“I just think it’s very important,” Rodgers told council members, “that as we move forward, looking at people for commissions, and particular Land Use, which I am very passionate about, that we are finding people – and I’m not making a representation about the people who are being asked to join or anything like that – but people who do come are knowledgeable, have a passion for it because that’s not something you always find.”
Mayor: Term limits influenced decision
In response, the mayor said that, while “I regret we’re having this conversation in public,” he felt compelled to respond. He said that not two but four “terrific residents,” including Lindwall and Westerberg, sought to serve on the commission.
He expressed hope that the council could support such interest, adding, “I feel uncomfortable as though we’re sort of having a conversation that seems to put one above the other.”
In fact, he suggested that the council had played a role in the decision, overturning a referral from Kelly in March seeking to get rid of term limits on boards, commissions and committees that the mayor had previously proposed.
Council members voted 4-3 at their March 25 meeting to keep limits for residents serving on city advisory groups to two terms. There is no term limit on City Council service.
“One thing that I discussed when we were talking about that,” said the mayor, in his first term, “was, I said, you know if we’re to do this, I would certainly not treat reappointments as automatic in the way that they historically have been.”
With Kelly’s referral not having been approved, he maintained, “this council said, ‘We want more turnover. We don’t want to extend the term limits.’ So I felt like there was a signal coming from the council that it was interested in increasing turnover on boards, committees and commissions.”
Mission creep an additional concern
Additionally the mayor said, “I have to say that there’s been some concerns – not speaking specifically about the Land Use Commission here – about boards, committees and commissions across the board and needed areas of improvement.”
He cited as an example a letter from the Preservation Commission regarding the city’s planned wheelchair access at the dog beach. The beach falls within the Lakeshore Historic District, where city code requires the commission’s involvement.
“Their input on the issue is both appreciated,” he said, “but it was full of points that were well beyond their purview, to points about finance and budget and access for individuals with disabilities and so forth.
“That’s a pretty good illustration,” the mayor suggested, “of some challenges that we’re seeing across boards and committees and commissions as mission creep and kind of jurisdictional disputes and fights about purview – all that stuff is going on across the system.”
Biss: Err on side of applicants ‘more change-forward’
All that went into his decision on four applicants vying for the two slots that would open with Lindwall and Westerberg’s first term ending July 1.
He emphasized that all four were excellent applicants, and “any decision between them was really a matter of taste.
“They’re all good, capable, talented people who deserve our thanks for being willing to serve. In talking with all four of them – in thinking about the comprehensive planning process that is so critical for the city where I’ve expressed several times my passion about making sure that we go big – I just felt like I was going to kind of err on the side of people who were more ambitious about change and more open to change,” he explained.
He stressed that was not meant as criticism for those who have served on the Land Use Commission since its inception. The potential new candidates were just “a little more change-forward,” he said, in their interviews.
1 vote for change, 1 vote for experience
He said strong arguments could be made whether experience and excellent service should be prioritized over “being kind of maximally excited about change.”
He said he had strong feelings both ways.
“And there’s two vacancies,” he noted. He credited “a very helpful meeting” with council members Melissa Wynne (3rd Ward), the senior member of the council, and Eleanor Revelle (7th Ward) in support of Kelly on the issue, retaining the commissioners. He ended up retaining one, Lindwall, in the compromise that was struck.
(The RoundTable has made a Freedom of Information request to obtain the letter referred to during the meeting, urging support from a majority of council members.)
Burns: Committee representation not where ‘we would like to see’
In discussion, council members Bobby Burns (5th Ward) and Devon Reid (8th Ward), two of the three African American City Council members on the nine-member council, spoke in support of the mayor’s direction. Burns said he and others advocated positions and were frustrated in the days before he joined the council.
“We tried to get on boards, commissions, committees and I know while I was making those attempts and others were – we were denied those opportunities in many cases and in many cases never given a reason,” Burns said.
Kelly’s referral for reappointments (her referral was to eliminate term limits for a certain number of the city’s boards, committees and commissions) “suggests to me that we’ve arrived at a place where we have the type of representation we would like to see. We don’t, and we probably absolutely don’t on the Land Use Commission,” Burns said. “I’m curious, how many African Americans, how many people of color, generally speaking? I can speak as an African American, that alone doesn’t necessarily matter, but being Black and from Evanston and having experiences does matter.”
