City of Evanston Blog

Channel 16 went off the air about ninety minutes through the City Council meeting this evening.  There apparently is a problem with Comcast’s network and how it connects to the government access channel.  The entire meeting was recorded and will be replayed as usual.  We will also come up with additional playback times.  Meeting will also be uploaded to YouTube per usual.

Yesterday's storms caused havoc with power throughout the region.  According to ComEd, approximately 500,000 customers were impacted.  As of 8:30 AM, 904 Evanston customers were still out of service.  ComEd is telling customers that it will likely take days to... Wally Bobkiewicz

Yesterday’s storms caused havoc with power throughout the region.  According to ComEd, approximately 500,000 customers were impacted.  As of 8:30 AM, 904 Evanston customers were still out of service.  ComEd is telling customers that it will likely take days to restore power everywhere.  There is no timeframe for restoration of power to remaining customers in Evanston.

The City Council is meeting Monday at 7 PM in a special meeting to discuss budget issues.  Several items of interest (all links PDF): 1.  Receive March 1, 2010 actuarial report on the Police and Fire pension funds.  Unfortunately, news... Wally Bobkiewicz

The City Council is meeting Monday at 7 PM in a special meeting to discuss budget issues.  Several items of interest (all links PDF):

1.  Receive March 1, 2010 actuarial report on the Police and Fire pension funds.  Unfortunately, news here is not getting much better. 

2.  FY 2010/11 First Quarter budget report.  It is hard to get a good sense of where things are headed after only three months into the fiscal year.  Better trends emerge during the second three month  period we are in now.  Biggest unknown is what the State of Illinois might do to us.   We have reformatted the quarterly report to be easier to understand.  This includes a one page chart with several key indicators.  Suggestions are welcome on other indicators to include on this one page. 

3.  Continued discussion of current year capital budget.    Detail document.

4.  Consider ordinance to change City’s fiscal year.  I have been talking about this for six or seven months.  Moving to calendar year fiscal year will allow the Council to consider changes to tax levy for following year budget in December (deadline for decisions in December 15 each year) with adoption of new budget at same time.  Now if Council adjusts tax levy with adoption of budget in February, change does not occur until next calendar year ten months later.

5.  Consideration of FY 2011 budget preparation calendar.  The proposed calendar would have budget adopted in November on new fiscal year schedule.  This means public workshops in September, budget released in October and final action in November.

6.  Consideration of Council rules for consideration of the budget.  The proposed rules are offered to clarify the sequence of the Council’s budget deliberations.

Agenda   Full Agenda Packet

Agenda items include discussion of 1865 Sherman and the impact of a proposed traffic signal on Sheridan Road.  Full agenda available here... CoE Admin

Agenda items include discussion of 1865 Sherman and the impact of a proposed traffic signal on Sheridan Road.  Full agenda available here

Here is the text of an email I sent to all City staff this afternoon: "The City Council will be having a special meeting Monday evening to discuss budget issues now that we are through the first quarter of FY... Wally Bobkiewicz

Here is the text of an email I sent to all City staff this afternoon:

“The City Council will be having a special meeting Monday evening to discuss budget issues now that we are through the first quarter of FY 2010/11.  I will be sending everyone the information that will be presented to the City Council once the agenda is completed on Friday.  However, I wanted to share with you today that I have issued layoff notices to three firefighters effective July 31, 2010.

When the budget was adopted by the City Council in February, I cautioned at that time that a critical element of keeping the FY 2010/11 budget balanced was implementing changes to employee salaries and benefits that were included in the budget.  These changes were implemented immediately for managers and non-represented employees, but needed to go through the collective bargaining process for Police, Fire and AFSCME employees.  I informed the City Council in February that I would assess our progress in accomplishing this in May.  If these changes were not implemented by the end of May, I was concerned that continuing any unbudgeted salary and benefit costs would have a significant negative impact on the budget.

The City has worked diligently with Police, Fire and AFSCME unions to accomplish this goal.  The long-standing arbitration with the Police (Teamsters) union was recently resolved with a three-year agreement going back to March 1, 2009 which met the allocated budget for FY 2010/11 and provides for salary increases in FY 2011/12.  An agreement was also reached with AFSCME for a two year contract beginning March 1, 2010 which met the allocated budget for FY 2010/11 and provides for salary increases in FY 2011/12.  The City has been unable to reach a similar agreement with the Fire Union despite several productive sessions in March and April.  The City is now at the beginning of arbitration with the Fire Union.  It is unclear when that process will be completed.

