Mayor Purzner was later found to have misrepresented herself during her mayoral campaign by claiming to have been a registered nurse. Mayor Purzner's false claims were made four years after a 2002 investigation by Missouri's nursing board, which found that Mayor Purzner was a medical assistant who had previously pretended to be a registered nurse and lied about attending the nursing school at Maryville University. At the end of this investigation Mayor Purzner was banned from practicing as or representing herself as a nurse.