Barbara Buffaloe is a dynamo. She might be short, but she’s powerful and a force of nature. Listen to her talk about how she’s working for Columbia, MO.
GoodGovernmentShow.com Thanks to our sponsors:
The Royal Cousins: How Three Cousins Could Have Stopped A World War by Jim Ludlow
- HelloNation
- Ourco
- Good News For Lefties (and America!) – Daily News for Democracy (Apple Podcasts | Spotify)
- How to Really Run a City
- Leading Iowa: Good Government in Iowa’s Cities (Apple Podcasts | Spotify)
The Good Government Show is part of The Democracy Group, a network of podcasts that examines what’s broken in our democracy and how we can work together to fix it.
Executive Producers: David Martin, David Snyder, Jim Ludlow
Host/Reporter: David Martin
Producers: David Martin, Jason Stershic
Editor: Jason Stershic
Transcription
00:00:00:01 – 00:00:03:39
David Martin
This is the good government show.
00:00:03:44 – 00:00:13:06
Barbara Buffaloe
And that’s what mayors are trying to do, is just provide benefit and abilities for our families and neighborhoods to thrive.
00:00:13:11 – 00:00:20:41
Barbara Buffaloe
We try to help people understand there’s an economic benefit to trees.
00:00:20:46 – 00:00:28:09
Barbara Buffaloe
No crime stats are acceptable. Crime stats for a mayor.
00:00:28:13 – 00:00:41:52
Barbara Buffaloe
Good government is government that is responsive to you and is a good steward of the resources that they’ve been entrusted, but they’re not that financial, natural, or what?
00:00:41:57 – 00:00:55:03
Barbara Buffaloe
I’m doing good in this job now, but even better would be to get more people mad at me, make less money, and have less power. So I’m going to run for mayor.
00:00:55:08 – 00:01:02:42
Barbara Buffaloe
There is nobody sitting in a back room twiddling their thumbs, going, how can I mess with your life today?
00:01:02:47 – 00:01:17:34
David Martin
If you had a chance to meet Barbara Buffalo, be prepared. She’s a dynamo, a force of nature. We need more mayors like her. Check out her photo on our website and the last time I saw her, she had a shock of purple hair. You’re going to hear a lot from her. And she’s awesome. Welcome to the Good Government show.
00:01:17:35 – 00:01:35:43
David Martin
I’m Dave Martin. First, to help us share the message of good government by liking us and sharing us where we are on social media. Make sure our viewers and send our show everywhere. We all need to talk about good government. I really liked meeting Columbia, Missouri Mayor Barbara Buffalo. She’s smart, exciting, enthusiastic, and shares the best committee at the Conference of Mayors.
00:01:35:45 – 00:01:55:41
David Martin
How do I know? Well, she told me you’ll hear after 11 years as her city sustainability manager. She became mayor. Last year, she was elected to her second term. We talked a lot about the environment and what cities are doing, especially as I live with cuts from the federal government. And here’s what I really liked. We started the conversation talking about mayors sharing great ideas.
00:01:55:46 – 00:02:17:18
David Martin
Actually, Mayor Buffalo said she’s stealing great ideas from other mayors and taking that back to Columbia. That’s good government. And again, we talked about trees. One of my new favorite topics. And listen to what she says about arts funding. So coming up, Columbia mayor Barbara Buffalo, be prepared to be impressed.
00:02:17:22 – 00:02:43:56
David Martin
We have a new partner during the good government show, hello, nation. This is a new digital magazine that showcases the best of cities across the nation. We’d all prefer if good news traveled faster. And hello, nation. Positive stories don’t just get told, they get amplified. Hello nation helps businesses, leaders, and communities share positive stories that matter building trust, credibility and meaningful connection through professionally produced podcast, digital features and targeted distribution.
00:02:44:10 – 00:03:08:31
David Martin
Hello nation positions you as the answer regular folks are looking for, while expanding and scaling your digital footprint across the platforms that people trust. Good news deserves momentum. Your city or your business can help spread the word of good news across the nation and hello nation! They don’t just have advertisers, they have advertisers. Editorial content from trusted community leaders and cities that are helping spread the good news.
00:03:08:36 – 00:03:30:05
David Martin
Let Hello Nation lift you up and lead the conversation. Visit Hello nation.com to learn more. Once you wrap up this episode of The Good Government Show, give a listen to our friends over at Good News for lefties. This daily podcast highlights news stories that show there’s more good news out there. Other people in government are really trying to do the right thing.
00:03:30:19 – 00:03:42:20
David Martin
That’s good news for lefties. Listen, we’re listening now. I’m happy to finally have with me Barbara Buffalo, the mayor of Columbia, Missouri. Thanks for taking the time. Thanks for coming on the Good Government Show.
00:03:42:24 – 00:03:43:11
Barbara Buffaloe
Thanks for having me.
00:03:43:18 – 00:03:55:50
David Martin
Well, thank you and, we met at, one of your sessions earlier in the conference where you’re at the Conference of Mayors, the Climate resiliency and Community Engagement. And you are the chair of the environmental Standing Committee?
00:03:56:04 – 00:03:56:49
Barbara Buffaloe
Yes, I am.
