Grocery tax, new hotel and more: Springfield mayor marks one year with exclusive interview

It has been a year since Springfield Mayor Misty Buscher was sworn into office.

The city treasurer defeated the two-time incumbent Mayor Jim Langfelder by about three percentage points on April 4, 2023.

That made Buscher the second woman to hold the city's top spot. Karen Hasara served two terms as mayor from 1995 to 2003.

More: No new taxes being considered to pay for potential Bank of Springfield Center expansion

The State Journal-Register sat down with Buscher for an interview at the Municipal Building East on April 30.

The interview was edited for clarity and length.

SJ-R: You said that from the almost the start as mayor you were governing in crisis mode? That's a reference to the derecho that hit Springfield June 30.

Buscher: The derecho was 56 days (into my administration). It did force many of the directors and me to work together.

On the day of the storm, we were in the (Municipal Center East) basement where our police squad room is. There were some computers, but none of them worked. There were no cell phones. We lost emergency communications with our staff out on the streets trying to help serve the public. Power was out across the community. Trees were down.

(Out of that) we'll have an emergency communications plan that (communications director) Haley Wilson created, which will be the plan on getting information out. I've applied for grant money to create the emergency operations center in the basement, and we have a commander at the police department who will be working as our emergency operations coordinator.

SJ-R: Your thoughts on the possibility of the expansion of the Bank of Springfield Center? That could come with a hotel attached to it.

Buscher: Once the Scheels Sports Complex is completed, we will not have enough hotel rooms, so a new hotel is needed with or without a BoS Center expansion. We have a week this summer--we're getting the National Bikers Roundup back and we have two other large conventions that week--(where) we do not have enough hotel rooms in Springfield.

Do I think BoS expansion would be good for downtown? Absolutely. When there was talk of (converting) hotel rooms into apartments at (the Wyndham City Centre), I spent some time, this was before I was mayor, going to retail business owners in the downtown area asking them, who were their customers? Every single one of them said if it wasn't for the tourists and the conventions, we wouldn't have enough business to sustain ourselves downtown.

SJ-R: Hotel space talk always brings up the situation with the Wyndham. Were you following the auction (on TenX)?

Buscher: I'm aware it didn't meet its minimum for the auction, but I think the highest bid was very close to the minimum, from what I was told. From that aspect, there is an owner of that hotel (Al Rajabi). I've always talked about the staff who work there. I feel like any time I've used the garage or been in the hotel, they are friendly and accommodating and great, and we want to keep them employed. We want to make sure we're a good neighbor.

SJ-R: There was a plan to finance the hotel, $18.75 million which never came to a vote...

Buscher: I would not call it a plan because there's zero documentation anywhere on it.

SJ-R: It did pass the Community Economic Development Commission.

Buscher: Nobody seems to give me a plan of where the $18.75 million was going to be funded from. When you looked at the numbers and the (Springfield Sangamon Growth Alliance) had told the previous administration this, the calculations weren't accurate. That $18.75 million wasn't going to be created by (TIF money and hotel/motel tax and retail tax dollars). It was short.

The funds that were promised, it was not documented that they were available, and I went through other sources, worked with the Springfield Sangamon Growth Alliance to run calculations. After my calculations, we agreed the funds weren't there.

SJ-R: Do you feel good about the conversations you had with Mr. Rajabi?

Buscher: I don't know that he loves that I said money wasn't there. I've had multiple people tell me they were promised millions of dollars. There's no magic money tree in city hall.

SJ-R: In a conversation right after you were elected, you brought up wanting to find and locate tech-sector jobs for the city. How do you feel about things going that route?

Buscher: I've only recently been able to start talking to our medical personnel about (tech sector jobs). To me, medical technology is where we need to focus because after the State of Illinois, our biggest employer is our medical community. That's where we really need to look, tech jobs in our medical community.

More: Springfield Economic Development Commission endorses the latest Wyndham deal

SJ-R: Can you describe what zone managers will be doing?

Buscher: They're the eyes and ears of Public Works. Their job is to be out in the field five days a week. They have a vehicle, and they have a tablet assigned to them. (The idea is to) get in the vehicle and drive around and meet with the neighborhood people, meet with the alderpersons, find the problems or the issues to be worked on or fixed, whether it's a pothole in the road, whether it's a tree down, a broken sidewalk, an abandoned property. It could be a myriad of issues.

SJ-R: If the State's grocery tax is repealed, what will the city do?

Buscher: I believe it will be repealed. The question is when. Our Office of Budget and Management has calculated we will lose $3.8 million in revenue that we've already built into our budget. Any of our state legislators are going to vote for fewer taxes on its citizens. There are state legislators who are aware that it's hurting municipalities.

SJ-R: How would you term your relationship, as a whole and individually, with the council?

Buscher: Politics will always come into play with the council whether we want it to or not. There are some who are going to hate me for my position because I won over their friend. I don't think that's great for the community. I've never treated any of them differently because they don't like me for that reason. I've tried to give them the respect that they deserve because we need to work together.

I read the civility pledge (which came from the Illinois Municipal League) before every city council meeting because I want to not just remind the council members but myself as well that we need to get along and work as professionals in that room and always. I was elected to be the leader of the city and my job is to work with all people. I do not let politics get in the way of what goes on at the council.

SJ-R: Two alderpersons (Ward 2 Ald. Shawn Gregory and Ward 3 Ald. Roy Williams Jr.) did not sign the pledge.

Buscher: And that's their prerogative. Absolutely. We all have our own choices to make.

Contact Steven Spearie: 217-622-1788, sspearie@sj-r.com, twitter.com/@StevenSpearie.

This article originally appeared on State Journal-Register: Springfield, Illinois Mayor Misty Buscher marks one year in office