A Soviet for SWMO!
Springfield waves home Northwest Arkansas Planning Commission partner, David Cameron. Crowd goes wild, not in a good way.
I’ve been watching Donald Wrye’s 1987 mini-series, “Amerika.” At times it lingers like an SBU drone hovering over a Russian tarmac.
It’s about to get much more expensive to reside in Missouri. While the chamber clique enjoys massive revenue booms and decades long bailouts, residential home owners should expect large hikes soon. And what if you don’t have the money? In all of three years you will be told to “take a hike!”
Soviet of course is not entirely flush with what Ozarkians experience here. What we have here might be worse. But insofar as a soviet is a group of unelected councils usurping constitutional boundaries, there are striking similarities. The business model here, where the metrocrat human resources industry has carbon copied the NFL free agency, smacks of the same entitlement to our wallets that billionaire owned franchises seem to have toward the already taxed half to death Missourian.
This certainly applies more broadly to all franchise relationships with cities all over America. What hoops will our chamber not jump through to grow their budgets? And there’s no better example than Springfield’s own recent “project lunker,” where the city dangled some awfully shiny jigs out there to reel-in Republic’s hot handed manager, David Cameron. And they paid a lot to send Jason Gage on his way out too! Do you know that you paid for all of that?
The metrocrats have “pay-plan improvements” to cope with the stagnant high costs of living, while Springfield residents, currently > 60% tenant, can expect “lifestyle detriments.”
When regionalism sprouted in the Ozarks, it clearly established roots in Republic. So it’s no shock that after witnessing the recent revenue booms the metrocrats enjoy over there, the salivary glands of SGF’s elect would be working overtime. And they paid for it! Which means you will now pay for it! Who’s you? Well, the entire 10 county region now! We’ll also be pitching in more statewide as well, now that conservative Governor Mike “the Canadian Tuxedo” Kehoe has appointed a tax commission aiming to raise the cost of home ownership and saddled us all with a $1,000/per person debt so far (the deals ongoing) for the privilege of keeping Big Bread & Circus happy! 🏈
Council governance is what’s cooking in SWMO and by the time you finish reading this you might not be hungry for chicken ever again. You weren’t at the table for this one. You didn’t even hear the dinner bell. That’s because you were on the menu. You get the joke… We’re all cannibals here, right?
My left leaning friends also have an overly idealistic definition of communism as a system of social justice from which springs forth thee everlasting fountain of peace and love. My advice would be to test this notion, maybe study countries that have actually tried it for awhile. Don’t feel like studying? That’s OK, just grab some popcorn, step outside and watch it assembled in real time.
After rushing David Cameron through to city manager, the velocity of a regional plan forged by an unelected body of directors from the largest public and private sectors in Springfield (and beyond) will kick into high gear. These are plans too big for the constitutional boundaries of a city. Every city in the ten county region’s participation will be mandatory.
Meet SGF’s Newest City Administrator
In 1972, after Nixon sold his country out with New Federalism, carving up once constitutional states into regions, streamlining federal tax dollars into sub-regions, then divided into (very obedient) councils of government, and only 14 days later having famous bilaterals with China’s Mao Zedong, also David Cameron was born in Miller, MO.
Raised by a single mother, Cameron graduated in 1991 from Miller High School. He went to work in Saint Louis after getting a wastewater degree removing uranium from the reservoir for the EPA at the 200 acre Weldon Spring superfund site before applying for a much safer job in wastewater at Siloam Springs, AR in October of 1999. The once “Bolivar-sized” town in Benton County, Arkansas started him out at $33,000 a year.
The Water Treatment
Northwest Arkansas is home to a massive poultry industry filthy with decades of controversy. Cameron entered the scene as a heated dispute between Oklahoma and Arkansas over wastewater management came to a broil. Irresponsibly disposed chicken byproduct was raising phosphorus levels in the water table enough to cause eutrophication (algal blooms). These “blooms” created oxygen depleted dead zones in the water table harmful to both aquatic and human life. This easily avoidable corporate ecological disaster generated the demand for a very expensive solution. A new wastewater treatment plant.
Cameron took advantage of a continuing ed program offered by the city to earn a B.S. in organizational management at John Brown University. While obtaining the degree, he was promoted to public works director in 2002, taking charge of the city’s water, sewer, streets and solid waste programs. He graduated in 2003 and was was appointed to city administrator in 2004 by the board of directors. He was sworn in February, 2005 with a starting salary of $72,000.
It’s in this role David entered into various partnerships with Jim Walton’s Northwest Arkansas Planning Commission (NWAPC), a private unelected NGO, who’s board of directors originated with and largely reflects the whale corporations of the region.
The initial goals of the NWAC were to attract more whale corporations into the area and expand infrastructure to accommodate thousands of Walmart’s suppliers along with the occasional side-effect of driving up property values dramatically and exploding the population.
