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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes 2001-2005Approved MINUTES OF THE RULES COMMITTEE MONDAY, NOVENIBER 5. 2001 6:00 p.m. ALDERN LAN IC LIBRARY Present: Aldermen Steven Bernstein, Stephen Engelman, Gene Feldman, Edmund Moran, Art Newman S: Ann Rainey Presiding: Alderman Stephen Engelman Absent: Aldermen Lionel Jean -Baptiste, Joseph Kent, 6: Melissa Wynne Staff Present: Maureen Barry, Roger Crum, Darlene Francellno, ;Mark Fran:, & Ellen Szymanski Guest: A. Doraine Anderson, Itiimi Peterson, & Bob Seidenberg CALL TO ORDER: Aid. Engelman called the meeting to order at 6:18 p.m. APPROVAI.OF MINUTES OF THE OCTOBER 1. 2�V1 MEETING:, Aid. Newman moved for approval. Aid. Feldman seconded. Minutes approved. CONTIN[:ATION OF REVIEW OF ETHICS ORDINANCE: Aid. Engelman stated that the committee had received a new revised draft of the proposed ethics ordinance with some additional language/comments and a complaint form. Ms. Szymanski stated that she had attempted to incorporate into the draft the variety of comments she had read from the minutes of the last meeting, as well as concerns she thought had been expressed at previous meetings. Mr. Crum commented that the direction was to come up «ith a single document that merged everybody's comments into one. Aid. Newman said that his. Szymanski did a very nice job on the complaint form of the ethics --iolation, which was the most important part. The form reflected the discussion, and the ordinance had been in fact a mixture of everybody's comments. It was not exactly where he wanted to end up, but certainly was a vast improvement as to where they were when they started. He wanted to see the committee move something forward unless someone saw a new defect. Aid. Moran had %�a.rious comments on the form, the suggested revision and the ordinance. He stated that it was helpful that Ms. Szymanski added the series of potential unethical Approved activities; in the second paragraph on the front page so that people could look at it and develop a sense of ghat might be considered an unethical %iolation. He suggested leaving it the Bray it was and perhaps at the end add something that would be sort of a catch all. Something like "or other activities that you believe are unethical." In other words letting people understand that one through five are examples of unethical behaviors, with further provision that whatever the complaint is it has to be specified, but also to let people know those aren't the onh. unethical violations. Aid. Newman singe=ted usin- "or and• other alleged violation under the ordinance", to at least encourage the people to read the ordinance before they file a complaint, and not just guess. Ms. Szymanski stated that one way of wording it would be to add an item six that would basically state "identify with specificity any other ways, in which the respondent has failed to act with impartiality, has misused public property or has had a conflict of interest." Aid. Newman accepted, as well as Aid. Feldman as long as it referred to the ordinance. Nis. Szymanski said that it would. Aid. Engelman said he personally did not think they should have a complaint form. Ald. Moran's next continent was in the next paragraph on the first page of the complaint form, the third substance of the paragraph where it reads "I have provided below a legible, specific, clear, and complete statement......". He moved to take out the words "legible, specific, and clear". He understood that the objective w•as to get a legible, clear, and specific, statement, but felt that it was sort of insulting. In addition, who would be the judge of whether it was legible, clear or specific' He thought it would be better to put it parenthetical or something, someway where it says please try to be as clear and specific as possible. Aid. Ne%%man seconded the motion to take out the words "legible, specific and clear" of that particular paragraph. Aid. Engelman asked for a vote. Motion carried. No nays. Aid. Engelman stated that those words would be stricken from the complaint form in paragraph three and a catch all phase would be added to paragraph two of the complaint form. He asked if there were any other comments on the complaint form.' Aid. Horan stated that on the second page in the first paragraph he noticed in Ms. Srymanski's memo that she tried to sort of finesse this thing about confidentiality, which was a good effort on her part, but he didn't see how they could do that. What they do as a procedure for the board of ethics is the procedure that guides how the board of ethics does its work. To have an ethics procedure that says you can't talk about this, according to the paragraph that reads "......unless and until the board of ethics informs you that the board has found that it has jurisdiction....." is against the first amendment. Ms. Szymanski responded that it was the fact of filing the complaint. Aid. Moran said should they adopt, he Approved did not see anybody that would be able to easily discern that they are just talking about the fact of filing. To him it looked like it was saying you can't talk about this until the board of ethics tells you that you can. He did not think they could do that and thought the city might be sued. Aid. Newman moved to adopt the complaint form as amended and the second amendments at this point. Aid. Feldman seconded. The reason old. Neuman did not except Aid. Moran's amendment was because he had the experience of hearing the process inyol►ing the complaint before the State of Illinois on the NEA. He read the stwtue on ►►-hat the state board of elections did with that complaint invoking that condos and crack organization that spent money illegally and the process before the State of Illinois. In answer to Aid. Moran's first amendment claim, the State of Illinois did not release. The State of Illinois has a confidential process until the board finds there is a basis for a complaint. Then as soon as the board finds that there is a basis for a complaint, everything is out into the open, the press and everybody is invited, they disseminate everything. Aid. Newman continued by saying there has been a first amendment analysis. His understanding of what would be done with this complaint is that as soon as the board found that a complaint has been alleged, then the process is going to be completely open and everything would be released to the newspapers and the public. It is only during this pre - complaint process that things are not released. That is a fair thing and he did not think there was any first amendment. If the person filing the complaint does disclose the information there is not anything in the ordinance that sanctions them and he is not saying that the complaint ►would be dropped. A couple of things concerned Aid. Bernstein. He stated that if there are no sanction, why have the paragraph? Additionally, the reason for which they did not want people to be able to go to the press was to preclude people from screaming and hollering, unless and until they filed the complaint. This paragraph only says that the complainant can't tell somebody they have filed a complaint. But the reason for which they would be filing a complaint is fair game. So someone could go to the press and say this guy did this and that, but that person is not filing a complaint yet, just letting the press know this is what happened. He stated that this language did not do that and thought they were trying to preclude that by this kind of language. Aid. Neuman read the paragraph which stated "I understand and agree by signing this complaint that the information herein is strictly confidential and that I shall not disclose that I have filed this complaint unless and until the Board of Ethics informs me in writing that the Board has found that it has jurisdiction to conduct an investigation of the charges I have made and intends to do so." Aid. Bernstein said he read that as meaning, the filing of the complaint, not the information contained in the complaint. Again, why have that paragraph if you are not going to sanction them, if they do disclose? Aid. Newman did not think a person should be sanctioned if they disclose and not cooperate with the spirit of the 3 Approved process to act in good faith. He also thought that if a person does disclose that should not mean that the complaint is not valid. Aid. Bernstein stated that the language should be changed if the concern is that they act in good faith or either don't tell them to not do something if there is no sense or sanction for them doing something;. Aid. Engelman said what he thought Aid. Bernstein was saying was he ~could be ok with the paragraph if it were more in the nature of an urging, as in "I acknowledge that to protect confidentiality I have been requested not to disclose that I have filed this complaint unless and until the board........." Aid. Bernstein said that was good. Aid. Newman accepted that as a friendly amendment and would change he motion to accept that. Aid. Feldman seconded. Aid. Engelman said the motion on the table now was merely to approve the complaint form as written and/or as amended, if it was approved they still had to deal with the ordinance which authorizes them to require a complaint form. Aid. Feldman asked if this should go before the Council? The response was yes. Aid. Moran stated that was why he was against this stuff, these things should be discussed openly and roundly. There should not be motions to try to cut short the attempts to ►widdle away at the ethical review process in the city. He was against that paragraph and the requirement of filing it under oath. Even in judicial proceedings, in the State of Illinois, whether they are _ filed in state or federal court, the vast majority of pleadings that are filed that initiate litigation are not verified through an oath or an affirmation. They are simply presented either by the party pro say or by their legal representative who signs the complaint and files it. He thought by putting in a requirement of an oath or affirmation here is one more attempt to engage into an interim effort to discourage people from invoking the procedures set forth in the ethics ordinance and it should not be allowed. Aid. Newman said in the division that he practices, which is domestic relations, everything that goes into that division is a requirement that is verified. Ald. Engelman said it doesn't mean that it is true. Aid. Newman said no it doesn't, there is a requirement that every petition filed be either verified under oath or certified under penalties of perjury and that doesn't discourage 20,000 people a year from filing original actions and 50,000 people a year _ from filing post decree actions. There is absolutely no e►idence in his mind that exist at all that by merely having a certification requirement, that anybody is discouraged at all. - Otherwise, there would not be 70,000 actions filed a year in Cook County alone related to - his area of practice. So he does not agree with Aid. Moran and basically thinks that in this case many of them have attempted to compromise on this. He wanted to emphasize that the product of this form will be a very open process because everything that the board does after they find that there is a valid complaint against somebody covered will then be subject to the press, people, witnesses, and whatever due process or everything else. 4 Approved Aid. Horan said he was hoping that their ethics ordinance and the procedures under it would be looked upon differently from divorce court, and they should. Aid. Newman said he wanted to reflect in the minutes that some people refer to divorce court also as children's court. Aid. Feldman said the genesis of this had to do with what the Council and at least many on the Rules Committee felt, that there were great opportunities for injustice to be found by somebody making accusations that they in fact knee• the violations were not true. It seemed to him that if you make such a serious charge as unethical conduct, concerning an elected official or someone else in the city that is so significant that the least that could be done is ask do they believe this to be true and sign it. Is there not something incumbent upon the accuser? Why do we have it set up that whatever price is paid, is paid by the accused no matter whether he or she is found to have violated the ordinance or not. There is something that we have to ask of them, some commitment saying they believe this to be true and sign their name. Ald. Rainey said she wanted to make a point that it was extremely apparent to her that the Township was not in anywhere covered by an ethics ordinance. Aid. Engelman said the Township Trustees had to do that. Aid. Newman said he would like to pass this ethics ordinance identically for the Township and the Township Trustees. He asked lMs. Szymanski if they could do that. Ms. S_ymanski said she would review that and get back to the City Manager. Aid. Engelman thanked his. Szymanski. Aid. Bernstein questioned the order to invoke the perjury clause. This in effect says, it is true, and if it proves not to be true than you subject yourself to perjury. If something is added again to relate to the good faith, does that still invoke the perjury? Aid. Rainey said you are almost more secure if an ethics «olation is filed because at least things get dealt with. If they just go to the press and say this or that kind of thing happened, then it is worse. You have no opportunity to defend yourself. The point with all of this is no matter what they make people sign or swear to as the planning is taking place for filing an ethics violation, and planning must be involved. What happens then is the part that is most harmful, when the press is notified, that is when all of the gossip goes out into the community. Her main goal is that citizens aren't unjustly accused. All of the forms in the world aren't going to protect you if somebody wants to get you. Aid. Engelman said there is a motion on the floor to adopt the complaint forth, assuming that they then go ahead with the ordinance, with the catch all phrase in paragraph two, deleting the language in paragraph 3, and softening the language in the first paragraph of the second page. Nothing else has been changed with regards to the issue of verification. There was a motion made and seconded. He said he was voting against all of the changes in the form because he thought citizens should be able to file a complaint if they have one. He thought ghat they should be doing about this ordinance was making sure the complainant 5 Approved knows that the complaint was filed. That it was filed quickly and timely and that the defendant knows that the complaint was made and knows in a timely manner and nothing would be done without his or her ability to answer the charges. The rest of it was more than needed. As he said before you can't stop people from saying someone violated the ordinance. Ms. Szymanski asked for clarification on which language was to be softened. Aid. Engelman said the language to be softened was "I understand and agree by signing this complaint that the information herein is strictly confidential" and "I recognize that I've been requested not to talk about chic". Aid. Engelman asked for a vote. With 4 yeas and 2 nays the motion uvas passed. Aid. Newman moved for approval, as part of his motion that the complaint form be incorporated and used as part of 59.0-01. He also moved simultaneously that ordinance 59- 0.01 be introduced as part of the agenda for the Township's Board of Trustees on the yellow agenda, so that the Township Trustees can vote on the exact same ordinance to apply to the employees and the elected officials of the Township. Ald. Rainey seconded. Aid. Newman said in response to the opposition to the complaint form it had never been his intent to discourage people from filing complaints. The intent had been to clear up an ordinance and some procedures, which have left the respondents to the complaints without proper notice and which have on repeated occasions forced citizens to have to defend complaints in which the respondent was not even a subject to the ordinance. He wanted to make that clear because he wanted to counteract as far as the presentation in the minutes, the impression that somehow there is an attempt to weaken the ordinance in its substance. That has not been changed at all they have just dealt with some of the procedural issues. They have not dealt with conflict of interest or with impartiality. They have not dealt with all of the things that are a violation of the ordinance but has dealt with the procedure to bring the complaint. The procedure before them now is a much fairer one to the people bringing it and for the people who are going to have to respond to it. He felt that they did a good job of it and thanked the citizens and the members of the Council, if it is passed, for their efforts on trying to obtain that goal. Aid. Engelman said that the motion has been made and seconded. He asked if there were any further discussion' Aid. Moran wanted to make it clear that he believed in a strong ethics ordinance and ethical behavior in government. fir. Crum stated that the reference for the Township was going to take a good bit of more work because there was not a basic code of ethics for the To►reship, it is a major change. There are a lot of language changes throughout the entire code of ethics that has to be changed. Aid. Engelman read the motion as recommend to the Council, adoption of this ordinance and gave direction to the staff to bring forward a similar ordinance to cover the Township. N. Approved He stated that it was not just this ordinance that had to be adopted by the Township Trustees, it was the underlying chapter 10 of the board of ethics. Aid. Newman said the sense of his motion was to do what the City Manager said. AId. Rainey said it is an emergency and needs to be dealt with. Ald. Nev.-man asked if they could bring the two at the same time at the December council meeting.' Mr. Crum said he would have to check with the legal department. He didn't think they had really researched what it takes to create a code of ethics for the Township. Ms. Szymanski said the legal department would have to look at the state statue on the Tntiwnchip to see if there are any specific requirements and could not speak to that tonight. Aid. Rainey asked \1s. Szymanski if she looked at it and there was nothing, could they go forward. lMs. Szytanski said yes. The committee agreed to give the law department time to look into this and have it ready by the 1st or 2nd council meeting in December. Aid. Engelman said he agreed that the people who brought forward the request to change the ordinance and the proponents of the ordinance were doing it with the idea that they did not want to change the ordinance, but to create a fairer ordinance. He agreed 10096 with the concept that these are boughtable motives. He disagreed that the best way was to set up hoops that include "no such complaint of official misconduct that fails to include the following, will be considered by the Board" then listed are things that must be on there or the board will not consider it. He did not think that those kinds of hoop should be put out there. Aid. Engelman asked for a vote on recommending to the Council the adoption of ordinance 59-0-01 and also bringing forward a similar ordinance for the Township. ;Motion was passed with 4 yea and 2 nays. Aid. Bernstein said he was voting "I" with the caveat that paragraph'e' be changed in conformance with the same change in the complaint. Aid. Newman motioned that all the changes that were made to the complaint shall be incorporated, into the ordinance. Aid. Rainey seconded. ALDER' AN EXPENSE REIMBURSEMENT POLICY: Aid. Newman said the intent of the reimbursement policy was to cower communications for sward mailings and ward meetings. He thought the 5300.00 amount should be increased and stated that it is going to be communications allowance with your constituents and define communications. Aid. Engelman felt the appropriate way of going about this was to define what is reimbursable. He stated that in terms of the amount, it is a budgeted item that may change from year to year. The committee needs to get certain directions from the City Manager on the budget and everyone needed to understand that each Alderman should be able to get 1/9 Approved of whatever the total is budgeted. That does not mean that if one Alderman does not spend all of his/hers allowance that other Aldermen can't get reimbursed. Aid. Rainey suggested that the committee think in terms of not limiting; it just to communications, because there are other things they might want to use it for, if it was available, and maybe have the Rules Committee approve expenditures. For example, tomorrow she was going to court downto-wn in the loop. Fortunately she was going with a city employee who v6ill get reimbursed by the city for parking. If she were to drive herself and others, she should act reimbursed for the $18.00 she would pay for parking. It i-vas suggested that the committee think of other items to put on the list that are in the same spirit. Aid. Engelman said they would discussion this at their next meeting. COMMUNICATION: CITE' COUNCIL MEETING SCHEDULE FOR 2002: Aid. Engelman stated this was a communication and will be adopted at City Council, but will try to have a Rules Committee meeting in December on the same night as Human Services if they meet. Aid. Newman asked when does the schedule have to be approved for nest year? fir. Crum said prior to the start of the year. OTHER ITEMS: AId. Engelman said it was the intent of the chair of this committee to actually address redistricting as soon as possible after the first of the year. Ms. Szymanski asked that the minutes reflect that Hoard of Ethics member Cornelius Spelman provided a substantial portion of the complaint form that was provided for the committee. _ Aid. Engelman stated that he wanted the record also to reflect that every member of the Rules Committee thanks her for her efforts and service. Whether they voted for it or not. ADJOURNMENT: _ i Meeting adjourned at 7:25 p.m. Respectfully submitted, Darlene Francellno Draft - Not oppraved MINUTES OF THE RULES CO.NI,IITTEE MONDAZ`, OCTOBER I, 2001 6:00 p.m. ALDER'.%LANIC LIBRARY Present: Aldermen Steven Bernstein, Gene Feldman, Lionel ]can -Baptiste, Edmund Moran, Art Newman & Ann Rainey Presiding: Alderman Gene Feldman Absent: Aldermen Stephen Engelman, Joseph Kent, & Melissa Wynne Staff Present: Judy Aiello, Roger Crum, 'Maureen Barry, Darlene Francellno, Mark Franz, Douglas Gaynor, Karen Gilkerson and Herbert Hill Guest: Bob Atkins, Vito Brugliera, Judy Fiske, :Mimi Peterson, A. Doraine Anderson CALL TO ORDER: Aid. Feldman called the meeting to order at 6:I2 p.m. APPROVAL OF 'WI UTI S OF THE TUNE 4, 2001 AND TULY 2. 200I MEETINGS: Ald. Rainey moved for approval. Aid. Jean -Baptiste seconded. Minutes approved. CONTINUATION OF REVIEW OF ETHICS ORDINANCE: Aid. Feldman acknowledged that the committee had available to them the draft ethics ordinance, the proposed revisions by Charles Staley and an additional proposed revision by Corneila Maude Spelman, ARDC's Complaint Information and the sample from Municipal Lawyers Association. He then opened the floor for discussion. Ald. Moran said it would be interesting to have an opportunity to look at what a model ordinance would provide, particularly in the context of all the changes that were being proposed and considered. Possibly the National League of Cities, has, drafted a model ethics ordinance. Aid. Feldman asked Mr. Franz to check the website to see what they have. Aid. Rainey asked if the system was in place for cataloging those people who are covered by this ordinance, because it did not matter what ordinance they had if they do not know who is covered fir. Franz said it was being tracked and everyone was Draft - Not approved in compliance. Next they will start the process of making sure that everyone has signed a financial disclosure form. Aid. Rainey asked where the documents were being kept, were they being recorded in a database with dates of expiration and if the boards, commissions and committees were included? Mr. Franz said the actual documents were being kept in the law department. The tracking system was being done by both the city clerk and the aldermanic/mayoral secretary who takes care of all the boards, commissions and committees. He stated that the boards, commissions and Committees are a little more difficult because they constantly change, but the other ones are pretty easy. Ald. Rainey said she was very relived to hear that had been done. Aid. Feldman asked if the information was accessible through the city's computer system or the w•ebsite? Mr. Fran_ said it is not accessible on the website but is on the city's computer system but did not know if it -,as on a shared drive. Aid. Rainey said she would Iike computer access availability- for Aldermen put on the agenda for new business for the Rules Committee. Aid. Jean -Baptiste said at their last meeting he thought they had addressed the ethics ordinance and suggested that Mr. Staley, �Ir. Atkins and those who had different perspectives get together and meet to try and hammer out their differences. Then see if they could come up with a proposal they could live with and then go forward. It seemed to him that what they have been handed are pieces of different proposals to look at, debate over and pull together. He was not sure whether that process was going to yield an ordinance for them. Aid. Feldman said all three proposals exceed to the idea of a law department examination of the complaint. Both in terms of whether or not the respondent is subject to the law and whether or not the violation is covered by the ordinance of the so-called alleged violation, is in fact covered by the ordinance. The difference is the Atkins proposal suggested that not only do they have that, but have a recommendation as to ghat the board should or should not do. The other two proposals suggest that they present findings and let the facts in essence speak for themselves to the Board. Ald. Bernstein said they also talked about the manner in which people would file a complaint and whether it had to be a form. He stated that Ms. Spelman said she would create a form and she also suggested an oath before the City Clerk for filing. There was discussion about whether they wanted to encumber people to that degree. Ald. Feldman said the only difference between all three proposals had to do with the final act of the law department and perhaps in the exact wording of the form, but did Draft - Not approved not think that was an issue. Also, whether or not the law department would make a recommendation or just present findings as to what their investigation determines as to jurisdiction. Mr. Atkins said there ivas one other provision in his proposal, the question of has the complainant presented competent evidence which standing alone supports the allegation. Ald. Moran said he had argued in the past and would strongly continue to suggest to the Rules Committee that from the history of the establishment, existence and operation of the Ethics Board, it is the Ethics Board responsibility to make the ultimate decision of whether a violation of the ethics ordinance is taking place. Focusing on that part, he thought that responsibility needed to stay with the board. The argument had been made that if the legal department advances this initial screening report or something with initial recommendations, that is not outcome determinative and therefore why should they care whether they make a recommendation or not. In his view there should not be such a recommendation, certainly not on the ultimate issue. Aid. Moran said in his experience, both as a member of a citizen board and of this city council in many boards and commissions settings the staff plays a very significant role in the deliberations, they offer guidance as to how a board or commission operates. Many of the board and commission members are citizens who are not al►%ays privy to the enter workings of what is going on in this or other buildings and look toward the staff for guidance. At the %-cry first step the Atkins proposal says that the law department says to the Ethics Board, "Has the complainant presented competent evidence which, standing alone, supports the allegations of ethical misconduct described in the complaint", yes or no, give your reasons. This is before anything has been done, other than somebody has tendered a complaint. He thought it nips the process in the bud. It has a chilling effect with respect to all later work that could be done presuming that the Board would choose to exert some independence, proceed with an investigation, ultimately hearings and the determination. He felt the legal department making recommendations along those lines was getting way ahead of the process. It says when they send the complaint, file it with the legal department, legal department looks into all of these things, legal department makes determinations as to what competent evidence is, what standing alone is and says they think or think not that there has been an ethical violation. That shouldn't happen. He suspects that Mr. Atkins is referring to and seems to be making reference to something along the lines of a grand jury. Where if there is a criminal investigation in the judicial spear, prosecutors bring evidence to a panel of citizens that make up the grand jury and they either give a true bill or a no bill. Sometimes the guarantees that are presumed in a grand jury situation are not always what they should be, but prosecutors have a great amount of control over what comes out of the grand jury. There is no process within these proposed ethics ordinances that would be analogist 3 brof t - Not approved to a grand jury, nor would he suggest there should be. The suggestion that the legal department make a review on personal jurisdiction and subject matter jurisdiction was sensible for the legal department to examine and advise the Ethics Board on. If either of the answers would be no, and presuming that the Ethics Board accepts that, there .could be no reason to go forward and there would be no case. Going beyond that and saying here is the evidence, this is what we think of it, this part is competent, other parts are incompetent and it might stand alone or maybe it doesn't stand alone, maybe you need something else, so on and so forth. It's problematic, at a minimum. He was not sure he understood those criteria, but did not think there should be a probable cause on the evidence. Aid. Moran said he thought it was a mistake, to say when someone tenders a complaint they should attach all of the evidence they have. The complaint should site facts that the complainant is suggesting the basis for an ethical violation, but he would not urge all of the evidence that the complainant has should come with the complaint. Based on those things he thought they would be much better off going with something along the lines of Mr. Staley-'s suggestion. The idea of making sure there is solid ground on jurisdiction of the person and subject matter, are both good ideas. That is a good foundation from which the Ethics Board would do its work and the gray Mr. Staley casts the last piece, "a summary of the allegations, evidence or other information available, etc.' Then the rest of the ordinance where it takes over on where hearings are held, evidence is gathered, the board reaches a decision and then publishes it. Aid. Rainey agreed that the two issues that should be dealt «1th by the law department are is this person covered and is the alleged violation covered by the ethics ordinance. Otherwise she had to agree, unless there is an independent non - city attorney she too felt a staff attorney would be influential in directing the ethics committee. She did not support their attorney recommendisig whether or not there is sufficient evidence fora complaint, which is stated under "4c" on page 4. It is only a � recommendation, but a very influential recommendation. Aid. Bernstein said he agreed, section "4a" establishes jurisdiction of the person, "4b" establishes jurisdiction of the subject matter and if you leave out "4c", then where else are you going to drag the conclusion, other than their shifting through the facts and giving a determination, that is basically for the Board of Ethics to do. Aid. Feldman reminded them all about the discussions that centered around the possibility of alleging that a person covered by the ordinance, violated the ordinance, therefore is covered, but has little or no evidence or proof, and that would create a trial. That was one of the sensitive issues raised and one of the reasons why they were trying to avoid just that. Draft - Not approved Ald. Moran stated that under section 7 of Staley's model there was some protection with respect to that. It says 'The confidential written Report of the Law department ........... The board shall thereafter consider said Report and the findings of the Law Department set forth therein in executive session, attended solely by the members of the board". That is referred to as the initial meeting. If one read between the lines, what they are saying is there is subject matter jurisdiction, there is jurisdiction of the person. The complaint then is forwarded to the board, the board meets by itself in executive session and looks at the complaint. There is a screen or filter, if you will. Then number seven starts out "If the Board does not vote to dismiss the complaint.....", he thought the implication of that was in number five. If the board in its initial review of the ethics complaint looks at it and says this is bizarre and they might make some determination, but say they don't and decide to go to the next step. It goes on to say "a copy of the complaint with all attachments........... go to the complainant and the respondent." Then it says there is a "board meeting and the matter shall be set to be heard at an executive session meeting of the board, ("the second meeting"), attended by both the complainant and the respondent...... The respondent shall be entitled to file a response......... prior to the second meeting. If the Complaint is not dismissed as a result of the second meeting.................a hearing shall be held ......... The way he interpreted number seven was that it is really a second screening or filter where the board meets, the complainant comes in and the respondent comes in. At this second meeting, there is a second screening and the accuser and the accused actually face each other before the ball really gets going. He was struggling with all of the meetings, but if people thought that was the best way to gain protection that was ok. Aid. jean -Baptiste stated that there were a few things he thought they wanted to do. They agreed on the whole issue of personal jurisdiction and subject matter jurisdiction. In prior meetings they talked about "c", to minimize the unnecessary influence that the legal department should take. Putting that aside, what was being raised speaks to the confidentiality of the process. Once there is an allegation complaint, based on allegation that someone has done those things the ethics board has to make a determination as to whether or not there are sufficient facts to go forward. The Ethics Board does that through their executive session. In that executive session they consider what was presented and then vote to go forward or not, up to that point, his understanding icas that the process is confidential. He asked if that was the understanding. Ald. Bernstein said it is confidential as so far as the board is concern. Why bother with confidentiality unless in some sway you limit what the complainant can do and you are not going to be able to do that. Ald. jean -Baptiste said the complainant comes and submits their complaint and it is signed. The discussion that he was hearing was one of confidentiality. In executive session all of the facts in the world are considered and they vote to dismiss the complaint, it is suppose to stay right there. The Ethics Board ought not disclose that information beyond the respondent and the complainant, then it is over and he 5 Draft - Not approved supposed it is filed with the legal department as a sealed filed. if they vote to go forward then tends to scheduling a hearing, it then becomes a public matter. He didn't know whether they could protect themselves from that kind of stuff or that anyone could. Aid. Feldman said there were three issues this «•hole thing started with. They were whether or not the person accused is covered by the ordinance. Whether or not the accusation is a violation of the ordinance. And how do you protect somebody from frivolous accusations that if not nipped in the bud, brings somebody to a literal trial which means that the board of ethics has saw fit, gives some credibility to the issue, enough to have a hearing. Aid. Nforan said in Staley's version there are tons of protection. He had some personal questions about all of the filtering, meeting, sifting, having everybody in and having sort of this preliminary between the accuser and accused. Under Mr. Staley's proposal there are ready three filters, the legal department working on it, the initial meeting, as he calls it in quotes in executive session, only with the board and they go through it with the staff to the board which of course would be the legal department. Aid. Nex-man said in his 10 years on the council he has found the ethics ordinance and the process to be one that is almost exclusively a political retribution process. The ethics ordinance they had is somehow terribly weakened. He saw either one of the proposals a great step forward as to what they now have. They could say and explain to people that until there is a hearing set and violation alleged found that people not disseminate their complaint, and explain to them that after there is a finding it will be disseminated. Mr. Atkins said his suggestionwas that the form that the guy makes when he makes the allegation, says and understands that it is confidential, that is important. Once he makes that form, presents all of the evidence, because it is important that he presents all of the evidence. You want to protect yourselves and protect the good people of this city. Then the person who makes the complaint should have competent evidence. Mr. Atkins stated that under his number "c" that reads "not withstanding some of the comments that they make" is important. Because just as the Aldermen indicated, a total baseless charge, if somebody took a bribe it obviously would be a violation of the ordinance, with nothing there it gets referred to the Board of Ethics. When this thing started it was said that the ethics board meets, it is a voluntary group, sometimes they don't meet, sometimes they don't have a quorum and sometimes you can't expect a lot. He stated that was terrible under these circumstances. That is why you need this filtering process. The ethics board, in terms of the violation of ethics, as far as lawyers are concerned, housing violations, discrimination complaints, liquor, there is all a wining out process before you move Draft - Not approved forward and why shouldn't it be done by people you can trust, namely your legal attorneys. Aid. Bernstein said Staley's proposal talks in terms of a formal complaint. Item "d" on Staley's proposal is a detailed description of the evidence known of the complainant. That would preclude anybody from just saying, he took a bribe. He agreed with Aid. Moran and Rainey. If the Board is not meeting they should be meeting or they shouldn't be serving on the board, because it their responsibility to determine from the initial statement given, whether or not, if true the allegation are sufficient to cause somebody to be in violation. Aid. Rainey said she would like the law department to bring back a combination ordinance covering the issues they are concerned about. She is rejecting "c" at least on the basis if the legal department was going to evaluate. She did not want them evaluating it. Aid. Bernstein said he wants to preclude the complainant from going public with this information. He asked if they could impose sanctions on someone who once having filed a complaint decides to go public. Maybe the sanction would be that the complaint would be dismissed. Aid. Newman said they could pay for an ad saying it was dismissed. Aid. Bernstein stated that maybe the sanction would be that the complaint would be dismissed. That is the concern he thinks people have had. People have gone to the newspaper in one situation before it could be determined whether or not a particular individual was on a particular board at a given time in history and that was the difficulty. The real problem is when people go public. Aid. Rainey moved that they send it back to the legal department to integrate the best parts of both of these ordinances. Mr. Crum asked for clarification on a couple of things. The legal department ►sill not make a determination on merits in any way shape or form only those that do not meet the categories and secondly they want the complainant to state the basis for the complaint in detail with all evidence. And ask for confidentiality, but they will have to %vork on how to do that. Aid. Bernstein said with all evidence and filed under oath with the clerk or the law department. Aid. Feldman added, a unified form to fill out and it has to be under oath. AId. Rainey said pages 4, 5, b & 7 of Staley's proposal was very well put. Ms. Anderson said it was her understanding that 2/3rds of the Council member are lawyers. It %vas her distinct impress over the course of many years that you are more likely to have an ethics conversation among the citizens concerning members of boards and commission and concerning certain members of the bureaucracy under 7 Orof t - Not opproved this roof than against Aldermen. She suggested that when they finally get the ethics ordinance together they should build a representative list of the kinds of violations for the ordinary citizens out there, the audience that you have to speak to and most of them are not lawyers. That representative list is then handed to the Mayor and says here are some examples, as you are examining your applications to Serve on boards and commissions, let this be your guide. You will cut down on a lot of discontent in the community and may even avoid some slap suits or the board of ethics equivalent of slap suits. Aid. Aioran said he didn't think they could say to anyone that they have to keep a complaint confidential, it %vas probably a violation of the Ist amendment. He did not believe it %vas a good idea to do it under oath or to require that it be done under oath and was not sure where they were going with the last part about sanctions against the complainant. Aid. Newman asked that the legal department let them know whether or not a requirement, to keep it confidential until it has been found that a valid complaints has been alleged, is a Ist amendment violation. Ms. Anderson said as a very practical matter, Aid. Moran was correct, because by the time somebody comes and files a complaint they have already had conversations with friends and neighbors about whether or not they ought to go forward with their complaint. Nis. Fiske commented on the computer access to board and commission. One of the problems they had from the people bringing complaints against them were there are various websites including the Evanston Public Library's site that had information that was probably six or eight years old and needs to be corrected. Aid. Moran said at the end of the ordinance on the last page there are a couple of references to the appropriate city authority, particularly in paragraph 'a' and'e' on page 6. He would like to get some definition on what that means. Aid. Rainey reminded the committee that she really wants to discuss Aldermanic access to City records. Aldermen should have access to the database, transfer tax payments and the sales and who pays the water bill at what location. That is how she finds out who owns a building in many cases. All she wants on the water bill is the name and address of the party being billed. Mr. Crum said there are some special laws pertaining to the systems. ADTOURNMENT: Meeting adjourned at 7:20 p.m. Respectfully submitted, Darlene Francellno 8 Draft not approved MlI UTES OF THE RULES COMMITTEE MO. DAY, Ji:LY 2. 