Potholes, parking places or prescriptions? Who will decide which ones get filled?

Jefferson City Municipal Election Edition

Mar 25, 2025

Note: at the end of this article are links to information about the four candidates running in contested races on April 8, 2025.

A little over a year ago, I volunteered to help a candidate for local office canvass voters here in Jefferson City. I had a list of names and addresses in a neighborhood, having some good conversations with people about what they thought about the state of our local government. I had just stepped on the front porch of my next address and realized that the door I was about to knock on was then-Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft. The chief elections officer for the State of Missouri. Son of John Ashcroft, former US Attorney General, US Senator, and Governor of Missouri.

Jay Ashcroft’s term as Secretary of State was not without controversy. Wikipedia says he was known for enacting strict voter identification laws, fighting against citizen-led ballot initiatives (most notably the successful campaign to restore reproductive rights for women in Missouri), and restricting library services for minors. He lost a bid for Governor in last year’s primary election.

It was a Sunday afternoon, and he came to the door in shorts, a T-shirt, and barefoot. I probably interrupted him from watching a basketball game on television. I acknowledged his position and told him why I was there. He seemed genuinely interested in what I had to say about my candidate – their background, experience, involvement in the community, and why they were running. It was a non-partisan election, meaning that the candidates did not run as Democrats or Republicans or have anything to do with national politics. It was all about fixing our streets and sidewalks, managing stormwater, recruiting and retaining qualified police and firefighters, preserving our parks, attracting new businesses to town, and keeping our taxes low. Things as residents we all cared about equally, no matter who we are or what side of town we live in.

While he stopped short of saying how he would vote in the election, he was impressed by what I told him, and he thought that my candidate was the type of person we needed in our city government. He extended his hand to shake mine, thanking me for spending my Sunday afternoon advocating for a candidate I believed in. We both agreed that if more people engaged in our democracy and electoral process, our country and local community would be better off.

The State of Local Elections In Jefferson City

In our town, typically, only 12-15% of registered voters bother to show up to vote in municipal elections held in April of each year. Sometimes, when there are contested races for the city council or school board or a bond or tax issue on the ballot, we’ll get as much as 20%. One of the largest employers in our area (besides the state government) is our local public school district. But even its employees, including teachers, don’t seem to vote in any greater numbers than anyone else, even though the school board approves the district's budgets, policies, and employee salaries. Almost half of those who voted in the last three local elections were over the age of 65, and 74% were over the age of 50.

The city has five wards, each with two city council members who serve two-year terms. Their elections are staggered so that one of the council seats in each ward is up for re-election every April. The mayor is elected for a 4-year term and generally cannot vote on council actions except when there is a tie among the ten council members. However, the mayor makes citizen appointments to the city boards and commissions and decides which council members will chair key council committees.

We have a local election scheduled for Tuesday, April 8, 2025, with just two contested races for City Council seats in Wards 3 and 4. Two current council members in Wards 1 and 2 are unopposed, and a candidate is vying uncontested for an open seat in Ward 5. Two school board seats are up for re-election this year, but no one stepped forward to challenge the incumbents, who both filed to serve another term.

Our local newspaper, the News Tribune, does a very good job covering the city council and school board activities. It also conducts a candidate forum before the election, solicits questions from readers, and publishes responses from candidates in the paper. However, only a small portion of Jefferson City residents take the paper. Local TV stations also cover the council, school board, and elections but usually focus on the big-ticket issues with 30-second sound bites. With all the media emphasis now on national and state government, both with new administrations, many people tune-out when it comes to local elections.

This post is public so feel free to share it with friends who will be voting in the upcoming JC election.

Issues Facing Jefferson City Government

Jefferson City faces several significant challenges that its City Council will have to address in the coming year. Promoting economic development usually tops the list, as the city has faced a declining population in the last decade, and Mayor Fitzwater is striving to increase its population by 10,000 people in the coming years. Attracting new businesses, developing the downtown area, and expanding the supply of housing are essential while at the same time improving the city’s aging infrastructure and providing essential services to residents.

Here’s a run-down of two current issues – adding a new conference center downtown and rising employee healthcare costs. I’ll address a few other issues that are also important in the upcoming election in next week’s newsletter.

Downtown Conference Center

The city is proposing to build a new conference center and hotel along Capitol Ave., where the Madison St. parking garage currently stands and the building that housed the offices of the News Tribune (which the city purchased and demolished). In partnership with the Jefferson City Regional Economic Partnership (JCREP,) a non-profit organization chaired primarily by local business leaders, the city contracted with a developer, Garfield Public/Private LLC, that has received $323,257 of the $512,000 budget from the city's 7 percent lodging tax to develop plans, funding, financing, etc. for a conference center, hotel, and new parking garage. Under the proposal, the city will retain ownership of the land and the structures. It will contract with one or more companies to operate the conference center, hotel, and parking businesses.

The initial plan for the conference center was for 250 hotel rooms, 36,000 square feet of conference space, and a parking garage for 790 vehicles. However, a recent market study suggested a slightly scaled-down project to reduce costs. The latest proposal is for a 204-room hotel, 29,000 square feet of conference space with a potential capacity of 1,940 people, and a 688-vehicle garage. The projected cost is $130 million, which includes $51 million for the hotel, $52 million for the conference center, and $27 million for the parking garage.

