City elections are coming up. Who cares? You should.

Apr 02, 2025

Despite having so much to do with how our local government operates and responds to our needs and the taxes we pay, only 15-20% of Jefferson City residents take the time to vote in city council elections. That will most likely be the case next Tuesday, April 8, when contested elections will be held for city council seats in Wards 3 and 4. In Ward 3, Derek Thomas and Erica Choinka are running for a council seat vacated by Scott Spencer. Julie Allen and Kathi Harness are vying for the seat vacated by Derrick Spicer in Ward 4.

Information on these candidates appears at the end of this article, along with links to check your registration and find out what ward you live in.

Incumbents in Ward 1, Jeff Ahlers, and Ward 2, Aaron Mealey, are unopposed, as is Shawn Kampeter, who is running for an open seat in Ward 5. Voters in those wards can show their support by marking a ballot for these candidates or showing indifference or dissatisfaction by either not voting or turning in an unmarked ballot.

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Why this election is important for the future of Jefferson City

The new city council will face challenges and opportunities as it convenes for a new term after the April 8 election. Last week, I mentioned two big issues—the plans for a new conference center and hotel downtown and strains on the city budget due to fluctuating costs associated with health care benefits for city employees. Here are a few more issues to consider.

How the council operates: One of the most important things to consider when evaluating candidates for council seats is how they plan to work with the mayor, city leadership, and other council members to forge compromise or consensus to move forward with city business. As I wrote in an article earlier this year, the council has found itself embroiled in controversies that often can be attributed to a faction of its members that have been insistent on pushing their ideological beliefs and personal agendas. Bullying, intimidation, and name-calling have been the preferred tactics of choice, resulting in increased rancor and a general lack of respect and civility during council meetings.

Violations of the state’s Sunshine Laws, votes and deals made in closed session, appointments made with political motives, attempts to ignore or bypass public input, and reversals of past promises made to voters are just a few examples of how the mayor and some of the council members have conducted business in the past couple of years. In fact, in the first city council election after Mayor Fitzwater was elected, the perceived dysfunction of the council was a primary issue in the election. Every candidate who promised to improve civility, transparency, and respect won their election. Those who didn’t acknowledge that the lack of decorum on the council was an issue lost their races.

This year, three council members decided not to file for re-election: Mark Schwartz (Ward 5), Derrick Spicer (Ward 4), and Scott Spencer (Ward 3). Both Schwartz and Spencer have actively been at the center of several of the more controversial decisions over the past year or two, while Spicer, the “Clarence Thomas” of the city council, rarely speaks or engages in the discussion on agenda items in council meetings. In the past month, Spencer and Spicer, who plan to run for state political offices, tried to hijack a city council meeting to grandstand a national political issue that had nothing to do with city business. Fortunately, a majority of council members refused to consider their motion.

Their exit and the election of new city council members may prove to be an excellent opportunity for the city council to “reinvent" itself for the betterment of the city and its residents. Here are the issues the Council will face in the upcoming year.

Adoption of a budget for the next fiscal year: The city’s budget process for the next fiscal year, which runs from November 1, 2025, to October 31, 2026, begins in May when city departments submit their funding requests to the City Administrator. The mayor’s priorities are incorporated, and an annual operating and five-year capital budget for all city operations is submitted to the City Council.

The Council’s Budget Committee, which is composed of all council members, then reviews the budget and can make amendments. The public has numerous opportunities to weigh in and comment on the budget and tax assessments for the coming year, usually in August. Finally, the City Council votes to approve the operating budget, which will take effect November 1, the beginning of the fiscal year.

For fiscal year 2025, which runs from November 1, 2024, through October 31, 2025, the City Council adopted a budget with an estimated spending of $86,463,675. The city recoups these costs through various revenue sources, primarily sales and use taxes, which bring in about 38% of the town's revenues.

Other major revenue sources include charges for services the city provides to the public and businesses (e.g., sewer, parking, airport services), which total about 26%, and property, franchise, and utility taxes, which account for about 14% of revenues. The remaining 22% comes from miscellaneous charges, fees, taxes, and other sources.

Ultimately, the ten city council members (two in each ward) are responsible for approving the spending priorities of each of the city’s departments. That includes which streets will be re-surfaced each year to permanently fix cracks and potholes, whether sidewalks will be installed to allow children to walk to school safely, upgrades to staffing and facilities for E911 services to improve emergency response times, investments in modern fire trucks and police vehicles, efforts to recruit and retain quality city employees (including police and firefighters), improvements to stormwater facilities to alleviate flooding of city streets, actions to remove dangerous and dilapidated buildings in the city’s neighborhoods, capital improvements to city parks, and many, many, more.

The Council determines how the city generates revenues to pay those costs. Of the sales tax consumers pay on purchases and services bought in the city, 2.25% goes to the City of Jefferson. Likewise, the “Jefferson City” portion of resident’s annual real estate and personal property (autos and other vehicles) tax bills help fund the city’s budget. In many cases, changes to tax rates must be approved by city residents, but the city council members must make and defend those proposals to voters.