2001 6:tX) p.m. ALDERMAN'IC LIBP A Rl Present: Aldermen Lionel Jean -Baptiste, Gene Feldman, Joe Kent, Art Newman, Ann Rainey and Mayor Morton Presiding: Alderman Gene Feldman Absent: Aldermen Steven Bernstein, Stephen Engelman, Edmund Moran Sr Melissa Wynne Staff Present: Judy Aiello, Maureen Barry, Roger Crum, Darlene Francellno, :dark Franz, Douglas Gaynor, Karen Gilkerson and Herbert Hill Guest: Jesse Daniels, Betty Ester, Judy Fiske, Mary Gavin, John H. Harmon, Judy Jager, Elsie L. Liddell, Theola D. Murphy, Mimi Peterson, Bob Seidenberg, Peggy Tarr and Cheryl NVollin, CALL TO ORDER: Aid. Feldman called the meeting to order at 6:10 p.m. He apologized to the people present for the "Review of the Ethics Ordinance" issue. The Human Service Committee would be meeting at 6:30 p.m. and there would not be enough time to discuss the issue. REDISTRICTING CITY WARDS: Mayor Slorton stated that she was greatly surprised when she attended a social function yesterday and was speaking to a couple who made her aware that there was a great misunderstanding out in the community that tonight the Rules Committee was going to redistrict the city. She knew nothing about it, because she knew that they were not prepared to do that. She wanted to snake it a matter of record as to what was happening. A couple of council meetings ago she asked the City Manager to give them information as to how they are suppose to redistrict. The City Manager told her he would look into it and staff was already working on it and would get a report to them as to how it was to be done. Mayor Morton said that tonight the Rules Committee had been given a document titled "Legislative Redistrictin,, The document tells them what the perimeters are for re -districting. There would be no redistricting until the City Council has decided when they were going to do it, how they were going to do it and how they were going to implement that which is required. She assured them that Council has had absolutely no discussion on redistricting any particular ward. If there were people who thought that this was what they were going to do tonight, they were misinformed. When they do get into this process of redistricting, the community will Draft not approved know because it will be in the paper. The Rules Committee will have gotten a procedure through -which the Council will enter, in order to make the decisions they wish to make -with whatever input from the community. She suggested that copies of the "Legislative Redistricting" document be given to the press. It was essential that the message get out to the community to delay the fears of the people who thought that they were in the process of doing something tonight. Ald. Newman stated that the "Legislative Redistricting" memo needed additional information for them to do the work necessary. First, clear up when it needs to be done. He thought Chicago had a deadline of December I. Then get from the staff the numbers in terms of current gross population and over 18 population and attach them to the memo. He thought Chicago was using the over 18 population numbers as oppose to the gross population numbers. Once they get that information they will find out which wards are over and which are under in terms of populations. They also need to get information on what a majority/tinority district is and what the requirements are in terms of percentages. Then they will be in a position to have further discussion on what they need to get done. He suggested that the issue be placed as a special order of business for the neat regular Rules Committee meeting. Aid. Feldman asked the City :Manager if he could get all of the information by the 12`s of July for a working session? The City Manger stated they would not have the actual numbers of minority population by census tracked at that point. They do have the under 18, over 18 and total numbers by ward by census tracked but not the minority numbers yet. He said it would take about a month to extract, they just got a giant census file that they have to extract from. He said Mr. Hill could respond on the legal questions as to when they could have those answers. Mr. Hill stated that the legal department could address many of their questions by July 12, but he was not certain that it could be a totally definitive memo on everything. There is an extensive research they've begun working on. There are r hundreds of cases, which coordinate the 14th and I5th amendment to the constitution and the voting rights act, and the legal department will have to go through that. Mr. Hill said Aid. Ne-vtnan's stated was a very key issue, determining is there a magic number as to what percentage a majority/minority ward must be. Preliminarily they have not found that and have to research throughout the country to see hove it has been done, which may be an impasse. The legal department's goal also is to give Council a number they can work with as to what the minority/majority representation should be shooting for within a district. He %vas not sure, but guessed_ that they could not have that absolute number on July 12. Aid. Newman commented that in terms of populations and in terms of minority the census figures are on the Internet. Mr. Crum stated not by our census block, and its" does take some time to extract it. K Draft not approved Aid. Feldman suggested scheduling a working session for the 121h and at least proceed im-ith whatever information they have. Aid. Jean -Baptiste added that when staff does the report on what they have found as to the minority population, majority population and the rest of the data, he would like to hear the process and the source by which they got the information. Mr. Crum said their only source is the U.S. Census. AIJ. Jean -Baptiste said lie wants to make sure that when it is pulled together he can take a look at where they got it from and draw the same conclusion. He trusts their judgement, but just wants to make sure. Mr. Crum said staff would do that. He also stated that there is a problem in the census data that they used in overlapping minority classification and mixed classification and it is slightly more difficult to extract, but they will have the data directly as it is available and site the source. Ald. Feldman said they've already looked at the over 18, under 18 and total population. If they were to say that the guidelines by the courts are plus or minus 5% or total 101110' population deviation, then the majority of our wards are not in compliance with the total 100% variation. Md. Newman said one issue that he was aware of was that the City of Chicago is using the over 18 numbers. He believes they could use the over 18 numbers and that would change the number of wards that might be out of compliance. Mr. Crum said actually, they still have about 6 wards that are not in compliance. Aid. Newman said his point was that Chicago is using the over 18 number and the information that they have should address whether or not they can use the over 18 number. Mr. Hill said with the cases they've read it indicates that the over 18 number by the City of Chicago is an appropriate number. But is there another number, which would be general population? There could be other cases, but the 1990 redistricting case in the City of Chicago, which was finally decided in 1998 used the over 18 number as a base. The legal department has not sampled what other states have done or anything of that nature at this point, over 1S is one of the possible standards that we can use. Are there others? Maybe and they would like to find out what those are also. Aid. Newman said if they use the over 18 population, wards 3, 6 & 8 are in compliance and the 4`h ward is virtually in compliance. Mr. Hill said it %vas the over 18 population and citizenship that were the standards to consider for the voting, you had to be a citizen to vote. That would be the criteria that Chicago used in 1990, which is one of the possible bases that City Council could determine for its analysis. Mr. Crum said they haven't looked at citizenship yet. Aid. Jean -Baptiste said when they determine the bases of the population, whether it is over 18 or general population, it would be good to get a scenario on what would it look like if they used over 18 and what it would look like if they looked at general population. He asked if the over 18 number "-as used the last time they redistricted? 3 Draft not approved The answer was no. He then asked if they were in compliance now if they used general population' The answer was no again. Ald. Jean -Baptiste said in either scenario they need to take a look at all of that to help each one of them determine what is the best way to go. Ald. Newman requested that the 1993 numbers, the current number that they have now based on gross population, and the over 18 numbers that they have be put together on a graph and attached to the memo and clarify some of them. Mr. Crum stated that the 1992 numbers are when they actually adopted it. He didn't have the old numbers on over 18, but does have the new ones on over 18 and gross. Aid. Newman stated that also the significance of the December i deadline was that the state and congressional districts were being redistricted and is in the process of being completed. He thought they needed to be done by then because that was going to have an implication on precincts. If there is going to be rearranging of precincts, because of different congressional and state potentially maps, they would want to be doing that at the same time. The election that they are getting ready for is the primary in March of 2002. After they get the district maps for their wards done one of the important discussions should be what impact it is going to have on precincts and locations. This would give them more time to talk to the county clerk about that as oppose to being in a rush situation. They should really find out what their deadline is in creating ne%v precinct location for the March election, sooner rather than later. This would serve them in that area because people might want to talk to people in their wards about precinct location, changes/polling places. The committee agreed to meet on July 12 at 7:00 p.m. Aid. Feldman said the ethics ordinance and aldermanic expense reimbursement policy issues not covered tonight would be at their next regular meeting on August 6. ADTOURNh3ENT: Meeting adjourned at 6:30 p.m. Respectfully submitted, Darlene Francellno 4 Draft not approved MINUTES OF THE RULES COMMIT -FEE MONDAY, JUNE 4, 2001 6:00 p.m. ALDERMANIC LIBRARY Present: Aldermen Steven Bernstein, Stephen Engelman, Lionel Jean -Baptiste, Edmund Moran, Art Newman & Ann Rainey Presiding: Alderman Gene Feldman Absent: Aldermen Joe Kent & Melissa Wi -nne Staff Present: Maureen Barry, Darlene Francellno, dark Franz, & Ellen Szymanski Guest: Bob Atkins, Vito Brugliera, Judy Fiske, Jeanne Lindwail, Mary McWilliams, Mary Morris, Mayor Lorraine Morton, Ed Reinfranck, Bob Seidenberg Cornelia Maude Spelman & Charles Staley CALL TO ORDER: Aid. Feldman called the meeting to order at 6:12 p.m. APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES OF MAY 14, 2001: Aid. Rainey moved for approval of the May 14, 2001 minutes. Aid. Bernstein seconded. Motion carried. Minutes approved. CONTINUATION OF REVIEW OF ETHICS ORDINANCE. - Aid, Feldman stated that included in the packets was a revised ordinance for discussion. Aid. Moran made a motion that they revise the ordinance to insure that whoever is named as the subject of the complaint be given written notification of the filing of the complaint within an appropriate period of time, whatever made since. Aid. Engelman seconded. Aid. Newman moved a substitute for the ordinance prepared by Ellen Szymanski. Aid. Rainey seconded. Aid. Rainey stated there were two jurisdictional 'issues. One was that the Board of Ethics had to determine is the complaint or does the complaint come under the ordinance. But the more important one was is this person. covered. She said that needed to take place immediately before anybody got notified of anything. She stated that Mr. Staley had shared information with them that they were not aware of and that was that not everybody had filled out the financial and disclosure forms and those that have been filled out where do they go. She wanted to know what kind of progress or what discussion staff had about that kind of thing. Draft not approved Mr. Fran: reported that staff had talked with the law department, the city clerk's office and Nis. Morris actually brought a list of all of the elected officials and city staff that had filled out the financial disclosure form. The boards and commissions members list was being worked on and they are prepared to do some type of database in the future to keep track of those things a little bit better. They are working with the law department to determine where they get filed. Obviously, in the city clerk's office and then dispose of them annually, as the ordinance stipulates. Nis. Szymanski said in connection with the clarification of the ordinance, as to who had to file when, she directed attention to page 2 of the draft she prepared. In section 1-10.3 (A) she lined out the sentence about "Except that, any currently serving member of any board, commission or special committee shall be exempt from the provisions of this Section until his or her reappointment." She believed that what that meant was that many years ago when the Ethics ordinance was drafted, perhaps it was a grandfather clause for people who ►were then serving and did not know that they had to comply with the ethics code. Leaving that sentence in leaves room for interpretation that if you are appointed once, you don't have to fill out the ethics statement until your next appointment. She wanted to remove any room for interpretation, so she took that out. The way the two paragraphs in (A) read now, she views it that they require everybody, department heads, members of executive staff, boards, commissions, special committees, etc. to fill out the ethics statement annually. That was the intent. Ald. Rainey said that was good but. But if she sends a request to the Board of Ethics, to deal with a problem involving somebody that was not a member of city staff, city officer, elected official, board or commission member. How was it and when was it determined that that person is or is not covered by virtue of this ordinance? Nis. Szymanski directed their attention to page 3, Section 4 of the draft ordinance and stated that this was taken substantially from the draft that Mr. Atkins submitted at the last meeting. It basically means that within I4 days of receipt of a complaint the law department will make the findings. Also the concern about was the respondent, a city officer or employee, subject to the ethics code at the time of the alleged violation is set forth in paragraph (A). Ald. Feldman asked if city officer or city employee covered board and commission members? Ms. Szymanski said it did and that early on in the ethics ordinance it gives a broad definition as to who is covered by the ethics ordinance. Ald. Feldman asked if somebody was required to file and did not, does that mean that they were not subject to the provisions of this ordinance? Ms. Szymanski said it did not mean that at all. Ald. Bernstein commented that they would be in violation for not having filed. 2 Draft not approved Aid. Moran said it does not resolve the question of whether the person is subject to the ordinance or not and Mr. StaIey's statement to them at the last meeting was that a substantial inquiry had to be made on that very point in two cases. It can be a significant point of both investigation and determination as to whether a person is in fact subject to the ordinance or not. Aid. Bernstein said he recalled the issue was there w-as no where contained a definitive list of all of the people whose responsibility it was to file with the Board of Ethics. The failure to file is a violation of the ethics ordinance already. To the extent that the clerk's office is able to put together an alphabetical database list of all elected officers, city staff and appointed commissioners should be pretty much a good list against which you use a name. The concern was the time frame. They are codifying that by having it kept in the City Clerk's office. The list should who has or who has not filed and those people should be notified that they have to file. He did not know what action, if any, the Board of Ethics was going to take if they fail to file once having been told to file. They all have to file by May I. Retroactively this may be a problem, but prospectively from today forward, anybody who is subject to the ordinance should be on a list. Aid. Engelman asked what if they were on the list a year ago and they are not on the list today because their term has expired and the complaint is about a year ago.' Aid. Newman said the point of whether or not there is a list and who is looking at the list is really covered. If the Board of Ethics has a question they can ask for information from the staff and the staff of the Board of Ethics is the legal department. What this does is creates a process where somebody fills out a complaint and then the staff, who is going to analyze the complaint an}way, makes recommendations to the Board of Ethics for findings and conclusion of fact. If the Board of Ethics wants to look into additional information when they get that initial report they can ask the staff to look at the list in the Clerk's office. The legal staff at that time can answer that question. What the ordinance does is creates a process. It tells everybody where the complaints go. They go to the law department. It then puts a responsibility on the legal department to look at the complaint and make recommendations to the Board of Ethics so that they can decide, not the legal department, whether or not there should be a further investigation if there is a factual basis of the complaint. It calls for the legal department to create a complaint form. It calls for a system where people will be notified. Everybody will know who is supposed to get the complaint, the legal department. Then the Board of Ethics has all of the responsibility. Once the Board of Ethics finds there is a complaint they are mandated to give notice immediately to the accused and they can make this public. It seemed to him that what they will have in place, if they passed this ordinance, was an orderly process. He thought that they ought to go with that, and the Clerk's office ought to share with the legal department all of the information that it has on forms that are filed by elected and appointed officials and the list ought to be made readily available. Then they will have a coherent system, which he thought was pretty well thought out in terms of fairness. 3 Draft not approved Aid. Jean -Baptiste said on rereading the proposed ordinance that was presented at the last meeting he thought it did them some good procedurally. The issue of personal jurisdiction was something that could be resolved through investigation of data that they have available or could be overcome through a respondent raising that as a defense. If you know, there is no jurisdiction over that person, that person can demonstrate that and if that is done then the investigation stops. His concern about the ordinance was that it did resolve the issue of credibility of the process. If the legal staff is given the responsibility to evaluate evidence, he didn't think the legal staff, given the fact that they work closely with people who would be subjected to the ethics ordinance, could be impartial on a consistent basis. He would integrate members of the Board of Ethics with a couple of representatives from the legal staff to evaluate evidence. At that stage it gets to be somewhat subjective. If he worked closely with legal staff and a complaint was brought against him, he thought the tendency would be to not evaluate the evidence against him. But the Board of Ethics was in a position to be neutral and could make that evaluation in a way that was much fairer. Aid. Newman asked where would he make that modification? Aid. Jean -Baptiste said on page 4, Section 4C where it says "Has the complainant presented competent evidence which, standing alone, supports the allegation of ethical misconduct describing the complaint?" That was a determination that the Board of Ethics in collaboration with legal staff ought to make. He was more comfortable with them being more neutral and that process would be more credible in his opinion. Aid. Ne►vman thought that determination should be done in collaboration with the Board of Ethics. Ms. 5z),manski said she had no doubt that Iegal staff could fairly and impartially decide questions that came to them regardless of who the respondent was. But did have a concern that no one person ought to be responsible for making the decisions, She suggested that perhaps item "c" should not be made by the law department but should be moved down o section 5 and she would prepare another draft to put that into section 5. Aid. Feldman said this was not a determination in a sense, it is a recommendation. Ms. Szymanski said yes. Aid. Feldman said he had every single confidence in the legal staff to do a fair and honest job. But would not fight against the idea of another person being involved. If the committee did want to take "c" and put it into section 5, which excludes it from the recommendation, would that prevent frivolous claims from coming through. Which was one of the things Mr. Atkins had in mind when these revisions were created. The discussion of the committee initially focused on some process that would interfere with that or prevent that. If wanted to know if the committee felt that was no longer important or should it be done before or after. 4 Draft not approved Aid. Newman said he %%-anted to get Aid. Jean-Baptiste's suggestion in there because he thought "c" should not really say "present competent evidence". He thought the issue was n•hether or not the complaint had presented allegations, which constituted a violation of the ordinance. The evidence ought to be evaluated by the Board of Ethics. There should be no evaluation of evidence by the legal staff. He would change "c" to say "has the complaint presented sufficient allegations which standing along supports a claim of ethical misconduct." Then add somewhere that all factual determinations shall be made by the Board of Ethics. Aid. Feldman asked Aid. Neuman if he was making that as part of his original substitute motion? Aid. Ne%%-man said yes. Ald. Jean -Baptiste said he was not sure whether most people who may not be familiar with the language of competent evidence or sufficient allegations would see them as being different. He suggested stating it as "has a complainant presented facts which standing alone supports the allegations" because that supports the conclusion of ethical misconduct. Aid. Jean -Baptiste thought it was a language thing that they had to try and clean up. AId. Newman asked if he would want to say, "has the complaint presented sufficient facts which standing alone supports a claim for ethical misconduct?" Aid. Jean -Baptiste said yes. Aid. Rainey stated that the word fact was a problematic word. The Board of Ethics «ill find the facts Aid. Newman said the reason he would use "aIIegations" is because these are just claims by the complainant, they are not facts yet. Aid. Moran said it was clear under the ordinance that it was the Board of Ethics that decides all of these issues, not legal staff. He though it was the Board of Ethics that needed to guide this process and legal staff would be there to assist them. There are two basic problems with this procedure as it is proposed and there might be more. One in a sense puts the legal department in a somewhat tense situation with the Board of Ethics. The Board of Ethics is a board of 5 citizen volunteers who are charged vtith a responsibility of deciding whether somebody is subject to the ordinance, whether the actions described falls within the jurisdiction of the ordinance and whether they are guilty of those things or not. It is the Board of Ethics that has to decide that. If you've got the legal department deciding that in their recommendation, then sending it to this 5 person volunteer board, it cast an incredible influence over the process. You could say that the Board of Ethics could say they don't agree, but it already sets up this situation in a very distinct way. Ms. Szmanski, fir. Hill and Ms. Brenniman have been on the legal staff for many years, and do a great job, but the Board of Ethics may or may not agree with them. If you start this process out by sending it to the legal department and having them "decide" in the way of a recommending report, to him that has a tangible influence up front. AId. Moran said secondly, he has the utmost faith in the legal department and the staff, but in his opinion staff is subject to the influence of people who are on the City Council and others in the city. That puts them in a very difficult position in that they can possibly be influenced by people who are potential subject matters of these complaints. And that is a terrible complaint, from his standpoint. The Board of Ethics has been created by statue to do this very thing and they should do it with the Draft not approved assistant of the legal staff, not by taking recommendations from the legal staff. His suggestion would be, where ever it goes initially, whether it be the legal department or whomever, that person should then send it to the chairman of the Board of Ethics. The chairman should see that it is distributed, if he sees questions that need to be investigated at the outset, bring legal counsel in and then take it from there and decide what needs to be done. Aid. Moran said that Aid. Jean•Baptiste made a very good point when he said this person might raise in their defense that they are not subject to this ordinance, maybe that has to be decided. The group that has to decide that is the Board of Ethics. Aid. Engelman said the primary problem was notice to the complainant that a complaint was made. He seconded everything Aid. Moran said about a jurisdiction and the decision making of the Board of Ethics. But went beyond that stating there was the magic words, the specific things that must be in a complaint or it is not a complaint which he found someu-hat objectionable. When you get into the statement such as whatwas just said it reminded him of what happens to proses in a court of law. Prose's are ordinary people who want to make a complaint and don't want to spend the money to hire an attorney and they write out on a piece of paper that they got in an accident with the defendant, it %vas his fault, he owes him $50.00. He then files that complaint with the circuit court. His summons is served and they walk into court and the first day they are in court the defense attorney who is hired, says to the judge throw this complaint out because it doesn't state a cause of action, there is no factual allegation. Everybody knows what the basis of the complaint was, but he didn't say the magic words or he did not present a factual basis for his complaint. That is not what we need when we are drafting an ethics ordinance. He did not think a citizen who believed there was a %iolation that needs to be investigated should have to jump through a bunch of hoops or even the eye of a needle. This draft accomplishes the primary problem ww•hich is immediate notice to the complainant because in this draft the respondent does not get notice until 14 days after the claim has been filed. 14 days after a complaint has been filed, sometimes it is already in the newspaper. Ms. Spelman, new member of the Board of Ethics stated that she completely agreed with the problems that the committee had complained about with the Board of Ethics and with the process they have and there definitely needs to be solutions. She had some suggestions that she thought seemed to be much easier solutions than the draft that was prepared. She said there were several problems. First of all the timeliness of the notification of the respondent, as was pointed out, one of the several problems «7th this is that it lengthens that time. She said Ms. Szymanski had drafted earlier a piece of the ordinance that would simple require timely notification and mailing of the complaint itself to the respondent, within 3 days. Her professional situation as Ethics Educator of the National Association of Social Workers, also has a process where when you file a complaint the person who the complaint is made against gets a - copy at once. Then everybody knows what the facts are and there is still time for the e Board of Ethics to look at it and decide whether they are going to accept or reject it. 6 Draft not approved Timeliness is easily solved without re -writing the whole ordinance. The determination that the complaint meets, the threshold to be accepted is easily met by finding out with the help of the legal department, is this a person who is subject to jurisdiction or not. That is also fairly simple. The other issue that she thought had been a problem was confidentiality. The only thine they can really be responsible for is confidentiality within the board. That is their call. Nis. Spelman said they could not mandate that people, who file a complaint, remain confidential. Because even if they did mandated it, which she would not support, they can not enforce it. The timeliness of notice to the respondent also addresses that problem. Because the person whose complained against knows about it right away, and then they can deal with it privately before it is even processed. She stated that she would share her ideas on paper with the committee if they wished. Aid. Rainey said she thought the commission members need some kind of instructions or more guidance in how to tarry out an ethics hearing. She thought the problems were partly the ordinance and partly the ability of the commission to conduct good hearings. She stated that they had discussed board and commission training over the years. Aid. Bernstein said they had to determine what to file, do they have to have a form complaint, if not a form complaint, what particular things must be included in any complaint. Also, who is to determine the jurisdiction and then the process of determining whether or not there is a violation. As far as hew -as concerned it might be easier for a complainant to have a form to fill out that was available at the libraries, the Clerk's office, the legal department, etc. As for where to file it, the legal department could file it. The first issues with respect to jurisdiction is once they have a cataloging of the names of people who should be subject to the ordinance, they could back date it, that is another thing. What is the statue of limitation on this, how far back can a complaint go to bring a complaint, because that talks in terms of the available defenses to somebody who might want to bring a defense.? Initially he thought they were going at this the wrong way. Because the real part that is broken is the fact that there is no cohesive method and there has to be clarification. It is not the board members fault, they are trying to get some since of direction from the ordinance. The committee has to address those initial questions. Is the celemity of the integrity of the Board of Ethics going to be compromised if someone other than the Board of Ethics makes any determination of jurisdiction or any even primary facts? That is the first thing. Are people going to think that if the complaint is against the city manager, that the legal department can't find against the city manager? He would agree with Aid. Moran, a recommendation to has force, it has greater weight. He said they really had to address the problems, the problem has been lack of notification. Then the primary problem, once notification is given he agreed that a copy of the complaint should go out immediately so that the respondent is forewarned of what is going on in his name. 7 Draft not cpproved Ald. Bernstein said a primary reason for that is because it was likely that they are going to find out about it from a reporter calling up who knows about it before they do. So it would be nice if they had some time frame within which to respond or at least gather their thoughts. Then if they ►%-ant to file it with the legal department, which seemed to make sense they are staff that are assigned to the Board of Ethics and that is fine. He thought it was best left to the Board of Ethics to sit and determine what procedures they would like to follow. The first thing is what do they Kant people to have to file, where do they file it and whether Someone other than the Board of Ethics has the right or the responsibility of determining the threshold issues of jurisdictions. Aid. Jean -Baptiste said asked for point of clarification on what Aid. Bernstein talked about on the one hand Aid. Bernstein said they need procedures that are consistent, then he stated that the Board of Ethics ought to evaluate, and legal staff ought not to impose recommendation. The he raised that the Board of Ethics should determine what procedure to follow. He wanted to know what Aid. Bernstein was advocating. Ald. Bernstein said what he was advocating was to let the board decide the procedures to determine the ultimate issue. We have an ordinance and rules and regulations, which contradict each other. Mr. Staley said at this point, he thought the ordinance had some good things. It would be probably good to file it %vith the legal department, but he thought the way it was set up it could be challenged. It was probably unconstitutional and it ought to be improved. He believed first of all that it raised too high a hurdle for a complains. While complaints need not be encourages, they should not be discouraged. In paragraph 3 where it says it has to be under oath, on a form, prescribed and made available to the public by the legal department, if people want to make a complaint they aren't always going to be somewhere to find the complaint. Frivolous complaints, r- he wished they could get rid of all of them, but did not think that they could put it in a situation where it was so difficult for people to file a complaint. He didn't think the ordinance %vas a finish product, but with some of the changes that had been mentioned it was closer to what ought to happen. He felt that on page 3 in paragraph "E" where it states "The complaint... shall contain a statement.......,' should be deleted entirely. A citizen, so long as liable or slandered and not involved - is legally entitled to communicate his complaint however he sees fit. He didn't think__ the City Council or the Board of Ethics or anyone could basically tell them what they could or could not say. He had some suggestion that he will write out and give to the committee. Aid. Feldman said one of the things that brought them to this in the first place was because the ordinance didn't cover all the things that they wanted them to cover. There were people whose reputation and patience and character were being victimized by delay and by inadvertent weaknesses within the ordinance. It needs fixing. 8 Draft not approved Aid. Moran said the Board of Ethics, through its two representatives had started an effort on its own to make suggestions and there had been some verbal suggestions tonight. He would like to suggest that if they are able to get the Board of Ethics to discuss adjustments to the procedures, such as what they are talking about they could %iew that and forward it to the Rules Committee. It is probably even better now• because two representative; of the Board have been here to hear a lot of the comments that the committee members and other people have made. So they can take that into consideration as well to make that examination and give them their recommendations and take it from there. Aid. jean -Baptiste said the last time they discussed this he suggested that Mr. Atkins sit in with the Board and try and see if they could work out some of the differences. He stated that they had made progress and fir. Staley had acknowledged the need for some procedures and in fact had followed some of those procedures that were being articulated in this proposed ordinance. The representatives and other had heard them on the question of credibility, confidentiality and expeditiousness of the process. Let them come back with a proposal that the Rules Committee could work µill. Aid. Newman said that he was concerned the he and Aid. Jean -Baptiste had a difference on the issue of where, if at all confidentiality ought to be included in the process. He suggested that they start with the Illinois Board of Elections, which has a complaint system where they take complaints on elected officials, and the other would be the ARDC, they have a whole system of where: they use staff to make fact finding recommendations to boards considering complaints. Look at their complaint forms and see what rules they have on confidentiality. See what hoops they put on the public for putting a complaint together to see whether they are unduly burdensome or they go to fairness a little bit more. Ald. Rainey said she wanted them to vote on amending the current ordinance so that never ever again, not tomorrow or next month, or whenever they finish amending the ordinance that never again another person gets dragged through this process who is not covered under the ordinance. The personally jurisdictional issue has to be resolved. Aid. Rainey said there was a motion in the last minutes that she made and Aid. Bernstein seconded and µas never voted on that directed staff to get this information in order so that it can be relied on. She wanted like to hear from the City Clerk to find out if she had everybody's forms. Mary Morris said she had prepared a list of every form that she had for 2001. It did not include the members of the commission, board and committees. It included all of the elected officers, the staff, department heads, and the staff to the commission, 0 Draft not approved committee and boards. Almost everybody had filled out and returned their forms except for a few. Aid. Rainey then wanted to know whose responsibility is was to determine the members of the boards and commissions and whether or not they had received a form and whether or not they have filled them out. Ms. Morris said it could be prepared, it will take a little more doing and is a little bit more complex, there are about 150 names. Aid. Rainey asked w-hy couldn't the staff member for each board, commission and committed be responsible of distributing these forms, getting them signed and collecting them' fir. Crum said they had done that once. What the missing link was is to make the master list by position, not by name first. Every member of a board, commission or committee will be on the list and then slots for the names to go in. They need the 150 position first and then a system to make sure that they are signed off and that the Clerk has the final copy. That is being worked on at the moment. Aid. Rainey said was ok with that. Aid. Feldman said they had two things on the table right and had two seconded motions. Aid. Newman said he uas satisfied with the ordinance they had prepared. It solved a lot of problems. However, he would like to have an ordinance that the Board of Ethics could have input into. Nor. Staley had concerns about the requirements on a complainant and the issue of confidentiality and it would help to get more information on what other bodies were doing and share it with the Board of Ethics and then come back to discuss. He would like to see what other bodies that are receiving complaints, how they are dealing with the issue of confidentiality and whether or not other bodies, like the Illinois Board of Elections and the ARDC are making up complaint forms. Also, look at other municipalities to see whether they are finding that the complaint forms are discriminating or have too many hoops for people to figure out what complaint they want to make. He asked :its. Szymanski to look into that and see what other communities like Skokie and Niles, Wilmette, and Chicago are doing. He had no problem working with the members of the board to try to come up with a fair form and procedure. Ms. Fiske suggested that if the committee was going to form a committee to talk about what was going to be included, she would suggest hming a couple of just plain citizens included and she would be willing to participate. She thought the difficulty was that you do want the process for writing the ordinance to be supported by the public. ALDERMAN EXPENSE REIMBURSEMENTT POLICY: Mr. Crum said the policy is any legitimate city expense is reimbursable. The problem is there is not much money in the budget to pay them. It means it is a good subject —= for this committee to reconsider on how equitably the group leads as to what =_ 10 Draft not approved expenses, like newsletters, neighborhood meetings that should be reimbursed. This has not been discussed for sometime and there is a very limited amount at the present time because nobody been asking for that type of funds. Ald. Feldman said I agree. Ald. Jean -Baptiste asked if the budget had an allocation for aldermen for reimbursement of aldermanic expenditures' Ald. Bernstein said no, they had none. Ald. Feldman said what he understood at one time expenses had been limited to certain wards. When there were two members of the Council, the ward got between the two members $500.00 a year. Some people used it for newsletters and others didn't. Mr. Crum said this had not been discussed for sometime and there was a very limited amount at the present time because nobody had been asking for that type of funds. Aid. Engelman suggested that they discuss a policy. Ald. Feldman stated that they would have it on the next agenda. AId. Jean -Baptiste said and if there was any past history it should be shared with them. SCHEDULING GOAL SETTING RETREAT: The committee is planning to have a goal setting retreat on July 21. Ald. Feldman stated that he wanted every department present. ADIOURNMENT: Meeting adjourned at 7:35 p.m. Respectfully submitted, Darlene Francellno 11 Draft not approved MINUTES OF THE RULES CONENIMEE MONDAY, MAY 14, 2001 5:30 p.m. ALDERINLk r,'IC LIBRARY Present: Aldermen Steven Bernstein, Stephen Engelman, Lionel jean -Baptiste, Joe Kent, Edmund Moran, Art Newman & Ann Rainey Presiding: Alderman Gene Feldman Absent: Aldermen Melissa WImne Staff Present: Judith Aiello, Darlene Francellno, Mark Franz, & Ellen Szymanski Guest: Mayor Lorraine Morton, Bob Atkins, Judy Fiske, Mimi Peterson and Bob Seidenberg CALL TO ORDER: Ald. Feldman called the meering to order at 5:45 p.m. APPROVAL OF THE MI'NTU7E.S OF APRIL 24, 2001: Aid. Bernstein moved for approval of the April 24, 2001 minutes. Aid. Engelman seconded. Motion carried. Minutes approved. REVIEW OF ETHICS ORDNANCE: Aid. Feldman stated that this item had been on the agenda for a long time and was originally called to examine, Kith the purposes of changing, endorsing or updating the ethics ordinance. Aid. Feldman opened the floor for discussion. Aid. Rainey said in addition to the notice issue, the major immediate issue was jurisdiction. Is the alleged perpetrator under the jurisdiction of the ethics committee? The reason that was important was because the 2 or 3 recent disasters had to do with jurisdiction and could have been dispensed with if the jurisdiction issue had been determined prior to deliberation. As in these cases the Board of Ethics didn't know these citizens weren't members of a committee or associates members. Given what happened, the city should make absolutely certain that they know exactly who is on what committee and what their term is etc. Aid. Bernstein stated that relative to the jurisdiction issue, the procedures had to be clarified. The Board has a wonderful chairman and they make the right decisions. It was very difficult when he read the ordinance to determine how they were suppose to address the issue of jurisdiction. Whether that is in open or closed session, in what form, is it subject to a hearing, or who is to make that determination. At one time the committee talked about whether legal staff would do that initially. Draft not approved Aid. Feldman said he remembered a discussion regarding the issue of whether or not the Board should actually proceed to another step. He talked about what kind of things occur when an accusation was made and referred to a specific kind of investigation that the Human Relations Commission did regarding fair housing ordinance violations. It was an investigation on the part of the director of Human Relations to find out if there was any merit at all. There was a big discussion about at what point and in what manner could that kind of investigation serve to knock out all of the frivolous kinds of claims, that once publicized, even though they are frivolous and even though they may not have any merit whatsoever. As it stands right now. almost any time there is an investigation started, it is a public one, the name is used, and there are a lot of problems with that. Aid. Rainey commented that the complainant could drop off the complaint with the Evanston Review before coming to City hall to drop it off with the Board and there is no way that can be protected. Aid. Newman passed out a memorandum addressed to him from Mr. Atkins on how things ought to be handled. He stated that Mr. Atkins had given a lot of thought to the issues since he had handled a couple of cares before the Board. He stated that the memorandum basically covered what Aid. Feldman spoke about on how something gets filed investigated and made public. Mr. Atkins said the issues turn up allegations made initially, the lack of jurisdiction. The memorandum talks about important issues he thought had to be addressed, if they were going to have a fair ethics ordinance. His thought and suggestions are for the Rules committee that he thought might make some sense. Basically that there be a format and only this format otherwise it could not go forward. The suggestions were that the complaint must be on a form by the complainant, under oath, requiring certain information that is on file with the Iegal department. The legal department basically has 14 days to conduct an investigation of that complaint form. Then there will be 3 things they will make findings of 1) Is or was the respondent a city officer or employee as defined herein at the time of the alleged ethical misconduct, which he referred to as jurisdiction of the person; 2) Is the ethical misconduct complaint covered by the ethics code, jurisdiction of the subject matter; and 3) Has a complainant presented competent evidence, which standing alone supports the allegation of ethical misconduct described in the complaint. Within 14 days that report is submitted to the Board as a recommendation as to dismiss it or not to dismiss it, they are basically findings with respect to the requirements that are set forth. In the initial presentation of the complaint, the complainant agrees that all information would remain confidential at this early stage of proceedings. That with the format, the form of the complaint that he or she submits he or she basically says that it can not be disclosed, etc. Mr. Atkins set forth in the memorandum in Section E what the complainant must sign and agree to, to go forward on his or her complaint. After the Board receives the report from the legal department, it considers the recommendation. If the Board decides that there are recommendations to dismiss it should be filed and the report and a letter within 24 hours sent to the complainant that the action is dismissed for the reasons that are set forth. If 2 Draft not approved the Board thinks it should be investigated then the complainant and the respondent are advised in writing, the respondent gets a copy of the complaint, the investigation is then set