Council begins to hone draft list of priorities 

Springfield City Council’s top four priorities are coming into focus on an ongoing process that included a Sept. 5 consultant-led workshop. 

Broadly stated, the top four priorities are economic development, the development process, housing and public safety. Other priorities listed are transit, brand identity, regionalism, attractions, maintenance and government efficiency. 

Council reviewed a summary report of their workshop at their weekly lunch Sept. 16. 

EverStrive Solutions LLC, based in Overland Park, Kansas, prepared the report, which synthesizes council input from a half-day session that included full-council discussion and breakout collaboration in small groups. 

A full-day workshop had been scheduled for Sept. 4 but had to be moved back a day and truncated by a couple of hours after city officials realized they had failed to give notice of the meeting, in keeping with the state’s Sunshine Law. As a result of the shift, one council member, Monica Horton, was unable to attend but provided her feedback to EverStrive via a video call. 

Next steps 
At the lunch meeting, council attempted to pin down the process it would take with the priorities as it moves forward. 

Upon reviewing the document, Councilmember Bruce Adib-Yazdi sought to tweak the housing priority. 

“I feel like maybe we were a little narrow in our focus,” he said. “I think we need a little bit wider lens and a little bit bigger understanding. … I think I’d like to work and maybe update those or do something a little different.” 

Mayor Jeff Schrag said the consultant’s suggestion is for council to wait to hear suggestions from city staff before diving back in.  

Councilmember Craig Hosmer also pointed to a lack of specificity and said he thought council would flush out details after identifying priorities. 

“I’m not against giving staff that, but there’s not really any detail about how do you deal with the development process, or how do you deal with the public safety issues,” he said. “There’s not any specific guidance from council.” 

Schrag said council did its step, and the staff will do the next one before it comes back to council. 

“If we feel like they’ve missed the mark or we’re missing specificity, that’s when we would hone in on what that would be,” he said. “Eventually, these will get voted on, and we’re not at that stage yet. So we’re not adopting this formally; we’re adopting this informally and giving staff the next step, is how I see it.” 

Councilmember Heather Hardinger said council has to make sure it’s being intentional with its time and staff time as it works toward identifying two-year measurable outcomes. 

Councilmember Brandon Jenson requested that objectives that come back should include identification of which council committee it will flow through, if any.  

Deferred maintenance 
Horton said she wants to see an emphasis on deferred maintenance of existing public assets. 

“Maybe we don’t like the word deferred maintenance, but maybe we can call it TLC,” she said. “Our properties need some tender loving care.” 

She said voters approved a half-cent Spring Forward SGF tax with the expectation of an increase in city revenue. 

“To the extent that we take care of our existing public assets while figuring out how we want to fiscally maintain all of the shiny new things, of course without debt service, I think that we have to initiate that process ahead of time,” she said.  

She said staff needs direction from council in this area. 

“The economic development as well as the shiny new things that we are investing in is going to produce an increase, and the question is, are we going to take that increase and just queue up the next shiny new thing, or are we going to advance a plan that we direct the staff to really take care of those TLC goals?” she said. 

She cited parks, municipal court, stormwater infrastructure and consolidated waste management. 

“All of that to me falls up under TLC, which we do not have a plan for,” she said. “I hate to bring in something brand new here, but this is something that is undergirding a lot of what we’re trying to produce on the surface.”