Whitewater parks, trail systems, etc. All wonderful things! Using these things to market a region to wealthy liberals, sometimes not so much.
As vox populi decreased, Walton and the NWAC filled the gaps. Anything from way-finding signs to highways and airports, citizen participation became less and public-private money picked up the slack. Sometimes they were allowed input at a “visioning” session and to pitch in to play the role of “funding source” through increased property, sales and use tax.
Growing tax base for the incorporated city and state, while ignoring locals was actually the point of economic development, as Cameron emphasized during a televised interview with KOLR10’s Lauren Inman. This was after getting the job in Republic, MO.
Former President Bill Clinton also has very close ties with NWAC members. In his first term as governor, he made an attempt at reforming the trucking industry. A mistake he vowed never to repeat again from the sidelines of what would’ve been his second term had he been a better partner. After learning his lesson he went on to grant many other concessions to the three business interests, perhaps the most egregious of which being the privatization of meat inspections.
Erin Danastasio gave a brief history of the NWAC in one of LORE’s first consensus gathering events held in July, 2024, at the Chamber of Commerce charity’s new building on Jefferson. You will notice Cameron (if squinting) just to the right at that meeting held last summer.
I’m immediately wary hearing such adulation poured with so much generosity upon these three well lamented employers. Walmart, famous for low wages and the death of Main St. among a long list of grievances. Tyson, for the combination of underage immigrant factory workers along with hazardous conditions, and Hunt, long criticized for it’s tragically lax hiring/training standards.
Erin casually mentions in this clip how the group threatened to leave the state if this unelected entity was not permitted to move forward with their regional goals. FOMO is about the only thing these days an amoral multinational outfit has to get your attention.
By 2013, Siloam Springs had been paying Cameron six-figures for over half a decade. When the budget came up, he drafted his own contract which included a 20% raise. The city quickly tabled it for review by the municipal league and ultimately Cameron settled for 8.25%, bringing his salary up to $123,909. Sometime in late June of the next year, he took a mental health leave for 40 days. Upon returning, he resigned effective end of year, only to resurface again in Southwest Missouri.
Republic, MO
On Tuesday, July 5, 2016 Cameron took over as city administrator of Republic, but Springfieldians were largely unaware of the guy until 2020. Cameron generated buzz in SGF when Steve Pokin at the News-Leader confirmed via Sunshine Law that an Amazon Fulfillment Center was actually being developed in Republic on a site once belonging to the Garton family farms. Land gifted to Drury by the family only to be repurposed for EEZ.
This makes four fulfillment centers in MO for those keeping track. All four generating massive tax boosts into the host cities and state government. All four absconding massive revenues out of state to it’s Seattle HQ, where there are entire suburbs of homeless people.
Let that not overshadow the other accomplishments of Cameron’s tenure in Republic, which include Assembly of God’s 230,000 square foot Convoy of Hope complex complete with 50,000 square foot food manufacturing facility. And there’s also the Walmart pharmacy central fill facility scheduled to open in 2026.
The city of Republic has allowed for this rapid development by passively acquiescing to Cameron’s “disruptive leadership style” of cutting processes and regulations that would otherwise slow down development for special interest. With a majority chamber city council in Springfield, safe to assume business will continue as usual.
Also noteworthy during his time in Republic, Cameron sat as director on multiple utility boards.
Ky3 reported three days ago that:
The Ozark Board of Aldermen had unanimously approved a bill, labeled Bill 3669, to allow the city to pull in 1.5 million gallons of water a day from Stockton Lake Monday night.
Cameron has described these contracts to drain Stockton lake as a necessary step to support the future growth of the region.
"An average resident uses about 26 thousand gallons a year. And so when you figure out where we are today we are at about 1.2 million gallons a day. So if you look at what our growth projections are, we are going to need 2.7 million gallons per day by 2040." said David Cameron, the city administrator of Republic.
Couple this with the recent changes to water regulations on export over state lines and you’ve got a real chin rubber.
SGF lands a lunker
There were two council seats up and a mayoral election last year. Springfield’s total population as the year rounded 2025 sat at 170,862. Of which 14,149 participated. A lowly 8.3% engagement rate. 61.5%, or a total of 8,702 votes went to the new mayor, Jeff Schrag. That is all of 5% of Springfield.
While Springfieldians slept, the 3/4-cent sales tax resumption found it’s way onto the ballot also. An unnecessary tax burden supported by the chamber of commerce majority and heavily promoted by their change agents present in the so-called “citizen’s committee.”
When SGF plotted to saddle it’s citizens again with this slush fund generating tax, Mayor Schrag was wearing the hat of a citizen and providing plenty of input and all of it quite favorable to the resumption.