for a date, the respondent has an ability within 30 days to file a response. In general that is what is in his memorandum. He was tried to address the concerns he heard from the Rules Committee and what he experienced in the cases that he heard before the Board. Mr. Staley, Chairman of the Board of Ethics said they are a group of volunteers ttyting to do the right thing and have no axes to grind and are not trying to make life difficult for anybody. For the most part they don't do anything. Evanston evidently is a very ethical community, because not much comes to the Board. Recently the Board had received questionable inquires. Citizens don't seem to quite understand what the Board is all about. They don't understand ethical issues, some people are just up set with people for various reasons and think the Board is a good place to get to it. Mr. Staley said Aid. Rainey made the point that very quickly you can determine jurisdiction and why didn't they just move right through it. That was completely wrong, because you really don't know how it works. Mr. Staley said the jurisdictional issue was so intertwine with everything else that you couldn't possibly make a determination. Regarding the first 2 people who were alleged to be associate members of the preservation commission, the Board was given all of this information on what they did, etc. if they had been associated members of the preservation commission when they did those things there quite possibly could have been an ethic problem and everyone understood that. There was stationery floating around for one reason or another that showed their names as recently as during that period, as associate members of the preservation commission. People said that was old stationery and was a mistake. What was the Board suppose to do! If the Board was going to take everybody's word on face value when a complaint was cast against them, it µill become very quick and very easy. But they can't do that. The Board had to dig in to the point of getting people before them and figuring it out before they could make a determination if there was jurisdiction. The Board ultimately determined that there was not a jurisdiction. Those situations took a Iot of digging and it takes a long time. It took too long on at least one for them to come to a conclusion. Part of the problem, once again, they are volunteers, they couldn't get a quorum one month, couldn't meet for something else and people were notified on a timely basis but the time it ultimately got worked through was maybe 3 or 4 months. In the meantime, those people were out there and were upset. Mr. Staley said he did not think the community would have much confidence in the procedures that Mr. Atkins described because it then ultimately is going to be screened by Ms. Szymanski or somebody else before it gets to the Board. The ordinance was not set up for the Board to be an appellate court, the Board is suppose to make the initial determination. He thought that the right thing had been done in shortening the time and that Mr. Atkins had done the right thing in trying to get some sort of conformity. Mr. Staley had a letter now to deal with for a citizen who really feels like asking question 3 Draft not approved about ethics in Evanston. If you read the ethics ordinance, few citizens don't even have a right under the ethics ordinance to write in and ask about ethical things in the abstract. They have got to have a set of facts and send that in. The only people who can ask for an advisory opinion are Council members and people who are subject to the ethics ordinance. He thought Mr. Atkins had a very good point about some sort of consistent format so the Board knows that it is an inquiry to the Board, and maybe it ought to go through the legal department, that is the way it ought to always come. But he was very concerned about the law department doing the investigating and figuring out if there is a jurisdiction and what is really involved. Aid. Feldman asked why Mr. Staley thought it was very important for the board itself to determine jurisdiction. Mr. Staley said he didn't think the community would have confidence in it if they didn't have the independent Board doing it. Aid. Rainey said there are financial disclosure and affiliation statement forms that every person covered under the ethics ordinance have to signed and an oath saying that you cell be ethical. What has to happen is a database needs to be created with all the names of people who have signed those forms and update it daily if necessary and the Board should get a new print out of everybody who is covered. Once you get the database include terms, when someone resigns, and when someone uas appointed. That should be the guide of whether or not somebody is included, not an old piece of stationery floating around. If that is what we are using to make determinations then shame on us, not shame on Mr. Staley, shame on city staff, city council, or who ever. She thought that the Rules committee ought to direct that that happen. Mr. Staley said there was a bigger issue, the confidential form system is not working at all. Unless there is somewhere else where those financial disclosure and affiliation statement forms are going, the Board is not getting them. Some people aren't aware that they are suppose to complete those forms and they are to be filed May I by everyone. The Council's are kind of to be held by the City Clerk and the Board of Ethics, the Deputy City Manager and all of the Board heads and another group are to be held by the City Manager. Members of all of the committees are supposed to be held by the Board of Ethics. Mr. Staley wanted to know why that was done. The database is a good idea, but they have to have one first. Ald. Moran said he didn't think the legal department should be making a recommendation. The legal department should staff the Board and give the board the benefit of its experience and knowledge of the municipal code and knowledge of data that is reposited with the city. In his -.iew it was the Board's responsibility to decide jurisdiction of the person, jurisdiction of the subject matter and ultimately make a determination whether someone is or is not responsible for a breach of ethics. In order to have trust with the public as a whole he thought it had to be that way. Other comments in relation to what Mr. Atkins memorandum were that every one of his suggestions was to restrict pinch and somehow diminish the process, he was opposed to that in every 4 Draft not approved respect. He thought it was ok if a citizen, who felt there had been an ethical violation, files a charge of ethics violation with the city. They could be wrong that there could be no jurisdiction over the person charged they could be wrong if there is no jurisdiction over the subject matter, they could be wrong as to the factual substance of the complaint. But people are entitled to be wrong. He didn't think they should attempt to devise a process that attempts to filter out things with the anticipation that they might be wrong. Aid. Newman said in the 10 years that he had been on the Council the ethics ordinance and the procedures that had gone before the ethics board, in his opinion, had added nothing to the city. The only thing that the ethics ordinance had served as is a way for People to take political retribution upon their enemies. The city has a broken ordinance and it clearly doesn't work and needs to be fixed. What Mr. Atkins proposal does is at a very early on time the complainant has to put down who the complaint is against and what the person did. Somebody then looks at whether that is a covered person, it goes within a short period in a confidential way to the board. Then the Board looks at the information that has been gathered and decides whether or not to go forward. Then have a procedure where the complainant and the respondent both are notified and then they can do aII of the investigating. People can call witnesses, provide responses in writing, and everybody gets to appear at the same time. It doesn't take any power away from the board at all, because they are still going to call all of the shots. Aid. Engelman said he thought the idea that the subject of a complaint should be notified right away. That is one aspect of the ethics ordinance that had to be fixed. He thought the ethics ordinance had added something to this Community. The ethics ordinance sets up the basis for violations and the existence of the board. It was important that they set up a mechanism for notice, but should look at the rules that they already have. Much of what Aid. Newman spoke about was that they don't want these unfounded complaints and have peoples names smeared in the press. He didn't think that could be avoided. The fact that a request has been made and the content of any request shall be made confidential until such time as the board renders its opinion or until the board determines that the request need no longer be maintain in confidence, is already in the rules. It is important that they have ethics commission that is perceived by the public to be an impartial group and that they render the decisions because it is important that the public sees them as impartial. If staff is rendering decision, even if they are only advisors, there is always the belief within the community that staff is somehow influenced by an Alderman, a group of Aldermen or some other elected official. If citizens want to make a complaint they should be able to make a complaint. The issue was confidentiality. The harm created by false accusations. But this is a free country with free speech and he didn't like it either. What is being proposed - the swearing under oath that you are going to keep something confidential is not going to solve that, it is already in the rules. Aid. Bernstein said he didn't think the ordinance was broken, but it is necessary to have an ordinance, because people have to understand that Council is subject to some rules 5 Draf t not approved and regulations. What are definitely broken are the rules of procedures. With respect to confidentiality, it is not the commissioners that are breaching confidentiality, it is the applicant, the complainant and that is something over which we are not going to be able to exercise prior restraint because there is first amendment freedom. He thought the commission should make a decision. They can use staff however they chose to use staff — in private they should mandate an executive session to which no one is invited, but based on the strength of the complaint the issue could be decided as set forth in Mr. Atkins scenario. Given the truthfulness of all the facts submitted is there jurisdiction over the person and is there jurisdiction over the subject matter. If in fact that is determined the next thing — whether or not that is a violation — that may then be the time to bring in people. He said what they had to do was really address the rules and procedures and allow the board to know what it is they want them to do. The methods by which we address the complaint once it comes in. With respect to what has to be included, he does not necessarily want to limit people to having to fill in blanks. But you have to be able to at least give a preliminary case, show that if true, there may have been a violation, whether there was a violation is subject to a hearing. Aid. jean -Baptiste said his suggestion was that they try to integrate Mr. Atkins proposal so that they do ask the board of ethics to move expeditiously when a complaint is filed to determine whether or not there is jurisdiction of the person. That can be done in collaboration with legal staff, by doing an inquiry. They ask the chairman of the board to go ahead and find that out in the shortest possible time. The chairman of the board can seek the advice of the legal department to also find out whether or not their subject matter jurisdiction. In terms of determining whether or not the evidence is competent, the chairman of the board ought to participate in that process of making that determination in discussion with the board itself and finally to have the legal department make a recommendation to dismiss a complaint or not. It is not a mutual thing, it is a very influential decision and recommendation and he thought that would sway the board of ethics into the direction of adopting the legal department's conclusion, more times r than not. They have to move to protect confidentiality, to work closely with the legal staff to clarify basic factual issues such as jurisdiction of the person and subject matter jurisdiction. All complaints should go to the chair of the Board and the chairman ought to move very quickly to engage staff in some discussion on factual issues on this person subject co the jurisdiction of the ordinance. _ Ald. Feldman asked Ald. jean -Baptiste if he wanted to put those into the rules of procedures? Ald. jean -Baptiste said he would like to see that done because they were talking about balancing confidentiality and credibility, in my opinion. Mayor Morton spoke on one part of Mr. Atkins recommendation, which she thought had a precedent and would work. That was having the accusation notarized. On the Liquor Commission and according to the law, if any citizen, any Aldermen or anybody finds that E there is a violation or are aware of a violation of our liquor ordinance that person is suppose to do just what Mr. Atkins has proposed. They are to write it up and have it 0 Draft not approved notarized and send it to the liquor commissioner, which is the Mayor. That would certainly eliminate a lot of frivolous things if people had to notarize what they were saying as opposed to saying whatever they wish to say. In one part the Iegal department had no procedures set before them to tell them what the committee was talking about they could do and that needs to be done. Once they get the case, once they get the reference they should know what they are suppose to do u ith it and they should notify the people. They should notify the Aldermen that there is a case against them, and that should be done immediately so they will know what is going on. She also said they should not forget that some things can be done in private and some things can not, some things are a matter of public record and that has to be decided also. if a case is brought in a legal court it is all out in the open. She raised the issue that here at City Council if something is brought against someone, can it be private. Judy Fiske said she thought the discussions tonight had been really interesting and that everyone had been really thoughtful about this and she appreciated it, because she is the one who had been through the process. In her opinion the ethics ordinance is broken where a lot of us now are going through a very legal process where we've received notification for depositions and other comments and discover; on the preservation issues. Aid. Rainey said Mr. Staley gave some invaluable information about the financial disclosure and affiliation statement forms. A distinction needs to be made as to where these forms go. The forms for boards and commissions and Council, she thought should go to the city clerk. City Clerk should be absolutely responsible for maintaining that record for boards and commission and elected officials. Also a record needs to be kept of those forms. Those are the people covered by the ethics ordinance, the people who are required to fill out that form, it is very clear on the form who is suppose to fill it out. She made a motion that that be done within the next month and that those forms all be filled out and there be a file kept on who is and who is not, so that there is no confusion. Aid. Bernstein seconded. No vote was taken. Aid. Feldman requested that the exact percentage of people who have filled out the forms be found out. Aid. Newman said he wanted to put Mr. Atkins's suggestions on the agenda for consideration. What needs to be fixed is that the ethics committee shall not take any testimony on allegation without the person whose accused being notified. The point is there is something in the rules and procedures which is not working to protect the due process of the accused and it needs to be fixed. They need to know where these complaints go, they need to know when they go someplace who is going to get the copies, and when are people going to be notified. Aid. Feldman said he would place this item on the agenda again for the next meeting. Aid. Engelman said the ordinance charges the ethics board to develop rules and procedures to govern its own conduct of business. He urged that before the next 2 7 broft not approved meetings from now thar the ethics board, having heard the concerns, tries to discuss amongst themselves. He thought the Board was in a much better position than the Council was to tell them what they thought was broken and certainly take that into consideration. SCHEDULING GOAL SETTING RETREAT: The committee suggested a Saturday morning. Ald. Feldman asked Ms. Aiello to try and arrange something in July. ADIGURNMENT: Meeting was adjourned at 7:15 p.m. 8 Draft not approved ,%1IIUTES OF THE RULES COMMITTEE TUESDAY, APRIL 24, 2001 7:00 p.m. ALDERMANIC LIBRARY Present: Aldermen Stephen Engelman, Gene Feldman, Lionel Jean -Baptiste, Joe Kent, Edmund Moran, Art Newman, & Ann Rainey Presiding: Alderman Melissa Wynne Absent: Aldermen Steven Bernstein Staff Present: Judith Aiello, Maureen Barry, Patrick Casey, Roger Crum, Darlene Francellno, Mark Fran_, Herbert Hill & Mary Morris Guest: Mayor Lorraine Morton, Ted Loda and Raymond Summers CALL TO ORDER: Aid. Engelman moved that Ald. Wynne serve as Chair of this meeting. Aid. Rainey seconded. Motion carried. AId. Wynne called the meeting to order at 7:15 p.m. APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES OF DECEMBER 4.2000: Ald. Feldman moved for approval of the December 4, 2000 minutes. AId. Moran seconded. Motion carried. Minutes approved. ASSIGNMENT TO STANDING & ADVISORY (SPECIAL) ALDERMANIC COMMITTEES: AId. Wynne opened the floor for discussion. Ald. Feldman stated that before going further he wanted to clarify the change in the Administration and Public Works Committee from 5 to 4 members. Mr. Hill stated they would accomplish all changes when the Council adopts the new Rules. Ald. Feldman said his other issue was to discuss the proposal for a new budget committee to be included as a standing committee, consisting of 5 Aldermen. Mr. Hill said on June 12, 2000 the City Council created a Budget Committee, it was resolution 62-R-00. It was adopted has been signed and is in place. What was not done at that meeting was determine the number of members. Aid. Feldman asked if it including the number of meetings per year? Mr. Hill said the meeting was established, it read that the Budget Committee shall meet in accordance with the public schedule. What would be appropriate tonight was to review the scope and powers of that committee and then the membership. Draft not approved Aid. Engelman suggested that the Budget Committee be a Special Committee of the Council, answering to the Council and consisting of both Aldermen and eiti.ens. The reason it should consist of both Aldermen and citizens was because last year during the budget process a number of people came to them. Both from the non -for -profit as well as the for -profit community-, and said they wanted to be part of the process. In the case of the for -profits they said they pay their taxes and feel they should be Fart of the solution. In the case of the non -for -profits they said they could help with the solutions. Aid. Engelman also stated that reaching out and bringing in citizens to the committee gives Council a process to get the citizens involved. So it is not the Council just imposing a budget on them, but as the Council and citizens work together to establish a budget policy and a budget. It gives the Council cover. But it does more than that, it allows citizens to be part of the process and it sets a process to bring new and creative ideas to the Council. Aid. Rainey said with the exception of Aid. Jean -Baptiste, most of them have been on the Council for several years and have been through at least 4 budget cycles together. During those 4 years everybody has learned a whole Iot about the various funds and how things work. She did not think it would be helpful to have citizens on a Council Special Committee or Standing Committee or which ever is decided for the Budget Committee. She did think that if maybe the Mayor formed a committee of citizens or whomever, that would meet outside of the Council to perhaps advise them on some creative thinking and ideas and maybe occasionally have a staff presentation. She would love to have them in the audience saying what about this and what about that. She continues to be amazed by people in this town who are in the forefront of all sorts of activities, how ignorant they are of the budget and it is mainly because their involvement in the budget has been a re- active involvement. In other words they hate their tax bill, they hate the idea of imposing a liquor tax, they hate the idea of increasing the sales tax, the city should spend more wisely, the Aldermen don't know what they are doing, and why can't the water bills be reduced, etc. She did not think that the Council could be that productive having to deal with all those kinds of issues. It would really impede progress, especially Council progress. Aid. Feldman said the reason some people thought of this was because of the history of the attendance at the budget committee meetings over the past year. Which have been very poor and very little has come out of that committee. He was not certain that this would work, but thought if there was a shot at it, this would be the way to go to give it that kind of authority and assignment that Human Services, P&D and A&PW has. Ald. Rainey asked if he was talking about the difference between a standing committee and non -standing committee? Aid. Feldman said he was. Aid. Feldman said lie was anxious and willing to have citizens step up to the plate as they have indicated that they would. But he envisioned it in a different way. He did not think that there was anywhere near the kind of room on a budget committee for the vast N Draft not approved number of people that volunteered to be a part of the solution. That included the non - for -profits, specific people, the restaurant community, and an awful lot of other people. He did not believe that they could get a "represenrative" that would represent the non - for -profits or a "busine_sperson" that would represent their views. He said Ald. Engelman had said, as they have -4aid be part of the solution and not the problem. Aid. Feldman said he envisioned the budget committee using that, but either creating a sub -committee in which these people would be on it or forming an additional committee. Just a citizen committee formed by the 44ayor or whoever would devise that. These people could begin to sit down with the budget, which is what they want to do and get familiar with it and say these are our responsibilities and these are our needs. Don't just come in and say we should eliminate taxes on liquor, but lets find out ways in which we can create more income. Or if there are cuts that can be made, make sure that they are able to face those constituencies and interview those constituencies that will be affected by those cuts. Very much like the Council goes through. So they can't just say cut or don't cut or this or that. They have to be responsible for the total amount. And if they can do that and come together as Aid. Engelman indicated, be cover for the committee. In otherti+•ords, if they can go out in the community and advocate for a budget that the Council would listen to and can incorporate that kind of thing, that is fine. He did not believe citizens should be on a committee with members of the Council. Aid. Newman said he totally agreed with Aid. Rainey and Aid. Feldman and thought that Aid. Rainey hit it when she said if there are some citizen input and if the Mayor wants to appoint a committee. But the Council needs the budget committee to be working with the Council on what is politically realistic. He stated that the point was to get some work done that could not be done during the budget process because Council does not have the time. Quite honestly, he said there are a number of boards and commission that are in a conflictual position with the Council on budget issues. In reading the Library Board minutes he read where they are very unhappy with the Council and the City Manager over budget cuts and they were treated virtually the same as every department. The Arts Council is also very unhappy with the Council. He does not see the Council working throughout the year and coming up with things that aren't going to be overall salable to the Council as being productive. Aid. Newman did not think that there was any guarantee that the Council was not going to have a conflictual situation that they would end up with. He thought it was a good idea to privatize, a lot of people did not like that as an idea and it has now gone off the table. There has to be political consensus and upgrading the budget committee to a standing committee is recognition that they are taking it seriously and unless they have a consensus around the Council on this idea, he did not think it would be workable. He thought they could get a consensus around the idea of more citizen input, by having the Mayor appoint whoever she wants to a committee to look at their budget. The Council should look at whatever they come up with and have 2 groups working on it and those groups can meet together from time to time. There are all types of things that can go on. 3 Draft not approved But in the end the budget committee needs to be in touch with the political consensus of what's going to be possible to get through the Council in that two month period. Aid. Moran said ghat struck him as a possibility of what everybody had said. Would be to create something in the nature of an Advisory Committee to the Council's Budget Committee. His thought was to have the membership of the advisory committee drawn heavenly from members of the community. He was not even sure he would restrict it to Evanston, but perhaps it could be done, %vith people who have financial acumen, budget training and experience, financial experience, operational experience as it relates to financing and budgetary components. Have that blue ribbon committee be an adjunct to the budgetary committee process. This way maybe they could get the best of all possible worlds where you can get people who have gone through this, whether it is private sector or public sector and they have formulated budgets. They can come in and give suggestion and the Council can go from there. The question of political viability, he thinks, depends on the circumstances. He personally finds their budgetary process to be pretty stultified, he does not get much out of it. At the end of each year he wishes he had gotten more out of it. He thought a process where you have a committee of financial experts, budgetary experts who can look at these things and say there may be better ways to do this and here are some of our experiences. If the Council feels it is not politically viable they can reject it. if it might help, then incorporate some of it in. Aid. Rainey was not sure she wanted outside financial experts. For example, having them look at the health department and then tell Council this isn't the way they would do it. She was not sure those people would be sensitive. She has wanted for years to have a peer review group to look at the sanitation department. For example, the sanitation department is doing better now within themselves, which has probably come from harping over the years to do things better. She would like to see the Council have an opportunity to talk to the people who do the wort: and rind out what perspectives they would bring. The Council has listened to the bosses, bur she thought they could get some very good information from the people who do the work. She stated that she did not ever want to hear a member of Council say at another budget session, that they are going to cut 150 thousand dollars from this department or a million a cross the board in the city. That was very irresponsible. And she does not think that anybody knows what he or she are doing when they do that or what the ramifications are for the various departments or Bill Stafford when Council members do something like that. She said Human Services probably knows about the Township in their workings and who does what than the Council does about a lot of things here. It is also very difficult to say there is really a lot of padding in one department or there is not enough support in another department. She did not feel that they had good information about those kinds of things. Aid. Feldman said there was a committee that was formed of the city. A combination of the city and the chamber of commerce that addressed this issue and the Mayor was there as well a couple of years ago. One of the purposes was to get people involved that were 4 Draft not approved professional, etc., people that had an investment in the community. For example, one of the ideas turned around was to take neighborhoods that are all single family homes and find streets like Dodge Avenue or Central Street and increase the density so that maybe 3 flats or larger buildings could go up that are not there now. That would use the land of the city in a different manner. They talked about that and it sounded reasonable unless you got to the guy living next to the project or into the neighborhLxul where their neighborhoods would change irrevocably, permanently and dramatically. If that was going to be the kind of thing Council would get Aid. Feldman was not interested. He was not interested in somebody looking at the budget and saying cut here and cut there. He was interested in the combination of solving their budgetary problems by increasing revenue and also finding ways they can economize. The purpose of that group initially was just the opposite of that situation. This broad spectrum of people were going to go out and tell the citizens that there was going to be 3 flats next door to a single family home or a high rise. They were then going to share with the City Council the kind of heat that a difficult political decision was made, a difficult one that has impact on other people. The group did not go anyplace but the idea was reasonable that citizens would become responsible. He would look for some of that. That was why he worried about financial experts who come in from Universities from all over the place and say cut this and cut that and not pay attention to the fact that any cut in service is not only a budgetary act, it is a political act. He was interested in people that are willing to accept that responsibility and there are plenty out there. There are people who volunteered to do exactly that. Aid. Feldman put the motion on the Moor to have 5 members of the City Council on the Budget committee. He thought their rules indicated for all standing committees to have subcommittees if they want. If the budget committee comes to the Council and says it would like the idea for the :Mayor to appoint a committee and gives parameters — that was always something they could do. Mayor Morton asked if the charge for the budget committee had been identified with what they are suppose to do? Aid. Engelman said they had not really discussed it but that was the charge. Mayor Morton asked if that meant that the budget committee would deal first of all with the creation of the budget and then the amending of the budget? Then this one committee would prioritize the services for capital and operating budgets and then review the comprehensive annual financial plan? What would the 4 other Aldermen's contribution to this be? Also, is this a total amount of power that the budget committee would do all of that work? Aid. Engelman said the City Manager creates the budget. The sentence here is creation, amending a budget policy, not of the budget. The intended was not only the creation and changing as necessary of a budget policy, but also coming up with creative ideas for revenue enhancing measures, and expenditures reducing measures. Which may or may not also work with prioritization of services for capital operating expenses to the extend 5 Draft not approved that any standing committee of this Council does not make the ultimate decision. It only recommends to the Council k:,—If. This i= true of A&PW, P&D and Human Services. So when the :Mayor asked what xill the other four Aldermen do, the other 4 Aldermen will do the same thing they do with A&P%k'. Aid. Wynne said she thought in the sen_e that when passing it on June 12, 2000 they decided they would have this budeer committee which they proceeded to meet somewhat sporadically. The concept of a budget committee was one that they all acknowledged and wanted to have. The question was do they make it standing committee or a special committee with citizens as well as Aldermen on it. Aid. jean-Bapriste stated that it seemed to him that the position that says City Council ought to not advocate the political decisions that have to be made regarding to budget is clear. He did not think the Aldermen would advocate their responsibilities. But Council did have to open to the notion that there are a lot of people out in the community who have the capacity to make a contribution in that light. People who may have the time during the year to make the analysis, look at the facts, and come back and advise the Aldermen and that advise would assist in trying to better understand. He heard Aid. Moran speak about the process but he could not speak to how satisfying the process was or was not. Aid. Jean -Baptiste said from the outside perspective it seemed that when it is budget time everybody is going crazy trying to do whatever they can to pull together a balanced budget. He was not sure what went on during the rest of the year but it seemed from the discussions this committee has not functioned and people who have had the responsibility of it have not been attending the meetings. If they have a standing committee of the Council made up of Aldermen they could also have an advisory committee that reports to Council maybe 4 times quarterly and that advisory committee could be made up of a combination of people who are concerned, but also include some experts. Not only would those people be able to bring forth ideas as to specific things to do, but may be able to advise on long term options to wave revenue long term options, and look at how they spend the money. Then have a date set to listen to the report and be open to those suggestions and hopefully the standing committee would take the suggestions and begin the process themselves of trying to integrate those suggestions into their on planning to move forward towards a balanced budget for the city. Aid. Wynne said Aid. Jean -Baptiste has said things that she thought were also important. She did not think citizens should sit on the formal budget policy committee. She stated that Aid. Engelman used the word cover and she would like to use the word trail balloon. She would like to have a task force or an Advisory Committee made up of both. It was critical that there be community members as part of it and thought that anyone who is a budget expert recognizes that there are implications whenever you do anything in a budget. They could find outside experts who could give them some good perspectives L Draft not approvers that are important. But agreed with Aid. Jean -Baptiste that there has to be some way of linking it to the budget committee so that they are working somewhat in tandem and that there is a give and take back and forth. She would like to see a task force appointed by the Mayor capturing all of those people who step forward at every single budget and send out the word, but another important thing is to make it work. To make sure the task force is composed of people who really are committed to the process and have some sense of requirement to either report to them or meet with them as a budget committee on a regular basis. And if they have some creative ideas let them float some trial balloons and see what the community action is as well. If you call it and advisory committee that makes it feel more attached to the budget committee. Aid. Newman said he agreed with Aid. Moran that the process was frustrating. One of the reasons it is frustrating is because everybody, including the staff are going through a political mind field at all times when there are tuff things to suggest on the budget. He gave an example of the best political mind field. There have been suggestions repeatedly to combine somehow emergency services and the Township. Some people love the idea, bur staff does not think that is a great idea for it to go over to the Township. There are members of the Council who think it is a good idea, but when you suggest it, you can be accused of backstabbing or racial prejudice. You can pick out the branch libraries or the sanitation service, anywhere you go it is a political mind field. The experts are not going to feel this and the staff already feels it, we have a very good staff here that has come up with some good ideas on the budget. But they know that if they come to Council or if Council puts for►vard an idea, there is going to be disagreements. Council needs to really get their act together as to what they are going to support. Whether they we only going to stand on enhancing revenues or whether they are really going to look at reducing some services, because they are not there yet. Everybody will come up with great suggestion, the question is whether or not those suggestions are going to be able to get through the political realities. What he was saying ►►•as that if they want to start with an advisory committee to come up with some ideas, the Council in the budget standing committee really has to work on if they want to get more out of staff. They have to reassure staff that when they come up with good ideas that Council can not support because of political realities they are not going to be blown away on that. Aid. Moran said he felt that was why they wanted to have a budget committee and why this advisory committee would be another aspect of it that gets to be helpful. The city is not the only organization in the world that has difficulty dealing with its finances. There are a lot of them out there these days and there are people who have developed facilities for understanding the nuances of new alternatives. They can come in, for example and say emergency services should go to the Township. If you have an advisory committee come in, and not just shows up on a Saturday morning and say emergency services should to the Township, but they come in with suggestions, support, and a case to be made. They are there to say this is how we solve problems and this might be an application that you could use. It might be a helpful aspect of a liaison relationship between a committee Iike that, where they can sort of de-politici_e suggestions. 7 Draft not approved Aid. Engelman said the budget committee they did have at virtually every meeting it was said not to be afraid of saying anything. Both staff and members of the committee were told not to be afraid of saying anything because there was no retribution, it was designed so that there would be no mind field. It actually worked that way and could continue to do so. The purpose tonight is to adopt rules. He suggested a committee including citizens for all of the reasons that had been stated and it was obvious that it did not seem to be the will of the Council. But the will of the Council was to include citizens and take advantage of the offers that have been made. He suggested addressing the issue of should it be a standing committee. With regard to whether the :Mayor wants to appoint a group of citizens and how that group would interact ►,,ith the budget committee is something that could be worked out between the :Mayor and the Budget Committee. Ald. Feldman agreed. Aid. Rainey indicated she would hope that the Budget committee had the guts to deal with issues such as the emergency assistant program. She no Ionger believed that it should be folded into the Township, it should be eliminated all together. She thought it would be important for them to look in depth at these kinds of issues, because they have no idea what was going on there. Council needs to learn those kinds of things. She also stated that when the Mayor appoints people to committees she looks for expertise. If this would be the kind of committee that Aid. Rainey envisioned she would hope that there be representatives from various constituencies, not just the brilliant Bean Counters in our community. She has people in her ward who are very sensitive to neighborhood issues, etc. who do not have the skills for example that a Richard Stillerman or Alan Drebin might have. But their points of views regarding the city budget is every bit as important for the budget committee to hear. Aid. Wynne asked that Aid. Feldman restate his motion. Aid. Feldman stated that the motion µ-as to make the budget committee a standing committee equivalent to a Human Services, Administration & Public Works and Planning & Development committee assigned with 5members of the Council with the duties of this committee as described. Aid. Engelman asked to make the suggestion that in addition to what was in 9.7, add the examination of revenue enhancing and expenditure reducing techniques. Aid. Feldman accepted the addition. Ald. Feldman said he would hope that if this committee were formed that it meets some other time than Human Services Committee. He indicated that Aid. Kent was interested in serving on this committee and he could not meet on Mondays. Aid. Wynne stated that they would figure that out later. Aid. Engleman clarified that the motion was for a 5 member standing committee with the budget policy charges contained in rule 9.7. Aid. Wynne said added as amended to meet once a month. The vote was taken. Motion was carried. A new standing committee was created. 8 Draft not approved CHAIRMANSHIPS OF STAti'DLNG & ADVISORY (SPECIAL) ADLERMANIC COMMITTEES: Aid. Feldman called attention to a survey he did among everybody and if he had left anybody out they should let him know. The survey represented the considered choices of what was available without throwing people off of a committee or taking them out of the chair. He explained that people first expressed where they wanted to go and what they were interested in and what they wanted to stay on and what they wanted to continue chairing, etc. He moved for acceptance of this document as the assignment of committees then discuss it, change it or do anything else. Aid. Moran seconded. Aid. Wynne opened the floor for discussion. Aid. Rainey said she had some concerns with the Emergency 911 Committee which Aid. Moran chairs. It had not met in about b months and she had been contacted by at least one eiti:en member who was so excited and who has so much expertise to Iend to this committee, feeling he serves no purpose because the committee never meets. The committees need to meet every month and she would like a commitment or for the Rules Committee to direct these committees to meet. Aid. Moran said the 911 Committee had been meeting more or less as they have needed to. Sometimes they have the business to meet every month. But there are other times where they don't. Aid. Newman said there had been some talk about the budget committee not meeting also. He said in defense of anybody, who had a contested race in the last 4 months, it had been hard for all of them to make committee meetings and that was unfortunate. But his concern about the 911 Committee was mainly that he did not know if the minutes went out to the Council. There really needs to be a report by the chair occasionally or somebody so that the Council knows what is going on. He would like to know more about what is going on so he could at Ieast be able to respond to questions about it. Aid. Moran said that was a good idea. Aid. Engelman said he had to rie to the defense of the budget committee. It had been said that it did not do anything and it did not meet. It met every month after its inception, sometimes more often than once a month. just before the end of the year it did not meet the last 2 months after the budget was past because they could not get a quorum, not because the chair or Aid. Rainey were not there. It accomplished what it could accomplish given the short time frame and the many issues that were brought in front of it. Aid. Engleman said with all due respect to Aid. Feldman the survey does change a chair but they are making a standing committee not a special committee. He asked if the Flood and Pollution Control had a blank space next to it because nobody wanted or had not Draft not approved indicated a desire to serve? Mr. Crum indicated that Mr. Drummer was assigned to it. Aid. Rainey nominated Aid. Engleman for the Flood an3 Pollution Control. Aid. Engelman stated that he and Aid. Jean -Baptiste ha3 conversations about serving on A&PW and P&D and he did not care one way or the other which one he served on. Aid. Jean -Baptiste said he would prefer serving on A&P\x' and Aid. Engelman said he would stay on P&D. Aid. Feldman said and there were two other un-filled slots, Human Services and the Budget Committee. Aid. Kent indicated he would serve on the Budget Committee and Aid. Rainey stated that she would serve on Human Ser%ices. Aid. Newman said he wanted to be clear on when the Budget Committee would meet. Ald. Engelman said it was important that the Budget Committee meets when nothing else is meeting and as it is important for the non-members to be there because there are too many trial balloons that can come up that really need the input of all Aldermen_ Aid. Wynne said it should meet on an off week of the Council. Aid. Rainey asked who would staff the budget committee? Mr. Crum responded that Mr. Casey would. Aid. Rainey said had some questions about minutes and things of the various committees. Her concern was getting reports from people who chair committees that are not regulars like A&PW, P &D, and Human Services where everybody gets the minutes, in putting together these committees they should have an agreement that all members of the Council get minutes as soon as possible of all committees. Aid. Wynne agreed and stated that there should be either a monthly or bi-monthly report at the Council. They do get minutes but they do not always come out as timely as they would like. Aid. Rainey said they don't always come to those who are not on the committees ever. Aid. Newman said minutes need to go out for all the committees. As chair of the Parking Committee he had no idea what was being done with the minutes. The intent is to get the minutes out for all committees. He would suggest that it be made part of the Council agenda and let the Mayor pick whatever committee that she would and in whatever order that she would like and call on these committee chairs to give reports from time to time during the Council meeting. Some chairs like Ald. Engelman have been giving regular reports. Sometimes they give reports from City School Liaison, but he would be very glad to give Parking Committee reports. It does need to be institutionalized in the agenda of the Council and however the Mayor wants to do it, let it happen. Aid. Rainey said that if they got the minutes they would not need the reports. 