The FY 2010/11 budget does not have resources allocated in the Fire Department budget to provide Fire employees with salary and benefit adjustments greater than what has been settled with our other employee groups.  I respect the collective bargaining process and the desire of the Fire Union and the City to have its hearing before an arbitrator on all unresolved components of a proposed contract: salary, benefits and other terms of an agreement.  However, it is my responsibility to manage the City Council’s adopted budget and the City must reserve funds in the event the City is unsuccessful in arbitration and unbudgeted salary or benefit adjustments are awarded to the Fire Union.  Therefore, I have eliminated three firefighter positions to fund any salary and benefit increases that may be awarded to the Fire Union by an arbitrator.

I am unwilling to recommend to the City Council additional reductions in other departments in order to reserve funds for any ongoing unbudgeted salary or benefit adjustments that may be awarded to the Fire Union.  It is important to me that the overall impacts of citywide budget reductions be as fair and balanced as possible to our employees and all the important services they provide the residents of Evanston.

The elimination of three firefighter positions will effectively reduce our daily staffing of firefighters by one position, from 26 to 25.  Interim Fire Chief Greg Klaiber has worked with his management team to develop alternate deployment plans that will minimize the public service impact of these reductions.  Chief Klaiber’s plans are very similar to the plans developed by Police Chief Eddington and other department directors when the City eliminated 49.57 budgeted positions beginning March 1, 2010 to minimize the impacts of those reductions on service we provide the public.

I will continue to work to keep the FY 2010/11 budget in balance as we continue to carefully monitor revenue and expenditures.  It is difficult to assess all of our revenue assumptions only three months into the budget, but so far our projections remain on target.  The State of Illinois must grapple with its budget issues some day.  When that day comes, the decisions of the Illinois General Assembly will likely have a negative impact on the budget of the City of Evanston.  I will continue to keep you posted.”

All links below are to Adobe Acrobat (PDF) files: 1.  Consideration of new contract with American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME).  This union represents most of our non-public safety employees.  Agreement represents 0% salary increase in current... Wally Bobkiewicz

All links below are to Adobe Acrobat (PDF) files:

1.  Consideration of new contract with American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME).  This union represents most of our non-public safety employees.  Agreement represents 0% salary increase in current year and a 2% and 1% increase during the course of FY 2011/12 which will be offset by continued furlough days.  More details in staff report.

2.  Further consideration of addition of traffic signal on Sheridan Road at Garrett Place.  Staff report.

3.  Consideration of purchase of property 1708 and 1710 Darrow.  Property would be purchased out of foreclosure and used for future development in the area.  Staff report.

4.  The issue of peddlers and ticket resale come back to the Council after a six month absence.  This issue got quite a bit of discussion last Fall because of concerns expressed by Northwestern about impacts of peddlers and other vendors selling around Ryan Field.  Staff is coming back with changes to the Municipal Code that will allow peddlers to continue largely as they have, but they have to follow the law and continue to move as they peddle.  The ticket resale issue was also included in that discussion, but largely overshadowed.  So we are also coming back with separate ordinance to address resale of tickets.

5.  Consideration of request for sponsorship of $10,000 for the Evanston Grand Prix bicycle race.  The race, to be held this year on Sunday July 18, has been on verge of cancellation the past several weeks.  A few key sponsors had to scale back their financial support recently.  This proposal is to have the City be a first time financial sponsor for one year to help race go on in 2010 and continue to build momentum for future years.  Staff report.

6.  Consideration of ordinance amending hours of operation of convenience store at 555 Howard to conform with direction of the City Council at its last meeting.

7.  Consideration of two items coming from the City Economic Development Committee:  continued support of Chicago’s North Shore Convention and Visitors Bureau.  This year City would contribute $65,563 from Economic Development Fund.  Second item is $50,000 of support for six neighborhood business districts around Evanston to support their efforts.  This also comes through the City’s Economic Development Fund.  Staff Report.

Council Agenda      Agenda Packet

Over twenty volunteers gathered today at the Civic Center for the City's first code-a-thon. The volunteers were asked to help migrate information from the City's current website to the platform for the City's new website which is scheduled to go... Wally Bobkiewicz

Over twenty volunteers gathered today at the Civic Center for the City’s first code-a-thon. The volunteers were asked to help migrate information from the City’s current website to the platform for the City’s new website which is scheduled to go on-line July 1.  Volunteers were asked to choose specific assignments divided into three categories: computer user, designer and programmer.  Each assignment was geared to an individuals strengths and backgrounds.

