Barbara Buffaloe and Nick Foster to be sworn in at Monday night’s City Council meeting
COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)
The swearing in ceremonies for the new Columbia Mayor and new Fourth Ward City Councilman will take place Monday night at 5 p.m. at City Hall.
City council will also formally announce the results of the election to impose a local use tax.
Tomorrow night is the first time Mayor-elect Barbara Buffaloe and new Fourth Ward Councilman Nick Foster will claim their seats in council.
Barbara Buffaloe beat out the competition on April 5, against candidates Randy Minchew, David Seamon and Tanya Heath with over 8,500 votes.
"I've had a vision for our future, and I've built these relationships for the past 11 years, and before that working for our community I've been here 22 years and those relationships really took us to understand what our community wants and what it needs," Buffaloe said.
Foster will now lead Columbia's Fourth Ward following Ian Thomas who led the ward since 2013.
"I'm going to be an accessible council person to the people I represent in the first ward and other people in the city as well, but I'm going to be especially responsive to people in the fourth ward so when they have concerns they can reach out to me and I will do my best to respond," Foster said.
Due to the tie between Roy Lovelady and incumbent Karl Skala for the Third Ward council spot with 1,102 votes each, the city will hold a special election on August 2. Until then, Skala will lead the ward.
City council will also formally announce that voters in Boone County and Columbia passed the use tax on the ballot. A sales tax will be added to out-of-state vendors for online purchases.
Boone County's sales tax will be 1.75% and Columbia's is 2%, matching what residents pay when buying from local businesses in person. Columbia residents will now pay 3.75 percent total for out-of-state purchases.
Matt McCormick president and CEO of Columbia Chamber of Commerce, said the new tax will level out the playing field.
"It really helps out in the area of our especially our small retail businesses here, it really helps level the playing field level the playing field against the online shopping like a Wayfair or amazon kind of thing," McCormick said.
