Council eyes campaign finance ordinance quickly altered by mayor

Since August 2025, Springfield City Council’s Plans and Policies Committee worked to refine the campaign finance reform ordinance that was introduced at council’s meeting last night.

Just before the meeting, Mayor Jeff Schrag offered a substitute version of the ordinance with several changes to its provisions.

It’s a move that drew a comment from Councilmember Brandon Jenson, who acknowledged he has been guilty of similar actions.

“You are a member of the Plans and Policies Committee ... was there a reason you didn’t attend and bring up these concerns so that it could be deliberated through the committee process instead of offering a substitute bill?” Jenson asked.

“I have no good excuse,” Schrag replied.

The committee’s ordinance proposed a campaign contribution limit of $2,825 from one donor for a candidate in a city election, and it would establish a nine-member city ethics commission to investigate alleged violations.

Instead of setting up a city ethics commission, Schrag’s substitute ordinance would assign campaign finance oversight to the existing Citizens Tax Oversight Committee.

While the committee ordinance would have addressed a failure to report contributions, Schrag’s ordinance leaves that as the province of the Missouri Ethics Commission, a body that Councilmember Monica Horton said has been without a quorum and thus has not functioned for more than two years.

Schrag’s ordinance restricts acceptance of complaints within 15 days of an election to be consistent with MEC policies, and it sets up a 180-day time frame for any complaint to be investigated and a ruling to be offered; past that time, the complaint would be dismissed.

Council voted 7-2, with Horton and Jenson dissenting, to accept the mayor’s substitute version.

Horton, who said council just received the substitute ordinance that day, said she had some questions about provisions, notably the use of the Citizens Tax Oversight Committee. Schrag said campaign finance authority was compatible with other duties of that body, which examines financial records and reports to council any possible impropriety.

Horton also questioned whether there would be limits on in-kind donations in addition to monetary ones, and Schrag said the limit would be the same as for cash, though Horton said some in-kind donations, like development of a website, have a value far beyond $2,825. She suggested doubling the limitation on in-kind donations.

Jenson offered an amendment to the mayor’s substitute bill, which has a vote scheduled for May 4. That amendment, which passed 8-1 with Horton dissenting, would allow a 30-day period before the campaign finance reform policy goes into effect. That way, current members of the Citizens Tax Oversight Committee, who were not informed in advance of the proposed change in their portfolio of duties, would have a chance to resign rather than having their political activity limited for a year, as the campaign finance ordinance would require.

Sixteen community members spoke in favor of campaign finance reform during the public comment period on the bill, but many specified that they were speaking in support of the ordinance as originally crafted by the committee.

Representing PFLAG – Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays – board member Rachel Jamieson said she had planned a careful speech but was forced to pivot by the substitute measure.

“I am very much in favor of the original bill, and in terms of this new bill, the substitute bill, there have been some things that were brought up tonight, but there’s not a lot of time to unpack,” she said.

Nevertheless, Jamieson outlined a detailed critique of the substitute bill’s differences from the committee’s version, with specific concerns about the change in oversight committee and about the 180-day dismissal policy.

“These new amendments take all the teeth out of this ordinance, I worry, and I don’t think they should be applied,” she said. “It allows leeway and loopholes for big money to still have disproportionate influence on our elections. I worry that they undermine our intentions for the original ordinance.”

The campaign finance reform measure was referred to committee last summer by Councilmember Craig Hosmer. Following his August 2025 referral, Hosmer received vocal support in his effort from community members, including public comment testimony by three people on Oct. 6.

A vote on the substitute bill, and an additional public comment period covering the substituted bill and the amendment, is set for May 4.