I picked an asssignment in the “computer user” category and spent a few hours entering all of the various meetings and events on our current on-line calendar for December, 2010.  The other volunteers at my table were heavy into code writing.  I think at least two had Ph.Ds.

For their efforts, the volunteers received coffee and tea generously donated by Argo Tea, lunch and a goodie bag of City of Evanston giveaways.  But perhaps the biggest gift of all was an official City of Evanston Code-A-Thon t-shirt!!

The three baby falcons that hatched on top of the Evanston Public Library were examined and banded for tracking today by representatives from the Field Museum of Natural History during a short event at the Library. The three falcons were also... Wally Bobkiewicz

The three baby falcons that hatched on top of the Evanston Public Library were examined and banded for tracking today by representatives from the Field Museum of Natural History during a short event at the Library. The three falcons were also named:  Lorraine, Hennen and Perkins.

Lorraine
Named in honor Lorraine H. Morton was Mayor of Evanston from 1993 to 2009.
Morton was re-elected in 1997, 2001 and 2005.   Earlier, she served on Evanston City Council as Fifth Ward alderman for nine years.

Hennen
Named in honor Mary Hennen. Mary has been involved with the Chicago Peregrine Program since 1989 and took over as director in 1990. During this time period, Peregrine Falcons in Illinois have gone from a single breeding pair to approximately 20 pairs statewide.

Perkins
Named after Dwight Perkins, an Evanston architect and planner, known as the “father” of the Cook County Forest Preserve System.

1.       The Health Department will be making a presentation on its 2010 workplan.  This will include next steps for the development of a Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC) in Evanston 2.        Fourth Quarter Budget Report for FY 2009/10.  This is... Wally Bobkiewicz

1.       The Health Department will be making a presentation on its 2010 workplan.  This will include next steps for the development of a Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC) in Evanston

2.        Fourth Quarter Budget Report for FY 2009/10.  This is the first opportunity to give the Council an update on how we ended the fiscal year on February 28, 2010.  While the General Fund ended the year $2.6 million under budget, we did not meet all of our end of year budget targets.  The staff report (PDF) provides all the details.

3.        Three month contract extensions with Flood Brothers for condo garbage collection and Groot, Inc. for recycling collection.  The RFP process to transition these services per City Council direction is not completed.  This three month extension should allow for the RFP process to be completed.  Staff report (PDF).

4.         Consideration of resolution to move forward with engineering feasibility study for location of CTA Yellow Line station in Evanston.  Staff report (PDF).

5.         Consideration of contract award for Phase II design engineering for Sheridan Road signal upgrade project from Chicago Avenue to Central Street.  The Council will also consider adding to the project the addition of a new traffic signal at Sheridan Road and Garrett Place.  Staff Report (PDF).

6.          Consideration of request from owner to amend operating hours conditions of special use permit for gas station and convenience store located at 555 Howard Street.  Current permit restricts operating hours of convenience store and property owner requesting additional hours of operation.  Staff is recommending denial because of excessive police activity at location.  Staff report (PDF).

7.           Resolutions renaming portions of Dempster between Ridge and Asbury for Rabbi Peter Knobel and portion of Forest Avenue between Kedzie and Keeney for Ned and Albe Lauterbach.

8.            Consideration of ordinance to provide increased regulation of standing or idling motor vehicles.  Staff Report (PDF).

 Meeting Agenda (PDF)   Full Meeting Packet (PDF)

Alderman Lionel Jean-Baptiste sent this email to members of the community last night: "Dear Friends,   The Mayor, Ald. Wilson and I are planning a community meeting for this coming Tuesday at 7:15PM at Robert Crown Center.  At that time, our Police... Wally Bobkiewicz

Alderman Lionel Jean-Baptiste sent this email to members of the community last night: “Dear Friends,   The Mayor, Ald. Wilson and I are planning a community meeting for this coming Tuesday at 7:15PM at Robert Crown Center.  At that time, our Police Department will give us a report on the tragic incident of May 20, 2010 resulting in the shooting death of a young man and injury to another.    The Mayor and I walked around the area and spoke with neighbors this afternoon.  They were all shocked by the incident and saddened about the death of this young man who grew up in the neighborhood.  Generally speaking, the neighborhood has been peaceful and the neighbors with whom we spoke are determined to return it to normalcy.     We will see everyone on Tuesday at 7:15 PM.   Sincerely,   Lionel Jean-Baptiste”

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