Julia Carroll's First Year on the Job

Mayor Praises City's Growth

Program Analysis for New Civic Center Building

Compost Happens

Police Seek Hit-and-run Hummer Driver

Vote on Energy Conservation Code Coming

Council Approves 2006-07 Budget with 3% Property Tax Increase

Outfitting New Quarters
Program Analysis for New Civic Center Building

By Mary Helt Gavin
The Civic Center Committee seems to be homing in on sites for the new headquarters for the City. At the Feb. 28 meeting, the Committee, composed of all nine aldermen, agreed to have U.S. Equities, the City's consultant, hire a firm to conduct a programmatic study of City government programs, then met in closed session to discuss "the purchase or sale of real estate."

The program analysis will look at the functions of the City's various departments and design the most efficient space for the new quarters, which, aldermen said, could be the present building renovated or a completely new site.

Alderman Lionel Jean-Baptiste, 2nd Ward, was the sole "no" vote on hiring the team for the programmatic study at this point.

"We're off course," he said. "Our priority is the site [of the new civic center]."

Alderman Ann Rainey, 8th Ward, responded, "We could actually have a site by the time we have the program study."

Alderman Edmund Moran, 6th Ward, had wanted the City, not the consulting firm, to hire the subcontractor of the programmatic study. U.S. Equities will not have to send out requests for proposals for the contract, which they estimate will be about $25,000. The other aldermen preferred that U.S. Equities, which had already begun the process, complete it.

John Kennedy, whose ad-hoc committee of architects, design professionals, Mayor Lorraine Morton and former mayor Jay Lytle, hopes to save the building, said that four developers who were interested in developing the site and preserving the building had made a tour of it the week before. He and Civic Center Committee chair Alderman Steve Bernstein, 4th Ward, exchanged heated words about what role the City should play in helping such developers.

Mr. Kennedy said, "I've put more energy into trying to save the building than you guys have."

Ald. Bernstein responded, "Our responsibility is not just to save the building but to preserve the neighborhood."

David Cook of the City's Facilities Management Department explained the ramifications of the building's recently having been designated a national historic landmark. He said the new owner of the building is "free to change it as he sees fit and free to operate it as he sees fit." As long as no federal or state funds are involved, he said, it can be changed or even razed. The Committee requested a written analysis of the ramifications of that designation from both Mr. Cook and Carlos Ruiz, who serves as staff on the City's Preservation Commission.

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Mayor Praises City's Growth

Downtown Evanston's high-rise buildings could get even more plentiful, as the City seeks to increase its tax base.

Mayor Morton praised the continuing development, including high-rise buildings in the downtown area. She called these buildings "structures that will add to our economic future." Regardless of the aesthetics of the yellow, orange and purple balconies that hang over the heads of downtown dwellers, Mayor Morton suggested that added height and density will help relieve the pressure of rising taxes.

"Those buying condominiums in Evanston bring lifestyles and financial resources upon which to draw. Their influences will be felt, and we must place in the equation how to take advantage of what they have to offer," said Mayor Morton.

Forty-four percent of Evanston's land does not generate property taxes; 381 parcels, which include parks, streets and sidewalks, hospitals, Northwestern University properties, other not-for-profits and more than 100 churches and parsonages, are off the tax rolls.

Landlocked Evanston can grow only upward, she added.

Mayor Morton praised Julia Carroll, the new City manager, and the strategic planning process Ms. Carroll has initiated. She said it is vital to the strategic plan that every resident provide input and that everyone participate in future planning.

However, she cautioned, "It is essential that we take a realistic view of what we have now, what we want Evanston to look like in the next 20 years, and how we are going to achieve what we want."

Mayor Morton put out the call for all Evanstonians to "incorporate newer things and contemporary thinking" for Evanston's future planning and to make it "the most livable city in America."

Award for the Arts
Mayor Morton also presented awards to Evanston Community Foundation member and Northwestern University professor Susan Manning and to The Music Institute of Chicago for arts excellence in the community.

