Columbia finance watchdog files to run for mayor

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

A longtime member of Columbia's citizen financial oversight board plans to run for mayor.

Maria Oropallo served on the city's Finance and Audit Advisory Committee for more than eight years. She says she collected 119 signatures to run for mayor with a majority of them coming from "face-to-face conversations at kitchen tables and on my front porch."

Oropallo tells ABC 17 News she wants to make sure city services match what the city needs and that the city bases decisions on good data.

"As Mayor, I would continue to stretch the reach of the Council into the communities, listening to what our residents and businesses need and want from the City, and meeting people where they are," Oropallo said. "A thriving city nurtures its families and enterprises, supports their personal and business endeavours, and makes a place where people live and exist safely and comfortably. And that starts inside City Hall."

Oropallo has been a proponent of a performance audit of the city for years. She pushed the city council in 2019 to bring on the Missouri State Auditor to look at the city's performance and identify ways to could better work.

Oropallo is the fifth person to turn in a petition to run for mayor in 2022. Former city sustainability director Barbara Buffaloe, Columbia Public Schools board member David Seamon, wellness expert Tanya Heath and businessman Randy Minchew have all submitted a petition to run for mayor. The winner will replace Mayor Brian Treece, who announced in September that he will not run for a third term.