A number of residents attended the July 18th Evanston, Illinois City Council meeting to speak about the hiring of a new City Manager. After multiple attempts to hire a new City Manager have failed over the past year or more, it seems Evanston officials are moving hastily to stick a new candidate in the spot, and residents feel left out of the process.
“Residents are number one,” said Ray Friedman during public input, reminding the Evanston Mayor the people are at the top of the City’s government structure. “When do residents get to speak – be part of the process? …You are purposely keeping residents out.”
Mayor Daniel Biss interrupted Friedman several times to tell him his speaking time was about to expire.
Resident Nick Davis also spoke about the City Manager hiring process, naming numerous past City officials and employees who had engaged in misconduct, including racial discrimination, and who had made Evanston the focus of lawsuits. Davis called for more transparency and citizen involvement in the City Manager hiring process.
Ward 7 resident Kathy Rospenda issued a prepared statement:
“I can understand and relate to council member fatigue with the search process and the desire to just get someone in there already. But have you ever experienced how difficult your job can become after hiring someone out of desperation? If so, I hope you’ll reflect on that experience before deciding to just appoint someone to the city manager position without getting the public input to the process that residents have been calling for.
We need a city manager who is open to seeking and responding to public input and establishing transparency with the Evanston community. It’s my understanding that despite our community’s repeated calls for information about and input into the hiring process, interviews have been happening once again without public input and only a single candidate may be put forth. This is especially concerning in light of today’s editorial in the Chicago Tribune and it’s making it feel like it’s a foregone conclusion that we’re only going to get one candidate for the city manager search.
I urge the council to take a different path and commit to a hiring process that has public participation and transparency and which centers anti-racism and equity in the job description. Any candidate with a poor record in this area will ultimately fail in our community as noted by prior commenters and hiring such a person will further chip away at the trust community members have in our government. Evanston deserves a city manager who is committed to and experienced an anti-racist work as well as committed to public transparency. Residents deserve a city government that they trust to listen to their concerns.”
Rospenda’s concerns about only one candidate being put forth without public input materialized just a few days later, when Carol Mitten (currently City Administrator for Urbana, Illinois) was announced as the sole finalist for the position.
Neither Mayor Biss, nor any of the City Council members, issued any statements on the City Manager hiring process at Monday’s meeting.