The annual Mayor's Award for the Arts recognizes one individual and one organization every year leaderership in the arts community in Evanston. This year Prof. Manning, who teaches English, theatre and performance studies, won the individual award.

The Music Institute of Chicago won the award presented to an organization this year. Mayor Morton spoke fondly of the Music Institute and its former president, Frank Little, who passed away only days before the luncheon.

Dr. Little, president from 1987-2003, brought the Music Institute to Evanston and renovated the building where the Music Institute currently resides.

The Institute is a place of "the highest quality Music education for all ages and all abilities," said Mayor Morton. She praised the institute for its efforts in the arts and expressed her deepest gratitude to Dr. Little for his contribution to all the citizens of Evanston.

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Vote on Energy Conservation Code Coming

By Bill Smith
Evanston aldermen are scheduled to vote Monday on adopting energy conservation rules for new construction in town.

The 2003 International Energy Conservation Code would close a gap in existing regulations, Assistant Community Development Director Carolyn Brezinski told the Planning and Development Committee Feb. 27.

She said the City already has rules applying to one- and two-family homes, and new state rules going into effect next month will cover commercial buildings and multi-family residential buildings more than three stories tall.

But mid-size residential buildings are not covered by either of those documents.

The new code would eliminate that gap and also cover electrical power and lighting standards for all types of construction.

Alderman Edmund Moran, 6th Ward, said he wanted more information on the cost of the new rules before he could vote on the measure, and City staff promised to deliver that data before Monday's meeting, as well as seek comments on the proposal from local builders.

The Evanston Environment Board and the Evanston Energy Commission recommended adopting the new code.

Leonard Sciarra, co-chair of the Environment Board, said the new rules would slightly increase construction costs, but the costs would be recovered through savings on utility costs within a few years.

Alderman Elizabeth Tisdahl, 7th Ward, said, "There's nothing about this that is impossible. I think it's time we started demanding energy conservation as part of our policy."

Ald. Moran cast the only vote against introducing the proposal at the Feb. 27 meeting.

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Yet Ms. Carroll seems steady and unflappable and has plowed through her first year with some success in implementing her own ideas. She has worked on instilling in the institution a more systematic and strategic approach to public service management, seeing citizens as customers and figuring out how to serve them better.

"It's been really exciting and challenging," Ms. Carroll said in a recent interview. She and her husband are awaiting the completion in 2007 of their Sherman Plaza condo and have become active patrons of Evanston's performing arts.

Before Evanston, Ms. Carroll was the assistant city manager of Naperville, where she spent 14 years of her career. Naperville is similar to Evanston, with its transit-oriented downtown and tremendous growth, but the two communities are very different in other ways.

One of them is civic personality. Naperville, which has almost double Evanston's population, has 125 homeowner organizations that rally primarily around development issues relating to their specific neighborhoods, noted Ms. Carroll.

Evanstonians not only organize around development proposals in their neighborhoods, but are extremely active in policy issues.

"There is great talent in this community," said Ms. Carroll. "So many very intellectual people who are willing to give and serve the community and are enthusiastic about what goes on here."

In terms of her own impact on Evanston, Ms. Carroll pointed to initiating a strategic plan.

Evanston has had a comprehensive general plan that focuses primarily on land use. A strategic plan is broader, including not only land-use planning but setting a direction for the delivery of all City services.

"The strategic plan is so important to me because this organization has not done that in terms of trying to tie together the overarching community values and bringing [them] down into the services we provide and how those fit into our resources and budget," said Ms. Carroll.

The strategic plan has seven vision areas, including economic development and land -use planning, neighborhood services and planning, social services and collaboration with non-profit organizations, and infrastructure and capital needs. A draft strategic plan was floated for public and Council comment and is now being revised based on comments.

Ms. Carroll said she has spent the past year evaluating the services that the City provides and determining whether they should continue.

"No decision has been made yet," she said. The Council will create a budget policy committee this year, where such discussions and decisions will take place.

Her initial attempt at balancing the budget in part by cutting mental health and other social service funding was thwarted by the Council.

"The Council has made it clear that they want to continue providing funding for the social service agencies because they did not want to cut even 10 percent from the budget," she said.