00:03:56:51 – 00:03:58:55
David Martin
Which I understand is the best committee of all the conference.
00:03:58:58 – 00:04:04:26
Barbara Buffaloe
And as I say that so, yes, you know, you have to put out your intentions to make it happen. So yeah, it is the best committee.
00:04:04:27 – 00:04:13:05
David Martin
So let’s just talk a little bit, start off talking a little bit about the environment. You’re the chair of the Conference of Mayors environmental committee. Do we have a reason to be hopeful across America?
00:04:13:09 – 00:04:34:45
Barbara Buffaloe
Well, yeah, because we’re seeing good things happening in cities, right. So we I’ve actually moderated three different discussions here at the conference where environment has been the theme, and we got to share some of those projects that are being done that help things with like affordable housing or, tree canopy. And there are climate. They benefit the climate, but also they benefit families.
00:04:34:45 – 00:04:40:10
Barbara Buffaloe
And that’s what mayors are trying to do is just provide benefit and ability for our families and neighborhoods to thrive.
00:04:40:14 – 00:04:46:42
David Martin
Now, before we turn the microphones on, you sat down and I said, how’s the conference going? You said, great, I’m stealing lots of ideas. Yeah. So what ideas have you stolen?
00:04:46:46 – 00:04:47:24
Barbara Buffaloe
Oh, thank.
00:04:47:24 – 00:04:48:33
David Martin
You, environmental members.
00:04:48:34 – 00:05:06:43
Barbara Buffaloe
Well, so one of my, one of the ideas I want to steal is something that the city of Cleveland and the city of Providence, and probably other cities do as well, is actually neighborhood safety walks, which you might not think. Oh, that’s not environment related or that’s not climate related. But what they’re doing is they’re identifying neighborhoods where they might have like a lot more calls for service.
00:05:06:48 – 00:05:31:53
Barbara Buffaloe
They might also, overlap the data that says, oh, there’s not as much tree canopy in this neighborhood, or there’s more dilapidated homes or nuisance properties. And they do these neighborhood walks with their city staffers and police and public works and others, and they identify infrastructure projects or things they can do to improve the neighborhood. And then that results in then lower crime, lower heating and cooling bills, and basically just provides a better environment for those families.
00:05:32:05 – 00:05:37:33
Barbara Buffaloe
And so I want to steal that idea because, you know, it’s something proactive that we can do rather than just reactive.
00:05:37:38 – 00:05:38:57
David Martin
So that’s one idea you’re stealing.
00:05:38:59 – 00:05:39:30
Barbara Buffaloe
Yeah. Yeah.
00:05:39:40 – 00:05:40:42
David Martin
Okay. What else?
00:05:40:47 – 00:06:05:14
Barbara Buffaloe
Okay, so the city of Lincoln, I, we just had a session that was talking about financing for projects. The City of Lincoln uses Tisch financing for the tax, incremental financing for rental rehabilitation. So it offers to property owners like $15,000 per unit in financing if they make their units more energy efficient or make improvements to it that help make sure that it continues to be affordable.
00:06:05:25 – 00:06:22:10
Barbara Buffaloe
And they have to. Obviously, the property owners have to keep the rent at an affordable rate. But by having that flexible funding, they’re helping provide those incentives that then help families stay in the homes of their in, or at least come into the neighborhood. So I want to steal that idea as well, because in Columbia, shift is like a bad word.
00:06:22:23 – 00:06:37:42
Barbara Buffaloe
You know, it was a thing that people were like, oh, you’re just trying to help benefit, you know, already rich people to to pay less in taxes. And it’s like, well, no, it can help spur development and also benefit families by having more affordable housing. So that’s another idea I want to take.
00:06:37:54 – 00:06:42:43
David Martin
Okay. Are you optimistic about environmental initiatives across the nation?
00:06:42:47 – 00:06:59:43
Barbara Buffaloe
I am, because we’re still doing the work. So before I was the mayor, I was actually our city sustainability manager for 11 years. And so, you know, in that time I went through, I served under different administrations at the federal level. And the work continues. We just might use different language.
00:06:59:45 – 00:07:14:34
David Martin
Okay. We have seen a lot of federal, dollars being slashed across the nation for environmental programs. Tell me how the cities are able to overcome that and still move forward on, you know, the important environmental initiatives that are necessary.
00:07:14:39 – 00:07:37:34
Barbara Buffaloe
Well, part of that, I mean, obviously, those those funding cuts are detrimental to more than just environmental, our climate projects, they’re detrimental to some of our housing issues, public safety issues. If we have, like the Office of Justice not doing some of that in the violence prevention programs. So, you know, it’s not just hitting environmental, but how cities are figuring out how to pivot are they’re finding opportunities like the session that I was just in.
00:07:37:49 – 00:07:56:26
Barbara Buffaloe
We talked about how can you pass either local sales tax initiatives that are for infrastructure projects that might be climate adjacent, as well as other benefits? One of the other projects so that we heard about was as the investments going to our communities is like, how do we then tell this story for how the impact is and then we can potentially pull in other investments?
