Council committee to review Citizens’ Advisory Board, other boards and commissions

Mayor Jeff Schrag called for a review of the Citizens’ Advisory Board and a comprehensive audit of all city boards and commissions at last night’s meeting of Springfield City Council.

The Citizens’ Advisory Board, which makes recommendations to council about the use of a half-cent of the three-quarter-cent Spring Forward SGF sales tax funds, has two members who are not city residents, which violates city charter requirements for city boards. Additionally, the CAB has only eight members, while city code requires nine.

Schrag suggested a new configuration for the CAB, with three current members who are not city residents serving in a nonvoting capacity on the board. Springfield Business Journal previously reported that two members, Chair Erin Danastasio and Christina Angle, did not reside within the city limits when appointed. A third member, Andy Peebles, moved outside of city limits after the board began its work, according to City Clerk Anita Cotter. Schrag’s proposal also calls for four new voting members to be added to the board to bring the number of voting members to nine.

Councilmember Brandon Jenson said he originally supported the appointment of nonresident members, but he has since changed his mind.

“It’s important to step back and consider structurally whether it is appropriate to have these types of roles on any city-appointed board and commission,” he said.

At Schrag’s suggestion, the CAB review and the board and commission audit were referred to council’s Plans and Policies Committee.

Hotel of Terror options
Council also had the first reading of two opposing ordinances at the meeting: one to repeal the condemnation of the Hotel of Terror haunted attraction and the other to call an election Aug. 4 to allow voters to decide the attraction’s fate.

The Hotel of Terror has been a seasonal Halloween attraction on Main Avenue downtown since 1978. City officials say the building must be demolished in order to replace a bridge that abuts it at the west end of the Renew Jordan Creek project, which is bringing the buried creek back to the surface while creating a public park amenity. The bridge is rated poor with replacement recommended by the Missouri Department of Transportation.

Council declared eminent domain on Dec. 15, 2025, to acquire the hotel property, but business owners Sterling and Melissa Mathis collected enough petition signatures by Feb. 13 to bring the issue before citywide voters to decide the Hotel of Terror’s fate, or force a repeal by council of the eminent domain ordinance.

On March 23, council is scheduled to decide which direction to take. The conflict between the city and the business came to this point once before, in 2023, when council opted to repeal its eminent domain declaration.

Arts funding
As council considered what to do with more than $1 million in fiscal 2025 budget carryover for the 2026 fiscal year, Jenson offered a last-minute amendment to direct $100,000 toward the Springfield Regional Arts Council Inc.

The original ordinance proposed four recipients of carryover funds:

• Municipal court, proposed new municipal court building, $506,994

• City manager, Trust Edge employee training program, $256,000

• City clerk, coverage of upcoming April tourism tax election expense, $230,000

• Parks, Grant Beach bath house repair, $90,000

The additional SRAC allocation was proposed by Jenson to be taken from the municipal court funds.

Jenson explained that SRAC formerly received $100,000 from the Springfield-Greene County Park Board, but two years ago that funding stream was eliminated. Replacement of those funds was not included in last year’s budget, he said.

Jenson said the SRAC receives funding from the existing lodging tax, but all of those funds are distributed as grants to local arts organizations. Additionally, the SRAC faces a potential cut of half of its state funding.

Councilmember Heather Hardinger said she is in favor of finding a permanent source of revenue for SRAC. Jenson described his proposal as a stopgap measure.

Councilmember Derek Lee said he would like staff input on the issue and characterized the amendment as coming from out of the blue.

Jenson said he had been working on the proposal for a couple of weeks but only had a chance to meet with the city manager four days before the meeting.

“I own that, so you can place that frustration at my feet, but I would hope that that frustration with timing doesn’t supersede the need in the community,” Jenson said.

Lee said he had also asked for funding for SRAC. He said he was inclined to support it anyway, but he doesn’t know what to do with his own request for permanent funding.

Jenson said he was advised that this was the best path forward to meet the current need.

Councilmember Craig Hosmer said council also needs to find more funding for the park board and noted that he understands why it could not support the SRAC.

“The bigger issue for us is to get with the county, get with the parks board and get the parks tax back on the ballot,” he said. “The citizens of this county support parks, and we’ve been running a parks department on a shoestring since I’ve been on council.”

The amendment to the carryover ordinance passed 5-4, with Councilmembers Callie Carroll, Hardinger, Lee and Schrag voting against it.

The amended measure is scheduled to be taken up March 23.