Love Columbia job fair sees high turnout, aims to fill public service roles

Several city of Columbia departments recruited during a job fair hosted by the city, Boone County and nonprofit Love Columbia on Wednesday.  

Among the departments at the fair were the Columbia Police Department, Parks and Recreation, Public Works, Utilities, and the Boone County Sheriff’s Office. 

Conrad Hake, a program director of Love Columbia, said Wednesday’s turnout was more than expected for the nonprofit’s first job fair. He said the current state of Columbia’s housing market motivated Love Columbia into organizing the fair.

“A vast majority of the jobs in Columbia that are entry level don’t meet the housing needs that people are experiencing,” Hake said. “That’s had us in the process of finding how we can help people move from these survival jobs into livable wage employment.”

Hake said their decision to open the job fair to the city and county specifically came from trying to give back to the community.

“We recognize that our community has some needs that would be benefited by people filling these positions,” Hake said. “If we can find people that need jobs, with community positions (open) that will benefit all of us in the community, it feels like a natural win-win. Connecting the needs and resources in the community together.”

Earlier this year, the Columbia Police Department had around 38 officer openings, according to previous KOMU 8 reporting.

The number of vacancies is now down to 27, according to Sgt. Anthony Bowne. A majority of the open roles are for officers and community service aides.

Bowne stressed getting people into the department is “very important.”

“Right now we’re trying to fill our patrol unit. We need boots on the ground, people out there on the streets and we’re trying to get our response time down,” Bowne said. “We’re really working hard on getting the word out to the community that we need more support, that we need more people out there applying to be a police officer.”

The community won’t see any new officers for at least another six months due to policy procedures and training programs, Bowne said.