00:07:56:26 – 00:08:03:13
Barbara Buffaloe
So yes, I’m worried about funding cuts, but then at the same time, there’s still projects that we need to do. We just might call them something different.
00:08:03:14 – 00:08:08:30
David Martin
So what did other, members of your climate, alliance, steal from you?
00:08:08:34 – 00:08:29:04
Barbara Buffaloe
Oh, gosh, I don’t know. I don’t know if anyone. I’m just kidding. I have heard. So one of the programs that we do is something called the Community Connectors program. And these are part time city staffers that go out into neighborhoods, do door knocking to let people know about programs that we have. And one of the most recent ones was one that we did with our Arpa funds, which is over, basically like home weatherization.
00:08:29:15 – 00:08:49:39
Barbara Buffaloe
And they knocked on homeowners doors in some of our underresourced, underutilized neighborhoods, to let them know about how we have these programs to add insulation, do weatherization and do other things to basically make it more affordable to live in their home. And so I know that I’ve heard people be like, okay, I want to do that because the thing is, is most most of our families, they’re not reading the city newsletter.
00:08:49:46 – 00:09:07:35
Barbara Buffaloe
They’re not going to the city website to see what programs are available to me. So we need to go to them. And so by doing this kind of like innovative and by innovative, I mean not innovative, knocking on doors to let people know about programs. We’re actually getting, more at more, uptake in people actually signing up for the programs.
00:09:07:40 – 00:09:12:05
David Martin
Is there a chance that somebody in Columbia, Missouri, would answer the door and find the mayor standing in front of them?
00:09:12:06 – 00:09:17:32
Barbara Buffaloe
Potentially, yes. Yeah. I mean, I did just get done with a reelection campaign, so I knocked on a lot of doors.
00:09:17:37 – 00:09:19:12
David Martin
You reelected in second term?
00:09:19:12 – 00:09:21:14
Barbara Buffaloe
Yes. Yeah, just reelected in April. All right.
00:09:21:14 – 00:09:21:43
David Martin
How’s it going?
00:09:21:47 – 00:09:34:10
Barbara Buffaloe
It’s going well. It’s going, but I, I laugh. You know, when I was elected the first time, I had at least a couple of weeks to kind of settle in. This one, I had to go to a ribbon cutting at 730 the next morning, so it never ends.
00:09:34:15 – 00:09:37:42
David Martin
So the excitement and high of where they go, I was.
00:09:37:43 – 00:09:39:37
Barbara Buffaloe
I was a little bit tired at that ribbon cutting.
00:09:39:40 – 00:09:42:10
David Martin
At 630 in the morning. We got to get up.
00:09:42:14 – 00:09:46:24
Barbara Buffaloe
Was. Yeah right. It was a radio show first and then a ribbon cutting, but whatever. It was fine.
00:09:46:29 – 00:09:54:11
David Martin
Now, I understand that one of the things that you have done in your city is you have invested in solar, in city and city buildings. How did that project can be done? It.
00:09:54:20 – 00:10:11:14
Barbara Buffaloe
It’s going well. We’re continuing to focus on it. It’s something that, you know, we for instance, we just did, signing on with an agreement with somebody to do some energy savings in city facilities. So that’s what we did first before investing in solar. We wanted to make sure they were efficient first, and that just helps us save money over time.
00:10:11:28 – 00:10:25:41
Barbara Buffaloe
And then yeah, we’ve been putting finite resources in the shoulder on our, like, for instance, our armory building. You know, it’s the old gym, focusing on that because it’s a community center. And so we also showing like walking the talk for we’re trying to encourage others to do this and then doing it ourselves.
00:10:25:55 – 00:10:28:19
David Martin
Well, the city has to be a leader if you want to get other people to do it.
00:10:28:21 – 00:10:29:53
Barbara Buffaloe
Exactly, exactly.
00:10:29:58 – 00:10:34:19
David Martin
And I saw I also you had a push for more, electric charge stations.
00:10:34:24 – 00:10:41:08
Barbara Buffaloe
Yeah. We were beneficial to get, federal grant, last year. That helps the charging infrastructure grant. So we have electric charging.
00:10:41:08 – 00:10:42:10
David Martin
Stations, and before we.
00:10:42:10 – 00:10:58:12
Barbara Buffaloe
Did, we got it in before. And so we’re going to have charging stations at our airport, at near City Hall, one of our garages down there, as well as, like, the public library and the one by the public library is great because it’s opportunities for the neighbors around there that might not have access to charging, to have access to charging.
00:10:58:13 – 00:10:58:53
David Martin
What do you drive?
00:10:58:55 – 00:11:04:35
Barbara Buffaloe
I drive an electric car. You do? I do, yeah, I drive a Hyundai Ioniq five. Yeah, I love it.
00:11:04:42 – 00:11:08:05
David Martin
And so when you go to work, are you able to charge it up with you at, city hall?
00:11:08:12 – 00:11:11:49
Barbara Buffaloe
I don’t need to. It’s not there. And I can ride my bike to work.
00:11:11:53 – 00:11:12:40
David Martin
You off and ride your bike.
00:11:12:51 – 00:11:13:57
Barbara Buffaloe
It’s only like a couple miles.