10 Draft not approved Aid. %Vnne said they do need the minutes but a brief oral report keeps everyone up-to- date in a very fast way and also the community that does not always have the minutes readily available. Mayor Morton said she had been concerned about this issue for quite some time. Because she knows that there are some committees that they never receive minutes from unless they go out and ask for them. Even if a committee does not meet they need to know that committee has not met and that goes for all committees. What happens at City Hall is a staff person is assigned to take minutes of a meeting. The Mayor asked the City Manager if staff got paid or did they get compensatory time? The City Manager said it depended on their schedule, one or the other. The hlayor continued stating that the staff person comes and takes the minutes, then that person has to go back to her job and she may get to the minutes or she may not depending upon what the other job requires so minutes are given months Iater. This was a very serious concern that the Mayor thought they should do something about - She did not know whether they needed hire somebody to take minutes, because they are loosing money with the staff, because when they go back to work they've got to stop everything they are doing and do the minutes. They've got to listen to the tapes, they've got to type them and sometimes it takes days. Who knows what the City Clerk has to go through. It is an issue that if Council decides that they want to have the minutes 4 days after the meeting, they could make that part of the rules and sense it is the policy of the Council to set policy then you will get those minutes at that time. She was sure the City Manager would work on a way for staff to get those minutes. They can not operate unless they have those minutes because you just don't know what is going on. We have computers and fax machines and as soon as those minutes are done they can be sent to members of the Council. It does not have to wait on a Thursday packet. This is why they make a lot of mistakes sometimes because they just don't know what is going on in the committees. Mr. Crum said the question is what are minutes? They probably provide more extensive committee minutes in general than almost anybody around. Staff members work virtually all week long on minutes. As for action items, some action could be done a Iot faster which is what somebody like Fat Casey on the budget committee does. He summarizes the action rather than semi -verbatim minutes. In terms of getting a report out of the committee rather quickly that can be done easily. It is when you want the long transcripts that are very difficult to do. Aid. Newman stated that the Mayor made a good point as to when those minutes ought to come out. Human Services has magnificent minutes taken, however, very often, the value of them are diminished because they are not give to the Council as part of the packets when decisions are made. On the panhandling issue they must have had b different meetings and ended up repeating things at Council for people who are not on 11 Draft not approved the committee. At a minimum, minutes for a Standing Committee need to be provided to the Council. If the committee is meeting ? weeks before it gets to the Council, those minutes need to be there. They need to be included in the packet for the other members of the Council and for the members of the committee so that they can remember what was said. He stated that they might need to get a court reporter on staff. Take a look at cost benefit of what that would cost. The goal ought to be that minutes are given to Council before they are to decide on a Human Services item, and that is an example of how you determine the timeline as whether it is going to be a month or a month and a half or 4 days to get the minutes. Aid. Rainey said Human Services meetings should be scheduled on a Monday that is not a Monday before Council meeting. She doesn't know how minutes can be done from Tuesday to Thursday and get those minutes out. Because of the problem that people who do the minutes as the Mayor stated they've been hired for a job at city hall and the major part of which was not transcribing minutes. The point the Mayor makes somebody outside of city staff perhaps doing the minutes would free up people who are belaboring over these minutes. It would just make so much sense and it would cost not a tremendous amount of money, given that our staff are not poorly paid. Aid. Rainey said in addition to that issue there is the other issue of just routinely not receiving minutes, receiving agendas of committees, board and commission and things in the packets after those meetings have taken place. For example, the Housing Commission is a chronic violator of this. On Thursday night she opened her packet and found the Housing Commission agenda for the meeting that night. Ald. Wynne said that now Site Plan, Plan Commissions, and the ZBA agendas are all on the cityweb site and perhaps that would be another one that should be added. Aid. _ Rainey said that would work. Ald. ]can -Baptiste said sense it costs the city anyway to have staff cover the meetings and do the minutes and they are not satisfied with the production. Use that money to get what they've bargained for. There are a number of court reporters that would moonlight in the evening and now that the technology is so advanced they could take the minutes and transcribe them right away through a computer and provide the product probably _ within one or two days. Aid. Engelman commented that the City Manager had heard the Council's policy desires to have minutes, have them done, have them timely delivered. He suspected that the City Manager is in the best position to determine how to accomplish what they are asking to be done. 12 Draft not approved AId. Wynne said it was clearly a consensus on this isltue an3 rhat the City Manager had s direction from the Council in terms of what they wct:i3 Iike to know and what they would like understood about how to improve the rirr:eliness and what the cost issues are. The committee would like a response back in terms e: how they improve the situation. In terms of the meeting, the timeliness issue and if there is another alternative to having in done. Aid. Wynne said all positions had been filled and all of the blanks complete and several changes made. Aid. Moran motioned and seconded -:old. Wynne asked Aid. Engelman if he had something to further. ROTATION OF CHAIRIMANSHIPS OF ALDERINUM`'IC CO.\ MITTEES: Aid. Engelman said with regards to the budget policv committee it is a little different than the other 3 standing committees. The budget policy committee instead deals with in essence of business it starts at one point and ends at another point the year later. He was not sure that a rotating chair, at least on an off annual cycle, which is unfortunate because there are 5 members and there is only 4 year=. Aid. Wynne asked if his suggestion was that a chair would last for a budget cycle' AId. Engelman said either have a chair of the committee just as the other various committees or you have 4 chairs in the 4-year cycle rather than 5 chairs. Aid. Newman moved that Aid. Engelman be the chair of the budget committee. The basis for his motion was that they had talked about working together and he thought this chair had to be a very sensitive chair and this committee could be used to politicize difficult budget issues or it could be used to achieve consensus on difficult budget issues. He was hoping that this motion was in the spirit of this committee being a consensus building committee on the Council. He also hoped that this spirit could go on for more than 2 weeks and hopefully 2 years. Aid. Wynne seconded. Aid. Rainey did not think Aid. Engelman should be chair for longer than one year. They should re -visit this each year. To give an Alderman the chairmanship of a standing committee for a 4 year term was not in the spirit of the way this process was Suppose CO work. Aldermen from other wards ought to have an opportunity, people from other communities ought to have an opportunity to see their representative leading the budget committee. She thought it ought to be re -stated as a budget term, as a fiscal year term. If Aid. Engelman does a fabulous job and the Rules committee would like to re-elect him for the next year, fine. Aid. Wynne asked if the committee was in favor of the assignments as modified on the survey prepared by Ad. Feldman. Motion carried. The City Manager stated that there were 3committees that were not included on the list. The City Chamber Liaison, the Lighthouse Landing Committee and Northwestern 13 Draft not approved University Evanston Research Park, which probably had one more meeting to go. Mr. Crum said it was left off of this Iist but it is in the Rules committee as a named committee. The committee decided that Aid. Engelman would serve on the Lighthouse Landing Complex. They would ask Ald. Bernstein is he wanted to continue on the City Chamber Committee and they ►would not fill Northwestern University Evanston Research Park. Aid. Feldman said a schedule would come from staff about Aldermanic assignments. Mr. Crum said they would give a trial schedule referring to the rotating chairmen. RULES CHANGES -BUDGET CONVIv ITTE&SPECIFY hIENIBERSHIP Mayor Morton said she had an obier•ation that she would like to try. When she gets the list of people who wish to speak before the Council they are suppose to indicate on the sheet what agenda item they are going to speak to and give their addresses and they do not. Maybe there could be 2 sheet-, along with maybe somebody who is already here that night to stand there until it gets straighten out or put up some signage. One sheet would be only the names of people who are going to speak to items on the agenda. According to our rules they are suppose to speak first and then the other people speak afterwards. They must put their name on the second sheet of paper, which would mean they wish to address the Council with something else. She did not think they would have quite as many people creating problems for them and have to listen to them when Council is not going to vote on anything that they are talking about that night. She wanted to know what the committee thought about this. Aid. Newman said that is in the rules. Mayor Morton said it is in there but they can't control it. Ald. Rainey asked if the purpose of the second sheet be at some point if there are a Iot of people on the sheet speaking to agenda items that they would tell the others on the second sheet sorry you can't speak? Mayor Morton said yes until the agenda item people have spoken. Aid. Rainey asked if the purpose for the 2 sheets would only be to weed out the agenda people from the non agenda people? Mayor Morton said yes, so that Council could get their business done and hear from them for sure. After much discussion Aid. Newman said he would like to keep the present rule, 6.2 and add Aid. Rainey's suggestion that in no event the business of the Council will begin within 45 minutes of roll call. He repeated it stating that the business of the Council would begin no later than 45 minutes. Then put in the other one about once they determine the total number of speakers those speakers times would be divided. They may only get 3 minutes a piece. Ald. Feldman said one person could take 15 minutes. Aid. Newman said one person could have 15 minutes, but if you have 7 people on the list they will assume they would get 3 minutes a piece. He would also add that the Mayor would announce at the beginning of each citizen comment session, the rules. Aid. Wynne asked that it be printed on the agenda. Ald. Newman said it would be out on the table and on the sign-up sheet. Aid. Newman said it should be on cable also. 14 Draft not approved Mr. Hill said in addition to the minor correction of the 5 and Y membership on A&PW and some language corrections he would like to, in the next couple of months bring back those prior resolutions to have then all consistent with the Council rules. Mayor Morton said the other thing is on a committee of the whole, chaired by the committee chair and have a meeting so everybody can hear it and so you don't have to listen to those people twice. It would certainly save time and they could get out of these meetings at night much quicker, if they didn't have to have this duplication. Aid. Feldman said he thought that should be left up to the committee. Mr. Crum said they needed to officially approve the rule of the seniority list. Aid. Newman said he thought they did not need to do anything with that. Just continue the rotation and insert Ald. Jean -Baptiste in for Dennis Drummer. Mr. Crum said under the current seniority list Nlr. Feldman would be the initial Rules Committee chair, Mr. Engelman would be the intial P&D Committee Chair, and Mr. Moran would the initial A&PW Committee chair and Human Services would be Mr. Newman. Ald. Engelman said Ald. Jean -Baptiste would be chair of A&PW right now. Aid. Jean - Baptiste said he would shift with whoever the next person was in line. Ald. Rainey agreed to go along with this but she wanted to know when she served as chair on A&PW. Aid. Wynne and with the exception of the budget committee. A vote was taken. Motion carried. Mr. Crum said they would check on Aid. Rainey's request. ADIOURNMENT: Meeting was adjoumed at 9:25 p.m. Respectfully submitted, Darlene FranceUno 15 Draft NHNU`I'ES OF THE RULES CO.NINIIT'i'EE 3Iondas•. December 16. 2002 5:30 p.m. Room 2402 Present: aldermen Steven Bernstein. Stephen Engelman, Gene Feldman, Lionel Jean - Baptiste, Edmund Moran. Joe Kent & Ann Rainey Presiding: Alderman Art Nessman Absent: Aldermen Melissa Wvnne Staff Present: Roger Crum, Judith _Mello. Bill Stafford, Pat Casey, Herb Hill, Maureen Barra. Marl: Franz Guest: Julie Ilamos — State Representative, Jeff Schoenberg — State Senator Elect, Lam Suffredin — Cook Count• Commissioner CA1_I. TO ORnER.�. Aid. Newman. Chair of the Rules Committee called the meeting to order at 5:48 p.m. DISCUSSION NVIIIi LEGISLATORS Aid. Newman %%elcomed and thanked the three legislators for attending the Rules Committee meeting. County Parking Tax -- AId. Newman began the discussion with a question for Cook County Commission Larry Suffredin. Ald. Neuman questioned the fairness of the county imposed parking tax on p:rrnits over a certain dollar amount. Aid. Ncn•man believes this tax effects only Chicago and fewother Cook County municipalities. Chicago can absorb this tax easily, but it realiy hurts Evanston. Commissioner Suffredin is planning on meeting with the County Revenue Director next week and can discuss this issue at that time. He surmised that exempting smaller lots or smaller communities from this tax is a possibility that he believes this also effects Des Plaines and Palatine. Aid. Newman commented that this tax is not raising too much money from the suburbs, so this Iegislatice shift could have minor impact on the Cook County's budget. Multi -family Property Tax Assessment — Aid. Newman requested some information on the multi -family property tax assessment that is unique to Cook County. Commissioner Suffredin stated that he is working with Cook County Assessor lames M. Houlihan and would be willing to request the Assessor to accompany him to a future meeting to discuss this very complicated political issue. Police Officer Liability — Aid. Nev.-man turned to the City's First Assistant Corporation Counsel. Herb Hill, and asked him to frame the discussion of police officer liability for the state legislators. Mr. Hill explained that the City is looking for some assistance in eliminating or minimizing police chase lawsuits. He further explained that the willful and wanton conduct 01/03/0393; ANI Draft standard had backfired recently. as the city faces a jury-a►%arded S1 1 million Iawsuit in a case where the City believes the officers acted appropriately. Mr. Hill believes pan of the problem is that judges are less likely to offer summary judgements and these cases Co to trial. Once in a trial. anything can happen. Mr. Hill is hoping, along with our elected officials. that our legislators can have sonic success in creating legislation that can provide general immunity to municipalities or create a monetary cap on municipality exposure. Evanston will suffer from these lawsuits. but is a relatively stable economic community. Similar lawsuits could financially ruin other. smaller municipalities. Also. the City recently acquired liability insurance, but the City must pay a S1.5 million deductible per case. The cost of this insurance continues to increase providing yet another drain on resources. Lastly. Evanston's Police Department is caught in the middle. The City has a good police department that does an admirable job, but they are asking themselves if the risks of pursuing outweigh the benefits. Obviously, Evanston's police department will continue to serve and protect, but this issue is a difficult one. One emotional jury and a city -vould face a tremendous financial hardship. State Senator Jeff Schoenberg expressed his concern and thought that it would be more politically feasible to legislate immunity rather than a monetary cap. lie suggested the City contact the City of Chicago to discover how they are handling this issue. State Representative Julie Hamos believes Chicago would support such legislation, but was candid in stating that any kind of tort refornt would be difficult in this environment. Commission Suffredin mentioned that the County has the same issues and would be willing to work with Chicago and Evanston. He recommended discussing this issue with Chicago; in particular Rita Athias in the Mayor Daley's Office or their Law Department. State Road improvements — Aid Newman shifted the topic to funding for state roads. He stated that the entire stretch of Sheridan Road from Isabella to South Blvd. needs repairs at a cost of S 17 million. This is a state road that has not been scheduled for repairs to date. Representative Hamos recommended that City staff should sit down with the new Secretary of Transportation and try to get this project or any other projects "on the board." Senator Schoenberg stated that each project need to appear somewhere in the five-year plan to get the "ball rolling." Howcvcr, he believes that the Sheridan Rd. project may be difficult to garner political support for because it only benefits one community. Representative Hamos suggested that we submit an execuuve summary describing the current condition of both Sheridan Rd. and Ridge Ave. and what funding is needed to complete the projects. The executive summary should be submitted to Jeff and herself, as well as, the new Transportation Secretary. Ald. Newman re-emphasized the point that the City wants to "get in the game" and try to get Some state funding for both the Ridge and Sheridan projects. Representative Hamos promised, along with Jeff, to "nag" everyone in Springfield in support of getting some funding for these _ projects. State Budget — Aid. Engelman asked the legislators what other shifts in revenue can be expected to solve the state and county budget problems? Representative Hamos commented that the question is difficult to answer until the new governor submits a balanced budget in February. Senator Elect Schoenberg responded by saying that the state budget problem was greater than what has been reported. He stated that it would take the state at least 13 to 18 months to recover the lost revenue from this year's budget. This is the first time in 50 years that revenues are down from the previous year. Next %car, state revenues are projected to decrease again. The legislators believe that health care and tax caps may be issues in the near future. =- M S/039.17 AM 2 Draft -CITY COU CIL SCHFI ULF Aid. Rainey requested that the May 5, 2003 Council meeting be changed to May 7, 2003. Aid. Engelman seconded the motion and it passed unanimously. HUmA1 SER%-i ES CO.ItitiT7'FF N[F'-IBERSIIIP ISSCFS Aid. Newman moved that an ordinance be drafted amending the Council Rules to make the Duman Services Committee a three -member committee with a quorum of two. The motion was seconded and passed with the stipulation that if .old. Bernstein volunteered to sit on that committee the amendment ordinance would not be necessary. MISC. ■ Aid. Rainey requested that staff contact U.S. Representative Jan Schakowsky to attend a future Rules Committee meeting. Aid. Newman stated that a follow up to the City Manager's evaluation is scheduled for the next Rules Committee meetinu. Aid. Jean -Baptiste asked the committee if this is the correct committee to Standing Committee duties. He requested that the Rules Committee reassign the MWEBE program and affordable housing issue to the Human Services Committee. Aid. Rainey objected to this proposed shift because the Administration & Public Works Committee can always schedule a special meeting to address any of his concerns. Aid. Jean -Baptiste stated that the MWEBE program is not on the list of responsibilities of any Standing Committee and believes regular discussions are necessary. Aid. Newman second the motion and stated that Human Services has more time to address this issue than the A&PW Committee based on the fact that A&PW aecndas are usually extensive. Aid. Feldman believed that the A&P«' Committee must eivc more attention to the MWEBE Program over the next few• months. The Rules Committee agreed to tackle this issue at the newt Rules Committer meeting. ■ Aid. Rainey motioned to create an ordinance from the Rules Committee (interbovemmental issues) to the US Congress opposing the war on Iraq to be drafted and presented at the January 13, 2002 Council meeting. This motion was second and passed. Aid. Newman scheduled the next Rules Committee meeting for January 7, 2003 at 6:00 p.m. ADJOURNMENT: Meeting adjourned at 6:55 p.m. Respectfully submitted, Mark T. Franz 61/03j03937 ANt 3 Draft Not Approved MiN UTES OF THE RULES COMMITTEE 1iON D.%N'. OCTOBER 7. 2002 6:00 p.m. ALDER -NUN IC LIBRARY Present: aldermen Steven Bernstein, Stephen Engelman, Gene Feldman, Lionel Jean- Baptiste, Edmund Moran, Art Newman & Ann Rainey Presiding: Alderman Stephen Engelman Absent: Aldermen Joseph Kent and :Melissa Wynne Staff Present: Judith :Mello, Maureen Barry, Roger Crum, Darlene Francelino & Mark Franz Guest: Mary Gain, Evanston Roundtable and Bob Seidenberg, Evanston Review CALL TO ORDER: In the absence of Chair Aid. Kent, Aid. Engelman served as chair and called the meeting to order at 6:13 p.m. APPROVAL OF MNUTES OF THE AUGUST 5, 2002 MEETING: Aid. Feldman moved for approval. Aid. Bernstein seconded. Minutes were approved. DISCUSSION ABOUT THE CHAIRMANSHIP OF THE BUDGET COMMITTEE: Aid. Feldman called attention to the April 24, 2001 minutes of the Rules Committee. The discussion and action on that date indicated that the chair of the Budget Committee would serve for one-year and the issue %vas to be revisited. It is now about 4 months later. The budget committee is a standing committee and all standing committees have rotating chairs. He moved to institute a rotating chair as all standing committees. Ald. Newman seconded. Aid. Moran's perspective was Ald. Engelman brings some continuity and clarity for what they have been trying to do at this point and working hard on developing agendas. He is doing a good job and would like to see him continue as chair. The work on the budget committee is a little different than the work of some of the other standing committees. It is somewhat self evident because there is a rolling set of agenda items as time goes on. The agendas of A&PIN', P&D, and Human Services Committees do have some carryover on issues, but generally move to an issue, do it, decide it and go on. This is true to some degree with the budget committee but since he has served on it he looks at it as being more project oriented and thinks it takes some more continuity of approach in working through issues they have been trying to work through. Aid. Engelman has helped the committee immensely, has done a lot of work Mth staff and has organized the agendas in a way that helps him examine the issues as they've gone through them. Ald. Newman didn't see this as a referendum on the performance of the chair. One of the reasons they decided to rotate chairs on standing committees, which started in 1997, was that it was fair to all points of view. While one Alderman might share a closely point of view with the Alderman serving as chair, another Alderman might not share a close point of Draft Not Approved view with some other Aldermen. Also, to be able to get different philosophies to chair the committee. It has been a very open and fair process to all members of the council serving on standing committees. At some point there will be a chair that will rotate and everybody will get a chance to lead the committee and to communicate with a chair that they are more comfortable communicating with. If they allow the budget committee to go on the way it has that would basically be a precedent to name a permanent chair of A&PNV, Human Services and P&D, which they decided not to do in the Iast two councils. It was not a question of rating a performance of the chair it was a question of having different points of view and different philosophical points of view rotate through the chairmanship during the 4 years. The only way to do that is by having a schedule to rotate the chair as is provided with all the other standing committees. Aid. Engelman has been the chair for almost 3 years. There needs to be a rotation to give different points of .iew- a chance to get to the chairmanship. Aid. Moran didn't disagree with what Aid. Newman said about A&PX%*, P&D and Human Services. He saw those committees as being particularly susceptible to just ha,.ing rotating chairs of x number of months because they move to and through all of those issues. On A&PW they could have a different person at every meeting be the chair. The agenda items at A&PW are kind of ad hoc, they just vote on the items and go on. But as they continue to deal with the budgetary process a lot of those issues require a certain approach. To work through the budget cycle they kind of prescribe a course for themselves. There is a need for more of a blue print and then a continuous follow• -up that is enhanced by a chairmanship that continues on. His point was they have to have some continuity and some leadership on it. It is easier to do that when they have a person that continues through a certain cycle. As a committee they have been trying to set up a process and he did not think the chair should be changed right now. Aid. Engelman appreciated the kind words from Ald. Moran and did not have any special passion of being the chair of the budget committee for another year or 2 or 3. They talked about the budget committee as being a standing committee. What differentiates this as a standing committee from a non -standing committee is like the Economic Development, CDBG, Flood & Pollution Control or the Parking Committees is that it is only made up of Aldermen. That is the difference between standing committees and non -standing committees. He did not believe, as he said a year ago or 15 months ago, that the budget committee should be operated like a standing committee where the chairmanship rotates 5 people over the 4 years. Aid. Moran was 100% right, continuity is needed, at least for a fiscal year, because it is a project. At a minimum the chairmanship should be for a fiscal year. On the other hand is this committee all that much different than the other committees that have permanent chairs, that work with staff to develop the agenda and provide a framework for continuity of that particular project over the 4 years? If the Rules Committee wanted to rotate the chairmanship amongst the budget committee, that was fine with him. But he did not think they should do it for less than a year at a time, which meant they should get a new chairmanship right nowfor this coming budget year. Ald. Feldman said the intent of his motion had no specific moment of action, but would (- amend it to indicate that rotation of the chairs should be on a yearly basis starting at the end - of this fiscal year, March 1, which would not interrupt this particular cycle. But did think Draft Not Approved they should have a rotating chair on a yearly basis. He admitted that there is a difference in the way this committee operates and the subject matter, but did not think that difference must be approached by a permanent chair. It would be a good opportunity for anybody on the budget committee to assume that responsibility with all that entails. That goes for their freshman Alderman as well, he got to be chair right away of ASPXV. It is a growth process and people should be given that opportunity. There was no reason .vhv other people should not have a chance to demonstrate that same kind of leaderships and thought processes that goes into setting agendas, communicating with staff, establishing a philosophy that might interest the council and be a great benefit to all of them. He understood there was a difference, but could not believe that difference insists on a permanent chair. Aid. Bernstein had no problem with rotating chairs, but was not sure he understood about the difference and philosophical feelings with respect to one period or another. He knew that members of the Council were somewhat dissatisfied with the fact that the budget committee did not deliver specifics that they could then come to the Council with, but did not know if that was a function of the chair. He thought they pretty much had consensus on where they were going on the budget committee and they ail would have liked to have been going in a different direction, not different than the chair, but different than what they had come up with. They would have liked to have come up with definitive ideas and found it very difficult to do. But he clearly felt this was not the time to change horses. His question really was what control does the chair have? All of them pretty much have the ability to put things on agendas, have had pretty much consensus on most of the things they've been trying to talk about and all have been a little frustrated. He thought they all lilted the idea of the citi.en activities last year and were all uniformly dissatisfied with the results, although they liked the process. It was a -working progress. The chair should not make all that much of a difference in his mind. It is important from a leadership standpoint that everybody gets a chance to chair committees so they become point people. But was not quite sure other than sharing the responsibilities, why the chairmanship should be that important in this kind of committee. Ald. Moran appreciated the discussion. He was not trying to say there should not be rotation. He thought maybe the rotation should be every 2 years because it would give a person a chance to work through a couple of budget cycles. Some of ghat the committee is trying to do now is to sort of fine tune some of what they learned last year. Some of the things that were good and some that were less attractive and come back this year with just a little better program that might end up being a little bit more effective. It has been sort of an evolutionary process. It is important to have some continuity there. He was not saying that anybody should be the imperial of the budget committee. He just sees some importance in being able to tackle it as a project and stay with it for awhile. He thought a minimum would be a fiscal year, but maybe a couple of years. He added, not in derogation or criticism of new members, in particular new members of the Council, but thought in particular that Ald. Feldman's remarks were on the money about it being good even to have freshman city council members rotate through chairmanships of other standing committees. It enhances the ability to learn the process, come to grips with it better and become a more effective Council member early on. From the budget committee standpoint there really should be an effort to seek a chair that has significant overall experience within the process. Somebody Draft Not Approved who has gone through a reasonable number of years of budget formulation, policy examination, and so forth and maybe it would make sense for them to try to develop criterias on how they would be guided by that. He thought it would help substantially to have someone with significant Council experience because it is a pretty complex situation. This budget situation is an evolutionary process, a cyclical process that is a different one. Aid. Feldman stated that the motion had nothing to do with the away in which the budget committee functions. It had to do with the issue of rotating chairs. One Alderman indicated how vital the chairmanship is awhile another indicated the difference is not all that important. All he %vas suggesting was that they give other people a chance. There is no issue so great that would deny the right of other members of the council on standing committees to assume that responsibility and continuity can be created within a year. Experience comes with accepting a responsibility, having to set an agendas, a meeting to provide leadership, taking on that job and then working with staff, rather than having it handed down. Every member of the budget committee deserves a chance at it. They may learn a lot from the previous budget chairman, but may have their own views on how things should go. The motion stands to rotate on a yearly basis. Aid. Bernstein gleamed on some historical information. He knew it .was not all Aldermen but wondered what the rationale was behind Dennis Drummer serving as chairman of the CDBG Committee forever. Aid. Engelman's response was non -standing committees have a chair that is appointed for the term of the council. Aid. Rainey commented that now it is different she chairs for 2 years and Aid. Bent «ill chair for the remaining z years. Aid. Bernstein wanted to know why. Ald. Newman responded that up until 1997 among the members of the council there was a concerted effort to make sure that certain people on the council never got those chairs. When John Nelson was on the Council nobody else was going to get the chair of Economic Development and back then it seemed that chairs of the committees worked closely with staff and helped control the agenda. Joan Barr's philosophy was always to have chairs that were friendly to her of the non -standing committees, which were Economic Development and CDBG Committees. Mr. Drummer basically inherited that chairmanship. Aid. Engelman said there were more committees than those. Aid. Newman understood but his point was the Mayor appointed the chair not the Rules Committee and was basically done for the chairs of those committees to be reflective of the philosophical point of view of the Mayor. In 1997 the council changed that and had the Rules Committee appoint rather than the Mayor and decided in most cases, but not all, to rotate the chairs. The best chair of the committee from the definition that Aid. ;Horan gave was somebody who could communicate with all factions of the Council and that all members of the council are comfortable talking to. If he were chair of the budget committee the entire time, there would be members of the Council who would feel less comfortable communicating and working with him and felt that would be unfair to those members of the council. Aid. Newman continued stating that it is very important that the chair of the budget committee have the ability to regularly communicate with as many members of the Council. 4 Draft Not Approved Especially the members who are not on the committee to seek them out and seek their opinions. He thought then ought to have a chair that was most likely to communicate with all the factions of the council and that is w•hv they have rotating chairs of the standing committees. It protects the minority point of view and the majority point of view because the minority point of view, if there is one, gets to put their items on when they have a chair and it does affect the war a committee goes and the emphasis of a committee. The fairness thing to do to everybody, including the people who have served, including the people who are on the committee and the people who are off the committee is to simply rotate. In a perfect world it would be nice if everyone could communicate, be it that they had differences. However, that not being the case perhaps Aid. Bernstein understood what Aid. Newman said and it frustrated him that Aid. Newman felt that way. Having said that Aid. Bernstein had no problem rotating chairs, but again would concur that now was not the time. He supported Aid. Feldman's motion to rotate the chair yearly. He was not sure they needed ? years for continuity sake but did see differences in this committee. This is sort of undimensional to him, the budget is the budget. The bottom line is they need to create a balanced budget. Everyone has different priorities of how they get there. Again he wondered how the chair was going to impact that when a vote of the council is required to pass a budget. The majority of council is ultimately going to have to vote for a budget, but did not know that should necessarily be a rational for picking a chair. Even though they may have had some disagreements, the budget passed G to 3 so the system worked. If their view was different than that of the chairs their %ie%v prevailed. Notwithstanding who the chair was at the time. Again, in a perfect world he would hoped that they could communicate, all be it having differences, it is incumbent on any chair to reach out to the other members of the council. That should be one of the things that a chair would gain in leadership ability and in just communication skills by trying to do that. Aid. Jean•Baptiste stated that while they each may have different rationales why the chair should rotate, they have a consensus that the chair should rotate. He agreed that the chair should be rotated on a yearly basis and the committee should move on. With regard to the issue of the :Mayor appointing the chairmanships, at the time Aid. Engelman believed and still believes that the Mayor was given the power to nominate chairmanships of the non -standing committees, the committees that included citizens because all the citizens elected him or her. Therefore, at least the philosophy .vas that he or she would bring a larger approach, not the ward approach to the chairmanships that included citizens. With regards to the ability of a chairman to seek out all factions, he hardly agreed that it was important for a chairman to be able to talk to, seek out the ideas of and communicate with all factions, but it is true with regard to every chairmanship of every committee not just the budget committee. With regards to rotating chairs he certainly believed that everything that had been said about the importance of being able to rotate chairs and bringing a new philosophy and giving aldermen experience, etc. was very, very important. If the committee wanted to rotate the chairmanship for this fiscal year, he had no problem with that but it better be done this week because they were getting to far into the setting. Draft Not Approved Aid. Feldman restated the motion to begin yearly rotation of the budget committee among its members starting on March 1, 2003, Aid. Neuman seconded. The vote was taken and motion was carried. DISCUSSION ABOUT THE VACANCY ON THE HUMAN SERVICES COMMITTEE - The committee received a letter from Aid. Rainey resigning from the Human Services committee. Aid. Jean -Baptiste asked if the rules allowed them to resign from any standing committee. Aid. Newman explained that an Alderman does not have to serve on any committee. Aid. Feldman added that it is something that the Rules Committee assigns at the beginning of a term with the acceptance of Aldermen. Aid. Engelman said he did not think serving on committees was necessarily voluntary but an obligation. Do you have to sere on particular committees? No. But you need to serve on some committees. Aid. Rainey stated she did not choose to serve on any other committees at this time, she has a full plate, but would encourage any of them who are not on the Human Services Committee to jump to that committee quickly before they lose the opportunity. Aid. Jean -Baptiste asked did the assignments of committees last a whole year in the past? Aid. Feldman responded that the council changed after every 2 years now it is 4 years. The Rules Committee at one time was call the Committee on Committees and ,vould meet and assign people and chairs to each one of the committees which included the budget policy committee. Aid. Jean -Baptiste asked if they could just quit one committee and jump on another? Aid. Feldman said you serve on a committee without being appointed by the Rules Committee but you can serve off a committee. Aid. Jean -Baptiste asked if you could bring it to the Rules Committee to ask to be appointed? The response was yes. Aid. Engelman explained that in the past 8 years when they had 4-year terms they did not have rotating elections. In the first two, 4 year segments when they were all a 9 man council, at the end of the 2nd year there was always at least one alderman who wanted to jump committees and he did not believe the Rules Committee in neither case allow that jump. Aid. Moran added that under their rules there is a cap for the number of aldermen to sere on each committee. For example the rules call for 4 members to serve on A&PW if -I members are serving it would not make sense for someone to come to the Rules Committee =_ and ask to be put on A&PNN' because it is full. Human Services Committee is not full. Aid. Jean -Baptiste questioned whether they could not add on but could remove themselves, because now the Human Services Committee has 3 members and the rules call for 4 members. In other words can they not increase the number that serves, yet can insist on maintaining that number. If 4 is suppose to serve on Human Services and one of them wants to quit, then the rules committee can not insist that person continue his assignment? Whether or not there are sanctions they don't have to vote to accept it, can they reject it? If Draft Not Approved Aid. Engelman said the Council ultimately makes the decisions. But they set the number and the Rules Committee makes the appointments. Aid. Newman explained the history and stated there had been some controversy. In 1995 the Rules Committee had 5 people and :old. Kent, Feldman and himself being the majority of the Rules Committee reassigned an alderman from PSD to ASPW. Aid. Baptiste asks if it was against an alderman's kill? Aid. 'Ne-wman said yes. At the next meeting of the council the Alderman, who was friends with that Alderman, completed reorganised the council and disbanded ASPN% and P&D and of course there was a philosophical reason at that point. The committee of the whole was in vogue, but the point is at times there has been controversial. Aid. Engleman added that 3 years ago a member of P&D wanted to go over to ASP%V. Aid. jean-Baptiste's question was could they not accept Aid. Rainey's decision to resign. Aid. Rainey said they could but it did not mean that she had to serve. She did not think there was a position for that in their rules. Aid. Feldman said another question was if somebody really does not want to serve, why force them. Aid. Ne►%man told Ald. jean -Baptiste that when Aid. Kent went off the Human Services Committee, in his view that was not a good thing because the only African -American member of the committee went off. if they began to have a problem with. the quorum at Human Sen-ices or somebody does not want to replace or add on to the committee, they would have a problem that they .would have to solve. Aid. Rainey stated that she did remember Aid. Kent saying that he might «-ant to return to the committee. She suggested that he be solicited. CIVIC CENTER COMMITTEE: Aid. Newman moved to appoint the civic center committee to be made up of any member of the council who wants to serve, that the chair be rotated, that this committee reports to the entire council and consider all aspects of any issue related to the civic center. Including but not limited to financing, site selection, the need to replace the current civic center and any issue that relates to either maintaining the building or going to a new building. All points of view need to be able to participate fully. There are different points of view on what they should do and they need to explore more. He volunteered to serve on this committee. Aid. Feldman seconded the motion. Aid. Engelman asked if Aid. Newman meant chairmanship should rotate on a meeting -by - meeting bases? Ald. Newman's response was rotate every 4 months. Aid. Rainey asked ho« long was this going to take? Aid. Ne-.vman's opinion was not less than IS months. He did not think there was a readily available solution on the problem. Aid. Engelman agreed that anybody should participate and they needed to get started but he was not sure that the dislocation that the discussion was going to cause within the 7 Draft Not Approved immediately surrounding neighborhood should go on for 18 months. The vote was taken and the motion ►vas carried. Aid. Bernstein, Engelman, Feldman, Moran, Newman and Rainey volunteered to serve on the committee. Aid. Newman moved that Aid. Bernstein be appointed chair of the committee. Aid. Engelman seconded. The vote was taken and the motion was carried. It was suggested that at the next council meeting Aid. Kent and Wynne be asked if they wanted to serve on the committee. Aid. Rainey asked if a quorum was needed for a non -standing committee? 