Council looks to take steps to correct problems with Citizens’ Advisory Board

At a Springfield City Council workshop on March 2, City Attorney Jordan Paul acknowledged that the structure of the Citizens’ Advisory Board does not align with the city’s charter.

The Citizens’ Advisory Board makes recommendations to council on how to spend money from the half-cent portion of the Spring Forward SGF sales tax, passed by voters in November 2024. A review by Paul has found the CAB to be misaligned with Article XV of the charter.

Paul reported there are three specific areas in which the CAB is out of charter alignment:

• The charter requires two-year city residency prior to appointment, but the council resolution forming the CAB allowed for membership eligibility after only one year of either living or working in the city.

• The charter requires the board to elect its own chair annually, but for the CAB, City Council appointed a chair and vice chair.

• The charter requires exactly nine members, but the resolution forming the CAB allowed seven to 11 members. Eight were approved.

Paul said the exposure presented by the issue is negligible, and the CAB’s past actions remain legally valid. He said, however, that the issue should be corrected for the future, and he offered a draft resolution to realign the CAB’s structure.

Paul suggested the CAB not make recommendations until the issues are corrected.

In Paul’s presentation, he stressed that the volunteers from the CAB did nothing wrong and were appointed through a public and transparent process.

He added that they have served diligently and in good faith, and the issue with the board’s composition is not attributable to them in any respect. Further, he said he was not aware of any conduct by any member that concerns him.

“I think it’s really important to emphasize that each of these steps was a fully public and transparent process,” Paul said.

He added that it’s important to emphasize board members are volunteers who applied and were appointed through a public and transparent process.

“This issue is not attributable to them in any sense,” he said, adding that self-governance only works because of community members who donate their time and talents for the public good.

The CAB has made only unanimous recommendations on every funding recommendation to date, and council is the final decision-maker, Paul said. That means no recommendation to council has hinged on the presence or participation of the two nonresident members, Chair Erin Danastasio and member Christina Angle.

Paul said he was present on Dec. 17 when council discussed board composition, including residency and member count, but he was not asked to provide a legal opinion.

“In hindsight, the transition from a task force to an advisory board carried Article XV implications that were not recognized,” he said in his slide presentation. “As city attorney, it is my responsibility to ensure charter alignment, and I take accountability for not identifying that issue at the time.”

Mayor Jeff Schrag suggested that moving forward, all city boards and commissions be reviewed.

Councilmember Brandon Jenson said it is beneficial to have the expertise of the two nonresident members, even if they are not participating as voting members. He added that it would not be helpful for council to give the board further information until the reconstituted board is in place.

Schrag said he is still determining whether to send the draft resolution through a committee – either the Public Involvement Committee or Committee of the Whole – or straight to council.

“Initially, I was of the opinion that – let’s take a beat and let’s review all city boards and commissions to look for other areas and fix everything at once,” Schrag said. “Upon reflection, the city attorney’s office has asked me to separate those two things and to take care of this one sooner rather than later.”

The review of other boards and commissions via a council committee would take a couple of months to come back before the full council, he said.

In his remarks to open up the meeting, Schrag expressed gratitude to the members of the CAB.

“They have taken an idea and turned it into a productive, working board to organize, vet and recommend projects to City Council for City Council’s consideration,” he said. “Everyone – and I repeat myself, everyone – on the board is serving honorably and ethically, without exception, and any allegations to the contrary are simply not true.”

Inclusion of nonvoting members
Councilmember Monica Horton questioned Paul’s proposed corrective framework for the board. This would allow the two nonresident members to remain on the board but as nonvoting members who do not count toward a quorum and may not serve as officers.

Horton characterized the proposed solution as merely toeing the line of the city charter in its continued inclusion of the two nonresidents as nonvoting members. She said that she would like to see council members embrace the charter.

“I would propose removing that altogether from the proposal so that we can just come into full compliance,” she said. “We appoint three more individuals that are consistent, that are in compliance, with the city charter.”

Horton said council originally intended to cast a wide net and to minimize any barriers to application by including people in the urban service area who work or live in the city limits, and the original council formation reflected no ill will. However, the composition of the board does not reflect the wide-net ideal.

“Where we landed was there were a lot of folks who were missing from the table, quite frankly,” she said.

Horton added that she didn’t believe she would feel she had impact as a volunteer board member if she were not permitted to vote or be an officer.

Some other council members – Bruce Adib-Yazdi, Heather Hardinger and Jenson – expressed support for having nonvoting voices from outside the city limits on the CAB.

Schrag said he would communicate via email, which he emphasized is a public record, as he decides how to proceed at the upcoming City Council meeting.

Simkins responds
The issue was first raised by Springfield resident and government observer Linda Simkins in a Feb. 23 letter to council.

Reached after the meeting, Simkins said she is not satisfied with the proposed plan to remedy the situation.

“The two nonresidents should not be allowed to stay on the CAB board. It is a violation of the charter,” she said via text message. “The charter says board members have the same qualifications as council members. Are we going to allow nonvoting nonresidents to join City Council? If council does this, it sets a precedent for future boards.”

The conversation at the March 2 meeting mostly omitted discussion of another concern brought up in Simkins’ Feb. 23 letter, and that is conflict of interest. Simkins told council in the letter that Danastasio and member Leslie Forrester had a conflict of interest in their board role because of their membership on the Visit Springfield, Missouri, board. The first recommendation made by the board was a $30 million appropriation to be used as a match for state funding for a proposed downtown convention and events center, a project backed by Visit Springfield, Missouri, which books conventions for the city.

“I believe the two CAB members, Danastasio and Forrester, have a conflict of interest. Whether or not it’s against the law is immaterial,” Simkins said via text. “The perception of a conflict is often more important than an actual conflict. The board ethics handbook mentions this. Both should have disclosed the conflict and not voted.”

In his remarks at the March 2 meeting, Jenson said he serves on boards and recuses himself from votes when there is a conflict of interest, even when that conflict is not in the form of financial compensation. He asked that Paul provide training to the reconstituted board on avoiding conflict of interest and its perception.

“Even taking caution on that perception issue is what can really build up or really undermine public trust in our processes,” he said.

Simkins said via text that she noticed the problem with CAB membership and processes and chose to speak up about it.

“The city encourages civic engagement. However, they push back on someone like me that does become engaged,” she said. “I didn’t choose to be in this position. I inadvertently noticed it and had the choice to remain silent or speak. I chose to speak.”

She added that her purpose is not to malign council.

“The hope is that my engagement will improve accountability and transparency for the citizens of Springfield,” she said.