Val Yazell says she decided to return to Springfield city government as director of the Office of Planning and Economic Development because she saw “so many things that still needed to be done.”
Yazell was terminated by former mayor Jim Langfelder in March 2021, though Langfelder never said why.
Misty Buscher, who defeated Langfelder and denied his bid for a third consecutive four-year term in April, rehired Yazell as interim director of OPED. Yazell began in May to assist the new administration and later decided she wanted the permanent position.
Yazell has a bachelor’s degree in elementary education from Southern Illinois University Edwardsville and taught kindergarten at one point. She owned a bridal shop in the 1980s and 1990s and was an independent, small business consultant for many years.
Yazell was first appointed interim OPED director by Langfelder in 2017. She was initially hired as a contract employee but later became a regular full-time employee.
Yazell said Langfelder never informed her why she was being fired, “but I can speculate.”
“We did not agree on how projects should move forward,” she told Illinois Times.
IT reported at the time of Yazell’s termination that she had recently clashed with Langfelder when it came to funding for repairs to a building for the Springfield NAACP at 801 S. 11th St.
A story by Bruce Rushton said: “After the City Council last fall (2020) refused to spend $150,000 in federal block grants on the building, with council members expressing concerns about a lack of bids, Langfelder in January (2021) told Yazell to sign off on paperwork to allow a lesser amount in federal money for repairs that already had been accomplished. She refused, saying that the plan to spend $45,000 on work that already had been done might not comply with federal regulations.”
The NAACP later received almost $45,000, below the threshold requiring council approval, “with the money coming from the city, as opposed to federal coffers,” Rushton reported.
In 2019, Langfelder withdrew his support for Helping Hands of Springfield’s proposed Center for Health and Housing in a former office building in the 500 block of South 11th, contributing to the plan’s demise, even though Yazell helped nonprofit Helping Hands find the proposed site.
Yazell, 72, said she always planned to keep working into her 70s.
She backed Buscher’s mayoral campaign and said she and Buscher “really work well together. She has a similar vision, and she wants to improve processes, and I love a good process.”
Yazell said she likes her current situation, “where as a director, I can move in a direction, consult with the mayor, have the green light and be able to do what I want to do and what I feel is best for the community.”
Yazell said she hopes to soon fill three vacancies on OPED’s 10-member staff.
When she returned as interim director, she said, “I saw a staff that was really struggling. They just did not have the leadership. … There’s a lot that unfortunately slipped through the cracks the last couple of years, so it’s been a matter of us having to pick the pieces back up.”