In the City’s Budget Committee meetings held in the past month, both the police and fire chiefs told the committee that neither of their budgets had any room to reduce expenses as the police staffing was short by several officers and the fire department had to forgo implementation of several planned projects. That prompted council members to suggest that the city could demand that the school systems pay a greater percentage of the cost of school resource officers, the county could pitch in more to cover the cost of shared E911 services, and the state could be asked to contribute to the cost of maintaining the city’s local fire department that has to respond to emergency calls from the Capitol and state office building. Another proposal that has been considered is a city sales tax on online purchases that could help place local businesses on an equal footing with online retailers.

Decisions by the city council can also affect how much you pay to park downtown, your sewer bill, and what companies pay to use Jefferson City Airport.

City Streets and Sidewalks: In just about every city council election, one of the top complaints about the city is the condition of its infrastructure - in particular streets and sidewalks. It always seems the city is struggling to keep up with the cracks and potholes, made worse when the winters involve more snow and ice.

In recent testimony before the Budget Committee, the city’s Public Works Department Director Kyle Bruemmer said that it's not enough despite a $2.1 million maintenance program to overlay and seal about 42 miles of streets in Jefferson City. But the department is responsible for maintaining about 250 miles of roads in the city and when revenue is lacking it can’t expand programs and must focus on just maintaining what it can afford. Council candidates often cite roads and streets as one of their priorities but finding the funds to expand the overlay programs in a tight budget with so many other priorities is challenging.

Housing: Like many other cities, Jefferson City faces a housing shortage, which was compounded by the 2019 tornado, which wiped out a significant number of rental housing units. The problem is particularly troublesome for low-income households, with rising rents and limited affordable housing options. However, a housing shortage also exists at other income levels and price points, making attracting new residents to the city difficult. Major employers often cite the problem as impediments to establishing and expanding businesses in Jefferson City.

Several government and non-profit organizations, such as the Capital City Housing Task Force, focus on developing housing solutions. The city also has a role, such as offering incentives to attract housing developers and reviewing and approving new zoning, housing, and revitalization projects. However, developers and builders have complained that some of the city’s inspection and permitting processes are needlessly burdensome and that improvements could be made. The city has made recent progress in approving new housing developments. However, new proposals are often met with opposition from neighboring residents, particularly those designed to accommodate low-income renters.

The lack of affordable housing has also led to a rising number of unhoused people in the city, and homeless shelters operated by local churches and other organizations are often at capacity, particularly during periods of inclement or cold weather. The Jefferson City Police Department now has a dedicated community resource officer tasked with connecting unhoused individuals with resources in Jefferson City. And the City Council created a Task Force on Homelessness this past year. Its comprehensive report is due in April 2025.

Dilapidated Homes and Buildings: The city has made progress in revitalizing the historic Capitol Avenue area, condemning and taking ownership of neglected and abandoned houses and business structures. It has sold many properties to developers and contractors who have agreed to restore the historic homes or build new structures consistent with the area's historic character.

However, the problem of dealing with dilapidated and dangerous buildings is a continuing issue. Earlier this year, the city negotiated an agreement with the owner of the abandoned Truman Hotel to contribute $250,000 to demolish the old hotel. However, the City Council ultimately rejected the deal after hearing from residents who felt the obligation to remove the dangerous eyesore along Hwy. 54 should fall solely on the owner, not taxpayers. Similarly, the old JCPenney building downtown will need to be torn down.

In his presentation to the Budget Committee, Planning and Protective Services Director Clint Smith said his department had $125,000 for city-funded demolition of dangerous buildings and $375,000 for residential projects, including instances where the city must clean up private property due to owner neglect.

Is the City Council Up for Sale?

On April 2, 2025, the News Tribune ran an article entitled “Tens of Thousands of Dollars Poured into City Council Elections.” Based on reports recently filed with the Missouri Ethics Commission (MEC) describe how two candidates for open city council seats in Ward 3, Erica Choinka, and Ward 4, Kathi Harness, have funded their campaigns primarily on large donations from lobbyists, political consulting firms, politicians, political action committees, businesses, and corporations. Some reside outside of Jefferson City and seem to have no relationship with the city itself.

In addition, the Political Action Committee supporting Kathi Harness appears to have possibly violated Missouri ethics law by failing to disclose thousands of dollars of donations in a report they should have filed over a month ago (RSMO 130.046). Transparency has been an ongoing problem at the City Council, as was mentioned earlier about the Sunshine Law complaint. There has also been an increasing number of closed-door meetings where decisions are made out of public view and without public comment. Ms. Harness's behavior and her PAC do not appear to promise more transparency for the Council’s decision-making process.

Large campaign donations call into question to whom these candidates owe their allegiance if elected to the city council: big money, political and out-of-town donors, or the citizens of Jefferson City? We have seen what happens when partisan politics infect our city council. For example, the incident mentioned before when council members running for state political office tried to embroil the council in a hot-button national political issue.

So, should we expect more of the same? Or will the new council in place after April 8 eschew partisan politics and focus their efforts on whether to build a new conference center, fix our city streets and sidewalks, identify ways to fund healthcare benefits for city employees better, adequately fund our police and fire departments, solve our housing shortages, keep up our parks, and tear down all the dilapidated buildings?

Your vote counts—make sure you do your research on the candidates, their backgrounds, experience, community involvement, and positions on the issues. The future of Jefferson City depends on it!

What issues are you most concerned about? What qualities do you think are important in a City Council member? Share your thoughts!

Missouri Monitor: Tales from a Capital City

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