January 19th 2023
Establish a plan to eliminate structural racism within Evanston City Government
- Create an Equity Indicators Dashboard for Evanston, preferably in consultation with the CUNY Institute for State and Local Governance
- Conduct a racial equity audit of COE using an outside organization with racial equity expertise, e.g.: Race Forward, GARE, Race Matters Institute, Converge, Disruptive Equity Education Project, Partners for Collaborative Change,
- Fully implement the recommendations of the Black Employees group and the Prescott Salvatore report on the lifeguard scandal
- Re-examine and consider implementing the summer 2020 EFBL action plan to shift the budget to reduce spending on police and increase spending on social services and mental health
- Outsource HR to a respected, independent firm to eliminate systemic inequities, nepotism and inconsistent practices.
Establish a plan to increase the number of city staff living in Evanston to 50% within 10 years
- Prioritize hiring of current or former Evanston residents
- Incentivize moving to Evanston for all senior management positions and police
Improve transparency and communication with the public
- Adapt the Draft Municipal Public Participation Ordinance for Evanston
- Implement report back and response mechanism for issues raised in public comment
- Reduce the number of closed executive sessions to only those required by law. Require all Council members, Mayor and City manager received training on the Ope Meetings Act.
- Require all council members to hold ward meetings
- Require departments to demonstrate a threshold of community participation and buy-in before launching major projects
- Implement an expectation of staff respect for, and openness to the public.
Finances and Economic Development
- Implement 10 year clawbacks and community benefits agreements as part of all major development contracts
- Negotiate with Northwestern over property taxes on rental property and payments in lieu of taxes
- Launch a public plan for spending ARPA funds
- Provide consistent accountability over public funds, especially any surplus funds and debt
Intergovernmental Cooperation
- Invest in deeper level collaboration with District 65 and 202
- Increase staff participation in the International City/County Management Association, the Government Alliance on Race and Equity and the Illinois Municipal League
- Look to best practices recommendations in creating policies from these organizations
Affordable, Livable Housing
- Increase and preserve the stock of affordable housing to meet the existing need.
- Revise and strengthen the Inclusionary Housing Ordinance
- Provide funding and staff resources to enforce the newly strengthened fair housing ordinance
- Fully fund an equitable and strong rental housing inspection program