City Beat: City passes half-billion-dollar budget

Springfield City Council adopted a $529.8 million budget for the 2025-26 fiscal year as an emergency measure at its June 9 meeting, following an amendment that would fund a rental inspection program in the city.

Council is required by city code to pass a balanced budget for the city before the start of the fiscal year on July 1. One other meeting is scheduled for this month, on June 23; however, for this measure, council opted to forego the two-part process of a public hearing at one meeting followed by a vote in the subsequent one. Council’s agenda is set by the mayor.

As the discussion began, Councilmember Brandon Jenson proposed an amendment to the bill – passed by a 6-1 vote of the seven council members present – to eliminate funding for a renovation of the first-floor lobby in the Busch Municipal Building and allocate that money toward establishing a rental inspection program.

Jenson said the lobby is fully functional, albeit one whose design is showing its age and needs improvements.

“However, after talking with staff, I recognize that this is a noncritical need that has not been included in any previous capital improvement plans,” he said.

He said no contracts have yet been approved for the renovation.

Jenson said a bill that is currently in committee calls for a rental inspection program. It has experienced delays, he said, but added he believes the committee is preparing to recommend it to council.

“I haven’t heard any significant opposition from anyone on council, including those who were recently elected, so I’m hopeful of its passage,” he said.

A December 2024 report to council’s Community Involvement Committee proposes an inspection frequency of five years. The model under consideration would charge a $35 annual registration fee per unit with a $50 reinspection fee if violations are noted. The program would impact nearly 24,000 single-family and duplex rentals throughout the city.

The committee’s research puts the five-year costs of the program at $5.65 million with potential total revenue of $5.3 million from fees.

The amount transferred within the budget to get a potential inspection program off the ground is $458,342.

Jenson said the city needs a balanced budget, and he is thinking of the issue as he would a household budget. He began giving an example of a home that needs a new roof as a functional requirement but also could use a repaving of its driveway for aesthetic reasons.

“You have a functional need – you need to fix the roof on your house – but there’s also some aesthetic needs that you have. And so it seems as though the budget we have before us is prioritizing the aesthetic need over the functional need,” he said.

He said if council opts not to enact a rental inspection process, the money will be available to reallocate back to the lobby project.

Councilmember Monica Horton said she supported the amendment and noted she is in support of a citywide inspection program. She noted a price point of $35 per unit would go a long way toward sustainability for such a program.

“In terms of accelerating looking at how this program will work, the staff has done due diligence, and it’s really time for us to go ahead and move forward with this,” she said.

The lone vote against the amendment to shift funds from the lobby renovation to a rental inspection program came from Mayor Jeff Schrag. He did not respond to a Springfield Business Journal request for an explanation of his objection to the rental program funding measure or for the emergency approach to the budget bill.

The budget bill was eligible for a vote because of the emergency clause attached to it, according to City Attorney Jordan Paul. The measure passed unanimously, and no public hearing was offered. Some two-dozen members of tenants’ rights union Springfield Tenants Unite – an organization that regularly participates in public hearings when rental issues are being considered – were present at the start of the meeting but departed after the budget vote.

Public safety raises
Amendments to collective bargaining agreements would provide across-the-board raises of 22% to firefighters and 13.5% to law enforcement officers if approved at the June 23 meeting.

Four measures that received first readings at the June 9 council meeting dealt with negotiated agreements with unions in the city, including the Springfield Police Officers’ Association, Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 22; the International Association of Fire Fighters, Southern Missouri Professional Fire Fighters Local 152; and two chapters of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers.

First readings were also heard on measures to grant the same raises to fire and police commanders who are not part of the bargaining units.

In addition to the across-the-board raises to bring salaries into the top third of comparable cities, the ordinances, which would go into effect in fiscal 2026, would grant 2.5% top-step merit increases to eligible employees.

Darla Morrison, the city’s director of human resources, explained that the police and fire salary increases will move the city’s salaries to the upper third when compared with similar-sized cities.

