New group asks for more transparency from City of Columbia

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

A group called Hold CoMO Accountable has been formed with the goal of holding more accountability and transparency from the City of Columbia.

According to its website, the group is comprised of Columbia community members who are "concerned that we are living in a police state" and also claims the city's Citizens Police Review Board is ineffective.

"I started to hear what I call a consistent chorus from a disparate group of people," lead organizer for the group, Anthony Willroth, said. "It made a lot of sense to organize it into a fashion that everybody can focus on what we're trying to get our governments to focus on."

In addition, the group said, "Columbia does not engage with residents authentically."

The group listed three demands in a press release:

• Treating American Rescue Plan Act proposals to the city as a public record.

• Create an independent investigative Community Police Review Board.

• No new tools for police until their funding and activities receive proper oversight

"Columbia's Mayor, city staff, and city council have cultivated a culture where any appearance of authentic engagement is just that; appearance," a section of the group's website reads. "This is exemplified by Columbia's willingness to be the only city treating American Rescue Plan Act Proposals as closed records." 

The City of Columbia's spokesperson Sydney Olsen said ARPA applications are private because "ARPA rules require proposals go through a competitive process."

"Confidentiality of the proposals is essential to ensure fairness in the process, and in most cases compliance with the federal procurement process," Olsen said.

"In my mind, first of all, the city on its best day has a credibility problem as a large taxing entity," group member Pam Cooper said. "This really undermines their credibility and it calls into mind. Why are they doing this?" 

Columbia Mayor Barbara Buffaloe responded to an email from ABC 17 News explaining how she understands the ARPA application process.

"It is my understanding that the current applications are closed because they are viewed like a competitive bid process; similar to how we do all major purchases within the City. I underlined applications because that's what they are and they probably include sensitive information of the applicants," Columbia Mayor Barbara Buffaloe said in an email. "Once the proposals have been scored and through a review process, the most impactful ones will be forwarded to City leadership for consideration of approval and funding. When money is ready to be appropriated, it will be similar to all funding that we do and will be part of the open Council meeting process."

"There's no reason to believe that it shouldn't be publicly open available records," Willroth said. "All the other cities that any of us in this group are aware of are treating it exactly that way." 

Boone County is treating ARPA applications differently than Columbia. ABC 17 News received Boone County's ARPA applications, within an hour of our request. There have been a total of 10 applications at the time of publication for the county.

"I cannot speak for what other cities have done with the applications they've received or if they even accepted applications," Buffaloe said. "I also do not know if they did the extensive information-gathering we did on where the community thinks our recovery funds should be allocated."

The city's deadline for applications was 5 p.m. Monday. The county is accepting applications until 5 p.m. Friday, March 31.

Columbia's Citizens Police Review Board recently started training new members. It had been on a several-month hiatus after several members excused themselves from the board after contentious meetings.

Hold CoMO Accountable also looks to challenge SB26, which allows people to sue local governments who cut police funding budgets by more than 12% compared to other departments, over a span of five years.