00:11:14:05 – 00:11:15:17
David Martin
Oh, okay. Help you ride your bike.
00:11:15:26 – 00:11:16:27
Barbara Buffaloe
I try to ride it every day.
00:11:16:38 – 00:11:17:34
David Martin
Do you really? Yeah.
00:11:17:39 – 00:11:19:25
Barbara Buffaloe
It’s fun. It’s fun? Sure.
00:11:19:30 – 00:11:21:33
David Martin
Yeah. Then you get out there, you know.
00:11:21:38 – 00:11:25:37
Barbara Buffaloe
Well, I do like fresh air, and it’s just kind of nice to be out and, like, you know, I always find that.
00:11:25:50 – 00:11:28:08
David Martin
Oh, my God, there. Go somewhere or bike sometimes.
00:11:28:09 – 00:11:32:14
Barbara Buffaloe
Or sometimes, I don’t know, maybe they don’t recognize me. Oh. I’m kind of short, but.
00:11:32:14 – 00:11:33:30
David Martin
Well, yeah. Could still get.
00:11:33:30 – 00:11:34:10
Barbara Buffaloe
Up.
00:11:34:15 – 00:11:35:09
David Martin
Short. Powerful.
00:11:35:11 – 00:11:36:11
Barbara Buffaloe
Right, right.
00:11:36:15 – 00:11:40:16
David Martin
How often have you been able to ride on all the bike lanes in your city?
00:11:40:20 – 00:11:48:46
Barbara Buffaloe
Oh, good question. Have I hit all of them? I don’t know that I have, David. I’ll have to. I’ll have to make a map and see where I’ve gone. And maybe do a Strava map on this.
00:11:48:51 – 00:11:50:13
David Martin
Do you have a lot of bike lanes in your city?
00:11:50:19 – 00:12:13:00
Barbara Buffaloe
We do. We do? Oh, yeah. Yeah, we have a pretty good bike lane. Pretty good trail system set up. Obviously we’re always looking to expand it, improve our, non-motorized transportation infrastructure. Thankfully, we did recently get some additional funds. Well, let’s hope we still have the Department of Transportation funds. Because some of them are for improving our Complete Streets update, which we’re looking at them to be more livable streets, not just complete streets.
00:12:13:05 – 00:12:32:44
David Martin
Now I have, like I said, we’re here at the Conference of Bears to sort of the first sections I went to was yours. And I have learned and talked more about trees in the last two days than I’ve ever done in my entire life. And you are the leader of this of this discussion. What have you been able to accomplish in planting trees and what difference has it made in your city?
00:12:32:49 – 00:12:50:55
Barbara Buffaloe
You know, it makes it makes a tremendous difference. I think because it what it is, is it’s something that people can tangibly see. Right. And one of the projects that we worked on was about trees work. And so we actually hung, price tags on trees at some of our public parks. It was very visible for people to see the actual financial benefit of trees.
00:12:50:58 – 00:13:09:48
Barbara Buffaloe
Okay. Things like cleaning the air, reducing hospital costs for asthma, stormwater improvements. And so we try to help people understand there’s an economic benefit to trees. Now, I will tell you, we still have instances where trees are in the wrong place. And, man, nothing makes a neighbor more mad than when you have to cut down a tree.
00:13:09:55 – 00:13:20:01
Barbara Buffaloe
That’s maybe in the wrong place, but it just so happens to be their favorite tree or in front of their house. But we try to do that in a tree to tree program where, you know, we’ll then give them a tree to plant elsewhere and not under the power line.
00:13:20:11 – 00:13:22:26
David Martin
Oh, that’s generally to say it’s a power line.
00:13:22:34 – 00:13:23:47
Barbara Buffaloe
Yeah, yeah. It’s not a good place.
00:13:23:53 – 00:13:32:23
David Martin
All right. Something else I saw that you started was the Office of Violence Prevention. You have a crime issue apparently, in your city. And you started this program. Tell me about it.
00:13:32:27 – 00:13:49:27
Barbara Buffaloe
Yeah, well, so, no, no crime stats are acceptable. Crime stats for a mayor, right. So, you know, very similar to to other communities. You know, if we have a homicide or any instance, the mayor’s going to be worried about that. So a couple of years ago, I asked for the creation of an Office of Violence Prevention to work on the preventative ones.
00:13:49:34 – 00:14:08:02
Barbara Buffaloe
You know, our police officers, you know, they are over tasked with having to do lots of different roles within their position. And, you know, while we fund them and we’re increasing their pay and giving them additional resources, anything I can do to reduce those calls for service, I’m going to do so. We hired our first administrator, earlier this spring.
00:14:08:07 – 00:14:23:22
Barbara Buffaloe
DeMarcus Thomas Brown and DeMarcus is working on building the community engagement, getting into the neighborhoods and also resourcing some of these programs so that kids and others have a different path. They have a different choice, you know, as they’re making decisions in their life. And we’re trying to invest in that.
00:14:23:27 – 00:14:24:36
David Martin
This sounds like good government.
