SPRINGFIELD, Mo. — Springfield Councilman Craig Hosmer believes his bill creating an administrative delay along the National/Sunshine corridor was purposely avoided.
“They were going to let it sit there. I think it was an attempt to try to kill the bill, you know, through the administrative procedural process,” Hosmer said. “Administrative delay is nothing new. We’ve done it in Rountree, we’ve done it in Phelps Grove, we’ve done Galloway, we’ve done it in Grand Avenue.”
The bill was sent to Springfield’s Plans and Policies committee at the beginning of 2023. At Monday night’s council meeting, Susan Istenes revealed the committee never met.
“It was sent to the Plans and Policies Committee by vote of city Council but plans and policies Committee never met on it,” Istenes said.
“They never met in January. They never met in February. They never met in March. They never met April. They’ve never met in May,” Hosmer replied during council.
“They haven’t met on this topic,” Istenes affirmed.
Istenes is now the former director of planning and development. She resigned the day after this meeting.
Istenes served in the role for 15 months and tells KOLR 10 that the reason behind the departure was a “…private matter between her and the city.”
Hosmer hopes a sudden resignation isn’t a deterrent for future applicants.
“You want to attract people to the city of Springfield that will use their training to give their best evidence, their best information to the city,” Hosmer said. “I think if that if that free information is sort of locked off at the management level, I think that’s unhealthy for the city because we don’t get the benefit of the expertise of the people that we hire. It gets filtered.”
KOLR 10 reached out to the City of Springfield as to why the committee never met and was told, “It was determined that the best interest of the citizens would be served for the committee membership to be re-formed after the April municipal election, so the resulting committee recommendation can include the thoughts and input of any newly elected council members appointed to the committee.”