But difficult decisions lie ahead.

"If we continue to have revenues that don't meet our expenditures, at some point we are going to have to determine what goes," said Ms. Carroll.

She has saved residents money by sparing them a planned five- percent hike in sewer rates this year. She and the staff conducted a sewer rate study and are presently completing a water rate study.

"I went back and I looked at the data that [staff used previously], and I felt that their revenue estimates and their expenditure estimates were too conservative," she said. "I think it was about sharpening our pencils."

She is hopeful that the water rate study will also show that a planned rate increase is not necessary this year.

On development, she shares the views of many that the City should examine the impact of increased development on the community, to see if it should continue unabated, slow down or be halted.

She worked with staff last year to get the design guidelines that had been percolating for several years adopted by Council. The guidelines are not binding, unless the development is a planned unit development, which the Council must approve. Ms. Carroll said she is not a proponent of binding review.

She is also working on reviewing the development process, from entitlements to permits, to streamline it and make it more "user friendly."

Alderman Edmund B. Moran, 6th Ward, called Ms. Carroll a "great hire."

"She has shown a lot of vision by initiating the strategic plan, which this community has needed for a long time," said Ald. Moran. "She has also done a nice job of getting out into the community [attending meetings in the neighborhoods]."

In her State of the City address, Mayor Lorraine Morton said of Ms. Carroll, "When she came here, she was beset with issues that needed immediate attention, the budget being only one of them. In this short period of time, she has begun working to increase accountability of staff while engaging them in the issues facing the City and the best practices to address them."

Alderman Melissa Wynne, 3rd Ward, added that Ms. Carroll's comprehensive weekly memos to the Council about what is happening across Evanston have improved the overall performance of the aldermen.

"She has the energy level and commitment to meet the challenges," said Ald. Wynne. "We are a complicated community."

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Compost Happens

By Claire Bryant
"It stinks!" was the complaint of many community members at the March 1 meeting held by Alderman Anjana Hansen, 9th Ward, to explain the odor caused by the City's compost pile.

Although everyone agreed the smell that infests the neighborhoods surrounding James Park is foul, some thought it was relatively new and some said they had been smelling it for years.

In either case, this has been a rotten year for James Park neighbors, and lack of moisture may be one of the causes. There is no blanket of snow to muffle the odor and the draught has slowed the composting process.

One of the residents, who works at the Jewel food store on nearby Howard Street, complained that no one wants to shop when it smells outside. At that point Alderman Ann Rainey, 8th Ward, rose from the back of the room and explained to him that the smell outside the Jewel is "not caused by the compost pile, it's the poop from the water reclamation."

Ald. Hansen assured the neighbors that the compost pile is regulated by the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency (IEPA) which inspects it twice during the October-May period when the pile is in use. Ald. Rainey said, "The IEPA is useless but composting is the right thing to do."

The alternatives, Ald. Hansen explained, will cause other problems. "If we don't compost, it will have to go to a landfill. If we have to haul away debris or leaf collections, it will cost the City of Evanston an estimated $150,000," she said. She said those costs will be deflected onto taxpayers.

A neighbor assured Ald. Hansen that a tax increase would be welcomed with open arms if the smell would go away. "The odor is seeping into my house," she said, "The money is peanuts to a city this size."

However, reducing the odors may be possible. Brooke Beal of the Solid Waste Agency of Northern Cook County (SWANCC) will be evaluating the compost over the next 30 days to provide the City with a best-practices analysis.

His analysis will determine the correct amount of moisture, turning , wind and material that will help the efficiency of the compost and reduce the odor. He will also take into account where the complaints originate.

Neighbors were urged to direct all complaints to the IEPA so they could be forwarded to SWAANC to be used as part of the analysis. A neighbor said that she had been complaining since 1998 to the IEPA, the previous alderman, and the City's Streets and Sanitation Division but that her complaints had gone unacknowledged. Nevertheless, Ald. Rainey said, "The things he [Mr. Beal] has promised us are worth listening to, because the City of Evanston funds SWAANC with enormous amounts of your tax dollars."