00:14:24:43 – 00:14:45:36
Barbara Buffaloe
It is good government. I will say, I also tell you that I stole that idea from the U.S. Conference of Mayors, hearing about the Office of Violence Prevention in other cities like Baltimore, Maryland, and the decrease in numbers that they’ve had in violent crimes and, aggravated assaults as a result of these preventative projects is something that I wanted to do in Columbia.
00:14:45:44 – 00:14:50:01
David Martin
You have also spent some of the city money, on the arts. Why is this money well spent?
00:14:50:11 – 00:15:04:33
Barbara Buffaloe
Well, so for us, it’s about the vibrancy of our community, right? I mean, we do the basics. We we we plow the roads, you know, we fill potholes. We respond to calls to 911. And at the same time, we want to be a place where people want to live and they want to work and they want to play.
00:15:04:38 – 00:15:21:56
Barbara Buffaloe
And so we have like a person for Arts program where, you know, a certain percentage of every capital project has an arts focus to it as well. We also fund festivals and events happening in Columbia, because we know it’s what creates the vibrancy of making Columbia the reason why it’s one of the fastest growing cities in Missouri.
00:15:22:03 – 00:15:30:50
David Martin
One of the fastest growing cities in Missouri. Yeah. Arts budgets are usually oftentimes rather one of the first things you cut. Is it hard to maintain, an arts budget?
00:15:31:01 – 00:15:51:09
Barbara Buffaloe
It’s not that much of the budget. I think that’s the thing is, like, you know, we talk about the storytelling. If you look at our pie chart of our city’s general fund budget, you know, 60% of it is public safety. You know, an additional 30% is in like, public works and public health and arts is like a .05 percent of the budget.
00:15:51:09 – 00:16:01:10
Barbara Buffaloe
So it’s not a huge budget. And we really talk about then the economic impact of arts and tourism on our community and the return on investment that we get from those.
00:16:01:19 – 00:16:03:00
David Martin
But why does it get cut so often?
00:16:03:05 – 00:16:18:57
Barbara Buffaloe
Well, it’s kind of like travel and training. It’s something that people can, you know, when you’re using just talking points and rhetoric, you point to things like that. And it just I think when people use that sort of rhetoric, it’s because they’re not understanding the whole impact of what does return on investment really mean.
00:16:19:01 – 00:16:21:38
David Martin
Okay. And so keep the funding for the arts.
00:16:21:40 – 00:16:22:14
Barbara Buffaloe
Exactly.
00:16:22:14 – 00:16:34:24
David Martin
Yes. Well, I can get behind that. Again. I read a little something about you and I want to read this back to you. Make sure it’s accurate. You said public service belongs to all of us. Is that is that a fair quote?
00:16:34:27 – 00:16:35:26
Barbara Buffaloe
Yeah, yeah.
00:16:35:30 – 00:16:38:57
David Martin
Explain that. We are the voice of public service. We like to hear people talking about that.
00:16:39:07 – 00:16:53:00
Barbara Buffaloe
Yeah. Yeah. Well, I would say it’s like it’s kind of like this. All right. So not only do you have public service in your elected officials and in your city staff, but you have it in the volunteers that are on boards and commissions. You have it and the people that come to city council meetings to engage. And you have it.
00:16:53:01 – 00:17:10:02
Barbara Buffaloe
And the residents that that vote with their sales tax dollars or where they decide to reside. And so public service really is we’re serving our community. And so they’re telling us what they want, right, by how they vote. By where they shop and by what they do. And so really, for me, it’s just providing that that makes sense.
00:17:10:07 – 00:17:19:50
David Martin
Sounds good here on the voice of Public service. We can get behind that. All right. Now, that was the easy part. Coming up, we’re going to get your true thoughts on government. Are you are you ready?
00:17:19:57 – 00:17:20:28
Barbara Buffaloe
Okay.
00:17:20:31 – 00:17:43:58
David Martin
All right. The Good Government show is sponsored by our. That’s. Oh you are for our community. Get involved. We hear that all the time from government leaders. Our co-branded with your governments name and logo. Your staff and the people you serve are connected and part of your community. From any device your members provide reliable data and meaningful feedback.
00:17:44:03 – 00:18:18:01
David Martin
Ask a question like, do we want more parkland or better homeless services? More engaged conversations come through the our app. Visit our co that’s ou rco.com and book a demonstration. After you get done with this episode, hear more good government stories with our friends at How to Really Run a City for mayors. Kasim Reed of Atlanta and Michael Nutter, a Philadelphia, and their co-host, journalist and author Larry Platt talk with guests and other mayors about how to really get stuff done in cities around the nation.
00:18:18:06 – 00:18:29:12
David Martin
Check them out where you’re listening now or through their nonprofit news site, The Philadelphia Citizen. Dot org slash podcasts.
00:18:29:16 – 00:18:35:16
David Martin
So we have a few questions we like to ask everybody. And we’re going to get to the heart of your thoughts on government. Define good government.
00:18:35:30 – 00:18:45:08
Barbara Buffaloe
Good government is government that is responsive to you and is a good steward of the resources that they’ve been entrusted, whether or not that’s financial, natural or what.
00:18:45:15 – 00:18:47:30
David Martin
And what does good government look like in Columbia, Missouri?
