Columbia city council members seem to have no idea how to hold City Manager De’Carlon Seewood accountable for the indefensible decline in city services continuing under his administration and their watch. Read More Opinion: There goes transit as city services decline

A Columbia Missourian article from December 18 “Raising City Council pay could foster more diversity, savvier governance,” brings up a good topic of the role of elected officials. Read More Steve Spells It Out: Paying City Council Members a Bad Idea

To fathom how the city of Columbia’s omnipresent Climate Action and Adaptation Plan (CAAP) got tangled into the lease of cropland at the Columbia Regional Airport and the lawsuit that is likely to result, you just need to consider how much climate politics are running amok at city hall. Read More Opinion: Explaining the CAAP, and climate politics run amok

It’s no wonder there is so little accountability for failures in the city of Columbia’s stewardship of municipal utilities when the city council itself is hands-on complicit in the calamity it is supposed to be governing. Read More Opinion: It’s time for an outside review of city utilities

The lack of a surprise may be the biggest surprise from last week’s general election. Read More Opinion: Election wrap - No surprise, Dems rule

National news predicted a red wave, which sure didn’t materialize. Missouri state-wide results were as predictable as can be, with Republicans further dominating the capitol in Jeff City. Read More Steve spells it out: Boone county election results - blue tide flows back

With the “pause” on construction of a new electric transmission line in southwest Columbia nearing its seventh anniversary in a few weeks, it should surprise few that the city council deferred again this week - the mayor calling for “more conversation” rather than green-lighting Water and Li… Read More Opinion: City council’s dawdle on transmission line just cowardice

I’ll plead guilty right up front here to thinking this is the election that Republican candidates can win a countywide office in Boone County. I have no inside info, no polling data, no good reason to believe this at all. In fact, most of what I’ve learned during this campaign season indicat… Read More OPINION: These candidates can end Dem dominance in Boone County

As Columbia has continued to grow, numerous traffic pinch-points have backed up over time. Read More Steve Spells It Out: I-70 and 63 improvement - finally, maybe, some

Concern should be deepening over the city’s capability of managing its municipal utilities and that the jacked-up process it just went through for setting new water rates isn’t a prelude to the electric rate increases it moves on to later this year. Read More Opinion: City council screws up water rates, on to electricity

Any flicker of hope that a new mayor might save the dysfunctional Columbia city council from itself was fully extinguished this week during budget review proceedings that turned into a dumpster fire fueled by the council’s same old bad habits - overreach, meddling and distrust of staff. And … Read More Opinion: Council meddling in water rates backfires

The failure of past and present Columbia city council members to recognize the magnitude of managing its municipal utilities may reflect the priorities they brought to office but unwittingly undermines their pursuit of equity and social justice for the city’s least fortunate. Read More Opinion: City council neglecting its responsibility on utility management

This is a story of how poor city management, bad political decisions, and the advocacy of Boone Electric customers has left Columbia’s electric system vulnerable and ratepayers facing rate increases of up to 30%. Read More OPINION: Poor management compromising electric utility

(This article was written for the June issue of COMO Magazine.) Read More Opinion: Columbia residents need to re-engage with their government

The “not in my backyard” politics obstructing construction of a new high-voltage electric transmission line across Columbia were laid bare by the city’s utility staff this week in an extraordinary rebuke of a citizen task force and its recommendation that has been three years and $1 million … Read More Opinion: City staff’s move against task force a step to getting transmission line right

This week’s city council action to eliminate the ban on roll carts for curbside trash pickup in Columbia was a crucial success for new Mayor Barbara Buffaloe and has opened a route forward for the city that avoids a divisive election in August and buys city staff time to craft a plan accepta… Read More Opinion: City got it right opening the door for trash solution

Calls to “defund the police” that swept the country with the Black Lives Matter movement are evolving and spawning new, innovative tactics for activists. Sadly, newspaper reporters and editors caught up in their ranks are forsaking the integrity and ethics of journalism for the sake of advan… Read More Opinion: Newspapers peddling what little influence they have left

I struck a nerve with some of my sensitive media friends by suggesting that coverage of the recent election campaign by our two daily newspapers in Columbia left much to be desired. Read More OPINION: Columbia newspapers swing and miss on campaign

A review of news reports from the mayoral elections of 2016 and 2019 are a stark reminder of just how badly Columbia needs a transformative mayor with an antidote for the malaise that grips city hall and the police department. Read More OPINION: Campaign for mayor revealed little, now we’ll find out

It’s noteworthy that the issue of racial equity in city government has not been a question or much of a discussion at the 13 candidate forums so far during this election campaign - yet it is continually the pervasive subtext at every city council meeting. Read More OPINION: Defund the police in Columbia?

The candidates for election to the city council on April 5 have been asked for their solutions to homelessness, trash pickup, reducing violent crime, increasing affordable housing, improving public transit and obtaining 100-percent renewable energy. Read More OPINION: New mayor needs to get city hall right

The postmortem report on the election in a couple weeks may update textbook lessons on how you get elected mayor in the city of Columbia, but it won’t change a basic tenet – you’ll have to raise a lot of money. Read More OPINION: Money shakes out the candidates in mayor's race

With a little more than a month to go in the campaign for Columbia mayor, the candidates are developing identities that distinguish themselves from each other and clarifying their differences amid much superfluous noise and little discussion of the more consequential concerns. Read More Opinion: Hot takes on the mayor's race, boiling it down

The campaign for mayor of Columbia will continue to receive most of the electorate’s attention until after the April 5 municipal elections. But the selection of a new Boone County presiding commissioner in November comes with ramifications that could reverberate for years. The county’s large… Read More OPINION: Boone Health should be major issue in campaign for presiding commissioner

Welcome the CoMoBUZ Opinion Section. Read More Welcome to the CoMoBUZ Opinion Section