How to tackle a looming contract. Facing pollution, in landfills and elsewhere. Where progress has been made — and where it hasn’t.
For an hour and a half, the questions flew by.
With less than two months until election day on April 1, the eight candidates vying for Naperville City Council gathered for the first time Monday night to share their positions on environmental and sustainability issues facing the city.
The forum, hosted by the Naperville Environment and Sustainability Task Force (NEST), was held at First Congregational Church. Community members packed the meeting room that served as the event’s venue.
And at the front of the crowd sat the field for the four, four-year terms opening on council, including incumbents Jennifer Bruzan Taylor, Ian Holzhauer and Benny White and challengers Meghna Bansal, Mary Gibson, Derek McDaniel, Nag Jaiswal and Ashfaq Syed.
Candidates were asked three questions prepared by NEST — for which they were each given 90 seconds to answer — followed by a series of rapid-fire yes or no questions. The forum rounded out with a few queries from the audience.
Questions started with the prospect of a contract extension with the city’s current electricity provider, the coal-reliant Illinois Municipal Electric Agency (IMEA).
Though the city’s current contract expires in 2035, the agency wants Naperville to extend its commitment to 2055 and has requested that the city decide by this spring. Candidates were asked if they unconditionally oppose signing the early contract extension and what next steps they recommend.
Bruzan Taylor, first elected to council in 2021, emphasized that “any renewal for our contract — or any determination we make in how we’re going to procure our energy in the future — is going to be on Naperville’s timeline, not IMEA’s timeline.” She also urged bidding the contract out, “just like we would any other project before Naperville.”
Gibson, currently president of the Naperville Park Board, said she “emphatically” opposes renewing early with IMEA. As for next steps, Gibson said, “I think we need a climate action plan that looks at sustainable (and) environmental measures holistically throughout our community.”
Holzhauer, elected to council in 2021, said, “Yes, I unequivocally oppose the early renewal or any renewal at all of this contract.” Looking ahead, Holzhauer advised against “creating a false impression that there’s some sort of negotiation to be had with IMEA in the year 2025.”
Jaiswal, who is running for council for the second time, said he would “definitely not” be supportive of signing an early contract renewal in coming months. He encouraged exploring other options — noting that he is not saying “yes or no to IMEA” at this point — and added that whichever direction the city goes should not have a substantial impact on taxpayers.
McDaniel, a two-term Planning and Zoning Commission member, said he believes “it is premature to commit to a position on the early contract extension” until the city receives a report back from a consultant it hired in December to evaluate available energy procurement options. The city should prioritize both ratepayer savings and environmental sustainability, he said.
Syed, Naperville Public Library Board president, said he is “going to strongly oppose signing off (on an) IMEA contract.” He added that, “We need to plan, we need to think (about) alternate ways … and then bring communities together, talk to the stakeholders and then we make a decision.”
White, who is seeking his third term on council, said, “I unconditionally oppose signing any type of contract extension at this point.” At the end of the day, “we want to have the cleanest energy for the best price,” White said. The city needs to put out a request for proposals to “figure out what companies would like to bid on a contract that can support Naperville,” he said.
Bansal, who currently serves on Naperville’s Planning and Zoning Commission, said her top three priorities for energy procurement are reliability, affordability and sustainability. In response to IMEA “demanding to renew,” she would say “no to the extension of this contract,” she said.
Candidates were also asked where they thought the city had made adequate progress — and where it was falling short — in seeing through the goals laid out in Sustainable Naperville 2036, a series of initiatives compiled by NEST that council members committed to pursuing in 2021.
Hopeful actions listed in the report range from reducing the city’s greenhouse gas emissions from 2012 levels by 60% by 2036 and increasing efficiency in all buildings to transitioning the city’s fleet of vehicles to 50% electric by 2030 and incentivizing zero waste measures.
For successes, nearly every candidate spoke to Naperville transitioning towards using electric vehicles. Bruzan Taylor pointed to the city being a top-ranked community for electric vehicles per capita in the state. Holzhauer, Jaiswal and Gibson lauded the local emphasis on planting native vegetation.
As for areas of improvement, White said he wants to see more revenue from state fees imposed on EV owners going back to the city. Syed said he wanted to see an active mobility plan come to fruition, while McDaniel and Bansal pointed to net zero energy building codes.
Across rapid-fire questions, candidates mostly aligned on issues. They all said they’d support developing a comprehensive carbon action plan for the city as well as support providing recycling to multifamily dwellings and commercial properties. They also all replied yes when asked if Naperville should set timelines and goals for adopting electric vehicles for its city government fleet.
All eight candidates said yes to adding EV chargers and solar panels to municipal buildings, expanding bike infrastructure and incentivizing businesses to install EV charging stations .
The one question that spurred diverging positions was whether candidates would support a plastic bag fee to reduce single-use plastic waste.
Jaiswal, White, Gibson and Syed replied yes.
McDaniel, Bansal, Holzhauer and Bruzan Taylor said no.
Monday’s candidate forum can be viewed in full at http://bit.ly/4gr0rxt.
Early voting for Naperville’s April 1 consolidated election starts on March 17. More voter information can be found at https://www.naperville.il.us/government/voting-and-voter-registration/.