A city or a business - small tangent
When an official from your city says they’re running the city like a business, it’s not hyperbolic. They don’t even care how ridiculous it sounds to those of us delusional enough to look out on this clown shoes economy and believe this is still America. Ask a meter reader from a utility company sometime. You’ll find them on a folding adirondack by the river, kicking one back while drowning a worm. I hear the pay’s great!
A local government is a business like a prison warden is a hotelier. They require a steady supply of captives customers as a business model. In Springfield, the easiest customers are usually young and poor. There is an enormous industry in serving the poor in Southwest Missouri. Without this pipeline of poverty what need would they have for such capacity?
How leadership decided to dab the gushing head wound with tax exempt charity instead of attack the causes of poverty is a mystery that unraveling these foundations would likely resolve (#resumereece). But the fix is not complicated. Competition has and will always drive better quality and lower prices. This law does not apply to economic developers though and their salary comes out of the city budget.
It’s self evident the citizen’s definition of healthy growth is vastly out of sync with Jim Walton’s. It’s an enormous disconnect and the most paramount conversation being suppressed in Springfield. But why?
A Model Region
Of the chamber clique speaking in favor of the contract was Erin Danastasio of the regionalism foundation, LORE. Every town in the 10 county SWMO region will soon learn what LORE is all about. The sooner the better in this author’s opinion. Each public-private corporation signed up will be looking for much engagement with your hometown very soon.
Jaimie Trussell of Springfield’s charitable ecumenical council, Crosslines (formerly Springfield Area Council of Churches), also braved the weather to enthusiastically speak up for Cameron.
The only voice of dissent in attendance on May 19, was surprisingly an MSU Geology, Geography and Planning professor, Dr. Kevin Evans, who’s biggest concern seemed to gravitate around Cameron’s experience and credentials.
After Monica Horton read off some weird, obviously pre-prepared statement, including a thank you to “Strategic Government Resources” for their “Executive Recruitment Services,” Hosmer put up about the only real resistance to the process and the contract.
Inquiring of Mayor Schrag what the basis was for rushing the vote for Cameron’s contract to a council lunch session the following Tuesday (May 27), a vexed looking Schrag responded that they were in a “time crunch.” He didn’t want to get in a “30-day window” because “lots of dominos have to fall.” Seems legit.
Council debate followed:
The Chamber consensus machine steamrolled the council again on May 27th. I’ve heard it said that Schrag broke the tie. For those paying attention, we know it was Hardinger.
Regional Mandate
“Regionalism is mandatory.” - Springfield Area Chamber of Commerce (2024)
During a recent SBJ™ PR event on regionalism, the panel of stakeholders made it quite clear Springfield was not attempting to emulate Northwest Arkansas’ metastatic growth. A growth modeled after robber barons nobody voted for and has stirred up controversy amongst the existing citizenry and scarred the landscape for decades down there.
A commission that Jim Walton of Walmart fame was largely responsible for its formation. Walmart, renown for it’s cutthroat merchandising tactics enjoys a prominent presence in the city of Springfield also with two Sam’s Clubs, a handful of “Supercenters” and an ever-growing number of “Neighborhood Markets.”
But with Arvest Foundation footing the steep LORE subscription, and of course the Walton Family Foundation’s history of funding the Northwest Arkansas Regional Planning Commission, their input won’t exactly be ignored. After all, they provided the inspiration for LORE, according to the Springfield Business Journal.
The effort has been in the works since the 2022 Springfield Area Chamber of Commerce-led visit to northwest Arkansas, where local leaders heard from a similar organization has (sic) existed for decades.
In comments at the event, LORE Chair Erin Danastasio, executive director of the Hatch Foundation, said that following the visit, a group of 25 public- and private-sector people convened to talk about applying the regionalism concept to southwest Missouri.
Branding the Region - Just Do It!
“Everything my parents were taught in school was a Carnegie funded obfuscation of truth and I’m just an iteration of that conditioning cycle acting as a cog in the process for the world socialist project."
- Metrocrat (probably never)
You might be buggered to learn Springfield, Missouri’s tourism chief is actually from London and spends lots of time and energy (your tax dollars) marketing the city and region both internationally and to cities with desired site selectors. This economic development activity has and will continue to entice more and more politically active, left leaning people to the region.
LORE plans to market Southwest Missouri’s beauty to invite the entire world to an economic development party in the Ozarks. I encourage all readers to visit Northwest Arkansas and see what has been done to the natural beauty there at the hands of the “model council” before deciding on whether or not you want them to.
Some Background on Regionalism
Regional Departments in your area:
Dept of Health, Education and Welfare (HEW)
Housing Urban Development (HUD)
Office of Equal Opportunity (OEO)
Small Business Assocation (SBA)
Labor
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
Department of Transportation (DOT)
Law Enforcement Assistance Association (LEAA)
