By Bob Seidenberg

Evanston City Council members are technically part-time positions under the city’s council-manager form of government, but starting next year they may have a full-time salaried administrator whose job will be to assist them.

The new post did not come without opposition, however.

In the City Council’s budget discussion Monday, Council Member Clare Kelly (1st Ward), requested the proposed job be removed from the list of 15.6 new positions City Manager Luke Stowe has proposed be added in the city’s 2024 budget.

Kelly cited “the increased financial pressures on our residents,” and estimated with the job removed from the new position list, and an end to a virtual assistant executive support program the city contracted with last year, the savings would amount to $200,000.

Besides, the city had added a full-time policy coordinator, Alice Leipsiger, near the start of council members’ terms, and that is working very well, Kelly maintained.

“Positions are expensive, and I think we should be really careful adding where it’s needed most,” she said, “and I just don’t think we need to add yet another position that’s helping in serving City Council like this.”

Stowe and other officials estimated the costs would be much less, closer to $70,000. The new administrative position would not start until April, when the city would end use of Worxbee, the virtual assistant service.

Kelly said her preference would be that the city not use either one, making a motion to remove funding for Worxbee and the new position from the proposed 2024 budget.

“I feel well served by our policy coordinator,” she said.

Reid: Need someone to ease the load

Some other council members argued strongly in favor of Stowe’s recommendation of creating a new position devoted to assisting Council members.

Council Member Devon Reid (8th Ward) said he was expecting cost-cutting ideas “a bit larger … out of the gate” than Kelly’s proposal, as council members began whittling down Stowe’s proposed budget, which calls for a 7.8% increase in the city’s property tax levy.

The proposed hike would add about $130 annually on a home valued at $400,000, officials have said. The city is responsible for about 20% of the property tax bill of Evanston homeowners.

“All of us here are working hard, but as a council member who serves on more committees than anyone else, who puts so much time and effort into this damn job, I need an assistant,” Reid said. “I need someone to help take off the load.”

Reid said that while Leipsiger “has been great” as the council’s policy coordinator, her position is not designed to help with council members’ workflow. “Alison has a specific job, and being a council assistant is not that job,” he said.

“And you know, Council Member Kelly,” Reid said, addressing her directly, “and for those who are potentially supporting this, I know all of us know, how much time this [council member job] takes.

“We have a $450 million budget and none of us are full time. I’ve done the math. I, for myself, get paid about $2 an hour.” Evanston City Council members receive annual salaries of $15,990 for the part-time positions and are eligible to receive health care benefits at reduced costs.

“I would be very disappointed if folks didn’t take that into consideration,” Reid said.

Nieuwsma: New position could boost constituent services

Fourth Ward Council member Jonathan Nieuwsma sided with Reid.

“I need help, given the amount of time spent talking on the phone, answering emails, managing my calendar,” Nieuwsma said. “I would like to share an administrator with council members – somebody who’s on staff at the city. I think Worxbee was all right, but I think it will be much more effective for me to be able to deliver effective constituent services to the residents of the Fourth Ward if I have somebody on staff who can help me to navigate the internal structure of the Civic Center.”

Council Member Juan Geracaris (9th Ward) said he had used Worxbee and found it to be “incredibly helpful.”

However, “as someone whose main concern is that property tax number,” and bringing it down, Geracaris said, “I would willingly take one for the team and not have [administrative] help in that manner.”

Council Member Bobby Burns (5th Ward) first proposed the city consider contracting with Worxbee during budget discussions last year. “We were able to get much-needed support for those of us who need it,” he said Monday.

“We all do not approach this job the same, and we all don’t put in the same amount of hours,” he said.

“Some of us don’t even hold consistent ward meetings or have office hours,” he said. “Some of us get more involved in constituent services than others. I think last year we recognized that because there are some council members who need additional support to carry out the work in the way their constituents expect, that we would use Worxbee for the time being and work to have a more permanent in-house solution in this budget year – what’s being proposed at this point.”

He said he had polled some former council members who have represented wards in Evanston “who all were saying they all would have benefited from this.”

“I’m someone who also wants to find ways to not have to raise property taxes. It’s not going to be from cutting a $60,000 increase,” Burns said. “So let’s not kid ourselves. There are a bunch of ways we can find to cut costs.”

Kelly estimated it would be about a $200,000 savings to cut both Worxbee and the proposed new administrator position.

Asked to clarify by Reid, city Budget Director Clayton Black said the original $68,042 contract with Worxbee is in place. “It gets us through April and we would extend the contract as well if we didn’t receive direction to not budget for another year,” he said.

Based on that arrangement, Reid said, “if we’re looking to save money, we’re obviously not going to hire that person [the new administrator] on the first day of the year.

“I know I need Worxbee to continue until we hire someone,” he said. Reid said if the city could hire someone to start in April, he would support that move – the arrangement “saving money off both of these to find maybe $50,000 to $60,000 worth of savings.”

Council Member Eleanor Revelle (7th Ward) said, “I have to say, I am sympathetic with Council Member Kelly’s motion. And, you know, speaking as someone [who is] too much of a hands-on person … to make use of an assistant, I do hear my colleagues who say they really do need this to help with their managing their aldermanic duties. I will reluctantly support this administrative service.”

Kelly observed that there appeared to be consensus on ending the Worxbee contract, “but I don’t think we should be adding yet another position like this.” She raised concern about “redundant charges.”

Suffredin: ‘It’s just more gimme, gimme, gimme‘

Stowe told council members the city would not end its agreement with Worxbee until a person was in place, so there would be a smooth transition.

Black said phasing out Worxbee in April and not starting the full-time position until April 1 would save about $80,000 compared to what’s budgeted right now.

Reid then made a substitute motion to to reduce the total expenditure on the two positions by $70,000. That motion passed 8-1, with Council Member Thomas Suffredin (6th Ward) casting the lone vote against.

Kelly later asked to retract her yes vote, saying said she had been thrown off by the substitute motion. She said she intends to bring back her proposal to do away with both Worxbee and the council administrator position at the Nov. 27budget discussion.

Explaining his no vote, Suffredin said “there was no effort to explain why this position is needed, what the current outside vendor has done, and what the value would be to residents.”

“It’s just more gimme, gimme, gimme from a council that thinks taxpayers work for them and not the other way around,” he said. “If we’re serious about eliminating the need for unsustainable tax and fee increases then we’ve got to be serious.”