“The focus this year for both unions was to make significant improvements to police and firefighter pay as recommended by the Citizens Commission and approved by City Council based on its direction,” she said.

She noted the increases were made possible by the quarter-cent portion of a three-quarter-cent sales tax approved by Springfield voters in November 2024, and they were recommended by the mayor-appointed Citizens Commission on Community Investment, which proposed the tax and made a recommendation to council on how funds would be allocated.

Jenson asked about the percentage difference between raises for police and fire personnel.

Morrison said the goal was to move the positions into the upper third for department salaries, and police were closer to that goal than fire personnel. She said the city had previously aimed for the mid-third when compared to other cities’ departments, but aiming for the upper third will help with talent acquisition efforts.

The goal, Morrison said, is to be a leader in pay.

In addition to the police and fire salary increases, the IBEW contracts would offer a 2.1% across-the-board pay increase in addition to the 2.5% top-step merit increase.

Individual votes are scheduled for June 23 for each collective bargaining agreement amendment.

Back from committee
Councilmember Craig Hosmer took advantage of a rule allowing council members to reintroduce measures relegated to committees after inaction following a failure of the body’s Plans and Policies Committee to meet.

On March 24, Hosmer and then-Mayor Ken McClure introduced a measure that would require a business’s personal property taxes to be paid before an occupational license could be issued. Similar measures exist in Kansas City and St. Louis, the lawmakers argued at the time, noting the requirement would be similar to requiring personal property taxes of individuals to be paid before vehicle registration would be permitted.

Hosmer said 60% of businesses in Greene County have not paid their personal property taxes, according to the offices of the Greene County collector and assessor, who jointly requested the measure.

Hosmer said payment is a shared obligation that everyone has. There are 11,400 licensed businesses in the city, he said, but only 4,000 have paid their personal property taxes.

“I think it’s fundamentally unfair to put the burden on regular taxpayers or businesses – I pay my personal property tax for our business every year, and why should I have to pay mine if somebody next door doesn’t pay theirs?” he said.

He called the lack of collection a self-inflicted wound for the city. He noted council passed a similar bill last year that allowed towing of unregistered vehicles as a way to encourage individuals to pay their taxes.

He also noted that the tax revenue pays for schools, libraries, services for people with developmental disabilities and more.

“We should encourage people to pay their personal property tax, whether they’re an individual, which we did with the towing bill, or whether they’re a business,” he said. “Businesses aren’t any better or any worse than an individual. They should pay their fair share because it takes dollars to provide those services.”

Jenson said he would rather see the bill go through the council committee process to avoid unintended consequences.

“The concerns that you levied against the council committee process and bills moving or not moving through that are I believe valid concerns,” he said. “There has been stagnation, but I don’t think that means you should disregard the process.”

Hosmer said he agreed, but he said sometimes the committee process is used to kill legislation.

“I served 12 years in the state legislature, and it takes longer for us sometimes to get a bill passed than it does the stage legislature,” he said. “We talk and talk and talk and talk about issues and we don’t get things done.”

Council is scheduled to vote on the measure June 23. Hosmer warned that if it goes back to committee, he will continue to bring it back up.

“That’s my prerogative,” he said.

According to council’s website, the Plans and Policies Committee is chaired by Abe McGull, who was absent from the meeting, and its other members are Hosmer, Callie Carroll and Derek Lee.

Cemetery issue ongoing
A developer and a family continue to be at odds over access to a cemetery.

The developer of Hidden Gem Estates, a 25-acre gated subdivision planned at 6116 S. Farm Road 175, is seeking approval of the dedication of public street and easements to the city as a routine step toward approval of a preliminary plat for the site, yet the two-century-old Doran family burial site – constantly maintained by the family over its history – is inside of it.