Reid thanked the mayor “for hearing council, for hearing those of us who are seeking to add more diversity. Certainly, racial diversity,” he said, but also “diversity of thought, diversity of approach. It is important that we add that diversity of thought, that diversity of approach,” he said, especially to the Land Use Commission, which is expected to play a key role translating feedback officials have received in the Envision Evanston 2045 process into ordinances and policies putting them into action.
Kelly said she was fully in support of the need for diversity and lived experience.
What we’re speaking to tonight is genuinely this outstanding approach of these two women. I mean they really do go above and beyond … I mean their backgrounds are incredible … and they are outstandingly thorough.
“And again, this is a second term,” she said, before council members voted 8-0 in support of the mayor’s recommended appointment of Darush Mabadi to a four-year term on the Land Use Commission. The unanimous vote included Kelly and the other council members who had urged both commissioners be reappointed.
Westerberg: Reappointments the mayor’s purview
Westerberg, in a phone interview Friday, said that while she had hoped to serve a second term, “it certainly is the mayor’s purview to make a change if he wishes to.”
“I am glad that the mayor reconsidered his initial decision on Jeanne Lindwall, because Jeanne Lindwall has a great history, a great career in urban planning, zoning reviews,” she said. “That expertise I think will really be helpful to the city as it goes through the comprehensive planning process it is now in.”
The commission as it currently stands, she said, comprises “a really good lineup of folks that was able to look at projects from different perspectives.
“And I think it’s important for folks to remember that the Land Use Commission doesn’t make decisions. We are there as a resource,” she said. “We are advisory only. And I do think it’s helpful for the council, mayor, and the community to hear, you know, how we go through these proposals and what we look for.”
On the question of development, “I think you look for a balance,” Westerberg said. “The city needs new development. There’s no question about that: the city needs to allow for more density, because that’s the direction we’re all headed in. But you want to just make sure there’s a balance there, between the new growth and the rights of the citizens of Evanston who already live there.”
“I don’t consider myself anti-development,” she said, when asked if that was a factor in her non-reappointment in favor of candidates more ambitious about change.
“I voted against some projects because I felt they didn’t meet the criteria that were in the comprehensive plan and in the zoning regulations,” she said. “I’ve also voted for projects that I felt were large but still met the criteria. So it really comes down to the individual project, you know, where it’s located. How close is it to residential neighborhoods? How big is it? What’s the scale? And those are the things that you need to at least identify for the council as it makes its decisions.”
Mabadi: Make Evanston the best city it can be
The discussion at the City Council meeting ended with the council voting 8-0 to confirm the mayor’s appointment of Mabadi, a local real estate broker who has lived most of his life in Evanston.
“I’m a big fan of trying to get Evanston to be the best city it can be,” he said during a phone interview.
He counts himself as a friend of both the current mayor as well as Steve Hagerty, the previous mayor.
“These guys have really, I thought, have done a really great job dealing with challenges,” he said.
Mabadi said he donated $1,000 to Biss’ campaign chest last December in support of the leadership he has brought.
At the same time, he said, “I disagree with some of the things that he wants to do and I’ve actually told him I disagree with him, and that’s fine. We’re not simpatico on every issue, nor should we be.”
He said he hopes to bring “positive energy to the Land Use Commission.”
“We need to figure out how to do development that is sensible for the needs of the community,” he said, “and not all the needs of the community are identical. Like, do we need to have affordable housing or we also need to have some higher quality development in the downtown area to create more tax revenue” to fund different ventures?
“And you can’t do it by saying ‘no’ all the time. So sometimes we want to get to a less adversarial approach. That doesn’t mean give up our principles or what’s right for the community. It means to find a way to a compromise that works for everybody.”
Mabadi was a supporter of the Field of Opportunities group – residents who backed Northwestern’s Ryan Field rebuild.
The mayor cast a tie-breaking vote on the stadium, allowing the university to stage concerts at the stadium once rebuilt despite strong opposition from neighbors.
“I supported it because I thought it was the right thing to do. And I think sometimes you’ve got to build stuff,” he said, citing the money the city will be receiving in return. “And this is a smaller footprint – it’s a sharper, more useful footprint.”
“I mean, we’ve been clamoring about getting money from them that we haven’t been getting like all these other high-end boutique Ivy-level schools are giving to their communities. And so here we are in an adversarial relationship, on and off for 50 years, since I was a kid, with Northwestern. Let’s talk it out with these guys and figure out a way to get things done. It may not be perfect, but I think it’s progress.”