00:18:47:44 – 00:19:05:29
Barbara Buffaloe
Well, for us it’s about being responsive and transparent. And regardless of what social media might say, you know, trying to put as much information out there via our council meetings, via the, engagement that council members do and city staff do, and on our website, trying to be as transparent as we can. We are a Full-Service city. So sometimes they can get lost.
00:19:05:41 – 00:19:08:43
David Martin
If people feel frustrated, if they don’t like what they see, what should they do?
00:19:08:48 – 00:19:10:02
Barbara Buffaloe
They should come to a council meeting.
00:19:10:04 – 00:19:11:52
David Martin
Yeah, but that’s boring. It’s a night and I can’t do it.
00:19:12:06 – 00:19:13:38
Barbara Buffaloe
They should email their council members to.
00:19:13:39 – 00:19:14:37
David Martin
They so they respond.
00:19:14:48 – 00:19:15:08
Barbara Buffaloe
Yeah.
00:19:15:20 – 00:19:15:40
David Martin
Okay.
00:19:15:44 – 00:19:17:12
Barbara Buffaloe
Yeah. And Columbia do we do we do.
00:19:17:15 – 00:19:18:15
David Martin
Yeah. Every time.
00:19:18:20 – 00:19:21:10
Barbara Buffaloe
Well depends.
00:19:21:14 – 00:19:36:23
Barbara Buffaloe
It depends on if it’s a real. So here’s the thing I always think about too. You think about like Facebook comments, right. Like does somebody really want you to respond and are they in a listening hearing kind of respond or are they just looking to react. Right. And so that’s that kind of question. And how do you how do you balance that.
00:19:36:26 – 00:19:37:53
David Martin
And how do you balance that?
00:19:37:58 – 00:19:47:55
Barbara Buffaloe
For me, I, you know, I’ll usually respond the first time, okay. And then if it’s kind of all right, you’re not actually here to talk about this. So I encourage them to like get together face to face. And I think that always makes a difference.
00:19:48:06 – 00:19:51:09
David Martin
What drew you to public service. What made you get involved in all this?
00:19:51:14 – 00:20:11:43
Barbara Buffaloe
What’s a good question? Well, so part of it was my dad was a public defender when I was growing up, and I saw the I saw the importance of, you know, showing up for community members and the, the, the impact that our community, you know, the government has. And then, you know, when I was you know, I used to I was on a commission, actually, I volunteered on a commission for the city.
00:20:11:48 – 00:20:23:53
Barbara Buffaloe
And then I realized, oh, you know, like, I can do good in this volunteer role, but I could actually do even more good if I worked for the city. And so I started working for the city, and worked there for 11 years. And then I decided I.
00:20:23:53 – 00:20:25:17
David Martin
Was, director of resiliency.
00:20:25:19 – 00:20:39:37
Barbara Buffaloe
I was sustainability manager for 11 years. And then I decided that, you know what, I’m doing good in this job now, but even better would be to get more people mad at me, make less money, and have less power. So I’m going to run for mayor.
00:20:39:42 – 00:20:42:17
David Martin
As it worked out. Do you have less money? Are working about it?
00:20:42:17 – 00:20:53:19
Barbara Buffaloe
You all the things get all of that. But I at least I do feel I’m making a difference in my community and I love Columbia and I want to continue to serve it. And so I think I can serve it well in this capacity.
00:20:53:31 – 00:20:55:06
David Martin
Who inspires you? Who’s your role model?
00:20:55:12 – 00:21:15:42
Barbara Buffaloe
Oh gosh, I see so many role models. I think back to when I first worked for the city, we had this Public Health and Human Services director that was just so tuned in to the needs of a community and would try to allocate her staff to to invest in them, to invest in the community, to create programs that serve the needs, especially of our most vulnerable populations.
00:21:15:47 – 00:21:21:58
Barbara Buffaloe
And it was just inspiring because she did it in a very thoughtful way. And so Stephanie Browning, was my first mentor when stepping into this.
00:21:22:01 – 00:21:22:59
David Martin
You have a political hero.
00:21:23:04 – 00:21:36:35
Barbara Buffaloe
A political hero, yes. Oh, I mean, I really loved Obama. I got to tell you, I think was just because, like, his ability to personalize some of the conversations that we’re having just really stuck out to me.
00:21:36:37 – 00:21:41:28
David Martin
Were you president of your high school class, did you always see yourself going, oh, no, running for office?
00:21:41:28 – 00:22:00:13
Barbara Buffaloe
I wanted to be an architect. I went to school to try to be an architect. Yeah. So when I was about eight years old, we visited Hearst Castle in California, and there was a statue of Saint Barbara and Barbara as the patron saint of architects. Yes. And it was there at Hearst Castle, because it was designed by a woman architect.
00:22:00:17 – 00:22:16:30
Barbara Buffaloe
And I remember thinking, why, I love playing with Lego, like, I, I, I guess I was going to be an architect. So the impact of the built environment on on community, like how it connects us or divides us has always been fascinating to me and how we get around town. So that’s I wanted to be an architect.
00:22:16:38 – 00:22:17:28
David Martin
And what happened?
