Jeff Schrag announced his run for mayor of Springfield at Mother’s Brewing Company. It’s a business that Schrag started and still maintains a minority stake in, although it’s now owned by Jeff and Lindsay Seifried.
If he’s elected to the four-year term next April, Schrag said, he would work to improve efficiency in government — "someone needing to get a permit or starting a business. Are we doing everything we can do to solve problems or is the government a problem-solving entity where we look at things around 'how do we accomplish what this person, this individual, needs while respecting the needs of the whole community?' If I can do anything to make things more efficient, I would consider that to be a huge success."
Other priorities, he said, would be improving transparency and public safety and ensuring the city has a solid infrastructure. He also said city leaders need to start looking at Springfield as part of a metropolitan area.
"We are a metro area that shares a labor shed and an amenity shed," he said. "The smartest path for sustainable growth is to grow with those around us."
And he said he’d work to make sure Springfield is a place where people want to live as well as start a business and create jobs.
Schrag has lived in Springfield for three decades and has experience serving on a variety of boards. He’s a current member of the Missouri State University Board of Governors, having been appointed by Governor Mike Parson in January 2023. And he’s served as president of the Springfield Area Chamber of Commerce and the Community Foundation of the Ozarks. He recently served on the City of Springfield’s Citizens’ Commission on Community Investment, which was tasked with evaluating and prioritizing "the highest and best uses for a local sales tax capacity after the scheduled 2025 expiration of the current ¾-cent Police-Fire Pension Sales Tax," according to the City of Springfield's website.
The Springfield mayoral seat will be a four-year term in 2025 after voters approved the change from a two-year term on April 2, 2024. Schrag said, if elected, he will plan to serve four years and will "be a mayor for the entire community."
He said his goal is to have a "positive campaign to talk about me and the things that I can do, and to make myself available as people have questions for me, to get my name out there."
