New City Council members made it close, but not impossible, for Evanston Mayor Daniel Biss to cast a tie-breaking vote to approve his appointee to the city’s Land Use Commission. The commission is currently charged with giving final approval for Envision Evanston 2045, an initiative that would increase density that Biss has strongly supported.
Councilmembers Tom Suffredin (6th), Clare Kelly (1st), Parielle Davis (7th) and Matt Rodgers (8th) voted “no” to Lutheran Grace Church Lead Pastor Luke Harris joining the Land Use Commission. Councilmembers Shawn Iles (3rd), Jonathan Nieuwsma (4th), Bobby Burns (5th) and Juan Geracaris (9th) voted to approve the mayor’s pick.
In Evanston, the mayor is responsible for appointing members to the city’s Boards, Commissions and Committees. Those appointees are then voted on by the City Council, and need a simple majority of votes to join a board.
Before casting their votes, city councilmembers gave their opinion on their vote.
“I have never had the privilege of being able to be underqualified for a position. I’ve never gotten a position over someone else who had higher credentials, and so I’ll say that this is a soft spot for me,” Davis said. “Quite frankly, I find this appointment to some degree insulting,” she said, because of Harris’ lack of experience compared to other applicants to the commission.
Previously, Biss allowed former Commissioner George Halik’s term to expire in order to create a vacancy on the Land Use Commission. Biss also attempted to appoint to the commission an affordable housing expert who specializes in low income housing tax credits, but the appointee was met with significant pushback following the discovery of her social media posts that critics said were ageist and biased in favor of making Evanston more dense.
Iles, the Overnight Shelter Director for Interfaith Action of Evanston, was under fire by some public commenters and Kelly who speculated that because of his employment and Lutheran Grace Church’s ties to Interfaith Action, he could not cast an impartial vote to approve Harris to the Land Use Commission.
Iles checked with Corporation Counsel Alexandra Ruggie to ask whether his vote would meet the city’s standard of a conflict of interest.
Ruggie said Iles’ vote would not be considered a conflict of interest under the city’s ethics code.
“It’s just not there,” Ruggie said. “It’s just too far removed.”
Lutheran Grace Church is one of 40 churches that provide funding to Interfaith Action, but a large portion of funding comes from individual donors, Iles said.
Iles commented, “He (Harris) has direct experience with affordable housing. I find him to be a passionate, informed, thoughtful member of our community. I think he can serve us well both as a younger person and as a renter,” he said.
Rodgers said prior to the meeting, he met with Harris over coffee to discuss his interest in being on the commission. “I was impressed with his commitment to affordable housing in Evanston, and making sure it’s some place that people can move to and live.”
“However, I do have a number of reservations about his overall qualifications for this position,” he continued. “Outside of recommending for the comprehensive general plan and the zoning ordinance, affordable housing is a very small part of what Land Use does.”
“I mentioned to the mayor in my letter to him that if Mr. Harris was nominated to (the) Housing and Community Development (Committee), I would be 100% supportive of that. I think that’s a great place for them to do the work they are interested in doing and accomplishing great things for Evanston,” Rodgers said.
Burns commented on the city’s form of council-manager government, which some on the council have described as a “weak mayor” government because the mayor does not vote or make motions, and does not typically give their opinion on agenda items during a council meeting.
“The one area where the mayor does have some influence, and obviously what you’re seeing here today still needs to be confirmed by this council, is appoint people to BCC’s (Boards, Commissions and Committees),” Burns said. “In my opinion, that is the way a mayor with a limited influence in this form of government can try to think about how to compose a BCC in a way that helps to deliver on the things that he told his constituents in the community were important to him, important to them, etc.,” he said.
“I don’t think there’s anything improper with that. That’s just to me the way that it works when you have that ability as a mayor,” Burns said. “As council, up here, we have to use our own lens whether or not we feel we agree with that composition.”
