Columbia City Council Pre-Council Meeting - January 20, 2026

The Columbia City Council convened a pre-council meeting to receive presentations from four of the city's five labor negotiators regarding their bargaining priorities for the upcoming contract year, followed by a detailed review of the 2025 Community Survey results and staff responses. While the majority of meetings proceed to closed session for labor negotiations, the Mayor indicated that a closed session will likely be scheduled for the February 2nd pre-council to avoid personnel rule violations during the open presentations. The meeting concluded with discussions on tabling specific reports for the February 16th meeting and inquiries regarding transportation data in the survey.

Consent Calendar

• No specific consent calendar items were debated or voted upon during this pre-council session; the agenda focused on presentations and discussion.

Public Comments & Testimony

• No public comments were solicited or recorded during this specific pre-council segment; the session was dedicated to labor group presentations and staff analysis.

Discussion Items

• Labor Group Presentations:

  • Local 955 (Scotty Johnson): Expressed a clear desire for pay grade adjustments for union-eligible positions (including transit and water distribution workers), a $19/hour minimum wage for representatives, uniform attendance policies across departments, cost-of-living adjustments to step scales and holiday pay, and revised arbitration/discipline procedures. The speaker noted that specific details are reserved for formal negotiations.
  • Local 1055 (Zach Clivet): Stated full satisfaction with recent pay plan adjustments but argued that current compensation has fallen behind inflation, with members earning less in real terms than six years ago. Expressed strong support for step adjustments tied to economic conditions, increased ad-hoc pay for specialized teams (Hazmat, water rescue), and an automatic inflation-tied adjustment for meal allowances. Speaker proposed a post-employment health insurance HSA-style savings program funded by sick leave buybacks and advocated for a net-zero approach to be surpassed by actual growth.
  • CPLA (Derek Morris): Highlighted three primary goals: addressing recruitment and retention by aligning compensation (noting sergeants often earn more than lieutenants due to overtime), removing vacation accrual limits for better leave flexibility, and securing retirement benefits including service credit purchase options and post-employment health care. Expressed support for standardized leadership training and clarified that current job descriptions are often outdated or undermined by higher command staff taking over responsibilities.
  • Columbia Police Officers Association (Don Neavers): Emphasized the critical need for retention, noting the loss of 14 officers (nearly 10% of the sworn workforce) in the last 90 days. Proposed a pay step plan rewarding tenure and CPI-based adjustments, restoration of the 20-year retirement option, and bargaining for binding arbitration of discipline decisions to ensure neutral reviews. Speaker argued that the current Citizen Police Review Board lacks sufficient rules to prevent bias and requested collaborative brainstorming to improve the investigation and appeal process.
  • Water and Waste Association: The only labor group not requesting to present; the group is not listed on the agenda for this session.

• 2025 Community Survey Results (Robert Heacot, ETC Institute):

  • Presented data showing that 80 of 89 measured metrics remained the same or improved, with only 9 decreasing slightly. Expressed strong support among the data for the city's direction, noting a 14.3% improvement in police department quality satisfaction in just one year.
  • Clarified methodology: The survey utilized a random, address-based sample (804 responses, 95% confidence, ±3.4% margin of error). Approximately 20 responses from social media ads and 20 from outside city limits were excluded. Respondents indicating "do not know" were filtered out of satisfaction benchmarks but included in the raw data report.
  • Key findings: Residents ranked "quality of police and fire services" and "increased number of police" as top priorities. Dissatisfaction remains high regarding crime prevention efforts (51% dissatisfied), though this metric improved 12% from the previous year. Public works satisfaction is mixed, with low scores for street maintenance and sidewalk conditions. Residents identified "transparency and accountability" as the top factor for trusting local government.
  • Noted that 69% of respondents believe the city does not have enough police officers and firefighters.

• Staff Presentation (Carol Rhodes and Department Heads):

  • Outlined ongoing efforts to address survey concerns, including expanded homeless warming/cooling sites, a new "Right Home" program, and increased homelessness outreach officers.
  • Reported recruitment of 39 police and 33 fire officers in 2025, with a 67% increase in traffic stops (from 3,000 to 18,000) and the implementation of license plate readers and Axon cameras. Stated plans to reinstate the downtown unit and enhance park safety.
  • Addressed street maintenance costs, noting MODOT's reduced maintenance role due to resource constraints, and clarified that sidewalk maintenance is primarily the responsibility of property owners, though a 50-50 cost-share program exists.
  • Confirmed that recommendations will directly influence the Fiscal Year 27 budget formulation, particularly regarding staffing for litter control and park maintenance.

Key Outcomes

• Agenda Adjustment: Council agreed to table the "Communications for Capital Improvement Projects" and "Mayor's Task Force Feedback (2014)" reports to the February 16th meeting to ensure time availability.
• Closed Session Planning: Council directed staff to add a closed session item regarding labor negotiations to the February 2nd agenda, with a request to potentially meet 30 minutes early (4:30 PM) to accommodate the discussion.
• Data Follow-Up: Council requested a review of the raw survey data to confirm whether the excluded 40 respondents (social media/outside city) contributed to the open text comments section.
• Transportation Inquiry: A council member requested ETC Institute be contacted to see if transportation comparisons to the Plains region (currently missing from the summary slides) can be included in future reports or the contract.
• Methodology Verification: Council requested that the final report be corrected to fix a formatting error on page 11 where "tire" was printed instead of "fire." The surveyors confirmed this was an error in the draft and will issue a revised report.