Council committee taps nine to serve on tax advisory board

RELATED

Newly approved Springfield tax will fund public safety, community initiatives

Commission ponders priorities to replace pension fund tax

Last edited 2:17 p.m., March 5, 2025 [Editor's note: The number of applicants has been added.]

Nine members were chosen for the new Citizens Advisory Board by Springfield City Council’s Committee of the Whole yesterday.

The board’s charge is to provide recommendations to council on projects to be funded by a sales tax approved by the city’s voters in November.

Voters approved a three-quarter-cent tax that continues to fund the city’s Police and Fire Pension Fund, replacing a separate tax first approved in 2009 and renewed twice. That tax is set to sunset March 31. The new tax will devote one-quarter cent to the pension fund, with the other half-cent going toward city projects aligned with the Forward SGF comprehensive plan. City officials estimate the tax will raise $45 million annually.

The newly tapped board will oversee only the half-cent portion of the tax dedicated to Forward SGF projects, including capital improvements, community initiatives and park projects. This portion of the tax will sunset in 10 years while the other portion – funding both pension costs and public safety measures – is permanent.

Those chosen are proposed Chair Erin Danastasio, executive director of The Hatch Foundation, and proposed Vice Chair Andy Lear, retired partner with Forvis Mazars LLP and former Springfield City Council member.

The other proposed members are Christina Angle, chief financial officer and vice president of The Erlen Group; Leslie Forrester, executive director of the Springfield Regional Arts Council; Andy Peebles, shareholder and attorney with Carnahan Evans PC; Lauren Shantz, vice president of public affairs with the Springfield Area Chamber of Commerce; Clif Smart, former president of Missouri State University; Becky Volz, Neighborhood Advisory Council chair; and Rusty Worley, executive director of the Downtown Springfield Association.

There were 88 applicants, according to a list provided by city officials.

Approval of the recommended board members and an outline of the committee’s responsibilities are expected to be on council’s March 24 agenda.

The proposed resolution – not yet approved by the Committee of the Whole – establishes this list of criteria to be considered when deciding upon projects to be funded:

• It can be completed with no ongoing debt obligation

• It is eligible for matching funds

• It generates new sales tax or other revenue for city use

• It creates jobs or increases economic growth

• It will retain or attract new residents or businesses

• It will improve livability for city residents or workers

• It is transformational and invests in the next generation

• It is a continuation of an existing project

In discussing their own recommendations for the committee, council members yesterday voiced their priorities for membership. Monica Horton asked that Zone 1 be included, as a representative from that zone did not emerge in the first round of voting. Brandon Jenson asked that the committee include a younger member, and Callie Carroll called for gender diversity. Matthew Simpson made a bid for members of the former Citizens Commission on Community Investment, which recommended the tax, to serve. Council members also expressed an interest in including people from different sectors of the community, such as the arts.

According to past reporting, the new Citizens Advisory Board, active until March 30, 2035, with rolling three-year board positions, will join the city’s existing Citizens Tax Oversight Committee in overseeing the use of tax funds.

The Citizens’ Tax Oversight Committee will review and monitor the use of all revenue collected.  

This committee already oversees revenue collected through the city’s quarter-cent capital improvement sales tax, its eighth-cent transportation sales tax, its level property tax and the soon-to-expire three-quarter-cent police and firefighters pension fund sales tax that the new measure replaces.