Council heard from a developer’s representative and members of the Doran family, who can’t agree on terms for maintenance of the cemetery. It’s not the first time the Dorans have appeared before council with their grievances, having testified April 7 about concerns following the removal of a fence and signage around the family burial plot, as well as a request for continued access to the site once the subdivision is gated.

Council remanded the issue to the Planning & Zoning Commission to work out the issue, and family members and developer representatives had a meeting in a private room to hash out differences. The meeting resulted in a seven-point plan that appeared to solve the issues, yet now neither party will sign the accord.

Developer Terri Herman of Property Development LLC is behind the subdivision. She appeared at the meeting to say that she does not agree with the plan, but she is willing to allow the family ingress and egress from the cemetery via an existing southern entrance that is not gated.

“We will take care of everything else as a private civil matter,” she said.

Dwayne Doran said Herman had not been involved in discussions previously. He explained that the developers had taken down the family’s fence and removed a sign with the family’s phone number – the developer put their own number on it without alerting the family – and the developer also insists on taking over maintenance of the cemetery.

“We did have an agreement, but that part was not in the agreement, and that’s what started this problem,” he said.

Another issue regards access to the cemetery through the subdivision gate on 12 specified holidays, a move that would allow elderly or disabled family members easier access to the site. Access on those days would have been permitted in the seven-point plan, but the developers have now withdrawn the permission.

Herman said the family was not maintaining the cemetery sufficiently, and she said her company has the means to do so. Family member Lee Doran shared photos with council to show that the site is well maintained.

Herman also said she is not willing to share maintenance.

Councilmember Lee said council can’t enforce some of the terms that are being requested, and that makes it hard to include them.

“What are we going to do? Have our planning people that try to pick lot sizes go out there and see how short the grass is?” Lee said.

Hosmer noted council can condition its approval of a gate for the subdivision on anything it wants to, including access and maintenance.

“I think it would be better if both parties would agree to it and come back to us with a proposal that says we’re happy with this language, but if that doesn’t happen, then my position would be to either deny it – refuse it – or do it with conditions,” he said. “We’re doing something special for the developer to close off that gate.”

City Attorney Paul agreed that council has broad authority to do what it wishes, and its enforcement mechanism is to disallow a gate.

Hosmer made a motion to table the measure. He said if the parties can’t work it out, it’s council’s responsibility to resolve the impasse.

The motion failed, with no votes from members Lee, Bruce Adib-Yazdi and Carroll. The measure is scheduled to be voted on at the June 23 meeting.

Other action items

• Brody Corners in southwest Springfield was given the go-ahead to add residential uses within its tax increment financing agreement, previously OK’d for commercial use only.
• An appropriation of $135,000 from the city’s solid waste fund was approved for the purchase of a parcel of property adjacent to the city’s Noble Hill Sanitary Landfill to be used as buffer land.
• Council approved $1 million of general fund interest revenue for cleanup from the April 29 storm.
• The annexation of 3.4 acres was approved in the area of the 3300 block of North Mulroy Road. Applicant Thomas Masteller plans to seek rezoning for a commercial development.
• One-time funding of $250,000 was approved from the Tourism/Convention Fund, which is the city’s hotel, motel and tourist court tax fund, to assess projects to attract travel and tourism.
• Council authorized a measure to allow public works projects to be published electronically rather than advertised in a daily newspaper. Department of Public Works officials maintain that local media have transitioned predominantly to electronic formats. Advertising platforms to be used include distribution through partner agencies, like the Association of General Contractors or the Missouri Department of Transportation, as well as bidding services like Demand Star, media sources provided by local news outlets and other electronic platforms deemed appropriate.
•  Council heard first readings of measures regarding the annual fiscal year appropriations of its hotel and motel tax funds to three agencies. They are the Springfield Convention and Visitors Bureau, doing business as Visit Springfield, Missouri, with 47% of proceeds, an estimated $4.4 million; and the Greater Springfield Area Sports Commission Inc. and the Springfield Regional Arts Council, each with 4.7% or an estimated $340,000.