00:22:17:31 – 00:22:38:36
Barbara Buffaloe
Well, I realized I was an okay designer, but I was actually a better influencer. Okay, this is before influencer was a word, all right? Because I realized I could I was working with my clients and working with my, my firm to try to get them to do more sustainable design. Because, again, the impact the built environment has on communities besides just, you know, connecting them, but also greenhouse gas emissions and impact on the planet.
00:22:38:37 – 00:22:39:53
David Martin
Did you get a degree in architecture?
00:22:40:00 – 00:22:51:45
Barbara Buffaloe
I environmental design, okay. It was just a pre architecture program. And then my graduate was in the same program. My master’s in environmental behavior. And I was focusing on what are the social reasons that people want to choose sustainability or not.
00:22:51:45 – 00:22:55:42
David Martin
So you’re pretty close to, to your, to your goal. Yeah. But you were not president of your high school.
00:22:55:44 – 00:22:56:12
Barbara Buffaloe
Oh Lord.
00:22:56:14 – 00:23:05:38
David Martin
No no, no. Okay. You’re on your second term as mayor. You were serving the city for 11 years before that. That makes you a government insider. What would you like people to know about government.
00:23:05:45 – 00:23:24:57
Barbara Buffaloe
Is that there is nobody sitting in a back room twiddling their thumbs, going, how can I mess with your life today? I honestly believe that we have some people on social media that think that the bureaucrats are sitting in the back room being like, how can I mess with people today? In reality, it’s just hard working public servants that want to make their community better and provide the services that they need.
00:23:25:05 – 00:23:26:35
David Martin
What’s the best part of your job?
00:23:26:40 – 00:23:33:32
Barbara Buffaloe
I love when people give me hugs, you know? I do love when I get to get out into the community.
00:23:33:32 – 00:23:34:09
David Martin
The mayor give her.
00:23:34:09 – 00:23:41:07
Barbara Buffaloe
A hug, right? Exactly. I love when I get to get out into the community and, like, just meet people and find out what’s going on and what’s going well, what they love about Colombia.
00:23:41:16 – 00:23:42:42
David Martin
Okay. What keeps you up at night?
00:23:42:47 – 00:23:45:48
Barbara Buffaloe
The fact. So we are a council manager form of government.
00:23:45:53 – 00:23:46:24
David Martin
Okay.
00:23:46:29 – 00:24:00:08
Barbara Buffaloe
So I have no staff, and the city manager does the day to day. It’s a volunteer. It’s supposed to. The mayor is supposed to be a volunteer. Paid. You know, I get up, I get a stipend, but supposed to be kind of part time. And so what keeps me up is that how do I help communicate?
00:24:00:08 – 00:24:09:18
Barbara Buffaloe
Like what power I do have, and how do I help try to influence the system so that we can improve lives. But I can’t technically direct any staff.
00:24:09:23 – 00:24:10:46
David Martin
So you have no power, right?
00:24:10:50 – 00:24:14:53
Barbara Buffaloe
And less influence so that, you know that’s power that’s higher in itself.
00:24:14:57 – 00:24:24:25
David Martin
Okay. So I have never been to Columbia, Missouri. I have been to Kansas City for awesome barbecue. Yes. How does the barbecue compare in your town, or what is the dish of Columbia?
00:24:24:27 – 00:24:26:29
Barbara Buffaloe
Oh, gosh. What’s the dish of Columbia?
00:24:26:29 – 00:24:30:48
David Martin
Yes. If coming to your town, where are you going? To take me and to show off the best of Columbia.
00:24:30:55 – 00:24:47:01
Barbara Buffaloe
Well, you know what? I’m going to take you to one of our comal cooks pop up. So we have a bunch of international families that have started pop up restaurants. Okay. And our business loop. And so, like some of my favorite, like, Somalia food is so delicious. Oh, gosh. Yeah. Now I’m getting you like an international sampler.
00:24:47:06 – 00:24:48:34
David Martin
Yeah. International samples. Yeah.
00:24:48:34 – 00:24:57:52
Barbara Buffaloe
Well, because, you know, we’re a vibrant community where our university community. So there’s a lot of diversity and different, nationalities represented in our university town. And so there’s usually some good food.
00:24:57:57 – 00:24:59:27
David Martin
So I’ll leave the barbecue to Kansas City.
00:24:59:27 – 00:25:06:26
Barbara Buffaloe
Yeah. Oh, yeah. Over there. I mean, we have some good stuff. There’s some good stuff in Columbia. Don’t get me wrong, on barbecue, but I’ve got some other options for you.
00:25:06:37 – 00:25:07:20
David Martin
What do you do for fun?
00:25:07:31 – 00:25:27:43
Barbara Buffaloe
Oh, gosh. Hang out. I’ve got a husband and two kids. We like to go camping, hiking, riding their bikes. I love, I wish I could go to music more, but, like, I just don’t have as much time to go to concerts. But yeah, and also, I do love to travel and see other communities, like, see how they get around town, what’s their public transit, what’s their trash and recycling system.
00:25:27:43 – 00:25:29:22
Barbara Buffaloe
I like all that nerdy stuff.
00:25:29:25 – 00:25:32:09
David Martin
Okay, Eddie, Eddie, you ride your bike almost every day.