The initial funding for the center’s construction will come from various sources, including tax increment financing (TIF), which uses new tax revenue generated by a new development project to offset costs, surcharges on the conference center hotel rooms, the city’s 4% lodging tax, and possibly parking revenues or utility taxes generated onsite. There is a $40 million shortfall necessary to begin construction.

Potential sources to address the funding shortage include Gov. Mike Kehoe, who included $2 million for the project in his budget proposal (which is yet to be adopted by the Missouri legislature), contributions from the hotel brand, licensing name rights, suppliers, encouraging investment from statewide industries via a "Made in Missouri" initiative, and outside philanthropic contributions.

Proponents of the conference center plans, including Mayor Ron Fitzwater, JCREP, and others, believe that establishing a state-of-the-art conference center in the downtown area is necessary to spur economic development for the downtown area and the city. They contend that many organizations bypass Jefferson City as a location to hold large events and conferences because of inadequate and outdated hotel and conference center space. Once the new facility is built, it will also attract new business to the city. Relying on an annual occupancy rate of 70% and a hotel room rate of $191/night, a study by the University of Missouri Regional Economic and Entrepreneurial Development projects $311 million in value-added new wealth to the community as the total sum of wages, profits, rents, interests and taxes that could accrue between now and 2037.

Opponents argue that the proposed hotel space is too small to accommodate larger events. The market study submitted by the developer relies on a list of sporting events as potential hotel patrons, not a list of state associations that would hold their annual meetings at the 204-room hotel. Larger event organizers, such as state associations, would have to rely on rooms in adjacent hotels, which would be a disincentive to holding events in the city. While the center could benefit from being close to the state capital, it would still have to compete with nearby locations like Lake of the Ozarks and Columbia. Many question the financial viability of the hotel and conference business, including its assumptions on hotel occupancy rates and per-night room rates. They argue that if the city were an attractive and viable location for a new facility, a private concern would have already built it.

Downtown parking is also an issue. Although the new center would have more parking spaces than the existing Madison St. garage, it may not be enough to handle the increased demand from the hotel/conference facility, parking for downtown merchants, monthly leases, and the capital when the legislature is in session. The lack of adequate parking may create competition for street parking and impact local merchants.

The city faces a $40 million funding gap before it can start construction on the project. The next city council must decide where those funds will come from and whether the developer’s economic projections are reasonable. If they are, it could give downtown businesses a new lease on life and provide additional relief for the City of Jefferson's funding challenges by expanding tax revenues from new economic activity.

However, the conference center/hotel that is built should be the one the city needs to support and sustain future economic growth, not just the one that fits the space or needs we have today. That will require council members who can take the time and have the experience and background to fully assess the complexities of this project and how it aligns with their vision of the future of this city.

Employee Health Care Costs & The City Budget

Several years ago, the council decided to self-insure healthcare benefits for city employees. While it contracts with a private company to administer healthcare benefits, it is ultimately responsible for paying all employee claims. Costs fluctuate yearly, requiring the council to make supplemental appropriations from its reserve fund to cover deficits in employee healthcare costs. The city tries to maintain a reserve fund balance representing 17% of its budget to help pay for unexpected or emergency expenses. The transfers amounted to $350,000 in 2021, $1.2 million for 2022, $2.4 million in 2023 and $750,000 in 2024.

Efforts to trim costs in the current 2025 budget resulted in cutting tuition reimbursement for city employees and reducing benefits like dental, vision, and childcare expenses for employees who chose not to be on the city’s healthcare plan (often referred to as a “cafeteria plan”). The proposal to reduce the “cafeteria plan” was presented to council members in small group meetings on a Thursday and Friday and rushed to a vote in a full council meeting the following Monday. That prompted the filing of a “sunshine law” complaint with the state’s attorney general by one of the council members that the city had not provided adequate notice to the public and city employees of the change. It also resulted in the filing of a lawsuit from the firefighter’s union arguing that the reduction in benefits was a breach of their contract with the city.

Compounding the healthcare funding issue is the high cost of covering drugs for serious medical conditions for employees or members of their families. The city attempted to contract a third-party company to provide access to certain drugs at a reduced cost, but negotiations failed largely due to a lack of clear communication with affected employees and the media; at the same time, the news of the reductions in the health care benefits became public.

The city’s budget committee (including all city council members) has been meeting recently to examine how the existing budget could be further reduced to cover the expected deficits in healthcare costs for the 2025 fiscal year. City department heads were asked to identify potential cost savings in their department or how additional revenues could be raised. Not surprisingly, most have responded that there is no room to reduce costs in the existing budgets, particularly the police and fire departments.

On the other hand, some council members have now cautioned against making drastic cuts in departmental budgets until more is known about the cost deficits for 2025 and if the reserve fund balances could adequately cover them. After all, forced cost reductions could translate into diminished city services for residents or reductions in staffing and employee benefits. If the city truly wants to grow and attract new residents and businesses, it must be responsive to the needs of its citizens and businesses and be able to recruit and retain quality employees, including first responders like police and firefighters.

Who we elect will help Jefferson City navigate these important issues.

Two Contested Races in the April 8 Municipal Election:

Ward 3

Erica Choinka

https://www.facebook.com/erica.choinka

https://www.linkedin.com/in/erica-choinka-a18739103/

https://votechoinka.com/about/

https://www.tiktok.com/@politicsforher

Derek Thomas

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61570546329032

https://derekforjc3.org/

Ward 4