'is. Aiello responded stating that in order to take action a quorum was needed, but not for discussion. Aid. Newman added that they had to have 4 people to take action. Aid. Rainey asked if it should be an all alderman committee? Aid. Engelman said that was something the committee could discuss. CITY :MANAGER'S EVALUATION: Aid. Engelman said this needed to be done if for no other reason than to address budget issues. They owe that to the city manager. He felt that the chair of the Rules Committee needed to meet with staff, talk to everybody on the Council and find a Monday evening or Saturday morning to do this. Mr. Crum stated that the other alternative was that everybody gives an input but a three -member committee work as the direct contact to discuss the city manager's results of the input. Aid. Bernstein asked if they should talk in terms of an evaluation form, the nature and type they used before? He felt they needed at least some criterion on which to base their evaluations. Mr. Crum added that the form used previously was as generic as any, except they didn't establish specific goals of things to check off. He would rather something like that. Aid. Feldman asked if any member of Council on a personal basis, in the last year, talked to the City Manager about an issue regarding the city or either the way he handles the office or not, both praises and suggestions.' Aid. Rainey, jean -Baptiste and Newman said yes. Aid. Engelman asked if the committee wanted the chair of the Rules Committee to put something together or did they want: to set up a subcommittee of three members of the Council to meet and put together a process to discuss? Aid. jean -Baptiste asked what was the process in general. It was explained that they had a questionnaire to fill out and staff is not involved. They spent 5 to b hours reading the completed forms. Someone would take responsibility for receiving the forms, writing out all the information, collate and distribute them to council. The form listed various issues that 8 Draft Not Approved .Were supposedly goals and then asked members of the Council their evaluation of the city manager's performance in addressing those goals. Aid. jean -Baptiste asked who was present at the evaluation. The response %vas the Aldermen, Mayor and City Clerk. Aid. Engelman said what was different each year was the goals and priorities of the city as established by the Rules Committee the previous year. That is really what the goal setting session grew out of they use to never do goal -setting sessions. They just had the city manager's evaluation and then about three or four years ago it evolved into the goal setting retreat where there is dialogue not only with the council members but also senior staff. In order to do the form somebody needs to get together the goals that were established last year together with a performance criterion. Aid. Bernstein volunteered to sme on the three -member committee and would use the previous form. Ald. Rainey and Jean -Baptiste also volunteered to serve and help put together the evaluation of the city manager. Aid. Engelman suggested the committee meet at least once to put it all together. Mr. Franz stated he would email the form and added that this meeting was Aid. Kent's last meeting as chair. Ald. Newman would be the new chair as of November 1. The committee agreed to have a Special Rules Committee meeting on November 18 at 7:00 p.m. for the evaluation of the city manager. ADTDURNMENT: Meeting adjourned at 6:40 p.m. Respectfully submitted, Darlene Francellno Draft Not Approved tiIINUTES OF THE RULES COM111TTEE AIONDAY, AUGUST S, 2002 6:00 p.m. ALDERMANIC LIBRARY Present: Aldermen Steven Bernstein, Stephen Engelman, Gene Feldman, Lionel Jean - Baptiste, Edmund Moran, Art Newman & Ann Rainey Presiding: Alderman Joseph Kent Absent: Aldermen Aielissa Wynne Staff Present: Roger Crum, Darlene Francellno, Mark Franz & Karen Gilkerson Guest: Beth Demes, Betty Sue Ester & Mary Morris CALL TO ORDER: Ald. Kent called the meeting to order at 6:17 p.m. APPROVAL OF MINUTES OF THE APRIL 1.2002 MEETING: Aid Rainey moved for approval. Ald. Bernstein seconded. Minutes were approved. REDISTRICTING CITY WARDS: This item had been off the agenda while staff gathered information. Ald. Kent, now chair, asked that it be put back on. Mr. Crum stated that Karen Gilkerson spent quite a bit of time researching the background work on this item and complimented her on the nice write up. He asked her to give a summary of the critical features the committee needed to look at for redistricting. Nis. Gilkerson stated that the constitution requires one person, one vote, so that all wards are substantially equal in population, that they be compacted. That requirement is mathematical, it does not require exact compactness, but reasonably compacted. Since their last census, the new court decision changed the standard to 18 or over rather than total population. Equality in population is really going to be decided by the population of 18 and over because it is a truer number to actual registered voters. This is a major change from their previous assumptions in their last census. Ald. Kent asked if the range of that ranges from low 6,000 to almost 7,000 per ward? Ms. Gilkerson's response was that the way they compute exactness is by dividing the total population by the number of wards. You then come up with an ideal number per ward, then look to see how far the actual number in a ward deviates from the ideal. Also, the courts have determined that you can stay within a 10% total deviation and meet constitutional requirements. That 10% total deviation is from the lowest population ward to the highest population ward, not 10% below the ideal or 10% above the ideal. In essence you can have a Draft Not Approved 5% deviation below and above or for example 8% below to 2% above. In previous census a plus or minus 10% deviation was used to get the numbers. Ald. Engelman asked how many wards were out of compliance? The response from Mr. Crum was under the over 18 and plus or minus 5%, and without doing any other interpretation of anything `'yards 3,6 & 8 are in range within those. Ward 1 has a major problem because of the student population of over 18, which would be 1400 over. Ward 2 would be 870 under, Ward 4 would be 250 over, Ward 5 would be 606 under, Ward 7 would be 255 over, and Ward 9 would be 133 low. Ms. Gilkerson said the constitutional requirements, as shown in her memo, the 4th Ward is contiguity, which means the wards have to touch, than can't be broken. That needs to be looked at when trying to meet our constitutional requirement. Obviously one person, one vote is the most important factor that needs to be met. In consideration of that we need to be concerned about the voting rights act. In compliance with the voting rights act in as much as we are subject to it under the case of Thornburg v. Gingles, and the question is going to be whether this case applies to us, because there are three threshold requirements in this case. It basically says that there is a voting dilution claim under the voting rights act so long as a plaintiff can show that a minority group is sufficiently large and geographically compact enough to constitute a majority in at least one district or ward. That the minority group is "politically cohesive", and that the white majority votes sufficiently as a bloc to enable it, usually to defeat the minority's preferred candidate. She thought it would be doubtful, but would have to do some further research to determine whether or not we actually are subject to all three or whether a plaintiff could meet the threshold requirements in the city. Ald. Kent asked for an explanation on "politically cohesive" and how it is determined. Ms. Gilkerson stated that they vote as a cohesive unit and not all over the place. That the group can be said to vote similarly. AU Moran asked how is that learned and done, for instance from a racial standpoint? Ms. Gilkerson said she would have to examine the voting history in the various wards and break that down. Ald. Bernstein wanted to know if that could be party lines? Mr. Crum said from what he has read it could be party lines in some cases, but probably not an issue here. Ald. Engelman stated that looking at the numbers, unless it is the intent of the Council to make substantial changes, which he did not think it was, or that they make minimum number of changes in ward demarcations it did not Iook like a fairly insurmountable task. The in compliance and out of compliance wards are next to each other, wards that have much population are right next door to wards that have too little population. He thought the Aldermen for each ward probably could work through their boundary lines. Ald. Newman agreed and stated that they take an opportunity to look at the numbers and each of the affected wards ought to come up with their own suggestion of how to deal with the numbers and maybe get together and try to come up with a map. Then bring it back and talk about what they came up with and go from there. 2 Draft Not Approved Mr. Crum said we now have our GIS system set up and you can add and subtract census blocks and come up with instant numbers and color code the maps and boundaries as you see fit. The mechanics can be done fairly easily this time around. The last time departments were doing it by hand. The GIS staff would remain absolutely neutral on the outcome, but would assist anybody who wanted assistance on verifying numbers, reading maps or whatever they wished. Ald. Kent inquired about all of the new buildings going up that would bring 800 and some people, which would add to the city. He wanted to know if those people would be taken up 10 years from now when they redistrict again? his. Gilkerson said she would have do some research and get back to them. Ald. jean -Baptiste asked what the deadline was on redistricting. The response was before the next local election, roughly two years. Ald. Engelman asked if it was the policy of this Council, that the aldermen whose wards are affected, talk to each other about rearranging their borders with the idea that the policy shall be to draw a map that creates the least amount of changes to exist in ward boundaries as possible? Ald. Kent said that was how they were starting out in order to achieve the goal. It didn't look like it was an impossible task. Considering what he remembered they went through the last time, it didn't seem to pleasant. He kind of felt that they were doing things close to that last minute which resulted in his ward where Darrow Avenue was split down the middle of the street. That is hard for residents that are living in that situation. Aid. Engelman said it would be a lot easier if they could draw a line down the map. his. Gilkerson stated from her understanding there is no criteria for drawing boundary lines. Ald Newman asked if that meant they could divide census blocks? Ms. Gilkerson would verify that. ADIOURNMENT: Meeting adjourned at 6:40 p.m. Respectfully submitted, Darlene Francellno 3 Draft Not Approved MINUTES OF THE RULES COMMITTEE MO,tiDAY, APRIL 1, 2002 6:00 p.m. ALDERMANIC LIBRARY Present: Aldermen Steven Bernstein, Stephen Engelman, Gene Feldman, Art Ne►%=n & Ann Rainey Presiding: Alderman Stephen Engelman Absent: Aldermen Lionel Jean -Baptiste, Joseph Kent, Edmund Moran, & Melissa Wynne Staff Present: Maureen Barry, Roger Crum, Darlene Francellno, & Mark Fran - CALL TO ORDER: Aid. Engelman called the meeting to order at 6:10 p.m. APPROVAL OF 1fINUTES OF THE TANUARY 7, 2002 & MARCH 11, 2002 MEETINGS: Ald. Engelman moved for approval. Aid. Feldman seconded. Minutes were approved. ALDERMANIC EXPENSE REIMBURSENfENT POLICY: This reference came from AId. Jean -Baptiste who was not present. He wanted to know how much money was available and what it was intended to be used for. Aid. Feldman stated that the reimbursement expense was an allotment to be used for the relationship with constituents. Mr. Fran_ stated that Aid. Jean -Baptiste had referred to reimbursements for newsletters and at one time whether the city should pay for cellphones. The committee concluded that there is 250.00 per ward in the budget. Aid. Rainey suggested that they wait until Aid. Jean -Baptiste was present to discuss this reference. The committee also discussed various line items in the City Council's budget for next year and Ald. Bernstein requested that staff pro%ide information on what comes out of Membership Dues under the City Council's budget. COUNCIL/CO.%.tMITTEEBOARD MEETING MINUTES FORMAT: This was Ald. Jean-Baptiste's reference regarding the taking of minutes and it being a drain on resources, which came up at some of the budget discussions. Ald. Engelman said the committee had discussed this on a number of occasions. The issue was the extent to which notes are taken and the time devoted to typing them, which are virtually verbatim, and whether or not that process should continue that way for the Council and each board and commission. Aid. Feldman said minutes for the council, boards and commissions are public business. Policies and decisions are made, issues and the nature of those issues are discussed, the sole of the community are in the heart of those minutes and they have to be made of public OW9,0214.45 PAS Draft Not Approved record. He felt if he did not have minutes of the various boards and commissions they no longer existed. An example he gave was Human Relations Commission who has not sent minutes to the Council in years. Aid. Engelman said he thought they did receive those minutes. Aid. Newman's response was no and he wanted on record what the intent was not to send those minutes to the Council and that the City Managers office was partially involved. What happen was the director of the Human Relations Commission was putting out a report. It %vas a good and very detailed report of what they were doing. It went through the summer youth employment program and various things they do at their meetings. He saw a copy of the report and asked that it be sent to the Council. Once he made that request the report stopped being prepared. The report had been going out for .yell over a year maybe several years. As soon as he asked for the report, there was then a meeting between the director and the city manager and they decided for whatever reason that the city manager had not authorized the preparation of this report. Therefore the director stopped preparing the report. That report should have been coming to the Council and to his knowledge it stopped being prepared. He believed that someone who is part of the Human Relations Commission process did not want City Council to have copies of those minutes. Mr. Crum stated that did not happen. His understanding %%-as the commission asked that the directors report not be given at the commission meetings per reasons he had nothing to do with. In addition, it was a directors activity report, not minutes. Ald. Newman said what he was told by one of the members of the commission, who did not get along with the director of the Human Relations Commission that he wanted the report to go to the council, and then it stopped being prepared. Ald. Rainey asked why because it made no sense. On the one hand there is this great report that shows all of this work they are doing, then they keep it from the Council. Ald. Feldman said whatever motivation, whether there is a conspiracy or not they did not get reports. Aid. Newman said he wanted to know why it was discontinued. If the commission voted not to send the report to the council, the commission should be disband. He was told that the director told the commission that because she was not authorized by the city manager to write the report, that report could no longer be written. The commission did not have the power to tell her to write that report and because she is a city manager employee, only the city manager can order that. The City Manager said he would get the facts. Ald. Rainey moved to direct the city manager to request the director of the Human relations commission to forward to members of the council immediately copies of her director's report, at least for the last 3 or 4 months, on a continuing bases if it exists. Aid. Newman amended the motion to request reports for the last 12 months. Aid. Rainey excepted the amendment and that it should include March. Aid. Engelman seconded the motion to the extent that there is a written director's report they should get them. Aid. Bernstein said he want to get the 12 months they did exist. :5 CQ QZ4.45 Phi 2 Draft Not Approved There was a motion made and seconded to request that the director of the Human Relations Commission forward to each of the members of the city council a copy of whatever director's reports exist for the preceding 1'_ months. Aid. Rainey added that they should also notify the commissioners of this request. The motion was made and seconded. A vote was taken and the motion was carried. Aid. Newman made a motion to ask the Human Relations Commission and the director what was the basis for discontinuing the report, which was separate from the minutes. Aid. Rainey seconded. Aid. Engelman clarified the motion which was to request that the Human Relations Commission and the director of the human relation commission each report to the Rules Committee, why the director's report was discontinued, if it was discontinued. Aid. Bernstein added that if it was discontinued he would request that the city manager ask that it be reinstated. Ald. Newvrnan accepted the amendment as well as the seconder. A vote was taken and the motion was carried. Aid. Newman said the reason he felt as strongly as he did about these particular reports is that he went out of his way to make an effort to educate the council, not himself alone. One thing that he felt bad about was this was the first information in the 10 years that he has been on the council that he has seen on the mysterious summer youth employment program. He used the word mysterious because he has never seen any report to any committee that he has been on about this program. The interesting part to him was that he learned from that report that the people who did the mural at Talmadge Park were from Arts Skills who are part of the summer youth employment program. The reason this was important is because the council and budget committee has struggled with the issue of the summer youth employment program. They have struggled because they have not had any information on it in 10 years. He felt the Council are at a disadvantage in trying to deal with that budget cut because they simply had no information. Aid. Engleman went back to the issue on the table, which was the extent to which minutes are taken. He asked the committee if they would be better informed by minutes that are virtually verbatim or summarized. Aid. Newman stated that he considers minutes to be one of the highest responsibilities, and he is very appreciative of the wonderful job that the people who take minutes at the city committees do and they should not be reduced in any way. Mr. Crum stated that the minutes that the city provides are very extensive minutes and are not the norm but the request is what would the Council prefer to be the policy on minutes. After much discussion the committee decided the policy should be extensive minutes, not minutes that are summarized. They want minutes in a timely fashion and from every committee. They also request that minutes be provided to them in draft form so they do not have to wait six months for minutes to be approved. The minutes helps them to understand 050,024As PM 3 Draft Not approved what is going on at each committee especially since they can not attend each and every committee that goes on. ADTOURNMENT: ;Meeting adjourned at 7:10 p.m. Respectfully submitted, Darlene Francellno 03)09 OK45 PM 4 Not -Approved MINUTES OF THE RULES COMMITTEE MONDAY, March 11, 2002 6:45 p.m. ALDERMANIC LIBRARY Present: Aldermen Steven Bernstein, Stephen Engelman, Gene Feldman, Lionel Jean -Baptiste, Art Newman, Ann Rainey, & Melissa Wynne Presiding: Alderman Stephen Engelman Absent: Aldermen Joseph Kent, & Edmund Moran Staff Present: Maureen Barry, Roger Crum, Mark Franz, Judith Aiello, & Herb Hill Guest: Honorable Mayor Lorraine Morton CALL TO ORDER-- Ald. Engelman called the meeting to order at 6:50 p.m. PUBLIC RELEASE OF EXECUTIVE SESSION 1% INUIES Ald. Engelman asked staff to clarify the objective of releasing executive session minutes to the public. Herbert Hill stated that the purpose of not releasing executive session minutes to the public is to protect the public interest and/or protect the privacy of a particular issue. if no need exists to keep the meeting minutes from the public, they can then be released. Judith Aiello explained that the majority of the meeting minutes in which the Hill project was discussed could not be released to the public due to the completion of the project, except if a particular issue could impact the ongoing Klutznick project discussions or if other topics discussed at that meeting related to other non -related litigation. Aid. Engelman asked if any alderman had any questions on this topic. No questions were forthcoming, so Ald. Engelman asked if any alderman opposed the release of the meeting minutes in question. No one was opposed. Ald. Engelman explained that the official release of these minutes would not occur until the City Council could vote on the issue. The topic would be on the March 25, 2002 City Council agenda for discussion and approval. Ald. Newman motioned to adjourn, seconded by Ald. Bernstein. ADiOURNMENT: Meeting adjourned at 7:00 p.m. Respectfully submitted, Mark Franz Draft Not Approved MINUTES OF THE RULES COMMITTEE MONDAY. JANUARY 7, 2002 6:00 p.m. ALDEMNLA IC LIBRARY Present: Aldermen Steven Bernstein, Stephen Engelman, Gene Feldman, Lionel Jean. Baptiste, Joseph Kent, Edmund Moran, Art Neuman & Ann Rainey Presiding: Alderman Stephen Engelman Absent: Alderman Melissa Wynne Staff Present: Maureen Barry, Roger Crum, Darlene Francellno, Mark Franz, Douglas Gaynor, & Herbert Hill Guest: A. Doraine Anderson, Betty Sue Ester, Mary Gavin, Mary Morris, Mayor Morton, Mimi Peterson & Peggy Tarr CALL TO ORDER: Aid. Engelman called the meeting to order at 6:12 p.m. He welcomed everyone back and wished them a Happy New Year. APPROVAL OF ,MINUTES OF THE NOVEMBER 5. 2001 ;MEETING: Aid. Bernstein moved for approval. Ald. Feldman seconded. Minutes approved. REDISTRICTING CITY WARDS -Background Discussion Onlv: Aid. Engelman stated that it was not his intent to discuss redistricting at this time. The hope was to deal with executive session minutes, but staff had been very busy with budget problems and other issues. Hopefully staff could have executive session minutes for the next Rules Committee meeting. It also was not his intent to either have a significant policy discussion or set an immediate timetable for redistricting, but they had to address redistricting before the next election, which is three and one-half years away. Aid. Engelman stated there would be additional information needed on redistricting, but wanted Mr. Hill to tell the committee what the guidelines were at this point. Then have a brief discuss on when the committee wanted to begin to address more substantial aspects to redistricting. Mr. Hill stated that the December I4 memo that the committee had before them outlined some of the general guidelines to be applied in a redistricting circumstance. The city «ras in the situation of redistricting which was called a discretionary redistricting as oppose to a mandatory redistricting because of the change in population, based upon the census in 20DO, did not create a situation where additional Aldermen would be added to the existing pool. Based upon our population the increase ivas Iess than 2%, roughly 72, 500 to 74,000 people. So the situation faced now with redistricting deals with basic Supreme Court analysis and requirements of one man one vote. Districts should be as close to equal size as the population as possible. An analysis would have to be done to look at our existing districts Draft Not Approved and see how the population within those districts have changed and thrown the district out of alignment of people population. The first set of questions to look at would be what is an equal population and what do they consider being the proper population to look at. The standard, based upon a 1998 decision in our Seventh Circuit, population they would look at is population over 18, voting -age population. That is one basis that the City Council would be looking at, the number of over 18 age individuals within the city. Then looking to have each district of approximately equal size of over 18 population. Ald. Nev.-man asked if the standard to be used had to be over 18 or could under 18 be used? Mr. Hill said that Judge Posner and the Seventh Circuit in 1998 in a case Barnett v. the City of Chicago ruled that the standard to be used in that case was over 18. So with respect to what the federal courts arguable would apply in our district, would be the over 18 standard. Aid. Newman asked if there was discretion, on the part of people redistricting, on what standard you use through each one person, one vote? Mr. Hill said yes there is discretion with the City Council. As the City Council interprets the various supreme court and circuit court cases that are in existent now and «711 be in existent in the next couple of years. This area of the law is the most thorough with respect to Supreme Court and appellate court decisions that he had seen in the last 10 years. There are always new decisions coming out. Every state has had litigation with respect to the districts created, whether they met local state standards orwhether they met federal standards. There is law out there now and the law in six months could be some►Vhat different from the law as it stands right now. What is before them now are general guidelines to be applied as the city looks at what the appropriate district would be. Aid. Moran asked what the law was now? Mr. Hill said the basic guidelines as he set forth in the memo, a creation of the law as it was on Dec. 14, 200I. Aid. Moran said which is individuals 18 or over. Mr. Hill said that was correct. Aid. Newman asked if Air. Hill was saying that if they use the under 18 population that because of the 1998 case it would be termed illegal? hir. Mill said as he interpreted this 1998 case, his recommendation to the City Council would be that the 18 and over be the guideline that is use. Aid. Feldman asked if a ward population has a great many children under 18 and the population of the ward is relatively equal to the other groups, would that ►yard be in or out of compliance? Mr. Hill said based upon the 1998 Barnett decision, they would look at how practical the one to one ratio is for one man one vote. To answer the question directly he would say that ward would be out of compliance. What you are trying to have is your pertinent population that of 18 and older to be as close to equal as possible and then the standard as to what is — close to equal. That was the second component that he wanted to get into. He stated again that this was preliminary, the law is evolving but as of now they are looking at 18 and over. Going back to the fundamental Supreme Court case 1964, Reynolds v. Sims, that is that one man, one vote. Now looking at the interpretations as to what that means, one man one vote, is it possible to have every district of exactly equal size? The reality is no. The Supreme Court had ruled on a case that the guidelines with respect to the deviation between wards should be be no greater than 10%. This case was 9.9%. The basic workshop approach would E_ Draft Not Approved be to take the over 18 population in the city as shown by the recent 2000 census, divide that over 18 population by 9 and that would be the ideal number. Then go from that ideal number, a range of not greater than a total of 10%. You can go 5% above, 5% below, 7% above, 3% below, you stay within that 10% window and that is your ideal number. Once again that is a different Supreme Court and different case that established that as a successful standard for the population. Aid. Moran said the point being that if you are over 18 you are a voter and then it clicks into the formula, one person, one vote. Mr. Hill said that %as correct. To add to the confusion, when the 1964 case was decided and the cases prior to 1998 there were decisions not based upon the 18 years of age. It was based upon absolute population prior to that. Ald. Newman said that is the point he wanted to make, if he remembered correctly there was a 1993 map, and we did not use over 18 population. Aid. Engelman said they did not. Ald. Newman said so by going to this standard, that in itself, there is a difference between the 1993 map. Mr. Hill said again, these are not the only standards with respect to creating the redistricting map. The absolute determinate for the redistricting map is the City Council. It is the City Council which adopts the map, it is the City Council which creates the map, it is total and solely the City Council's responsibility for what that map would be. Other guidelines to look at with respect to the map would be the compactness of the ward. Aid. Newman said the Illinois Supreme Court had just approved the maps for the Democratic Party and almost all of the maps for the legislative and senate districts. He knew Mr. Hill was real busy right now but when the committee discusses this again he would like, just on the issue of compactness, for the committee to be able to Iook at those districts. Those maps would give them an idea of what the Illinois Supreme Court had approved in terms of what districts could look like. Mr. Hill said they could get those maps. Mr. Hill stated that the Supreme Court with respect to what compactness is has been as clear as it is with the U.S. Supreme Court with respect to pornography. Basically the judges know what compact is when they see it and they know what not compact is when they don't see it. That will probably not be Evanston's biggest concern. An absolute guideline is contiguity, there can be no gaps in the wards. They all have to be touching, a contiguous population. Mr. Hill stated that with respect to timing this needed to be done sometime into the year 2004. The requirement is that the wards must be determined no later than 30 days before the first day of filing petitions for the city offices, which is approximately Dec. 2004 for the 2005 next election, so sometime around October of 2004. There are general instructions that this be done as soon as practicable, sooner would be fine, but there is no absolute mandate that it be done this year or next year. It is just an issue to approach and Council should be aware of it because of the importance of it; The data from the census is slowly being placed into the GIS system. There will be that ability to make it easier for the Council to make determination for boundary lines for a ward or precinct, or whatever else. There is a general concept not to disturb precincts, but is not at all absolute and precincts could be rearranged if necessary. There is also language in the statues, which deals with that. It is proper, as a consideration, to view the incumbent's location and to try to preserve existing incumbencies. The courts have viewed that as being a proper standard. Beyond that Mr. Hill said there is more to look at and more information to get to the Council for their 3 Draft Not Approved consideration. if the Aldermen would like to see any of these decisions, Supreme Court cases, etc. the law department would get the information. Aid. Feldman asked if therewas an increase in population of say SXX1O people in Evanston, would it be the prerogative of the City Council to re -divide it into 10 wards instead of 9? Mr. Hill said the state statue sets a framework for the number of Aldermen based upon the population. if our populations Were to increase by either 10 or 20 thousand the configuration of absolute number of Alderman would change. But that is a state statue, a mandated redistricting situation. The City of Evanston is many, many thousands away. If we were in that mandatory -redistricting situation, the city would be required to make its redistricting determinations sooner as opposed to later. AU Engelman said it was obvious that there was more information still to come. Staff had to finish on the GIS information and then the committee would start generating information based upon existing wards so that they could determine which, if any, wards are in or out of compliance presently. Then sometime in the future talk about guidelines for redistricting, if necessary. As he said before it was not his intent to be doing that now or in the immediate future. Aid. Feldman said he would suggest that this issue be taken up again to determine if in fact they wanted to start immediately or delay it, after the budget has been passed and put to bed. Ald. Engelman said he had no objection to that. He was not even sure that between now and then that staff was going to finish. This chair's intent was just to bring this up whenever they knew that they still had three years to go and get some framework for where they are going. Aid Newman commented that the December 14 memo provided was very valuable and it really cleared up some of the issues and he appreciated the work that was done. Aid. Engelman asked if the rest of the Rules Committee want to see something when staff was ready in the spring or the summer of next year.' The committee said yes. Aid. Newman amended Aid. Feldman's motion to take it up in May or April of this year if staff was ready. Ms. Ester stated that the memo and using the 18 and older was good She did not hear anything in terms of how the city was going to deal with minority groups or racial mandating? Also, when the census was done in every state in the union there was an under count and Evanston being one. Ms. Ester stated she had written a letter to Mr. Hill asking if it n-as possible to do an official count, since they had this discretionary redistricting to deal ,A ith or were they bound by the census? Mr. Hill responded that his understanding from what they had been reading, the census numbers given binds them and that would be the number that Council would have to use. The issue with a substantial under counting deals with getting that census number revised, but they were not in that situation. The census number as in place is the number that the City Council will need to use as it considers redistricting. Aid. Nev.-man stated that while the census was going on the city made a considerable effort in all instances to try to avoid under counting because it was in their interest to have the most accurate count. The University claimed they made an extensive effort and city staff made a lot of effort to try and get out there. There were a lot of people hired and local al Draft Not Approved people were encouraged to participate and the number did go up some. Mr. Crum said they went up 1,000. Ald. Newman said there still might be an under count out there, but unfortunately it is not that easy to get people to send in the census forms. ADiOURNMENT: Meeting adjourned at 6:35 p.m. Respectfully submitted, Darlene Francellno 5 approved MINUTES OF THE RULES COMMITTEE TUESDAY, JANUARY 7. 2003 6:00 p.m. ALDERMANIC LIBRARY Present: Aldermen Steven Bernstein, Stephen Engelman, Gene Feldman, Lionel Jean - Baptiste, Joe Kent, Edmund Moran, Art Newman, Ann Rainey & .lielissa Wynne Presiding: Alderman Art Ne%►•man Staff Present: Roger Crum, Maureen Barry, Darlene Francellno, Mark Franz, and Herbert Hill Guest: Jack Siegel, Bob Markin, Ittitni Peterson, Scott Gilbert, Barbara Williams, Aiary Sproul, Alex Sproul, Bob Seidenberg, Richard A. Whitaker, Margaret Nagel, Frank W. Anderson, Nlary Gavin, :Mary Morris, and Mayor Morton CALL TO ORDER: A quorum being present Aid. Neu -man called the meeting to order at 6:OS p.m. He stated the City Manager and Corporation Counsel asked that at tonight's meeting they have a session with Jack Siegel and Bob Markin on the Northwestern University/City of Evanston lawsuit. That being in the nature of litigation he asked for a motion to go into executive session. Ald. Feldman moved that the committee convene into executive session according to the requirements of Illinois code with regards to pending litigation. Seconded by Aid. Wynne. Roll call. Voting aye — Ald. Newman, Jean -Baptiste, Wynne, Bernstein, Kent, Moran, Engelman, Rainey, and Feldman. Voting nay — none. Motion carried 9-0. At 6:47 pm Aid. Jean -Baptiste moved to reconvene into open session. Seconded by Aid. Rainey. APPROVAL OF 14 MTES OF THE OCTOBER 7, 2002 AND DECEMBER 16, 2002 MEETINGS: Aid. Bernstein moved for approval of the October 7, 2002 and December 16, 2002 minutes. Aid. Feldman seconded. Motion carried. Minutes approved. approved RESOLUTION TO OPPOSE THE WAR WITH IRAO: Revised copies of the resolution with Ald. Rainey's changes were distributed at the meeting. Aid. Rainey moved the committee pass the resolution that represents the Evanston City Council on behalf of the citizens who opposed the contemplated scar in Iraq and sent to our representatives and senators for the purpose of informing them as well. Aid. Bernstein seconded. Mr. Crum asked if the intent of the recommendation was to forward the resolution to City Council for final action for the January 13 Council agenda? If passed by the Committee that was the intent. For point of information Aid. Newman asked if there was anyone on the Committee opposed to the concept behind the resolution. Aid. Moran was. Ald. Newrnan stated the reason he asked was because citizens were present wanting to address the committee on this issue. He was not sure whether they would be spending their time debating the merits of going forward with the resolution or talking about the language of the resolution itself with the idea of coming up with something that oppose the war. There being some division on the idea of doing the resolution he asked the committee their view on hearing from the citizens. The committee agreed to hear the citizens. Aid. Newman asked speakers to keep their comments to 3 minutes. Rev. Frank W. Anderson, 1409 Dobson Street, Pastor of St. Timothy's Lutheran Church, Skokie also part of St. Paul's Lutheran Church Congregation, 104 Greenwood, Evanston. As one of the initiators, along with one other citizen, approached Aid. Rainey about doing a resolution along the lines of what the Chicago City Council did. Mainly as a religious leader it has been very clearly stated, by most of the main line Protestants denominations and the Roman Catholic Church in the United States, that the pending or proposed action in Iraq does not qualify in any, way shape or form as a just action in a historical context of the just war theory. Probably the most important piece is we are basically defending or hoping to control a cybernation for our own benefit. The easiest way to illustrate would be to say that Iraq and North Korea are engaged in almost identical actions, if not even North Korea being a greater for that in terms of abilities. Yet we are not treating North Korea in the same way we are treating Iraq. We are not treating the leaders of North Korea the same way we are treating the leaders of Iraq. It's basically a matter of where is the oil and how do we keep control of something we need desperately in our culture to keep going. just of that bases alone this can not be considerate a just war. It is important for us as smaller communities throughout the United States to voice our opinions. To voice our concerns, to try and influence policy in some way but to realize this war is going to disproportionately effect African -Americans, which are a vital part of our community in terms of military. There are going to be just ramifications beyond anything we can imagine. What is the purpose? What is the rush to go to war within the next few weeks? He felt it was important for Evanston as a progressive community within the U.S., to say something during this time and wanted to approved challenge the committee and the community to say, lets give negotiation a chance, lets give an opportunity for the global community to do their work. Margaret Nagel stated this issue is very much talked about and a matter of great concern in this community. Over the summer two local peace groups, North Suburban Peace Initiative and Neighbors for Peace participated in a petition initiative and literally collected hundreds and hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of names from the community saying, why are we rushing into war. Where is proof that we need to go to war? The materials from the numerous signatures are in a database and she will try to have them printed so the committee could have a printout of the many, many Evanstonians who signed petitions against the war. The memberships of these two groups are looking forward to having the matter come before City Council. Congressional Representative Jan Schakowsky has said that her mail is running heavily in favor of not going to war, This is a matter of intense interest to the people who live in this area and they do hope the committee will seek to have this come before City Council. Alex Sproul agreed with everything in the resolution, which presents a moral case against going to war on a preemptive base in Iraq. But his further objection was on practical grounds. He truly believed that if this country does a preemptive strike in Iraq, we made the victorious initially, but he really believed that in the long run they would be much worse off than if they had not done so. That is recognizing the fact that the Iraqis probably have weapons of mass destruction. Even so he really thought the effect on our country's relationship with the :Muslim world and the effect on our attempts to combat terrorism would be counterproductive. He really likes the idea of the City Council of Evanston, Illinois taking a position on this that is entirely consistent with our tradition in Evanston and very much would like to see the Council approve the resolution. Barbara Williamson stated everything she would have said had already been said. She came representing the Evanston Friends Meeting. Their Meeting has already addressed the issue and, as a Meeting, has come up %%ith a limit that has pretty much the same points that are in the resolution. Their Friends Meeting very much would be behind passing the resolution and because of their long history of both believing and working with the idea that addressing the causes of war is very much more effective than bombing people. Scott Gilbert, resident of the S`s w-ard and member of the Neighbors for Peace Group voiced his support of seeing the resolution come before the whole Council. Although a symbolic measure, he thought it was a very powerful one and as one of the final points of the resolution states, short of an actual war eminent attack, they do not believe this war is justified and it is not in our best interest. He hoped the committee would give it a chance to come before the full Council. Aid. Neuman thanked all the speakers for coming and keeping their comments brief. opproved Ald. Wynne thanked Ald. Rainey for presenting the resolution and everyone else who brought it forth. She also was completely in support of the resolution but wanted to tighten up the language in some instances and improve the resolution over all. Remove the first whereas clause on the second page which reads, "...no one to date has been able to articulate why war on Iraq is in the interest of American citi:ens". A number of people have articulated this and she did not agree with their articulations. Remove the second from the bottom whereas, same page which reads ".....United Nations' led inspections have been far more effective in eliminating weapons of mass destruction than have been all the bombing during the Gulf War". from reading newspapers and watching Night Line her understanding was they .were kicked out 10 years ago. They didn't get to see what they wanted to see and she was not sure they were eery good eliminating any weapons of mass destruction. In addition, she did not know the totality of the bombing during the Gulf War and did not think she was expert enough to endorse this statement. Nor did she think United Nations' weapon inspectors were very effective 10 years ago, and not sure they are being very effective right now. The final whereas clause on page 2 was vague and Aid. Wynne would support a statement that was more appointed in terms of offering/suggesting that they continue to negotiate and attempt to contain and isolate Sadam Hussein. It reads, "....a war with Iraq is unneeded, unjust, and poses a real threat to our nation and our democratic traditions and rights." After much discussion the committee changed the language to read, "........under these circumstances a war with Iraq is unneeded, unjust, and poses a real threat to our nation and our democratic traditions and rights." Section 1 of the last page reads "That the City of Evanston hereby voices our opposition to any preemptive strike or act of war contemplated by the President and the Congress of the United States, and resolves that no war against Iraq be undertaken at any time by the United States unless as a response to a direct military attack by Iraq." Aid. Wynne suggested it "....That the City of Evanston hereby voices our opposition to any preemptive strike or act of war contemplated by the President and the Congress of the United States toward Iraq." The 6" whereas clause on page 1 reads "....the City of Evanston's 18.25 year old population is likely to be a source of conscription and recruitment for military personnel to fight a war from which there is no just cause or result." Aid. Wynne did not understand the term ".........no just cause or result........", After much discussion the committee decided on "...the City of Evanston's 18-25 year old population is likely to be a source of recruitment for military personnel to fight a war with Iraq." Aid. Feldman offered a few changes on the 3' whereas on the 2' page, which reads "...many national security experts, including the Director of the CIA, state that an attack on Iraq is more likely to result in the use of weapons of mass destruction than will a policy of containment." He did not understand how they could include any testimony from the CIA to support their case. After much discussion the committee changed the language to read "..a policy of containment is much more desirable than a policy of war." The second 4 approved whereas on page 2 reads "...a war with Iraq has been declared by nearly all U.S. religious leaders as unjust." What do they mean by "..nearly all U.S. Religious leaders"? Ald. Rainey volunteered to work on that paragraph and asked Rev. Anderson if he would be able to get them a list of denominations. Rev. Anderson said he could create a list of 50 or 60 out of the 100 or so that have jurisdictional bodies. Aid. Wynne suggested this change "..the leaders of the following denominational groups..." and have Rev. Anderson provide a list. Aid. Rainey noted she had a list of 22 very reputable, highly responsible communities that had passed resolutions and will try to find out what other communities have done. She will get a copy to staff to be distributed. Mr. Franz noted in order to get the resolution on the January 13 Council agenda the revised paragraph of the 2' whereas on page 2 and information from Rev. Anderson vas needed by tomorrow. Aid. Newman stated it could be distributed at the January 13 Council meeting if not ready by tomorrow. Aid. Newman had concerns with the 4th whereas on page 1 "....the actions of the Gulf War, the UN sanctions, and continued bombing of regions of Iraq have proven ineffective in accomplishing the removal of Saddam Hussein." The Gulf War never attempted to remove Saddam Hussein, more so he had a problem because he endorse working through the UN criticizing actions which are sanctions by the UN. The problem with what they are doing is this intimidation of the UN and trying to be the lone ranger. Aid. Rainey stated this was never intended to be critical of the UN, just to show that not a lot of what has been done has been effective in eliminating Saddam Hussein. The committee agreed to remove this whereas after much discussion. Aid. Newman asked that the amendments on the table be read. Air. Franz offered. On page 1 the 4" whereas is eliminated, the 6" whereas, will read "Whereas, the City of Evanston's 18-25 years old population is likely to be a source of recruitment for military personnel to fight a war with Iraq." On page 2 the 1st whereas is eliminated. The 2nd whereas will read something like "Whereas, a war with Iraq has been declared unjust by the following organizations and/or leaders." The 3' whereas will read "Whereas, a policy of containment is much more desirable then a policy of war." The 6`s whereas is eliminated. The 7`' whereas will read, "Whereas, under these circumstances a war with Iraq is unneeded, unjust, and poses a real threat to our nation and our democratic traditions and rights." Section 1 on page 3 will read "That the City of Evanston hereby voices our opposition to any preemptive strike or act of war contemplated by the President and the Congress of the United States toward Iraq." 5 approved All amendments were agreed upon. The committee voted 8 to 1with Aid. Moran voting nay to send the amended resolution to the Council. For the record AId. Ne,,%mnan had not had the opportunity to really know where the people in his ward were on this resolution and wanted to say his vote is not based on his role as a representative of his ward. It was more based on his own moral conscience and somebody who is obligated to vote at this time on this resolution because it is before the committee and coming before the Council. ADTOURNMN,'T: Meeting adjourned at 7:43 p.m. Respectfully submitted, :. . Darlene Francellno 6 .s Draft not approved MINUTES OF THE RULES COMMITTEE MONDAY. FEBRUARY 3. 