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

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

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

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

(This article was written for the June issue of COMO Magazine.) Read More

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Welcome the CoMoBUZ Opinion Section. Read More