Community Alliance for Better Government Proposed 2023 Goals for Evanston City Council

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Establish a plan to eliminate structural racism within Evanston City Government

• Create an Equity Indicators Dashboard for Evanston, preferably in consultation with the CUNY Institute for State and Local Governance

• Conduct a racial equity audit of COE using an outside organization with racial equity  expertise, e.g.: Race Forward, GARE, Race Matters Institute, Converge, Disruptive Equity Education Project, Partners for Collaborative Change,

• Fully implement the recommendations of the Black Employees group and the Prescott Salvatore report on the lifeguard scandal

• Re-examine and consider implementing the summer 2020  EFBL action plan to shift the budget to reduce spending on police and increase spending on social services and mental health

• Outsource HR to a respected, independent firm to eliminate systemic inequities, nepotism and inconsistent practices.

 

Establish a plan to increase the number of city staff living in Evanston to 50% within 10 years

• Prioritize hiring of current or former Evanston residents 

• Incentivize moving to Evanston for all senior management positions and police

 

Improve transparency  and communication with the public

• Adapt the Draft Municipal Public Participation Ordinance for Evanston

• Implement report back and response mechanism for  issues raised in public comment

• Reduce the number of closed executive sessions to only those required by law. Require all Council members, Mayor and City manager received training on the Ope Meetings Act. 

• Require all council members to hold ward meetings

• Require departments to demonstrate a threshold of community participation and buy-in before launching major projects

• Implement an expectation of staff respect for, and openness to the public.

 

Finances and Economic Development

• Implement 10 year clawbacks and community benefits agreements  as part of all major development contracts

• Negotiate with Northwestern over property taxes on rental property and payments in lieu of taxes

• Launch a public plan for spending ARPA funds

• Provide consistent accountability over public funds, especially any surplus funds and debt

 

Intergovernmental Cooperation

• Invest in deeper level collaboration with District 65 and 202

• Increase staff participation in the International City/County Management Association, the Government Alliance on Race and Equity  and the Illinois Municipal League

• Look to best practices recommendations in creating policies from these organizations

 

Affordable, Livable Housing 

• Increase and preserve the stock of affordable housing to meet the existing need.

• Revise and strengthen the Inclusionary Housing Ordinance 

• Provide funding and staff resources to enforce the newly strengthened fair housing ordinance

• Fully fund an equitable and strong rental housing inspection program