek Fulnecky’s censure, suspension or removal from office under city code. In the statement issued by council members, they said the review of Fulnecky’s eligibility has nothing to do with the lawsuit connected to the city’s indecent-exposure ordinance.

According to ACLU-Mo.org, the lawsuit against the city was filed Oct. 26 because the ordinance council passed in September “is so vague it could prohibit breast-feeding of children in public.”  

Fulnecky has questioned whether the mayor knew the ACLU lawsuit was coming or encouraged it – charges the mayor denies.

“I haven’t done anything willfully or knowingly. This is retaliation,” she said of the business-license investigation. “I don’t see what the big deal is.”

Development voice
Springfield Deputy City Manager Tim Smith said efforts by the city to improve the development process predate Fulnecky and were championed by his predecessor, Fred Marty, who died in late 2013. However, Smith credited Fulnecky with continuing the charge for a more developer-friendly environment.

“She has been a great advocate. She has strong support for the development community,” he said. “I see her role as certainly being supportive of the process we’re going through.”

That process has recently included a review of how many city employees interact with developers and led Smith to schedule training Oct. 30 at the Springfield-Greene County Botanical Center with roughly 80 city workers who interact with the development community.

“One of the things I wanted our staff to have is a better overview of what it is we do so that we operate more as a team and a unit,” he said. “I think more is being done today than would have been done seven or eight years ago.”

Fulnecky, who heaped praise on Smith for his efforts, said she thinks many in the city see her as someone who asks too many questions.

“I’ve been a very proactive, outspoken councilmember and some people don’t like that,” she said. “When I was campaigning, I heard a lot of complaints about how long the building-permit process lasted, and also how cumbersome the public-improvement side had become. That’s not something I came up with myself. That’s what I was hearing from business owners. I think I’ve made some people mad by trying to have meetings on it.”

Sam M. Coryell, executive director of TLC Property Management LLC, said he participated in a late spring meeting with city leaders, including Fulnecky and Smith, when a couple of new development fees were being considered. He said the fees were relatively minor, but in his experience, increased fees don’t necessarily translate into improved performance. Council approved an increase in building permit and plan review fees in June.

“I’m always going to be reluctant to pay higher fees,” he said, adding he had heard from city leaders at the time the new fees were designed to help improve efficiencies. “If things work out that way, it will be great. In my experience, that is generally not how it goes.”

This year, construction on TLC’s Township 28 apartment complex has taken shape in Galloway Village. Construction fees on the $12 million project have tallied around $90,000, Coryell said. Based on fees for development paid by TLC for its last apartment project constructed in 2007 and 2008, Coryell expected Township 28’s fees to come in at roughly $35,000.

He also said the company had to wait about nine months for a building permit after submitting plans – well past the city’s goal of 60 to 90 days. Coryell noted the project and location, which is known for steep inclines and rocky soil, were unusually complex.

Brent Stevens, a principal with architecture firm H Design Group LLC, works with area communities and nationwide as it relates to submitting and finalizing construction plans, and said Springfield development processes compare favorably.

“I believe Springfield is pretty developer friendly,” he said. “Honestly, it is probably one of the better communities I’ve worked with in being approachable and looking for ways to support development.”

There is room for improvement, however. Stevens said there have been some kinks in the city’s digital-plans submission platform, Avolve Software’s ProjectDox ePlan system. Plan changes can sometimes take days to address.

“We’ve definitely had some frustration with the timing of ProjectDox, but we in the development community are kind of patient on that because the upside of going 100 percent digital is not having to waste thousands of trees and a bunch of paperwork,” he said.

For Fulnecky, anything the city can do to make development easier is worth doing.

“If you can streamline the development process, you can create jobs because you’re lowering costs,” she said. “Time is money.”

Smith said during the next month he and city leaders would seek feedback from external stakeholders as he puts together an action plan for addressing administrative issues that could cause development delays.