2003 b:�V p.m. ALDER-NUV1IC LIBRARY Present: Aldermen Steven Bernstein, Gene Feldman, Lionel Jean -Baptiste, Edmund Moran, Art `em.-man, Ann Rainey & Melissa Wynne Absent: Aldermen Stephen Engelman and Joe Kent Presiding: Alderman Art Newman Staff Present: Roger Crum, Maureen Barry, Darlene Francellno, Mark Franz, Bill Stafford, Jay Terry, Doug Gaynor, Kathleen Brenniman Guest: Mayor Morton, Mary Morris, Susan Horwitz, Mary Gavin CALL TO ORDER: A quorum being present Aid. Newman called the meeting to order at 6:12 p.m. APPROVAL OF MINUTES OF THE JANUARY 7, 2003 MEETING: Aid. Rainey moved for approval of the January 7, 2003 minutes. Aid. Bernstein seconded. Motion carried. :Minutes were approved. ADA GRIEVANCE PROCEDURES - COMMITTEE JURISDICTION DISCUSSION: Mr. Crum stated under the federal law we are required to have some type of grievance procedure on our own programs, accessibility to our programs and facilities, so if a citken who does not believe we have done something adequately has some remedy. The memo distributed addresses that in a realistic manner. The question before the committee is if a citken is unhappy with the administration answer to the question, which iv -ill go through the City Aianager and the Director of Health & Human Services, which committee should be the hearing body for that decision. The suggestion is the Human Services Committee Aid. Newman moved that Council rules be amended so responsibility for ADA grievances and other related issues to ADA be assigned to the Human Services Committee. Aid. Rainey seconded. Aid. Newman noted this item would go to Council. Motion carried. Mr. Terry noted that one complain was pending for the County Department of Human Rights on the location of the Fleetwood/Jourdain Theater. Aid. Newman commented that staff has recommended they move from that location because of that Draft not cppraved issue and money is being spent to fix up the Fleetwood,7ourdain Theater and the Children's Theater is moving. AFFORDABLE HOUSING — COMMITTEE JURISDICTION DISCUSSION: It was understood by Aid. Jean -Baptiste that the task force has started and maybe they needed to see what the outcome of the their discussion w•as to see how they shape the issue of jurisdiction. Aid. Newman had previously informed him that the Planning & Development Committee had historically given oversight to this area of work. His proposal was the Human Services Committee seemed to be the place where affordable housing needed to go. The city needs a policy that addresses this and presumed the affordable housing task force is an attempt to give some focus to the issue. He thought the oversight, the ongoing work, the ongoing monitoring still needed to come under Human Services and time needed to be taken to develop a policy, to monitor progress and to insure they are achieving what they set out to achieve. The question may be how is P&D handling the objective they all have stated of achieving some degree of affordable housing in Evanston. Aid. Newman said they all haven't said that. There are a lot of different ideas. It was noted that they don't have a formal policy statement and the committee make a recommendation to P&D. Ald. Rainey and Jean -Baptiste both wanted to know more information on the task force and who set it up. The response was the task force basically came out of the Housing Commission. P&D was requested to set up the Task Force and they ratify the idea for the Task Force. Tile Housing Commission determined who would sit on it. P&D had a discussion on the task force goals and what their structure would be. There are to be two members from P&D, someone from the Human Relations Commission, people from the Mousing Commission and from outside. They would find out more tomorrow at their first meeting. Mr. Terry said if the committee were to transfer to Human Services, it was being spoken in terms of affordability. The official name is the Inclusionary Housing Task Force and is an advocate related to persons with mental illness, the elderly, etc. People who have not been included on the task force could transfer to Human Services. The question of broadening the mandate of the task force to include a number of groups who are not represented on the task force would become more of a =_- visible issue. The question has been posed to him by the various groups, who report through the Human Service Committee, as to why they are not represented. They see the term inclusionary and see a much broader definition than affordability. Mr. Crum added in the city code the Housing Commission duties are to be concernwith all housing related matters in the city and strictly report to P&D. After much discussion it was stated that Aid. Bernstein sits on the Task Force and a spot was available for another Aldermen. Aid. Rainey moved that Aid. Jean -Baptiste 2 Draft not approved serve on the Task Force. Aid. Feldman seconded. Motion carried. Aid. Jean - Baptiste agreed to serve on the Task Force. M.AW,EBE PROGRAM{ — COMMITTEE JL;RISDICTION DISC[;SSION- Ald. Jean -Baptiste thought this item also should be taken up at Human Service and Aid. Rainey thought it should stay at A&PXV. Aid. Newman opened the floor for discussion. The opinion of AId. Jean -Baptiste was the MAWEBE program needed to be refocused and strengthen to deal, a little more aggressively, with issues of compliance and to possibly expand its responsibility to include the training component of some of the contracts they have discussed before. In order to give more consistent oversight to this work, he felt the Human Services committee had more time and possibility to discuss issues considered, follow-up on progress and maintain a consistent discussion on it. The Administration and Public Works Committee's style of work is eery intense and unless they call a special meeting, they really do not have time to discuss other matters. To do justice to this area of work Human Services was the best area, plus it fits in the category of Human Services. Aid. Rainey disagreed. This had to do with contracts not handouts or social services but with productive work and contracts. That is what A&PW deals with. If you are going to get a training program out of a contractor it has to be in the contract. She did not see anyway this should be relegated to a social service program. It is not a social service program. In order for this program to be really effective, it had to move way beyond social ser-ices. Over the years A&PW from time to time has developed a subcommittee when it had a special issue. If it is that important a subcommittee should be recommend to A&-PW. Aid. Jean -Baptiste said the Human Services Committee is the area where concerns, in terms of job training, employment possibility, and the development of capacity of subcontractors in this community could be taken up in a real way. He did not think A&PW really had the capacity to do it in terms of its style of work. To get the most effectiveness out of that kind of program they needed a process that was more thorough and more intentional. Also he did not think moving it to one committee or another denotes it is a handout, they could still take care of that business in the Human Services Committee. Aid. Rainey wanted to know which member of staff oversees MANVEBE and when would they be getting any kind of report from them. Frankly, she did not care which committee it went to because it was not a very productive operation and CDBG funds it. She has been totally unimpressed by reports given by the committee to either A&PW or CDBG. It seems to be out of touch with everything else going on. It would be interesting for staff to make a report to them, letting them know where things are. Every now and then they get a report saying so much of this project was committed to local vendors, etc. She would really like to know how much of that 3 Draft not approved activity actually has to do with the oversight and sort of tracking by the MAXWBE, either by a staff person or committee. For example, the Levy Center had put in some requirements and she would Iike to know ghat role did this department have to do with that. That was why more intentional oversight was needed, per Aid. Jean -Baptiste, because right now they don't know. It is not that effective. Also, they have a fair employment ordinance that may empower them in some level or another to assist in giving more teeth to this area of work. But they are not really paying that much attention to it. Human Services Committee, could monitor the process over the long term on a monthly basis, keep it on the agenda and spend the time and, if necessary, call a special meeting. Aid. Bernstein had no great feeling about where it should be, except logically it belongs in both committees. The oversight capacity, which is social in nature, perhaps is within the purview of Human Services. Once contracts are let, A&PW is going to get them anyway. He agreed there has been no oversight and has not been EY real excited about the materials they have been given in CDBG with respect to whether or not they are meeting the budget. The fact that INVW/EBE did not spend the money CDBG gave them to try and enhance the program for over a year was something that was not a great situation. Not having served either on Human Services or A&PW, he could not tell which committee was more appropriate. But it should be monitored. If it is more appropriately monitored in Human Services that is where it should be placed. Aid. Moran said ultimately it needed to be resolved in relation to what this program is about. He has never seen much in the way of definition and that was where they would get the answer. Then it becomes an easier call. He could see the potential for even dual jurisdiction if the program is about determining whether city contracts that are distributed in a way that is consistent with targets or goals in relation to minority, Evanston, women businesses within those contracts. He saw it clearly being an A&PW issue, because contracts are the heart of what they do. To try to monitor progress within contracting and understanding what is going on in contracting, and divorce that part of it from the larger focus of the contracting might be a mistake. Keeping them together gives you more of an integrated view of what is happening. However, if the program is seen as being a training program or as a developmental program in relation to the capacity to be able to qualify for city contracts he sees it moving towards the Human Service Committee. It might be a more imperfect analogy, but towards more like the summer youth employment program or the Careers Pathway Program they saw at their City School Liaison Committee meeting. Depending on how you define the program, envision the program and what you want to accomplish it might be that there are two answers to the question. 1 ti Draft not approved Aid. Moran suggested getting a memo from staff to the Rules Committee asking them where they think it belongs and what they think the definition of the program is. Aid. Rainey said after the new purchasing agent came she promised ACPW a full report of her evaluation of the program and how it is run, etc. and they have yet to see that report. She really would like to see an evaluation by the staff that oversees its administration, its implementation on what they think is going on and if they think anything needs to be fixed. The committee agreed the? would like a complete report from the overseer of that program. Aid. Newman moved they allow the Human Service Committee to have oversight of this issue for the rest of the year then come back and see how they did. The City Manager should do his report and the purchasing agent should get the information and distribute it to everybody that had asked for it from ASPW. Lloyd Shepard should do a report about what he is doing and how that is functioning and they should all start at Human Services. Ald. Jean -Baptiste seconded. Motion carried. Aid. Jean -Baptiste asked that the legal department provide them information on the fair employment ordinance that ought to be figured in somewhere. LEGISLATIVE LIAISON ISSUES: Aid. Newman asked if there had been any follow-up since their meeting with Larry Suffredin? There was no comment. He stated one follow-up was to try to talk to Chicago about some position on the chases, because Chicago has the big lawsuits too. Another was inviting Jan Schakowsky. Aid. Wynne mentioned the Sheridan Road issues. Mr. Crum noted this week congressman's office has asked for an update on outstanding issues that might be affected in the federal program. That information is being prepared and he is putting Sheridan Road, Ridge Avenue and viaducts in that update and it is not looking good. The question was asked by Aid. Newman on v.-hat happened to the money they were suppose to get from the state on the viaducts in general. Aid. Bernstein stated it was I I million that was to come from Illinois First and they are not going to get it. Mr. Crum stated they have some advance indication that there may be a problem with the funding that was going to be enough for 5 Viaducts. The city is verbally being told that the funding does not appear in the budget. The city is trying to trace down what they are talking about, because the money was there and now it is not. Aid. Ne«•man suggested at the next Rules Committee meeting they deal with this issue and other legislative issues and invite legislators back. Mr. Crum said right at this instance the viaduct money is the top priority and also Jan Schakowsky has requested that all the other projects might have a federal attachment to it and will get more information on it. Draft not approved Aid. Newman requested inviting Jan Schako►vsky for the next Rules Committee is she is available. CITY \MANAGER EVALUATION FOLLOW UP: There was to be a :oIlo►►--up with the City Manager on certain issues. Aid. Moran had already framed one issue in terms of getting from staff a whole comprehensive report on Mj'W/EBE. A report on what the entire staff is doing, is it working,what the policy is and t►here the problems are. The reason it .was mention in the City Manager's ewalua:ion was because they really want the City Manager to directly respond on issue_ they need to address. For example do we know if any Evanstonian got a job on the Hill project construction contract? In short summary Mr. Crum said so far that has not been part of the program to track individuals and getting sobs. It has been business development. AId. Jean -Baptiste said they did talk about the need for the city manager to be more knowledgeable about the contracts coming before them for approval or proposals. Ald. Newman said an ongoing issue at PSD is the ability of the legal staff and the P&D staff to work together. ;fir. Crum said he has been addressing that. COMMITTEE CHAIR ROTATIONS: Aid. Newman thanked staff for providing the revised committee chair rotation scheduled for the next two -years. The Committee will work on the rotation of the Budget Committee chair. APPROVE ALD. BERNSTEIN FOR THE HUMAN SERVICES COMMITTEE: Aid. Rainey mowed to approve Aid. Bernstein to serve on the Human Services Committee. Aid. Jean -Baptiste seconded. Motion carried. ADIOURNMEtiT: Meeting adjourned at 7:06 p.m. Respectfully submitted, Darlene Francellno 6 Draft not approved MnNUTES OF THE RULES COMMITTEE NIOtiDAY, MARCH 3, 2003 6:00 p.m. ALDERNL-N-NIC LIBRARY Present: Aldermen Steven Bernstein, Gene Feldman, Lionel Jean -Baptiste, Edmund Moran, and Art Newman Absent: Aldermen Joe Kent, Ann Rainey and Melissa Wynne Presiding: Alderman Art Newman Staff Present: Judith Aiello, Roger Crum, Maureen Barry, Darlene Francellno, Mark Franz, Keith Fujiham, David Jennings, Max Rubin, and Bill Stafford Guest: Mayor Morton, Mary Morris, Ra Joy, and Cong. Jan Schakowsky CALL. TO ORDER: A quorum being present Ald. Newman called the meeting to order at 6:10 p.m. APPROVAL OF MINUTES OF THE FEBRUARY 3, 2003 MEETING: Ald. Bernstein moved for approval of the February 3, 2003 minutes. Ald. Feldman seconded. Motion carried. Minutes approved. MEETING WITH CONGRESSWOMAN IAN SCHAKOWSKY: Ald. Newman welcomed Gong. Schakowsky and thanked her for all her efforts on various City issues. In addition he noted she was way out in front on the Iraq issue and public opinions were catching up very fast. Cong. Schakowsky added that a number of Evanston clergy came to her today with a joint letter on the Iraq issue, it was a really good representation of Evanston's clergy and Chicago Tribune and CLTV were there. Ald. Newman said it seems the City of Evanston got totally screwed by CTA on viaducts. Cong. Schakowsky stated she would be meeting with Frank Kruesi from CTA next week. A. packet of information was given to her for her for that meeting with Mr. Kruesi. Ms. Aiello pointed out that CTA has moved the City s project up, but the money is gone. Through everybody, they thought the money was earmarked for Evanston, knew it could not be line item for them because it had to be line item to CTA, but never thought it was anybody else's money. The City had never received anything from CTA other than the press release from May 27, 1999 for the press conference that was held that Sunday morning at Main Street that everyone was at. CTA was there and stood in front of the viaducts to say the money is here for our viaducts. Ald. Moran noted that Frank Kruesi and Valeria Jarrett were there and maybe should be reminded of that. Ms. Aiello explained the process on how CTA got the money. CTA are the owners of the viaducts, the money came under the federal to the state and could not come to a line item for the City. In discussions with Larry Suffredin and his workings with the legislators to get the money, everybody was under the impression that there was not any discussion that it 4123=31:10 P&I Draft not approved was anybody else's money other than Evanston's. It had been in CTA's 5-year capital plan in 2001 and 2002 then they just sort of moved it without giving the City any communications. Cong. Schakowsky asked how or when did they find out about this and if CTA was going to do any viaducts? Mr. Crum stated they had informal contact iiith CTA about six weeks to a month ago when talking to them about the bus route. CTA had not told them officially until they officially asked, which was about three weeks ago. It took three weeks to get the response which was they reallocated our money to other projects. They are doing one viaduct at Main Street which was to have been done last year and then 30% of the design work for the viaducts at Greenleaf, Dempster, Da%is, Church and Grove was to be done in 2004. Cong. Schakowsky asked wanted would be her strongest suite to Kruesi? Mr. Crum thought it was at the legislative action of our state Iegislators, specifically for this project_ Everybody including CTA K-as in agreement for Evanston for these -.iaducts, it was done and we would proceed. Then with no further word they shifted the whole thing out of the budget. Literally that is what happened. Aid. %loran added that fir. Suffredin was really instrumental in terms, of doing the Springfield work on this, which might have some significance to Mr. Kruesi. Cong. Schakowsky asked Mayor Morton what her relationship µith Mayor Daley was in terms of talking to him. The Mayor's response was cordial and she has a nice relationship with Mr. Kruesi. She does not know the politics of what happened with that money, and has not been given any information to substantiate what happened. But does know, as does anybody who was there when they all met at Main Street, CTA did give some promises. The Mayor stated she would like to talk to Mr. Kruesi and find out what he has to say about it. The other night she talked with a representative from his office who expressed regret that this had to happened and hoped they would be able to do something for Evanston. Aid. Moran noted at that press conference at Main Street, they were encouraged to be out there by Mr. Kruesi, because he wanted that photo op of standing under that rickety overcast. CTA u-as there right before they were going to take votes in Springfield to fund Illinois First. The whole idea was they were all getting out there because b'lr. Kruesi wanted to get that money out of Illinois First. Mr. Kruesi wanted it almost as much as Evanston did. Ald. Newman noted they needed to be strong with CTA, because it is our money, but needs to try to maintain that within good relations. Ms. Aiello suggested another point to make with Mr. Kruesi is in 1995 CTA asked if they could put up braces on the various location and Dave Barber, the Public Works Director at that time took it to the Council. The Council agreed for 1 year with CTA that they had to come back and give us their plan for replacing the viaducts, which they never did. This was before Mr. Kruesi's time, but is another point that could also be made and that information is included the packet. Cong. Schakowsky asked what was the total cost to be received? The response was 23 million. Cong. Schakowsky said her fear is Mr. Kruesi will pretty much agree with everything and say they don't have any money. 4MQ0031:14 PM 2 Draft not approved Ald. I`ewnian suggest they ask fir. Kruesi to meet with all of them including Larry Suffredin, Jeff Schoenberg, Julie Hamos and Carol Ronen at a Rules Committee meeting to let them know this is a project we all worked on, we need this to be done and if you took it out of this year, we need to be in next year, at wont the year after that. Good relations are needed with everybody that is helping them in Springfield and Washington. Cong. Schakowsky said she would be willing to work that out. She asked if there was anything else. Mr. Crum stated they would like to work. with Mr. Joy to get their interest in the transportation funding. He stated that Cong. Schakowsky had indicated there was 55 million possibly available. The question was is that all for her district? Cong. Schakowsky said it was not yet clear how that was going to divide out. Mr. Crum states our needs are far beyond 55 million but if worthy of this type of money they have narrowed it down to three projects, Ridge Avenue, Sheridan Road and the bike paths. Cong. Schakowsky said this is the reauthorization of T21, now called T3, in terms of funding bills this will be the big focus, the transportation bill. Mr. Jennings said they met with Mr. Joy today who suggested the City prepare a one -page summary for each project, which they have done and will give to Mr. joy. W. joy said the deadline is March 14 and there are surveys that need to be completed yesterday in order to get the money. The key with these projects, Iike on the viaducts CTA had to be the lead, Evanston could not be, on the Sheridan Road reconstruction IDOT would have to be the lead agency. So in other words beyond the city wide bike plan project Eti-Aston has to work hand in hand with other agencies to put together these survey answers in a short amount of time. Mr. Jennings said they are almost done with the applications for Sheridan and Ridge but have not gotten the sign off yet from IDOT. There are a couple of places on the form that asks do you have IDOT concurrence or is it in the regional transportation plan, those are the kinds of questions they have to work with IDOT on and get them to say yes to it. Mr. Fujihara added that he had a call into John Cost, who is kind of like in charge of this area and hopefully on Wednesday or Thursday they can meet with him and have him sign off as the co-sponsor on these tivo projects. Ald. Neuman asked what are the values of these projects? The response from Mr. Jennings ,%as the Ridge project is 4 million and Sheridan is 11 mullion. Mr. Joy stated he thought the Ridge project was already in motion and the bike plan project he thought was 1.5 million. As of this morning their office had not been provided any information about the Sheridan Road project, the understanding was it is between a 12 and 17 million dollar reconstruction project_ Cong. Schakowsky offered her assistance if needed. Mr. Crum stated staff would report to the Council on Monday on where they are and if they need help. Mayor Morton commented on the bike plan that the Mayors of Northwest Municipal Conference are quite concerned with state legislation about this bike plan because nothing is stating the bike riders have to be licensed and are not saying they have to have insurance. There is nothing out there for the person who is having the problem with the bike riders. There is a campaign of writing to the state legislature about that very issue. She was not trying to do away with the plan, but the citizens need some type of protection. If you are going to say that bike riders have a right to ride the public ways, then what responsibilities 4r, a2GC31:10 PM 3 Draft not approved ` are you going to say, as you do kith an automobile? The Mayor is referring to some legislation being intcr%iewed both good and bad about bike riders to make them equal of vehicles on the road, but not the same conditions, but it is something that the municipal leagues are watching very carefully said Mr. Crum. Cong. Schakowsky asked the Mayor if she was worried about the on street lanes. Mayor Morton said yes, there just isn't enough room and all bike riders are not very stable riders. She is always very afraid when she sees the bike riders and sees automobiles swerve to the left, which could hit another car. She is just not in amber of that plan. On McCormick Boulevard there is a bike path all the way down but people don't use that. She can't see the logic in having a bike lane on a street where there is already a bike path that is not on the street. Ald. Newman said they would still try and get the money because they said they would try and deal with that plan. Mayor Morton asked what the money would be used for and if this was a dead issue? The response was the money would be used to do the work necessary to put the lanes in and they have adopted the plan. She then asked if they were satisfied with the plan? Mr, Crum responded pretty much they mere, he thought that legislation is somewhat a different issue that it change the tort liability on what a rider is or isn't. Mayor Morton said that is one issue and asked if Emerson Street was one of them? She has heard in the community a great dissatisfaction on using Emerson Street as a bike lane the way it is completed at this time. Aid. Newman said if they get the funding and are at a point where they can implement they can get into some of these issues and if there is a good reason to modify the plan, he was sure people would be open to that. Mr. Jennings noted that what is good is that it will be done in stages so they will be able to see how it works in areas without having to do the whole city. This budge year they are up for 20 thousand dollars in striping, signing and that kind of thing. That is the beginning of the plan so they will be able to see how it is before they spend a whole lot of money. Aid. Neuman said other points are the cost of health insurance for our employees has gone up by 15% increments. This is the second or third year in a row and there seems not to be any relief in sight. He hoped that members of congress are hearing that we have a serious problem where there seems to be no end in sight. He asked with all the proposed tax cutting going on, whether or not programs that they count on, such as CD allocation, whether Cong. Schakowsky has seen any because at some point they have got to pay for the tax cut. Cong. Schakowsky responded that everything that we care about is definitely on the table for county except for the tax cuts. Although she thinks this new round is in trouble, the elimination on the tax on stock dividends is probably not going to happen, but may happen in the House. Aid. Feldman asked if it was going to be right down party lines on everything? Cong. Schakowsky's response was pretty much, they invoke a very strict discipline on their members. She did not think they would lose democrats on that at all. But this is not just collateral damage of this war, this is an intention and the pain that we see trickling down to the states and the municipalities, there is no regret about that. They feel like we ought to trim back. The governors were told "you are getting all that you are going to get' and then going around and bidding far any kind of billions to try and get international support for this 4123120031:10 PM 4 Draft not approved war. The only thing that she can say is CDBG money is already block granted. They are not for funding specific programs so maybe that one they rill leave because it is a block grant already. It is going to be a serious battle because this will seem expendable to them, and if they really do this they are talking about maybe a trillion dollars over time and they µ-ill feel that. They don't have real plans on health care, the Medicaid plan, which she thinks is going to be changed, is revenue neutral over the period. So while there is some frontloading of the plan you end up owing the money back at the end. It is a horrible, horrible proposal and because governors are so hungry for it now, they may bite. Mr. Joy added that so far he doesn't like the plan that a lot of governors have. There is no real good news on the horizon, their answer for health care is privatisation, give people a little bit of a voucher or something and tell them to got look for something. Mr. Crum asked if there was any chance that homeland security money will actually get down to the people doing work for it? Cong. Schakowsky responded that she just met with one of the firefighters today and that is where many of them have been really critical of the administration. But the amount for local first responders in the new budget that have been proposed is completely inadequate. They are sitting on the Great Ickes where they have moved the coast guard cutters over to Iraq, so they really are left vulnerable. The fire fighter she talked to today, thinks about it every day he goes to work, and he said something to the affect that the reality is the people in this town really are not much safer today than before 911, because of the equipment, the training, the numbers of personnel that you need, and just the resources you need to really do the job. Ald. Newman thought if there were ever money for homeland security we would probably support in getting allocated like CD funds. However, it comes directly to us as oppose to going through the state government. We really need not to go that route because then the little guys don't have a chance. The CD funding thing works, we get our money every year and don't have to go to Springfield and have them be the middle person. It really is important, because look at what happened on this CTA money. Cong. Schakowsky would see how that works and stated it would be really good for municipal leagues to really take up and push that because she was sure that is an issue everywhere. For informational purposes Mr. Crum stated even though we don't have extra staff, locally we have monthly emergency command post meetings that are multi agencies with hospitals, etc. We are here but there is no money to pay for anything beyond that including those meetings or getting people together. We have better communication with the hospitals and the other cities in the area, but could use more. Cong. Schakowsky said the comment %-as made that those things that you can control are being controlled. Ald. Newman thanked Cong. Schakowsky again for taking time out of her schedule to meet with them. Cong. Schakowsky said she and particularly W. Joy would be in very close contact within the next few days to get the transportation stuff worked out. She will then report back and will make the case with Mr. Kruesi and ask for this meeting. NORTHWESTERN LITIGATION DISCUSSION: Mr. Crum stated that Judge Aspen has asked one more time for us to meet with Judge Mikva and we put in the condition that he meet also with NW trustees. judge Mikva will 4 23120031:10 PM 5 Draft not approved come meet with us on the same day after having talked to N-NV trustees. We know nothing else other than continuation of any mediation exercise that might be possible and that we will meet with him. He will be there being the only staff person and our Legal Counsel will also be there. Aid. Feldman asked if there would be any kind of a briefing and will they be able to say anything they want? Mr. Crum responded this is a mediation session and Judge Mikva will provide the guidelines a head of time. Theoretically, in a normal mediation process, nothing goes beyond the room and nothing becomes a proposed agreement, which would have to come back for some other action. Ald. Feldman asked so in other words they would not be given a proposal to respond to right_' Mr. Crum said he doubted it. Part of it is our opportunity to explain to Judge -%fikva exactly why our position is what it is and what the logic of it is. Aid. Newman shared with the committee that there was a story today in U.S.A. Today about problems between college towns that are really a little bit about what this is about. All the stuff coming up about some of the land use things going on, problems with drinking, problems with neighborhoods becoming rundown and all the ideas that these various college towns are coming up with to try to maintain residential character. How they are especially concern about where dormitories are built. They have put in these rules that some college towns can't build dormitories within a certain number of feet within residential neighborhoods. It is the same issue that we are dealing with. There is this one law they have where they do not allow indoor furniture outdoors, because there are so many living room couches being put on porches. COMMUNICATION: It was announced that Aid. Ann Rainey would be the next chair of the Rules Committee starting April 2003. ADIOURNMFNT: Meeting adjourned at 7:00 p.m. Respectfully submitted, Darlene Francellno 4J23120031.10 PM 6 Draft not approved MINUTES OF THE SPECIAL. RULES CONIMITTEE WEDNESDAY, ;11ARCH 19, 2003 6:00 p.m. ALDERINLA,NIC LIBRARY Present: Aldermen Steven Bernstein, Gene Feldman, Lionel Jean -Baptiste, Edmund Moran, Art Newman, Ann Rainey, and Melissa Wynne, Absent: Aldermen Joe Kent, Presiding: Alderman Art Newman Staff Present: Judith Aiello, Maureen Barry, Patrick Casey, Roger Crum, Darlene Francellno, Mark Franz, and Bill Stafford CALL TO ORDER: A quorum being present Aid. Newman called the meeting to order at 6:07 p.m. PROCEDURES AND ASSIGNMENTS RELATED TO AN ALDERMANIC REPLACEMENT: Aid. Feldman moved to have the Rules Committee assign newly appointed members of the Council to committees. The second part of the motion was when the Mayor appoints a new member of the Council it should be introduced and voted on or approved at the following meeting to provide possible citizen comment. Aid. Newman seconded the motion and stated it had nothing to do with the appointment just made. Aid. Newman commented on the second part of the motion stating that the Mayor, from what he was told, was advised by the Corporation Counsel's office that in rule 5.1 that says "...All appointments shall be introduced at least one week in advance of their consideration by the City Council......" only applies to boards and commissions. He remembered two previous incidents where aldermen were replaced and was introduced at one meeting and approved at the following meeting. He then opened the floor for discussion. Aid. Tisdahl said it seemed to her that the Mayor is elected at large and therefore does represent the Ward. Therefore she would be comfortable having the Mayor make an appointment. If the committee has great questions about the candidate, isn't it possible to simply not vote the first night and postpone it a week or ttvo? Aid. Rainey said that causes the Mayor a lot of grief when they do that on an appointment. There should be a process. Ald. Rainey asked if there was a rule in their Council rules specific to the appointment of an Alderman in the expiration of a term? Mr. Crum said no the city code refers to state laws on that subject. The :Mayor has a right to appoint under state law and then there are rules. The state law which is what Corporation Counsel was using -.vas the :Mayor has a right to appoint if it is within a certain time frame then it is an appointment, not an election and it SWZW34:09 PM Draft not approved e gives no other guidance on whether it should be introduced or carried over to the next meeting. It does require advice and consent of the Council by state law. Ald. jean -Baptiste said he thought they were in agreement that the Mayor has a right to appoint. The issue is whether or not they should allow the appointment to be initially introduced. He sees the proposal as being a good proposal because process is very important in terms of what they do. When this kind of decision is made the citizenry looks at them as doing their own thing and excluding them. So to allow two creeks to go by and for people to know that at the following meeting they "ill take action on this kind of decision is a good thing and he would support that part of the motion. Ald. Moran said after reading quickly through the whole section 5 of the rules it is clear to him that it does not apply to an appointment of an alderman, it makes reference to boards and commissions. His second point is an appointment of a member of the city council is a sensitive thing. They all agree state law suggests that the Mayor has the power to crake this appointment and there seems not to be any dispute on that. His question if they are going to make this a process of one week a nomination is made and then you come back in two weeks, what will they do? What will the logical end of the process be? The only thing he can think of is you either take those two weeks to investigate the background of the person who has been nominated so you can better inform yourself as a member of the council who has to give their advice and consent whether you want to vote yea or nay, two weeks later. Or people could go out and recruit and try to find other people who would be "the alderman" that would ultimately get appointed. He did not necessarily think either of those things was necessarily a good thing in relation to the overall process. He remembered a situation where an alderman was nominated and voted down. If you allow two weeks and gather all this information or whatever it puts it in a place that he thinks would be very awkward, certainly awkward for the Mayor, certainly awkward to the nominee and maybe ultimately awkward for the council, but maybe not. In Ald.Wynne's view she could not see how this can't be good. If you allow two weeks people can go out and investigate this person, not only the members of the council but the public as well to decided if this person is fine. The whole point is to inform the public as well as they can on what they are doing. If the person is a good appointment then that is - fine. Citizens might want to come in and sing praises of the person who has just beenai _ appointed to offer Council guidance. If someone discovers they have some objections to Y someone being appointed, the public should have the opportunity to be heard on that issue. If there is some discomfort and someone gets turned do%%m by the council that is a risk they take. Every other appoint they introduce, the public hears about it, gets an opportunity and then Council approves or disapproves and there are these awkward times when they don't really want to put the Mayor in a difficult position and weren't able to sometimes work things out in other ways. Allowing citizens to comment gives them a much greater sense of — openness of what is happening on the council. SG=3 i:Q9 Ph( 2 Draft not approved Aid. Newman said number one he read rule 5.1 and it has been read in prior occasions whether it could be read a different ►way to mean all appointments are all appointments is another thing. Number two there is an ad,.7ce and consent function of the council that becomes meaningless if you get a name on Thursday night and you have no opportunity whatsoever to even come to a judgment other than one piece of paper. He thinks What ought to be done, and every Mayor has the right to do this, is for the person doing the appointment to consult with people in the ►ward, with neighborhood groups and council members to hear from them. The Mayor uill still have the overwhelming ability and chances of the Mayor being overturned on something like this are extremely low and remote. Aid. Rainey thought that the council rules definitely had to be amended. No matter what they put in the rules the Mayor is going to have the greatest voice. However, by amending the rules, which has absolutely nothing to do ►►zth Council it has to do with the people in the ►rrard. Council has no say on who gets elected when they run for office and it doesn't matter to her, although she is thrilled to have Aid. Tisdahl, if it were some other candidate who won, you just have to deal with it, that's politics. It has nothing to do with being offensive to them that the Mayor appoints somebody but she feels it is very offensive to the community not to have an opportunity to speak. Aid. Bernstein stated he did not think rule 5.1 applied to the circumstances but it should. They should have some contemplation of resignation and/or death, clearly an appointment to the Council should be of no less importance than an appointment to a board or