In addition to the analysis SWAANC will provide cost-effective alternatives in the instance that the odor cannot be reduced.

Ald. Hanson said that if that is the case, she will discuss those options with constituents.
Complaints about the compost or other environmental concerns can be filed at www.epa.state.il.us.

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Police Seek Hit-and-run Hummer Driver

The Evanston police are asking for help from the public in identifying the driver of a yellow Hummer H2 that struck and seriously injured a bicyclist on Feb. 16. The 23-year-old Northwestern University student was riding her bicycle to class at about 9:24 a.m., when she was struck at the intersection of Lake Street and Sherman Avenue, incurring injuries to her leg, pelvis, jaw and palate.

No description of the driver nor license plate identification has been made. While the police await information from the Secretary of State regarding owners of yellow Hummer H2s, they ask that anyone with information call 847-866-5000.

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Council Approves 2006-07 Budget with 3% Property Tax Increase

By Bill Smith
Evanston's City Council made some last minute nips and tucks in the new City budget Feb. 27 before approving it unanimously.

The aldermen agreed to increase estimated building permit revenue by $100,000, which let them trim the planned property tax increase to 2.92 percent.

The City gets about 20 percent of a homeowner's total property tax bill. City staff estimate that the new budget will add about $46 to the tab for someone now paying $8,000 in real estate taxes.

Going into the meeting the proposed increase had been 3.16 percent – down from an original proposal by City Manager Julia Carroll of a nearly 7-percent boost. The earlier reduction was made by tapping budget reserves and increasing various other taxes and fees.

The aldermen also bit on an offer from an anonymous donor to contribute $60,000 toward the cost of setting up a police K-9 unit – including a police dog, vehicle and dog handler, who must be a sworn police officer.

The gift will cover the first-year cost of the dog patrol but leaves the City leashed to spending perhaps $120,000 a year on it in the future, Alderman Edmund Moran, 6th Ward, said.

Police Chief Frank Kaminski said the Evanston Police Department borrows K-9 units from other police departments about 30 times each year. He said they are useful for building searches and tracking, adding that the department had used a dog for tracking in the yet-unsolved murder of Linda Twyman last November.

Nickels, dimes and big bucks
To balance the budget the aldermen also voted to increase:
• The recycling collection service
charge that appears on City water
bills from $2.86 to $3.72 per month.
• The senior citizen taxi coupon rate
from $2 to $2.50.
• The cigarette tax from 32 to 50 cents
per pack.
• The late penalty for various parking
fines.
• The fee for processing tax-exempt
property transfers from $20 to $100.
• The building permit fee for projects
valued at more than $1 million from
1.2 percent to 1.5 percent of the
project's value.

At a budget review meeting on Feb. 22, aldermen discussed the increase in building-permit fees.

James Wolinski, director of community development, said Evanston's fees would still remain competitive, in part because of the cost and in part because the City does not impose impact fees on developers.

Impact fees relate to the impact a new project will have on the City's infrastructure, utilities, etc.

"I have never heard a developer say that he wouldn't build in Evanston because of the permit fees," he said.

A proposed tax on all food and beverages sold in the City was also discussed on Feb. 22, but when Alderman Ann Rainey, 8th Ward, moved to impose such a tax, coupled with a decrease in the tax on poured alcoholic drinks, no alderman seconded the motion.

Several representatives of local restaurants spoke against the proposed tax, as did Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Jonathan Perman.

The new budget went into effect March 1.

Building permits
Aldermen cautioned that estimates of building-permit fees do not indicate approval or disapproval for projects in the pipeline.

"Each year we have to make certain projections," said Alderman Lionel Jean-Baptiste, 2nd Ward, to try to save the taxpayers money.

Mr. Wolinski said he had left some projects out of the projections and included others, as he has done every year. "My estimates are usually on the conservative side," he said. "For the current year I projected $3.1 million in building-permit revenue, and we should end up right about that."

Ald. Moran said, "Developing a budget is not pure science. A little art gets folded into it." The Council, he said, still may reject projects included in the budget projections.