Horton hosts third in series of town hall meetings

It was standing room only at a town hall meeting for Zone 1 Springfield City Councilmember Monica Horton last night.

Some audience members were standing in the hallway outside of the Library Station’s 70-person Frisco meeting room to hear a series of updates from Horton, followed by a Q&A.

Zone 1 has 40,000-plus residents, Horton said – double the size of some of Springfield’s bedroom communities, she noted, citing Republic with a population of roughly 22,000.

She explained that Zone 1 extends from the Springfield-Branson National Airport in the west to Ozarks Technical and Community College in the east, and from the Dickerson Park Zoo in the north to the Route 66 Car Museum on College Street in the south.

Horton also outlined some other Zone 1 data, noting seven of its neighborhoods have average incomes above the city’s average median income of $45,984, per U.S. Census Bureau figures.

Some of the neighborhoods are also marked by poverty, she said, with four having 20% of residents living at or below the poverty line, four having 30% of residents at or below poverty and one having 43% of residents at or below poverty.

Horton shared the estimated annual economic impact of a planned downtown convention and events center, which city consultant Hunden Strategic Partners Inc. said could bring $45 million in new visitor spending, $2.5 million in city tax revenue and 216 ongoing full-time jobs to the city. She said that revenue could go toward unfunded projects now sitting in City Council committees.

Horton offered statistics on the number of police reports within 11 registered Zone 1 neighborhoods in 2024. They topped out at 1,422 in West Central – an outlier on the chart. That neighborhood extends from Chestnut Expressway to Grand Street and from Kimbrough Avenue to Kansas Expressway. The next-highest neighborhood, Doling, reported only 642. On the bottom end of the chart was Young Lilly, located west of West Bypass and south of Chestnut Expressway, with only 115.

“Since 2020, all of these police reports have trended downward,” she said.

She stressed the importance of neighborhood health to attract people to be neighbors and businesses to come along beside them.

She also encouraged people to get involved in their neighborhood associations.

“If you’re not part of your neighborhood association, what are you doing with your life?” she said. “That’s where the action is – the neighborhood cleanups, the potlucks, the holiday parties, trick-or-treating. All of the action happens at the neighborhood level.”

She added that active neighborhood associations keep some areas from slipping more into decline.

Horton said the role of City Council is twofold: policy and budget. The rental inspection program, whose pilot in the West Central neighborhood will kick off in April, was funded by council.

“If you’re going to expand that citywide, you’ve got to have appropriate funding,” she said.

She said the more the city grows in economic development, the more revenue in the city’s coffers.

“It allows for us to retain our workforce and to have competitive pay, but at the same time, it allows for us to have the programs that you all say you want for us to enact,” she said. “That’s all a part of the ecosystem of ensuring that we are being responsive to the citizens.”

Horton asked those present to share their expectations for their council representatives. Answers in a word cloud stressed traits like reachability, honesty and accountability.

Specific expectations were also offered verbally, with one person asking that council do something about helping and rehabbing people who are experiencing homelessness.

“A lot of people put homelessness under public safety,” she said. “I put it under housing shortage; I put it under health-related issues.”

The Q&A raised a wide range of concerns, including action by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, with some wanting assurances that the Springfield Police Department not be deputized for ICE enforcement.

Horton said she would not support an SPD proposal to City Council to aid in ICE action, and that’s how that type of arrangement would be brought forward. SPD Major Tad Peters, who was present, verified that SPD is not coordinating with ICE.

Another audience member asked about Horton’s views on proposed state legislation, House Bill 2847, that seeks to remove Springfield residents’ right to zoning referendum.

“I explicitly said on Monday, ‘Pull that bill,’ so that’s how I feel about that,” she said.

Other comments covered neighborhood-level needs, like a desire for citywide trash service, residential street snow removal and complete sidewalks where those are lacking, and broader issues like food deserts and what the city could do to help address them.

Tenant concerns, like right to counsel and housing quality, were also brought up.

Some issues, like payment for City Council members – currently uncompensated – are established through the city charter, for which changes require a citywide ballot measure.

“I really feel as though the intent of the city is to develop a charter commission and to go one by one and look at various aspects of the city charter,” Horton said, adding that she supports that code revision strategy.

Horton’s town hall meeting followed a November 2025 meeting by Zone 3 Councilmember Brandon Jenson and a Jan. 29 joint meeting by Zone 2 Councilmember Abe McGull and General Seat B Councilmember Craig Hosmer.

On Feb. 24, a joint meeting is scheduled for Zone 4 Councilmember Bruce Adib-Yazdi and General Seat A Councilmember Heather Hardinger. It is set for 6:30-8:30 p.m. at Cowden Elementary School, 2927 S. Kimbrough Ave.

No upcoming town hall meetings have been announced for Councilmembers Callie Carroll, General Seat C, or Derek Lee, General Seat D, nor for Mayor Jeff Schrag.