commission. It is important and he did not think it really changes anything. The only difference is the ward will be without representation for an addition two weeks, but that is regrettable, but it gives citizens an opportunity to come in and be heard. He agreed with Aid. Rainey it is not necessarily a function of whom they think they would like or can work with but rather that the ward comes out and makes it self and its opinions known. Ald. Moran said this discussion has been helpful to him. Aid. Rainey said it's the ward and Aid. Newman mentioned neighborhood groups. His thinking of distilling on this is the prerogative on this is the Mayor's with the consent of the Council. But its not an election and not like a popular vote. The sense of it is probably the statue says the Mayor will appoint, because the Mayor other than the City Clerk is the one person who is elected by everybody and inherent in that prerogative is a suggestion that the Mayor should be making an appointment that would be cognizant of the city's best interest. She is not making it from the perspective of what's best for the 6's ward, 2' ward or whatever, she is saying she thinks this is a good person. That is why the statue probably says it, but ultimately it's going to be the Mayor's call either way and a call or several calls could get it torpedoed. He thinks if you open it up to a longer dialogue and substitute suggestions and so on and so forth, you take it away from that prerogative and put it in an area where it could be destructive to the authority of the Mayor and the dignity of the person who is proposed by the Mayor and he just does not see a lot of good coming out of it. 519r20034:09 PM Draft not approved Ald. Jean -Baptiste said it is important that they be informed and allowed time. He had read about Aid. Tisdahl and had heard about her work, but was confronted with a half page of information on Thursday and that was it. With a little more time he might have been able to understand who they were asked to support. Ald. Tisdahl said she was going to vote against this but certainly did not take it personal. In addition she commented to Aid. Jean -Baptiste that no they had never met but she was grateful he voted yes based on a couple of sentences. She also understood their consternation. Aid. Rainey asked that the motion be restated. Ald. Newman said for recommendation to the Council, as it stands right now rule 5.1 be amended to include all appointments including the replacement of aldermen. Ald. Rainey felt it should be separate, make it 5.1a. Ald. Newman asked Mr. Crum to do the language. Mr. Crum said basically under state law the Mayor has the right to make an appointment for a replacement aiderman it shall be done with an introduction of one meeting and an approval of the next week with the consent and advice of the council at the next regular meeting. He %vill get the final language from the legal department. The vote was 6 to 2. Aid. %loran and Tisdahl voting nay. Aid. Newman said the second part of the motion on the agenda item relating to this is what happens and what assignments do the new alderman get and along with this item they briefly discussed Ald. Rainey wanting to be on Economic Development Committee. Aid. Rainey said she would like the opportunity. Ald. Feldman said Aid. RainWs issue has nothing to do with the Rules Committee exercising its prerogative to appoint committee assignments for a newly appointed alderman. Aid. Rainey said there is another issue here. The issue is the Mayor's perception is that the rules require a complete replacement. Aid. Feldman understood that that is why he trade this motion that the Rules Committee be the one that assigns newly appointed aldermen to committees. Ald. Newman gave a little background on this and stated he was sorry the Mayor was not there. When the Mayor got appointed in the mid S(Ys by Jay Lytle, the rules of the Council, at that time, were that the Mayor assign aldermen to committees other than standing committees and in 1997 they changed that rule and expanded the Rules Committee to appoint the chairs of the various committees that citizens and aldermen were on, such as Economic Development and have preceded that way since 1997. The way that they have tried to do it is to somehow equally divide the ward. For example, at one time they had 5 51912003s:09 PM 4 Draft not approved people on Budget and the other 4 members of the Council on Human Services, 5 members of the Council on Economic Development and the other 4 members were on CDBG which were basically the 4 most important committees. The other assignments like the 911 Board, Parking, City School Liaison and Flood and Pollution Control have basically been done on volunteer bases, at this point. There is no rule in the rules that says when an alderman comes on he or she gets all the prior assignments. Ald. Feldman said what it does says is the Rules Committee appoints and assigns committee position of members of the City Council. Ald. Rainey said the Mayor obviously consulted with the legal department. Ald. jean. Baptiste said Mr. Hill interpreted the rules to her. Mr. Crum said they could find no specific reference to a rule that said it would be done either way. He thought that was custom not a rule that was written. Ald. Jean -Baptiste said it seemed to him when an alderman is leaving the Council, or while he or she is on the Council, it is not just an assignment to committee, there also some degree of consent in choice. When he first came on there was some discussion as to what I would like to be on. So for the alderman who is assigned to a particular committee, it seemed to him they are assigned to the committee based on interest and maybe that interest has to do with their ward, their community composition, etc., etc. He also did not think that the Mayor was imposing anything by saying the incoming alderman steps into the shoes of the outgoing alderman. Now if the incoming alderman wants some variation or is open to negotiating a different assignment, then it seems to him that is how they should resolve it. Ald. Feldman said there have been standards and guides that they have used. One of which was seniority another was preference, the third had to do with a specific interest of ward that might be for example people on the CDBG Committee coming from wards that had a great deal of business with that. Aid. Rainey said why she thinks what the Mayor thinks is incorrect and not even logical in this case is if they had not pushed and all supported the rotation of the budget committee chair a few months ago, Aid. Engelman would be chair of the budget committee. The new replacement alderman would then, given the Mayor's thinking, be placed in the position of being the chair of a very complicated budget committee. And she does not think Aid. Tisdahl is qualified to be the chair of the budget committee. Ald. Tisdahl agreed. Aid. Moran stated that to the degree that they are talking about what happened in 1997 and so on and so forth, he thought that was a mistake and he voted against it and would vote against it again if he had the chance. In this particular instance the Mayor feels as though there is a practice that there is a custom and from his perspective he can live with that. He can live with that and the notion of this committee continuing to take on to itself more and more powers that were traditionally exercised by the Mayor. He does not see that as being a good movement. That is for the record. SWO034:09 PM Draft not approved % Aid. Newman asked Aid. Tisdahl if there were any committees that she would be interested in serving go, putting Economic Development Committee aside. Aid. Tisdahl said she agreed with the Mayor, she would like as many of former Aid. Engelman's committees as possible. The Mayor feels that would provide continuity and she agrees with her on that and if she can't be on Economic Development, because Aid. Rainey clearly out ranks her and that is how they do it that would be fine. She would like to serve on Human Services. Aid. Feldman moved that the Rules Committee assign the newly appointed alderman to the Planning and Development, Human Services, City School Liaison, and the various committees such as Lighthouse Landing Advisory Committee, Flood and Pollution Control and the Budget Committee. He stated to Aid. Tisdahl that she had the right to vote against the motion and if there were any she did not want to sit on she should speak to that. Aid. Rainey seconded. Aid. Bernstein said the Budget Committee is open for everybody. Aid. Feldman said except for Human Services, City School Liaison and the elimination of the Economic Development Committee these are all the committees Aid. Engelman served on. Aid. Newman asked if Aid. Jean -Baptiste and Aid. Kent sat on City School? Aid. Jean. Baptiste stated he has been attending the meetings but his name in not on the list. Mr. Crum stated there is not a set number of on City School. Aid. Newman said they would add Aid. Jean -Baptiste. Aid. Tisdahl said she will just attend City School, but does not necessarily have to have her name on the Iist. Ald. Rainey informed Aid. Tisdahl that Aldermen can attend any meeting. Aid. Tisdahl agreed to serve on these committees. Motion was carried. No nays. Aid. Newman moved to appoint Aid. Rainey to the Economic Development Committee. Aid. Feldman seconded. Motion carried. No nays. _ Aid. Newman moved to appoint Aid. Jean -Baptiste to the City School Liaison Committee. Aid. Feldman seconded. Motion carried. No nays. CHAIRMANSHIP ROTATION SCHEDULE: Aid. Rainey moved for acceptance of the chairmanship rotation schedule. The committee directed staff to take a look at the new rotation schedule based on Aid. Tisdahl's appointment and to reconcile the various changes and bring back to the next meeting. Mr. Crum stated there is a Budget meeting tonight and wondered if a new chair would be chosen tonight or if there was some other direction? In addition he thought the intent on Budget was to at least have a one-year term so the alderman could start the big budget cycle. 5MP=34:09 PM 6 Draft not approved Ald. Feldman said what he would like to see at the Budget Committee is that the Budget Committee be assigned a chair and the rotation be done very similar to the other ones, that you have the remaining portion of this term, which is Z years. That should give an opportunity to every member of the budget committee to serve as chair at one time or another and start %%ith the senior member of the budget committee and then go down the line like is done on all the other standing committees, so that every member gets a chance to be a chair of the budget committee. That is his motion to treat the budget committee, starting %vith seniority and dividing the remaining portion of this term up between all the members. Aid. Rainey seconded. After much discussion and praise given to Aid. Engelman for a job well done at Budget chaar the committee agreed the budget chairmanship would be determined by seniority and the next alderman would be either Aid. Moran or Kent. The vote was 7 to 1 with Aid. Moran voting nay and Aid. Tisdahl undecided. OTi HER: Mr. Crum stated that on next Monday night's agenda CTA wishes to have a Council vote on whether or not they wish them to go ahead with their experimental program. Time has been allowed them to make their final presentation, about 13 minutes in front of the City Council. He was reluctant to put a resolution on for vote, just because he didn't know that we had seen their final plan and didn't know whether Council was ready to vote without a major discussion. CTA is very anxious to have it because they have a board meeting on April 1 and has told the public that that we are going to ask the committee to do this. Mr. Crum would like some consensus of direction of the committee's wishes on Monday night's agenda for a vote. After a lengthy discussion the committee decided they would not vote but would like to CTA's presentation and be allowed to ask questions. ADTOUR 1liENT: Meeting adjourned at 7:33 p.m. Respectfully submitted, Darlene Francellno SSIZOM4:09 PM 7 Approved MINUTES OF THE RULES CO�Sil 11 EE MONTDAY, MA"Y 12, 2003 6:00 p.m. ALDERMA�NTIC LIBRARY Present: Aldermen Lionel Jean -Baptiste, Edmund Moran, Art Newman, Ann Rainey, Elizabeth Tisdahl and Melissa Wynne Absent: Aldermen Steven Bernstein, Gene Feldman and Joe Kent, Presiding: Alderman Ann Rainey Staff Present: Roger Crum, Darlene Francellno, Mark Fran:, and Herbert Hill Guest: Sue Brenner, Judy Fisk, Delores Holmes, Mary Morris, Mayor Morton, Bob Seidenberg, and Byron Wilson CALL TO ORDER: A quorum being present Ald. Rainey called the meeting to order at 6:12 p.m. APPROVAL OF MINUTES OF THE MARCH 3. 2003. MARCH 19. 2003 AND APRIL 21. 2003 MEETINGS: Ald. jean -Baptiste moved for approval of the March 3, 2003, March 19, 2003 and April 21, 2003 minutes. Ald. Tisdahl seconded. Motion carried. Minutes approved. REDISTRICTING: Ald. Rainey eacplained she had asked that this item to be placed on the agenda because of past information received from staff and they should have this resolved around August 2004. It has been almost a year since their last meeting on this item and the Aldermen in the highly affected wards were going to get together. Ald. Newman reported that the highly affected wards were 2, 3, 1 and 7. Since that time there have been discussions among all the affected Aldermen and a map worked on that several Aldermen have discussed. The discussion sort of reflected a statement from the August 5, 2002 minutes where Ald. Engelman asked "if it was the policy of the Council that the Aldermen chose wards are affected, talk to each other about rearranging their borders with the idea that the policy shall be to draw a map that creates the least amount of changes to exist in ward boundaries as possible?" The map is almost ready to be released and will show wards 3, 8 & 6 are not affected by any of the changes, people have been added to wards 9 & 5 and people taken avmy from wards 7, 1, 2 & 4. The numbers meet all the requirements set out by the committee using 18 and over ages. It is all within the perimeters laid out in the memos they have right now. At the next meeting of the Rules Committee they should have a map and be able to set up some kind of public hearing date and if anybody else has maps they can come in «3th them. Ald. Tisdahl noted that on page 3 in those minutes it also says that the aldermen should talk to one another, and obviously, since she has too many people in her ward, she should be talking to whoever gets them and that has not happened. She has not spoken to anyone on 1 7r 15rzW511:12 AM Approved whether it is ok with them. She quoted "....in compliance and out of compliance the wards are next to each other, wards that have much populations are right next door to wards that that have too little ... the Aldermen for each ward ... could work through their boundary lines." Aid. Neuman understood what was being said, but didn't know if every combination of AIdermen have talked about it. He did know that Aid. Kent is very aware of the addition to ward 5 in the map and what needs to be done is have that discussion take place and a few more if needed. He said Aldermen who had problems basically developed the map. Ald. Moran asked who developed the map because neither he nor Aid. Tisdahl was part of the group and there are 74,000 parties who are affected by this. Aid. Rainey added she also was not part of the group. Aid. Newman stated there was authorship in several people besides him. He knew Ald. Feldman was involved and Ald. Kent. There were a lot of people on the Council who were affected that were involved. The Aldermen who were not affected obviously were not as involved as much. Aid. Moran asked who, besides Kent and Feldman, were involved? Aid. Newman's response was he had a two-hour meeting with Aid. jean -Baptiste and had talked to Ald. Tisdahl about the chap. He did not have any conversations with Aid. Engelman about the map, and the two wards most affected in the numbers were Aid. jean -Baptiste and his ward. Aid. Tisdahl noted she had seen the map, but did not have an authorship of it. Ald. Wynne asked if essentially under the map proposal, were all of the v.ards coming into compliance? Ald. Newman said all wards are very close to the 6500, the deviation from top to bottom is about 7% and it is all around 6500, and the map totally complies with the requirements. He referred to a problem in the map that Ald. Bernstein had, who could not be at the meeting tonight. Aid. Moran inferred that Aid. Bernstein had worked on the reap and Aid. Neuman confirmed this. Aid. Newman reinstated that at the next Rules Committee meeting expect a map that will have been submitted to the staff to double check the numbers on GIS, make sure it meets all the number requirements and any other legal requirements. Then set a public comment date. He adds that the numbers and data that he used in working with the other Aldermen on this have been openly available for anybody. Aid. Moran said but not the map. Aid. Newman said all the available data they used to draft this map was available in the Clerk's office for anybody among the 74,000 people in Evanston including the 9 Aldermen. Anybody else that wants to do a map or wants to have a competing map can do a map. Aid. Moran said he just wanted it to be clear on who had developed this map, not that he couldn't. He wanted to inquire whether they had determined that there would be a process from here on out in terms of ultimately adopting a new ward map. Aid. Rainey asked Mr. Hill if he had any comment. Mr. Hill said the ultimate decision for the ward map is that of the City Council, which has not, as he understands it of the Rules _ Committee, at this point addressed a procedure for the adoption of the map. The map 2 7/15200511:12 AM Approved simply needs to be ultimately presented to the City Council and the Council vote on it up or down. Beyond that it is up to the Rules Committee and the Council to determine how it will be handled. Aid. Rainey felt one thing that should happen first is the affected parties have to meet together and make a presentation to the Rules Committee. The Rules Committee will deal with it, send it back to the committee if they don't like it and when they do accept it refer to the Council. Ald. Wynne asked Mr. Hill when the last redistricting took place and if a procedure was put into place at that point and could they find out what it eras? Mr. Hill said he would obtain it for the next Council meeting. Ald. Newman very much would suggest having a public hearing and one of the interesting things about the map they are working on right now is that the major changes really are consistent with where the people are, where they need to go and the geography of the city. There are some geographic changes that are made, that make sense. The other point is that outside of the map that is on the table, using the basic concepts it is very difficult not to bring all of the wards in to play to be able to achieve a map with 3 wards affected. The hardest thing is between his and Aid. Wynrie's ward. The geography of this is his ward is heavy, so people really can't be moved. Aid. Wynne's ward is on target — so people can't really go from the V ward to the 3" ward unless you extend the boundary of the 3' ward across Chicago Avenue and they have maintained the Chicago Avenue boundary for the 3n1 ward. So it is not so easy — in terms of the natural geography of the city, it's really not so hard and not so easy to change it without affecting wards all over the place. Aid. Moran said that was his point: that it is conceivable that every ward could be affected at some point. Ald. Newman said it is very possible that if you go to a basically different plan you would have very substantial changes as opposed to what they came up with. Ald. Moran said thanks. He asked Mr. Hill if there was state statutory treatment of this, noting the cities and villages act discussed redistricting at the local Ievel? Secondly, he asked, if he had an understanding of how other municipalities proceed from a procedural standpoint in doing this? Mr. Hill said he had no information on how municipalities in the State of Illinois have adopted maps procedurally. With respect to the standards, the standards for the adoption of a redistricting reap are set forth in the memos which have been received by the committee and therefore by the entire Council. The key points to emphasize are the one man one vote issue that each district be, as close as practical, the same number of individuals, that is individuals over 18 years of voting age and the second component of paramount importance is the concept of voter dilution. Those are the two prime perspectives. There are thousands of cases throughout this country interpreting redistricting, the standards for redistricting and what applies to redistricting. That is the judicial review of ghat every judicial body has done every 10 years. So there are myriad cases of it, what has been given to the committee is the essence of the formula to use. There is no clear-cut formula. The formula is as they've set forth in terms of compact, contiguous, that the key elements of the balance in between the 3 7115/200511:12 AM Approved Supreme Court ruling %ith respect to one man one vote and the federal legislation and then the court rulings with respect to voter dilution. The map before us now, in e�dstence from 1990 must be changed, it doesn't reflect the one man one rote issue, the numbers of indhiduals of voting age in the district are eery skewed and that's what, from the legal perspective, they are hoping is addressed. That they get the one man one vote issue in place and protect the voter dilution issue. Ald. Moran clarified he K-as asking if there is procedural prescription in the state statute. Mr. Hill said, as he understands, there is no procedural prescription and no requirement for 1, 5, or 25 meetings. The map does not need to be proposed by 1 alderman, 2 aldermen or whatever, the ultimate determination of the map is that of the City Council and it is a legislative decision. What impact and what factors the Council considers hopefully would be the guidelines they've submitted as well as the practical realities of the document. AU jean -Baptiste said in the case of the 2' ward, he is bounded by the 5" ward, which is in the same straight, as the 2' %zrd and there was not much he could take from the 5's ward. The I",ward is over almost by the same that the 2`a ward is under, so he need to talk to talk to Aid. Ne,.man to try to figure how they will work that out and the 9`h ward is down some. So from that Aug. 5, 2002 meeting the understanding is there ought to be discussions between those whose wands that are out of balance and those wards that are contiguous to one another so they can work out a resolution. So they have talked about process so far and he has had two sets of discussions with Aid. Newman, spoken to Ald. Feldman and Aid. Kent, and between now and the next Rules Committee meeting they will have had more discussions. He has consulted with some people inside the 2" %ward as to what they see. He is looking at the issue of dilution of votes to make sure that he is not diluting the representation that the 2`u ward has brought to the whole city, which has over a long period of time had a black alderman. He %•ants to make sure that he protects that kind of interest because he believes that is consistent with the law, so far. In terms of process going forward it seems a natural that they would continue consultations among the impacted wards, bring a proposal to the Rules Committee and then have the other wands that are not impacted make their input. Because at that time it would not have been final, it would still be a proposal, but a proposal that has been brought into by the impacted wards. Ald. Moran is raising an important concern that needs to get raised, as the map becomes a product of the Council and not necessarily a product of a few Aldermen. Ald. Moran said even as the whole city. Ald. Jean -Baptiste said that is true, the Council will bring it to the whole city. So by the time they bring it to the whole city they should have had some discussion to see whether or not it is consistent with the law. He is talking about the first level of discussions among the aldermen who are impacted, and then come to a map, and supposes there will be some discussion within the wards to see whether or not the rearrangement is consistent with the law. Ald. Rainey asked Aid. jean -Baptiste if they could do that for the June meeting? Aid. Jean. Baptiste said he thought there would be some progress, questioned if it would be finalized, and understood they have to have this by the time of the next election. By the next committee meeting, they should have had all or as much of the discussions they need to have, internal to the ward, and discussions among each other completed. So they can come 4 7115r2oo511:12 AM Approved to the table with a map created to the best of their ability at this particular point and time. The rest of the aldermen µ-ill look at it, make suggestions, raise questions, and do whatever has to be done. It may mean going back and having further discussions, but he thought in the next 2 or 3 months they should be ready to take this to the public. Ald. Rainey was thinking of a public hearing around September. Md. Ne-mman suggested they get to the point where they will bring it back to the Rules Committee and the next step of the Rules Committee would be to set a public hearing on a proposed map. Aid. Rainey suggested to members of the Council that aren't involved should get involved to the extent that they get some information from them. She added that knowing that it is being worked on is comforting to her. Ald. Moran had a couple of observations or requests; one, when the map is given to them that it gives the detailed considerations in relation to the changes so that it is easier to digest it. He would like to be able to decipher it fairly easily. Ald. Newman stated there would be the old map and the new map on top with different colors, so you will be able to see the overlay with two sets of lines. You will also have sets of numbers and a presentation will be made. Ald. Moran said he assumed they will be able to look at the map and see that Ward 2 had x amount of people and Ward 2 will not have that x amount of people. He wants some explanation, logic if you will, as to the changes. It would enhance his ability to comprehend it and to be able to anaiyze it. He felt the other committee members were entitled to more than a cursory review. They are entitled to more than coming to a meeting and have a map put in front of them and say what do you think about this. He thought that once that comes back, hopefully with sort of a road map, that will help him and maybe others, understand it. In addition, he thought they are going to need some time, not exactly sure what that amount of time is. He assumed it has been quite a while since this has been going on and felt they might need a couple of months to look at it, then have a public hearing. His questioned having a public hearing in September, the month when everybody is coming back from vacation, starting school, getting back to their normal routines -- not the best time to get people to substantively tie on to a subject. He suggested October or later. His last point was he didn't think there was a big rush on it, because it is due before the next election, unless there is another deadline. Aid. Rainey said no, it is around August of 2004. Aid. Wynne thought that obviously they are going to have to have a lot of discussions. She expects to hear from the presentation on the point of voter dilution so that it does not create voter dilution. She advocated keeping the momentum up, said they have the press here tonight, people are going to be on notice that they are starting the redistricting process and have a target of early fall to have it completed. The sooner they get this done the better. There are going to be people out there who may want to run for alderman who don't know what ward they are in yet. Ald. Rainey said that if they have the ability to resolve this they should do it. Ald. Wynne suggested they keep this on the agenda, as a standing item that they are addressing. On the point of what is a good month, she agreed with September, just go forward, people are coming back from vacation, they arc wide awake. If you push it into October, suddenly it is 5 7l15rD0511;12 AM Approved slipping into November and then the holidays. She suggested targeting a month, even if they slip past it. Ald. Rainey didn't see why there was only going to be one public hearing, they could have a public hearing on the first draft, let people get interested and involved in it and when the committee reaches something like an agreement among themselves, present it one more time. Ms. Morris said the county called her and are reconfiguring the precinct and asked when Evanston's map was going to be done, because we've got a March 16 primary in 2004. That will be a heavy voting year, because next year is a presidential year and then November 2 is the general election. So they should be all squared away because some of our precincts are pretty much out of whack. Ms. Morris added that you try to have equal numbers of voters in each precinct. Ald. Newman asked his. Morris to find out from the county clerk if it would be helpful if they were done by some certain date in teams of that primary. Ms. Morris suggested getting it done before the March 16, 2004 primary. She explained that to run your election you have a certain number of voters come in. When it is way out of whack, like in the V and 6" wards they had to have a double set of judges in the last presidential election and even «zth that there were problems. Ald. Rainey explained for clarification that the precincts are the same wards just divided differently and you change polling places on people - there is always chaos on Election Day. She noted that the first item on their June agenda is going to be redistricting and a report from the affected wards. Perhaps when they see how far they've gotten and how everybody feels about the presentation the can schedule a hearing earlier than September, but right now wait and see what the information is first. She would like to have the proposed map a-.ailable before the public hearing to give some basis upon which to comment. That will be the process. 161e1iWe 1 u0la-10e]Ye7 111-11��A Mayor Morton directed attention to a memo she sent to the Rules Committee. She stated it was not directed at a person, but was just to try to make it easier for the future. The first question in the memo was "In the future when an Alderman or Mayor cannot attend a Monday night meeting, is it assumed that the date will be changed?" Someone will say you did it for one person, why not do it for another. She thought the Rules Committee had to answer that question. Ald. Rainey wished to respond as chair of the Rules Committee and as the person who did this. As she said in a letter in response to the Mayor, she had never, and didn't know of any other alderman that has ever, asked for a change of a regularly scheduled Council meeting. This was not a regularly schedule, this was an irregular schedule. The holiday is at the end of the month, they scheduled a Council meeting out of sync at the beginning of the month and she asked for the change prior to the approval of the annual schedule of the meetings. The Council was presented the schedule to approve, amend or reject and she asked at that time that this irregularly scheduled meeting be amended because of the year in advance plan she had. So her answer to the first question would be, she doubts that they would do that. 6 7115200S11:12 AM Approved Ald. Newman told the Mayor he was going to miss a meeting in June, he thought, and it is the first meeting he's really missed in 12 years. He is missing that meeting after the calendar was published and has no expectation, no desire to ask anybody to change the meeting. He thought where Ald. Rainey got lucky is that she really did her request properly: while the calendar was still in play, coming to the committee she asked everybody, far in advance and the calendar got printed differently. He thought the Mayor was right in the sense that they should not change meetings once the calendar is published because somebody has to go away, and had no expectations nor was he going to ask anybody about his missed meeting. But if he would have known about his trip before the calendariv.-as published, he could have done what Ald. Rainey did. If somebody thinks about it in advance and the Council wants to accommodate, he didn't this it was a big deal. Mayor Morton explained this %vas not personal, but if you don't get procedures clear things can happen. She noted she attends U.S. Conference of Mayors, and it could fall on a time when the Council is meeting. She raised the point that everyone, she thought, expects to come to a Monday night Council meeting, except for the one they have with the Township and was sure staff plans to be there on a Monday night. All she was trying to get at is addressed in her second question "Realizing that the calendar for the year is formulated by the City Clerk for approval by the Council, is there a time period (in days) in which the Clerk should be notified of the need for a specific change to be incorporated?" Ald. Rainey said for everybody, prior to the approval of the annual calendar, people should be able to make a request to make a change. That doesn't mean that people are going to be generous and support it. Mayor Morton asked what does our code say? Mr. Hill said it does not address that issue. The state statute sets forth the requirement of the annual calendar being published in advance. That is the only comment that it makes. Mayor Morton asked if our code states the day? Mr. Hill's response was he did not know what our code says; only what our state statue says. Mayor Morton said she merely was making a point that if there are those who plan to use their Wednesday, Thursday or whatever night it is, if it should come that someone wants a change, her question to the Council is are you going to ask the other members of the Council if they would be available since it is an off night, to attend the meeting. If people can't be there you won't have a quorum. This is an issue for you to decide, because it will come up again and we want to be fair to everybody, but since this is a Rules Committee item, if you want to think about it, come up with something that will make it palatable for everybody here, make it palatable for staff, people who have to come on a night that they don't anticipate coming normally. The last question is "If there is a request for a deviation from a usual Monday Council meeting, will Aldermen and the Mayor be polled as to their attendance on the date presented by the Clerk prior to the date the Council approves the calendar?" She thought they need something, because if they do it on the basis of individuals, it is crucial to her because if there is ever a time that there is a tie vote and the Mayor has to vote and you don't have a Mayor there, the chair can't vote. So they all should be consulted and should all know so they can be in attendance if possible. That is what she is throwing out to the Committee to handle it anyway they want. 7 71 t 512DO511:12 AM Approved Ald. Rainey explained that she did ask everybody in terms of voting on the calendar: everybody who was present and voting on the calendar. Mayor Morton said no one had asked her. Ald. Rainey said she asked at a Rules Committee meeting when the calendar was presented. Ald. Newman said he thought all of the Mayor's ideas in the memo are incorporated in what was done and what will be done, he thought it was a mistake in not having it distributed to her. The other thing is that if the Mayor has a U.S. Conference of Mayors date before the calendar is done, then they should consider moving a meeting to accommodate her, if that is what she would want. IAayor Morton said she has no wants about this but does think that the Council needs to establish some procedures in view of the fact that there has once been a change. For the future, for example, lets just say some great big conference comes up that is absolutely essential that even the staff person who may be needed at a Council meeting at which a particular item is discussed. If that staff person can't be there and that staff person is crucial to it, you have a problem there. Ald. Tisdahl suggested that if there is a change to the calendar before it is passed the Mayor will be consulted as to whether or not the she is available. Ald. Rainey said they could do that. Mayor Morton added that everybody should be consulted, not just the Mayor, not just members of the Council, but staff and the City Manager should be consulted. Ald. Wynne said one of their meetings in April falls on the week of spring break for public schools, but they have to hold them then because it is the Township meeting. That is a meeting that would naturally be one that you would probably reschedule because she misses it every year and Ald. Engelman missed it every year, but several times they have raised it and realized that by law they had to have the Township meeting that week. She thought the Riayor raised some good points and thought before the calendar is approved is a good time to raise these things. She thought that if a particular Alderman is critical to an issue on an agenda and can't attend, they generally defer the issue. Ald. jean -Baptiste broke it down, in the future when an alderman or Mayor can not attend a Monday night meeting, is it assumed that the date gill be changed, the answer is no. Mayor Morton said all right. Ald. jean -Baptiste went on to say realizing that the calendar for the year is formulated ahead of time should the clerk be notified of the need for a specific change to be incorporated? They could say something like two weeks prior to voting on the final calendar. Mayor Morton said it has to be prepared. Ald. jean -Baptiste continued stating that if there is a request for a deviation from the usual Monday night Council meeting, will every body be notified? The answer is yes. Ald. Rainey suggested they develop a resolution laying that out, because there evidently is not a process any place on how they do this. And if the calendar comes to the Rules Committee for approval, Rules Committee usually meets once a month, so it is usually a week or so before a Council meeting. 8 7115r,1)0511:12 AM Approved Ald. Newman asked if there was a rule on the calendar? Ms. Morris said the 2' and 4'' Mondays. Ald. Rainey noted except they don't do the 2' and 4`h Monday because of Memorial Day. Ald. Jean -Baptiste asked Mr. Hill if he .vould work on some language. Mr. Hill agreed to work on some language to accommodate these issues. Major Morton added one part to this, which was everyone, should be aware that if there ever is a tie vote and the Mayor isn't there, the acting Mayor votes as an Alderman, but can't be a tiebreaker. And if it is a tie vote and nothing happens then it is lost. Ald. Rainey said but for it to be a tie an Alderman would have to be absent. Mayor Morton agreed. Ald. Rainey thanked the Mayor for her comments and stated that they will get a resolution and bring it to the next Rules Committee. SPECIAL ITEM PUT ON THE AGENDA BY ALD. NEWMAN: Ald. Newman note he had made a reference several meetings ago that somehow didn't get to the agenda. To put it succinctly, he thought it should be a Council rule and have posted outside the Council Chambers and committee rooms that cell phone ringers need to be turned off if you are going to come in to a committee meeting or a Council meeting. Ald. Moran seconded. Ald. Rainey asked if they needed a resolution on this? Ald. Newman asked if the sign had to say by Council rule? Mr. Hill said they could pass a rule, but it was not necessary. He imagined if they posted it at the door to the Council Chambers and the Committee meeting rooms to turn off ones cell phone. Mr. Crum suggested giving it a try and see what happens. ADIOURNMENT: Meeting adjourned at 7:15 p.m. Respectfully submitted, Darlene Fiancellno 9 7/I S 200511:12 AM Graft Not Approved MVL ' .TES OF THE RULES C01LMITTEE MO DAY, JUKE 2, 2003 6:30 p.m. Room 2403 Present: Aldermen Steven Bernstein, Gene Feldman, Lionel Jean -Baptiste, Edmund ,Moran, Art Newman, Ann Rainey, Elizabeth Tisdahl and Melissa Wynne Absent: Aldermen Joe Dent Presiding: Alderman Ann Rainey Staff Present: Judith Aiello. Maureen Barry, Roger Crum, Darlene Francellno, dark Franz, and Herbert Hill Guest: Sue Brenner, David A. Ellis, Bette Ester, Dan Feldman, Judy Fisk, Delores Holmes, Judv Jager, Mary Morris, Mayor Morton, Mimi Peterson, Bob Seidenberg, Patricia Vance, Cate Whitcomb and Cheryl Wollin CALL TO ORDER: A quorum being; present Aid. Rainey called the meeting to order at 6:40 p.m. APPROVAL OF MINUTES OF THE MAY 12, 2003 MEETINGS: Aid. Feldman moved for approval of the May 12, 2003 minutes. Aid. Tisdahl seconded. Motion carried. Minutes approved. PROPOSED REDISTRICTING MAP: Aid. Newman gave a pre,entation of the proposed redistricting map. He stated the map %vas created using census information that has been available in the city's planning department for the last 1 to 2 years to anybody interested in drawing; a proposed map to be the basis of discussion. The total population and the number for 18 years of age and over were used to create the map. The wards with the greatest problems, in terms of overall numbers were 7, 5, 2 and 1. According to the heal staff, using the over 18 population, the target number to have a 9 ward system with roughly an equal number of people in each ward was about 6583. Comparing that number to the numbers that exist in the existing; Hurd map, the V ward has 8,338 people, meaning it is I,SCkl voters over and the Th ward has 7,175, which puts it approximately 600 voters over. The 2' ward would have only 5,381 making it short approximately 1,200. Wards. S, 6, and 3 each would have approximately 6,500, meaning there was no need to really do any changes. The V and T`' wards needed to lose some voters and the 5`h and 2 = wards were going to have to gain some voters. One thing this map tried to do was respect natural boundaries in the city. In the 9" Hurd the former boundary line use to be the totality of Main Street all the way to McCormick, this map restored that. The 3' ward wasn't touched because Chicago Avenue seemed to be a very natural boundary. After playing with these numbers for a long time this map does the least amount to change the current Hurd structure. Ward 5 as it exists today basically stays intact and just has some 7Z20032:38 PM Draft Not Approved voters added. The 4" ward has a very small Fart of the downtown taken out otherwise it stays intact. You have wards 6, 5, 4, 3, 9 & 8 that remain virtually unchanged. Essentially the problem in the 1" ward is these blocks which the planning department told him could not be divided. One of the blocks that have moved has 1,7001 people which does two things, it helps alleviate the problem that exists note but also crc;ate- a situation where there is a lot less flexibiiity. A very important consideration in drawing this map was trying to preserve the best they could the best significant minority representation on the Council. The proposed numbers of African -:americans in the existing map and the new map in ward 5 actually go up b►• almost over ILX) and in ward 2 it goes down slightly about 200 African. Americans. The legal department has gone over this map and is willing to say it conforms to all legal requirements. Mr. Hill agreed the map is within all the constitutional and workings per case la►►• requirements with respect to minority representation, with respect to one man one vote, and with respect to all the guidelines. It is within all the limits for a map that should withstand any potential Iitigation. Aid. Rainey thanked Aid. Newman for the very nice report and asked if there were responses from those who worked on the map. Aid. Jean -Baptiste thought it had to be made clear to both Council and constituents that this is a proposed map. They are in motion and in the process of looking at it and discussing with one another where they may agree or disagree. There have been substantial discussions already. For example in the 2' ward there will be a major addition of former 1" ward residents and giving up some voters to the 5" and 9" wards. The discussions go on among the aldermen who are impacted and for the 2'y' ward it is his expectation to have some of the constituents participate in some of the discussions so everybody has a clear understanding of what is being done. Aid. Feldman felt the map seemed to accomplish its purpose without a lot of community disruption. The most significant addition he sawwas to the 2=' ward from the 1" ward, but it does seem an addition that is reasonable and one he thought would work. Other than that he did not feel the proposed map had any kind of monumental impact, and really seemed to even out the population in the various wards. Aid. Jean -Baptiste said where the 2r1 ward picks up a significant number of voters from the V ward does create some changes in terms of the balance of black and white which is why it — requires some discussion with the community. The 2' ward is probably the only ward where there is that shift of blacks representing majority to whites representing majority. It may not be a change that is inconsistent withwhit the constitutional requirements are but he thinks that is kind of the underlying requirements they have. He suggested that in the _ next few months there should be some discussion so people can make a real assessment as to hot►• they see this change. The other reality is there are not many places for the 2' ward to pick up new voters. The 5'h and 9' wards necessitated the addition of additional voters and he can't pick up voters from either of those wards and the 4'ward was pretty borderline, but asked what concession did the 4' ward snake' f 2 