00:25:32:13 – 00:25:33:03
Barbara Buffaloe
I try to, yeah.
00:25:33:07 – 00:25:34:26
David Martin
Unless it’s really raining or something.
00:25:34:39 – 00:25:37:29
Barbara Buffaloe
Really, really, really hot. Like come August in Columbia. Yes.
00:25:37:31 – 00:25:45:47
David Martin
All right. This is a good government show, and. Well, I always like to bring it back to good government. Give me an example of a good government project that you’ve been able to get off the ground or are working on.
00:25:45:58 – 00:26:10:40
Barbara Buffaloe
Yeah. So, you know, I mentioned the Community Connectors program. And so one of the other things that we’re trying to do is because we realize people are busy and we’re trying to like, get out the word of what’s going on. We started these things called Let’s Talk Locals, where we have our council members going out into the wards and hosting a basically a town hall, town hall on these these day and age, you know, you’re seeing less and less of our Congress representatives actually showing up to them.
00:26:10:45 – 00:26:18:56
Barbara Buffaloe
And we’re trying to do good governance, at least at the local level, and going out into the community and hosting these so that you can talk to your local elected official about what’s working and what’s not.
00:26:19:01 – 00:26:20:26
David Martin
And how many trees you’re planting this year.
00:26:20:35 – 00:26:25:21
Barbara Buffaloe
Oh, I’m, I don’t know. I was actually just I wrote that down in my session. I got to see what our counties.
00:26:25:21 – 00:26:26:08
David Martin
What do you think it is?
00:26:26:22 – 00:26:40:25
Barbara Buffaloe
We just planted about 100 at one of our sites. Okay. With an Arbor Day Foundation partnership. But I, I loved it, you know, Boise had that goal or something like, what, a million or something? And I’m like, oh my gosh. Okay, let’s try for this.
00:26:40:31 – 00:26:41:43
David Martin
All right. So you’re going to you’re.
00:26:41:43 – 00:26:42:20
Barbara Buffaloe
Going to try for.
00:26:42:20 – 00:26:44:17
David Martin
It. You’re going to steal from Boise. Well play more.
00:26:44:17 – 00:26:56:18
Barbara Buffaloe
Trees. Well. So their whole thing was replacing for their whole population. Right. And I forgot what their population is. But for me, you know, I think about what if I could do at least for and my populations close to 130,000. So maybe that would be my goal, David. All right.
00:26:56:24 – 00:26:56:43
David Martin
There you go.
00:26:56:45 – 00:26:57:46
Barbara Buffaloe
There you go. You help me set it.
00:26:57:48 – 00:27:08:07
David Martin
You figured it out. Good. You you sold for the good government show. There we go. Barbara Buffalo, the mayor of Columbia, Missouri, and the chair of the environment standing committee here at the Conference of Mayors. A pleasure. Thank you.
00:27:08:14 – 00:27:08:28
Barbara Buffaloe
Thank you.
00:27:08:28 – 00:27:29:21
David Martin
David, I want to hear more about good government. Check out another show I host leading Iowa good Government in Iowa cities. I host the show with Brad Cavanaugh, mayor of Dubuque, Iowa, and the immediate past president of the Iowa League of Cities. Together, we talked to leaders in Iowa cities. We talk about what works and what good government looks like in Iowa.
00:27:29:25 – 00:27:37:37
David Martin
Join us right here. We listening now that’s leading Iowa. Good government in Iowa. Cities.
00:27:37:42 – 00:27:56:15
David Martin
As the chairperson of the Environment Standing Committee for the U.S. Conference of Mayors, Barbara Buffalo is optimistic. She says cities are doing the work. They have to. She says, imagine you’re home. There’s a knock on your door. It’s the mayor telling Columbia citizens how they can improve their homes, all with help from the city. That’s good government and a nice visit from the mayor.
00:27:56:29 – 00:28:10:14
David Martin
And if you’re lucky, it just might get a hug from the mayor. Trust me, it’s a good hug. I only wish I lived in Columbia so I could see the mayor riding on a bike and say, hey, look, that’s the mayor riding her bike to City Hall. I hope you were as impressed as I was. I mean, after all, she didn’t just steal from other mayors.
00:28:10:18 – 00:28:26:31
David Martin
She starts with a good government show, too. Well, that’s our show. Thanks for listening. Please like us and share this with your friends and review us right here where you’re listening, and check out our website. Good government show.com for extras. Help us keep telling stories of good government in action everywhere. Join us again for another episode right here.
00:28:26:45 – 00:28:54:12
David Martin
I’m Dave Martin and this is a good government show. The Good Government show is a Valley Park production. Jim Lando, Dave Martin, that’s me and David Snyder are the executive producers. Our show is edited and produced by Jason Sterling. Please subscribe, then share and like us and review us. That’s the best way to make sure we’re able to keep telling these stories of our government working for all of us.
00:28:54:27 – 00:29:09:36
David Martin
Then listen to the next episode of The Good Government Show.
00:29:09:40 – 00:29:12:20
Narrator
This podcast is part of the democracy Group.
**This transcription was created using digital tools and has not been edited by a live person. We apologize for any discrepancies or errors.