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Committee hears initial briefing on proposed tenants'right'to'counsel ordinance
Summary
Councilman Brandon Jensen presented a draft ordinance and staff said they will prepare a follow'up presentation comparing current landlord'tenant default law with the proposed ordinance, gather local filing statistics where possible and review other municipal examples such as Kansas City.
The committee received an initial briefing on a proposed tenants'right'to'counsel ordinance brought forward by Councilman Brandon Jensen. Staff said the first step would be to present the baseline of default landlord'tenant law, walk through the councilman's proposed ordinance and provide comparative examples (Kansas City was referenced) for committee feedback before drafting ordinance language.
Staff cautioned that local court filing data will not capture every situation because many matters resolve informally; they said docket statistics from the circuit clerk can be provided but that qualifying and narrowing that data to the City of Springfield has limits. The staff presenter noted a 2024 high'level analysis of eviction filings was included in the ordinance materials and that other municipalities and states have varied approaches.
Councilman Jensen said he brought the ordinance partly because of personal experience with an unlawful eviction and summarized the intent: "for those individuals that are facing illegal evictions to have access to legal representation so that the court can proceed in the most just and equitable way possible." Committee members asked staff to prepare a future presentation that includes the current law, a comparison with Kansas City's program, any available local filing data and answers on feasibility and red'flag legal constraints under Missouri law. The committee did not take formal action; staff were directed to return with materials for a future meeting.
