Evanston: City Government that Works ... Sort of

The March 17th city council meeting struck me as both exciting and embarrassing as a taxpayer.

With only one topic, the planned skyscraper at 708 Church Street, nearly a hundred other Evanstonians arriving at city hall like a swarm of bees all focused on the same target, delaying the decision on this truly radical structure until the public benefits the builders have promoted become clear enough to make a good decision. In fact, the only people who seemed to be in a rush to sign the deal were the developers and perhaps a few members of the council.

Dozens of people spoke not simply to the often obscure benefits of the project, but also to the long-term decision about the changes to the look of Evanston's downtown area being made by a few individuals. Many, like me, were also concerned, that decisions made too quickly today will come back to haunt us as taxpayers down the road.

No one left the meeting with the same sense of urgency that the pro-development people seemed to have. The question is why the rush?

In addition to the questions about the project itself, most citizens in the room were angry at the way the meeting itself was conducted. At the beginning, Chairman Delores Holmes told speakers they would have one minute to make their case. The reasoning behind her somewhat arbitrary decision was never made clear short of her comment, "That's just the way it is." Many speakers were cut off in mid sentence. There was also no notice prior to the meeting that any time limit would be imposed on citizen comments.

Although Holmes did offer some speakers slightly more than one minute, no one could understand the rush to get through the comment period, especially since many voters had spent considerable time preparing rebuttals to the 708 Church project. Can you say disenfranchisement?

The other problem with the way the entire meeting worked is that as voters, none of us were able to get inside the heads of our elected leaders on 708. If they spoke, as only a few did, we at least had the opportunity to guess where those individuals might be headed. But for those who said nothing during the evening, the public was and still is left guessing. The only indication we'll have is when the final vote is taken and no one knows for certain when that will occur either.

No one would argue that government should operate in the open.

But elected officials should also be required to offer listeners a wrap up of their thoughts at the end of a city council meeting, especially one as important as this. No elected official should sit through hours of city council meetings and testimonies from voters and walk out of city hall with nothing to say ... unless of course they have something to hide.

Robert Mark