Evanston, Illinois Mayor Daniel Biss made a notable and concerning declaration earlier this month. Biss argued that the City’s search for a new City Manager needed to be as secretive as possible in order to attract a better applicant pool.
Though the City Manager is easily the most powerful and important public official in Evanston, Biss said that the more open the search process, the more likely that applicants would drop out or choose not to apply. These comments were made at a July 12th “City Manager Search Town Hall”, which consisted primarily of Biss speaking vaguely about various issues but not divulging any meaningful specifics about the ongoing search.
The secretive search theory appears to have been exactly what Biss adopted, as the following week a single City Manager candidate was announced as the finalist without any specific public input or open Council discussion on the options.
Urbana City Administrator Carol Mitten was announced as the only finalist for Evanston’s City Manager position on Wednesday, July 20th. A town hall meeting has been scheduled for this Thursday evening at 7pm regarding the City Manager choice, but it is not clear that input from the public would serve any purpose at this point, since it seems the choice has already been made.
By all appearances, tomorrow’s town hall meeting was arranged to give the impression of public involvement when, according to Evanston residents, there really hasn’t been any.