7r/_AX32:38 PM Draft Not Approved Aid. Newman said the only thing that the 4'' ward did was at the very top in the upper NE part it gave up some people, which is part of the downtown area. Aid. jean -Baptiste so the reality is there are limited places to pick up new voters and the addition from the 1" ward is majority tiorthtivestern students and they would have to examine all of that. The next process :did. Feldman thought was the public hearing and lie suggested that should occur as quickly as possible, consistent with time for the community to study the map and to have some dialogue. Aid. Rainey agreed because one of the criticisms they get about public hearings is they have a public hearing and listen, but don't always act on the input they get from the public. In this case they are in a different position. It seemed to her that they might have to have two public hearings, one to react to the proposal, then incorporate whatever issues come up that they think are relevant and can be affected on this map and then the final draft that they agree to as a Rules Committee. Then go back to the public for final comment and then immediately to the Council. It seemed to her that the public hearings should be a two step process done right away. Aid. Feldman said that was not in anyway in consistent with what he was thinking, except that he would like that the last public hearing be the night they vote on it. Aid. Rainey said that would be fine with her and the public hearings could be two Rules Committee meetings. Aid. Moran asked Clerk Morris what would be the next electoral event that would propel the city to have made a decision? CIerk Morris said the March 16 primary. She talked to the election department today at the County and in order to put the new redistricting in, it would have to be decided just after Labor Day and if it could not be decided then, it would have to be the November 2, 2004 general election. AId. Moran then asked if slzc knew if there was some statutory requirement as to the number of days preceding an election that the precincts and thus • the polling places have to be determined? Clerk Morris said there is preceding that it would be the April 5, 2005 election. The figures are in the Illinois statute and she did not have them but thought it might roughly be 180 days. Aid. Moran wanted to know if it was in the materials. Aid. Rainey commented that the committee had asked for it at their last meeting. Clerk Morris said it was not in the materials but she would provide the committee with that information. Another thought Aid. Moran had was when you have a map like this it is one thing to look at the numbers and the racial breakout and so forth. Those are important things, but most people would agree that there are subtleties to a districting effort that are not always apparent on the face of the map and you sometimes have to give some consideration to. When he first looked at this it brought to mind when they changed the zoning ordinance in 1993. He remembered reading through this long document thinking this section says this, and this section says that, but your real comprehension and grasps of what the real outcomes are that are lurking behind that particular ordinance is not immediately apparent and they've revisited that plenty of times. His point being that he is with Aid. jean -Baptiste, the public still has a large stake in the redrawing of districts. The public has not had a chance to look at this before now and they should have several public hearings. He was also a little concerned about the suggestion 7/2/20032;33 PM Droft Not Approve_ they take a vote at the second public hearing. Particularly because if they are concerned about cynicism going up in the public that they are not listening, that notion would be fed by the fact that they would vote the night a second cut at the map was being considered. If there are any notions that there should be changes stemming from that hearing he would think thee• wouldn't want to vote that night. That is his general observation and he did not think they should ruzh it. Aid. Rainey said that was Aid. Feldman's off the cuff comment, we don't know when we ►will be voting on this. It seems that the Aldermen involved who have wards that are being altered have every opportunity between now and whenever they get through with this to meet with their constituents and to get input. She was pleased with the map. Aid. Wynne agreed with Aid. Moran, it might not be a good idea to vote at the second public hearing because if the point of the public hearing is to take in comment they need to take in comment. There are two very clear sets of deadlines per the City Clerk. We should aim for the first one which gives them June, July and :august to discuss this. The critical element is to let people know in the best way that we can, that this redistricting issue is being discussed and that we get very good attendance at these public hearings. That we keep the momentum going so that if people are interested in this issue and want to comment and have input this is when and this is the time we are going to discuss it and they should pay attention and get organized to address the Council. Rather than have this string out over a long period of time ►►•here people lose track of the issue. As she said at the last meeting, it is critical that they have very clear public hearings and get as much information out to people. But also let people knots we are going to be acting on this in the next however many months so now is the time to address it. Aid. Newman agreed with Aid. Moran but in terms of rushing or setting a second public meeting, they won't know until they have the first public meeting what the general response from the community is going to be. They should set the first meeting and he was not concerned whatsoever about the idea of subtleties not being apparent. You can look at, stare at, and do whatever you want with the map in 2 or 3 weeks. If you are familiar with the city you will understand the map. There are no mysteries underneath the paper and one of the things this map has done, is that the people who are most familiar with the neighborhood in their respective wards already have a starting place to have the opportunity to comment, discuss and so forth. Maybe we will find out that this map is popular, maybe find out that this map is controversial, and maybe find out that we can do this at a second meeting. Aid. Newman moved that the first public hearing be set for the July 7 Rules Committee meeting. Aid. Feldman seconded. Mayor Morton's concerns were that citizens have all of the information possible and that it be distributed. She asked if the committee remembered receiving a copy of something that told hots many people there were in each one of the precincts, the racial context? Aid. Rainey said people can get these two maps. the map of the population of the blocks and the redistricting proposal from the AIdermen of the affected wards. Those are the two pieces of information you have to have in order to create a map. 71M0032:38 PM Draft Not Approved Mayor Horton also.brought up who is considered white and who is considered black? The reason being that the Hispanic population in Evanston is gro►►•ing tremendously. On her little block right now they have 3 Hispanic farniiies. Is that data available? Aid. Rainey said she has it all. Mayor Morton said a lot of people are quite interested in this redistricting and it would be good for them to have all of the information possible. If they could get the press to cooperate with them, this information could be printed in the local publications. Aid. Rainey said all of this information is public, anv packet they get, except for confidential items hawing to do with lawsuits, are available to the public. Many people in this room get a packet every week from city hall, so feel free to avail yourself, because you will never find a city that produces more information for the public than this city. Aid. Tisdahl being from one of the affected swards requested multiple copies of the packet to give to people. Mr. Fran_ said he would take care of it. Mr. Crum stated that he did not believe they had run the entire census targeting groups on the new proposed ward system. They've done the black only and the white only. They do have the census data and can easily put it together, but did not know if it had been done on this proposal, but it has been done on the old system. fir. Franz added they would put this ntap and other information they have readily available on the city's website, www.cityofevanston.org, and have a contact for everybody. Aid. Jean -Baptiste was not sure he was comfortable ►with the July 7 public hearing date only because if it is the first public hearing he ►would Iike to be able to discuss with various groups in his ►ward the implications and share with them as much information as possible. He would be more comfortable with the August meeting for this public hearing. Aid. Rainey stated there is a whole month between now and then and really thinks Aldermen have an obligation to meet with the constituents before the hearing. AId. Jean -Baptiste said it depends if he is able to make all that happen bet►-een now and then. The dialogue with the Aldermen has not even gone as one would have wanted it to in terms of the pace. He has sat down and spoken to Aid. Newman a couple of times, but has not sat down with the other Aldermen whose wards are impacted by the changes in his .ward. Aid. Tisdahl agreed she has an obligation to meet with her constituents but her constituents do not have an obligation to meet with her. So she has to do it at a time that is convenient for them, therefore she also could see needing more time to make all of that happen. Aid. Rainey said not all of your constituents are going to want to meet, when this was done in 1990, the number of hours spent on this matter was extremely unreasonable. There were hours after hours and meetings after meetings with one person and with S people, and it just never stopped. About 10 different groups had 10 different maps and somehow or another they all had to come together. This is not a simple process and the longer it is put off the longer it ►►-ill take to resolve. We ought to get this out of the box right away, because there are going to be people who will learn about this through public notices and articles in the paper. 5 712120032:38 Pi,S Draft Not Apprc.cd Aid. Rainey said there is a motion to hold our first initial public hearing to get comments on the draft on July 7 and take it from there. It -.ill be held at a Rules Committee meeting. At that time we ►will have an involved discussion after the hearing as to what the next step is so that nobody feels that a decision is going to be made without their knowing in advance. She called for a note on holding an initial public hearing, having made all of the information available to the public on the web and on paper. Voting aye ;vas Aid. Newman, Rainey S Feldman. Voting nav was :old. Bernstein, Tisdahl, :Moran C jean -Baptiste. Aid. Tisdahl moved to hold the first public hearing at the August -I Rules Committee meeting. Aid. Bernstein thought August 4 would be fine, when talking about where we are chronologically, this is the 2nd of June and by time the materials get out, at the earliest it is in the Review Thursday or the week thereafter for the Roundtable. We have the 4" of July being on a Friday and people are going to be gone. It is going to be tough. But the reality is we are not going to vote until we are all ready anyway and we all know that. Aid. ]can -Baptiste said he has been in dialogue with Aid. Newman and needs to be in dialogue with the other Aldermen who are impacted by the changes in his ward and it hasn't been easy to even get together with them. So getting together with the constituents involves large endeavor and that is what he intends to do. It ought to be understood that when he talks about the need for more time to make that happen, that is from the basis of Ili$ on analysis of his time, getting together with his constituents and the importance that this has to other people in his %yard. As he has said many times the sward doesn't belong to him it belongs to the constituents and he intends to have as much interaction with as many people as possible before he votes on this. There may be things that need to be explained and people need to be able to understand that as we move forward. Aid. Rainey said the motion is to move this to the Monday, Aug. 4, 2003 Rules Committee meeting. Aid. Jean -Baptiste seconded. Motion carried. No nays. Aid. Rainey stated that at that time they will set forth the process of when they will have the follow-up. She thought that a lot of what they do after the public hearing will have to do with some of the reactions they hear from the public. Judith Treadway said she .was looking over the figures that give the current populations for the wards and the projected population with this proposed redistricting and the black total and the white total do not equal the total total. She wanted to know what is the disparity in that column related to and .who are those missing people and why the figures for the Hispanic or Asian are not included in that. Aid. Rainey said those missing people are Hispanics and others. Mr. Crum added that it is all the official U.S. Census figures provided by the U.S. Census. his. Treadway's second question was is this from current census data or rejected census data. Mr. Crum said current, the year 2000 census data. Nis. Treadway thanked them for the answers. Aid. 7026032-38 FM braf t Not Approved Newman said groups have to reach a certain si_e and although we do have a very significant growing Hispanic population it is no where near the population of a ward. Mike Fall spoke, he is the newly elected president of the undergraduate student body at NNN'. He was glad to have the opportunity to be here today. He said he-eali_e that all the Aldermen on City Council do a tremendous job in working for their constituents and they as students are very interested in this process of redistricting and would like to work with them in any capacity to give their input on how they feel about the issues and to discuss with them about the potential implications of anything that might occur. Aid. Rainey told him that the Aldermen are going to have meetings and the public hearings will be announced and to please participate. A resident of 1871 Orrington spoke who was possibly in the first ward and just want to remind the committee that there are about 8,000 and most of them leave during the summer so they are really glad this August meeting is set because more of them will be back. But %►-anted them to keep in mind that there is this significant population of about 8,000 that won't be at that first meeting and they certainly understand that the burden is on them to contact their aldermen and give input. John Hughes spoke who is presently in the I" ward and would be in the 2n' ward under the proposal before the Council right now. He just %►anted to follow up the statement just trade. He wanted to let the Council know that he believes roughly somewhere between 3 and 4 thousands voting residents will be moved from one district to another under this proposal, of those he estimates that about 2 thousands are undergraduate students at NXVU, so the proposal affects disproportionately NWU students. Aid. Newman mentioned that there is a block that contains 1700 persons and that is where he lives and that entire block is going to be closed when the Council has its public hearing in August. So, about half the people who are going to be moved will not maybe even be in the state, at that time. Aid. Rainey had mentioned having a second meeting and he hoped they would make their subsequent public hearings after Sept. 214, when that block will be reopened. Aid. Rainey suggested maybe they could come back early for some of the meetings. This is important and it is going to be very hard for them to gear their schedule around their vacations. Judy Jager spoke she was very much involved in the redistricting the last time in 1992, in fact she lives at the bottom of the stair steps. The reason the stair steps are there is because in 1992 they were advised by Corporation Counsel Siegel that in order to comply with the voting rights act it would be very unwise to deviate from a guideline that we have 2 wards with at least 63°0' minority population. Mr. Hill has said tonight that doesn't seem to be a concern now. She wondered what has changed in 10 years, because 10 years ago ?fir. Siegel said that if the city does not get near the 63% guideline level the city would lose in court if its ward boundaries are challenged. Mr. Hill stated that Mr. Siegel wasn't wrong and the situation is somewhat different now, with respect to the overall population in the city. The practical numbers with respect to developing, the need lets say, the two super majority/minority wards is actually impossible to do a configuration based upon the distribution of individuals within the city. Also from 1990 to 2002 there has been considerable case law with respect to devising that mechanism 712,'20032:38 Phi Draft Not Approved and the law, in fact, has changed somewhat, fir. Seigel was right then, the circumstance under the law and the proper affects are different now. ELECTION OFMUNICIPAL OFFICERS -:ADDING AT LARGE ALDERMEN TO THE CITY COUNCIL: Ald. Rainey noted that the City Council has been advised that the League of Women Voters are beginning work on a referendum to establish a form of Council where an additional two aldermen are elected by single member districts as at -large members. The City Council has asked Corporation Council for enormous details on legislation and how this happens and what the implications are, etc. In addition, :old. Newman said he asked this item to be placed on the agenda because he was very concerned about the potential misinformation being disseminated in the community and to have it cleared up if it was misinformation. He was hearing that three aldermen were going to be added to the 9 aldermen and the ward structure was going to stay the same. His reading of the state statutes indicated something different and he was surprised to hear that somehow lawyers had been involved in the League of Women Voters process. Mr. Hill said should City Council configuration be changed, there are precise mechanisms in the state statute and the mechanism for change is only that as set forth there. We are a home rule unit of government which has extensive powers with respect to its own business affairs, except where those matters are expressly taken away by the state legislature. The election scheme and the form of government mechanism in the state statute is what is binding. To answer the question, what can the configuration of a City Council be, all one needs to do is examine the state statute. He provided to the Rules Committee various sections of the state statute which set forth just that, the statutory mechanism for election of aldermen. The given basis is right now we have 9 aldermen, based upon population the City of Evanston can have 18 aldermen, a referendum election was passed over 10 years ago which pursuant to the state statute you could pop that number 9 and that is the configuration. We have 9 elected aldermen in wards. As a basic premise the state statute provides that only one referendum question, with respect to the composition on the reconfiguration of the City Council, can be presented on the ballot at same time. Mr. Hill would surmise that is because the questions are contradictor} and you can't have two positive votes. That would add to confusion and there must be certainty with respect to the referendum question. The statutory scheme is just that, referendum question, lie believes the referendum question is placed on the ballot at 10% for those elected at a prior election and signs the petitions for it. The number is not a large number so it is readily possible to place referendum questions on the ballot and as everyone knows the city has had its own share of referendum questions. The statutory scheme for the referendum question poses the possibility of a Council that is mixed. A percentage of the Council members being at large and a percentage being from districts, the statutory scheme would provide, from the City of Evanston, S aldermen from districts and 4 at -large aldermen. Mr. Hill continued that the second possible question that could be posed is a question to be all at large and then have 9 districts at large. There is a third slight variation of that but that 7I2)20032.38 PM draft Not Approved variation in and of itself does not reflect annuity but prior to reflect the question as posed by the various Aldermen which was: can City Council be reconfigured to a composition of approximately no mechanism with respect to 12. Looking at the population figures that is the guide for the number of Aldermen the City Council can have. So at that next election there could be a referendum question to change the configuration of the Citv Council. Should that question pass it would not occur until 4 rears thereafter. So any actions which are being considered by any group now would not be effected until approximately 2006 or 2007 elections. Aid. Newman asked for clarification on the combination of at -large members. In other words, the only way this could be done under the current statutes is have 5 wards and 4 at large or in the alternative 5 at large and -I wards and you would have to double the sire of the wards? Meaning you would have to reconfigure the entire city in terms of wards in order to accomplish at -large aldermen' Per Mr. Hill that is correct, the concept of reconfiguring the City Council is not related to redistricting, so put that to the side, but if the City Council .were to go to the composition of -I being; at Iarge and 5 being wards there would then need to be a reconfiguration of the wards to create your 5 swards that meet the standards of at minimum one man one vote. Ald. Moran asked why the number would have to be the same. Air. Hill said there is a statutory mechanism with respect to number of aldermen. The number of aldermen is based upon population. And even though we are a home ruled authority we cannot change the mechanism that is established in the state statute. So the state statute had the beginning makeup of 18, we have that to 9 and there is no language that he can see, allocating them to increase back to 1S and they don't have a selection to pick up 13, 14, 12 or any of that nature. What the state statute states is what we must have. In the materials submitted to the committee there is language with respect to reducing the number by 50% from I8 to 9 and that is perfectly within the mechanism as set forth. Aid. Newman said the statute that talks about mixing; at -large and wards specifically says that you can't go above your current number. If you .want to change to at -large you have to stay within the current number. If our number was 18 then it would be something different, our number is 9 so you have to do some mixture of at -large and wards within the 9, and it specifically says that. He hoped they could get this information out in the community because there has been a tremendous amount of misinformation put out and is really unfortunate that that amount of misinformation got out and he hoped they could have people fully understand, even before getting into all of the adversity. Aid. Rainey asked Ms. Woilin, a representative from the League to give information about what is going on with this issue. Ms. Wollin said this is a study that was brought up from citizens and it is a study, no conclusions. They voted at the annual meeting to continue tite study and get some legal background on it. They have not consulted lawyers, so that was misinformation. Her question was could it be 6 and 3? Mr. Hill said no, the statutory language reads "the number of such districts shall be equal to half the number of aldermen being authori.ed to be elected to offices of the City, if there is 7 ZTG032:38 Phl Draft Not Approved an odd number of such aldermen a number of districts established shall be equal to the number which represents a majority of the number, etc." Aid. Rainey asked Ms. Wollin if they were conducting a referendum. \Is. Wollin's response was they are looking and studying it, but have not made that decision yet. Aid. Newman asked if the committee could get a copy of the League of Women Voters bylaws, he would like to be able to distribute them? Ms. Wollin asked if he wanted the national, standard or local bylaws? Aid. Newman said the local because he gaits several caiis on this and would like to be able to say here are the bylaws, consult the League of Women Voters. Nis. Wollin said they have an office in this building and can get them from there. Mr. Hill added that there is a mechanism to view this at -large on a file. DISCUSSION ON THE TIME REQUIRED FOR STANDING CONINIITTEES AND START T1,\fE FOR COUNCIL MEETINGS: Aid. Rainey said she asked this item to be put on the agenda because of an issue that came up at their last meeting. The discussion was on the time required for standing; committees and start time for Council meetings. She believed that those of us, especially in Administration & Public Works Committee, except maybe for 10% of the time, and their last meeting; was an example, do not have enough time to give to city business in their standings committees. We have to cut one another off, are never able to really look at the reports ►ve get and our agendas are not agendas for discussions they are agendas for action on purchases, bids, etc. We just can't do our work in the hour and 15 minutes or hour and 20 minutes they sonictimes get. The rules say at 8:20 p.m. ►ve have to be out of there, sometimes we don't start until after 7:30, it is not possible. She wondered if they could hear from PIanning & Development because she knows that Human Ser►zces is no longer governed by this restriction. Aid. Wynne was acting; chair at the last Planning; & Development meeting and had 5 or 6 people there to speak about 603 Main Street. They had spent probably an hour on it and in the end they were not able to speak. She thought it would have been helpful to have heard what they had to say that evening. Usually P&D does not go over by more than 10 or 15 minutes, frequently they have really large single topics that come up and occasionally reschedule and have a special meeting; on another night ,when they reali_e they are running LY out of time. It would be nice to have the flexibility to squeeze in 2 or 3 extra speakers because they are there and you don't know how inconvenient it is going; to be to have those people come back when they've been participating; in that particular discussion. Aid. Rainey said in the case of the Administration & Public Works Committee most of their business is on their agenda that night and is there for action and has to be moved along. Aid. Feldman agreed, there is not enough time, but when he thinks of what the alternative is, which is expanding; that time on the same night, it just pushes everything; back. In Murphy's Law it says the amount of time available to do a job is the amount that expands as = the time is available. Still that doesn't mean that ►ve can't get to the meetings on time and = -- try to make sure, even if it means that our executive session or meetings that we hold beforehand are held earlier. He'd been in this for a long time and never found a solution to 10 TV2032:38 PAS Draft Not Approved it no matter what system they've had. There will always be agendas that are fairly beyond capacity and he has always felt as if they've never had quit enough time for some meetings when they've had sufficient times for others. And there are many issues that we don't get a chance to analy:e and discuss. He was not certain there was any other way except to have it on a different night. Aid. Rainey said they didn't have this problem in the past because their executive sessions were held at the end of the Council meetings which allowed them to start their standing committee meetings on time and they never ran into the standing committees. That is really the difference. Aid. Nev.-man said what happened at the last meeting was they were told by the Mayor that all the meetings were going to end at 8:20 p.m. It is a great to be able to end at 8:20 and go to Council at 8:30, unfortunately for all of these issues you never know if you are going to have 10 people or 100 people. In his view he gives a lot more weight to people who come out and sit for 2 V., hours a chance to speak than those at home watching TA7. He suggested hating something on the board that says City Council will be starting late. You need to build flexibility into the system because sometimes maybe you need a half hour extra, especially vdien you have a development issue and money is involved. People are spending time waiting for their building permits, they already own the property, they are paying rent and we could potentially be delaying week after week because we don't have enough time at PSD. On the other hand it is easy to say we should be done at 8:20 because we are the ones who perhaps have to go to a special meeting. He would like to see some fleibility and thinks the chairmen of the committee has a responsibly to start the meeting a half hour or so early when there is going to be a heavy agenda. Aid. Rainey noted that is not possible when we have a heady executive session. Aid. Ne-.;m= said if the City :Manager is working with the committee chairs, it is possible because there has to be coordination between the committee chairs and the city manager. City Manager only picks the beginning of the executive session time based on when he thinks the committee meetings will start. Aid. Jean -Baptiste asked if the proposal was to go back to what they had before which is try to end the committee meetings at 8:30. He wasn't sure if it is being suggested that that is the rule or are they trying to push them along so they could start the regular Council meetings by 8:30. The Council meetings have started between 8:30 and 9:00 and they have pushed to take care of their business in the committees from start time till 8:30 or a few minutes thereafter and for the most part things have been going relatively ok. If we think that ending the committee meetings by 8:1.0 is pushing it then we just need to go back to the kind of flexibility we had before. Mayor Morton explained that when we have a Council meeting that is the time that the community expects us to do business for them, where they are supposed be participants. She thought it was very unfair to say to perhaps 50,000 adults that we are going to have a meeting of the Council at 8:30 and don't begin until after 9:00 or sometimes 10:00 or 10:30. We are responsible to them and would rather you meet earlier or whatever -- or go back to what Aid. Rainey had suggested. The public is who comes to a Council meeting - 11 7/Z'20032:38 PM Draft Not approved it's scheduled for them and we should be rather specific with the time. We are sitting here paying staff and the media center to sit and wait until whenever Council starts — it is a big waste of time. She strongly sugge-ts you conic up with something definite as to when you want the regular Council meeting to start. Last time someone mentioned having it start at 9:00, she couldn't conceive of the public wanting to come to a Council meeting at 9:00 p.m., which is rather a late time for people to conic. They must give our public a time to come to these meetings and expect the Council to meet. She thought she represented the community when she says this. Aid. Rainey said that is when we use to have it. Aid. Feldman said with all due respect there is not a single thing that goes on here on Monday nights that is a waste of time. Mayor Morton had referred to a waste of time for the people who sit there. He had to beg their forgiveness but there is not a legislative body in the world, especially a democratic one, that can guarantee that issues that are important to whatever society that you are dealing with are finished and done with — no matter what system you have. There will always the times, the events, and the issues that cause people to come out. He said we have sat through many Council meetings where we were here until 1 or 2 o'clock in the morning, and the reason was not because anything was delayed but because that was what the business of the City required. He did not object to rearranging any of this, but couldn't fathom them trying to create a corseted system. One: city business is done in the manner that it should be done with due deliberation and time for thought and analyses; Two: he didn't see how starting exactly on time could be done. If somebody was to say to me "You guys aren't doing your job" — that is an important issue, but if they say "You don't keep to your schedule" — that is another. He knew that they try to do that and try very hard. He hasn't seen over the last year or so an astonishing amount of tardiness. And every single one of those times he saw the merit of the issue that requires that kind of deliberation, even if we were to extend another 15, 20 minutes or half hour. There are times that P&&D was an hour late and are still going to be late. He hoped that the citi-.ens of this community would value more the idea that the members of the Council are paying attention and spending the kind of energy and thought on an issue rather than reaching a deadline. Aid. Newman said there are multi -million dollar projects going on in committees. He was told on the first day he started his first summer job that haste makes waste, and there is nothing that can be true, when you have a multi -million dollar project in front of you and we are done at 8:20. So you are delay 2 weeks or you can set up a special meeting 3 weeks front then, so the one guy at Evanston Community Media Center who is taping extra, his salary is nothing compared to the financial implications on the City and also you've got to bring those paid staff back on other nights. That rule will unintentionally, and he knows it is not intentionally — cause business to be delayed, it will cause us to hastily have to make decisions and it just is not in the interest of the City. What we need to do is have flexibility, we ought to try and get our meetings done by 8:30 and everybody is trying. In addition there is no 8:20 rule unless we establish one, but there is an 8:20 goal. Aid. Rainey suggested holding this item, thinking it through and seeing how next month goes. But for those people, who are upset about the start of the Council time, believe me it would be more upsetting to kno•.- that we passed something costing millions of dollars without giving it some scrutiny, instead of delaying people a few minutes. 12 712/20032:38 PM ADIOURtiMEtiT: Mecting adjourned at 8:05p.m. Respectfully submitted, Darlene Francellno 13 Draft Not Approved Tf=0032:38 PM Draft Not Approved MINUTES OF THE RULES COMMITTEE MONDAY, JUL! 7, 2003 6:00 p.m. ALDER.\LaNIC LIBRARY Present: Aldermen Steven Bernstein, Gene Feldman, Lionel Jean -Baptiste, Edmund Moran, Art Newman, Ann Rainey, Elisabeth Tisdahl Absent: Aldermen Joe Kent and Melissa Wynne Presiding: Alderman Ann Rainey Staff Present: Judith Aiello, Maureen Barry, Roger Crum, Darlene Francellno and Mayre Press Guest: Bruce Baumberger, Suzanne B. Calde, Allan Drebin, Dan Feldman, friary Gavin, Jack Hinz, Delores A. Holmes, Malavika Jagannathan, George P. Mitchell, Hollis Settles, and Cate Whitcomb, CALL TO ORDER: A quorum being present Aid. Rainey called the meeting to order at 6:10 p.m. APPROVAL OF MINUTES OF THE 1UNE 2, 2003 MEETINGS: Aid. Bernstein moved for approval of the June 2, 2003 minutes. Aid. Tisdahl seconded. Motion carried. Minutes approved. REDISTRICTII G UPDATE (AUGUST 4, 2003 PUBLIC HEARING): Aid. Rainey stated this was put on the agenda as a reminder and to find out if any Aldermen had scheduled ward meetings pertaining to this issue. As had been discussed in open public it was felt that redistricting was a citywide issue and citizens outside the various wards should be able to attend the those meetings in addition to the public hearing. No meetings had been scheduled yet. Mr. Crum asked for clarification on the process of the August 4 Public Hearing on Redistricting. The committee agreed the August 4 Public Hearing should be held at 7:00 p.m. in Council Chambers, press releases should go out and it should be televised. The Public Hearing will be a regular Rules Committee meeting with only this item on the agenda. DISCUSSION OF RESCHEDULING EXECUM E SESSIONS AT THE COWLETION OF COUNCIL BUSINESS: Aid. Rainey brought this up because back in the old days executive sessions were held at the end of Council meetings and sometimes they ran very late at night, but it did not take away from the length of time they had to deal with committee items and they were able to start the Council meetings by 9:00 p.m. The negative to that was some members of the Council 2 20033.05 PM Draft Not Approved were not as sharp at 12:30 or1:00 in the morning to decide Executive Session issues, and she presumes that is why it was changed. Mr. Crum stated that Ald. Rainey was exactly right. The background is they had talked about this when they were getting heavily into real estate negotiations and major litigation and were ending up discussing multi million dollar implication of the City after midnight and they all were getting a little fuzzy on some of those decisions. When the agenda was revised they all concur to give a try at putting Executive Session up front at a set time limit and hold to that set time limit. Aid. Rainey added that probably another issue involved in putting it first was the resource people who they were frequently paying could conic to those meeting. Aid. Feldman suggested they leave it the way it is and to the issue of committee meetings starting and ending on time and Council meetings starting on time and ending early, was like the weather. They are never going to control it and will do the best they can, but there are issues that just demand excess, in a sense, of time constraints, that is the nature of the business and they have to just deal with it. In his opinion, they do a pretty good job. Aid. Rainey agreed -with Aid. Feldman in terms of the Iength of time spent doing their business, however, she thinks a letter needs to be sent to the Mayor or some statement has to be made by the Rules Committee that this is the way it is going to have to be, because it is very unnerving when the Mayor walks into the Committee meeting and almost demands that the meeting end. First of all it is rude to ignore her and second of all the pressure to stop is not always that productive. Aid. Feldman so moved. aid. Bernstein seconded. Aid. Newman said there isn't a rule to end at 8:30, there is a start time for the Council meetings. What they really need to do is have better communication between the City Manager and the Committee Chairs and figure out when the Executive Session is going to be schedule and how much time the committees need so they can get the committees starting at the right time and if the Executive Session needs to start earlier, it needs to start earlier. The goal ought to be to start the Council at 8:30. One thing they have found recently at P&D, for example, the 603 Main Street project has been delayed, in his view, because when it gets to be 8:30 they have had speakers from time to time who have not been able to speak and have to come back to another meeting and then they start ►%ith those speakers. When it gets to 8:30 and you have 3 or 4 speakers it is better to allow 15 minutes and have those people speak than carry them over to another meeting. What they have to do is work with the Mayor and explain to her that sometimes they are going to go over 8:30 at P&D and A&PW. But on the other end they need to have the City Manager and Committee chairs .work the schedule of the start times of executive sessions and committee meetings at the right time. If more time is needed at P&D they've got to start earlier and executive sessions have to start earlier, that way they will get out by 8:30, which is the goal. Aid. Moran agrees with what the Mayor is trying to do, and ~would not join in the motion, because there has to be some regularity in terms of the start time of the City Council meetings. He stated there are a lot of people who come here to hear and/or speak or observe and 8:30 is late. Unfortunately, they don't think of it as late, but it is late during the work week for most people to be out at 8:30. If they started at 8:30 and went about their business &V20033.05 Phi Draft Not Apprcved in a discipline fashion, they could get done at a decent time and people would have an opportunity to participate however they %vish to do that. He also stated that he thought a lot of the committee meetings and the City Council meetings are just way too long. He %vas in favor of rigorous debate on important issues, but as everybody- knows they usually spend a ton of time on issues that aren't all that important to the City of Evanston and spend little time on a lot of issues that are very important to the City of Evanston. With a little recognition of that and a little collective and individual discipline they could start meetings close to being on time and get them done at a reasonable hour. Aid. Rainey noted that in order to really get through the A&PW meetings, lately they have been putting everything on a consent agenda and maybe out of 13 items, maybe 12 items will be on A&PW's consent agenda. Those items don't get discussed at A&PNV and don't get discussed at Council and some of them are huge ticket items that ought to be talked about. She has passed up speaking on some discussions because of the time issue and feels it is just wrong. Aid. Tisdahl completely agreed that it is important to have everyone speak, but didn't think it was possible for P&D to get done in an extra 15 minutes. Occasionally they've had to schedule extra meetings and may have to do that more often. But trying to start a Council meeting between 8:30 and 8:45 was very reasonable but not at 10.00 at night. Aid. Newman commented that this year most of the Council meetings have started before 8:45 or 8:30 and almost all of them have been over fairly early, in the 10:30 range and he was not addressing whether to get a P&D meeting done in an extra 10 or 15 minutes. When you keep a developer waiting extra meetings because you are not allowed enough time to get their project through you cost them money every single day. It is up to the chair to start earlier than 7:00 p.m. Start the meeting at 6:30 or 6:00 when you know there is a major issue on the agenda. As far as extra meetings, it hasn't been easy to get them done. It is not reasonable to expect 5 or 6 members of the Council to take and extra night or another night when there is something they could get done timely. A committee that has potentially multi -million dollar projects on it and things that are going to affect the community for years is not going to get done at 8:30. People have taken their time to come to our committee that night because they want to address the committee that night and sometimes you need to have flexibility in the starting time. He has not heard any complaints from his constituents about when Council meetings have started this year, has heard some criticisms in the past, but he thought they have done a good job. It is not in their rules to be done by 8:30. What they are saying is they are going to be done at 8:30. They just have to ~cork at it to try and get it right. He feels for the people at 603 Main, they are not paying their mortgage or their hourly extra cost of having their architects come to every meeting. There needs to be some flexibility, but have a goal of trying to be done somewhere between 8:30 and 8:45. He did not think the meetings would automatically be over at 8:30 and that is what he perceives they have been asked to do and did not think that was reasonable. Aid. Rainey added actually they have been asked to end at 8:20. Aid. jean -Baptiste stated that this discussion was initiated by the fact that the Mayor had called for them to end the meetings at 8:20 and the majority of those Who have spoken suggests the schedule remain within the status quo and the status quo is end at 8:30 and &1=33:C5 PM 1 Draft Not Approved whatever little flexibility that is needed take that into account and do so. He didn't feel they were at the point where they needed to move executive sessions to the end of the Council meetings and didn't feel they needed to insist on an 8:20 end time. The status quo works, work around it and they can make things happen and should leave things as is. Aid. Feldman said his motion is to indicate to the Mayor that the Rules Committee has decided to leave things exactly as they are, the times set for the committee meetings and Council meetings to start should remain the same. Their goal should be to meet those time schedules but they realize that deliberation, debate and analyst of city issues is not a perfectly gift wrapped item and on occasion they will go over and do so for good reasons. One can always pick out a few sentences in anybody's comments that could be left out, but that is a dangerous idea to focus on, especially having to do with the concept of time. There emphasis really should be on quality of deliberation and decision and if they can do that within the time they have, they should struggle to do that. But certainly not sacrifice anything in order to do that. Another item is there are people at those meetings that come often and every time you hold it over they have to come back. That is just as difficult an issue as people waiting for the Council because they want to speak to an issue. Aid. Rainey said people would rather stay late one night then come back for 3 nights. Ald. Feldman agreed people want closure on issues and there are times that they spend in deliberation and debate in excess of the time that is well worth it. Aid. Rainey added they are asking for the :Mayor's patience and understanding. .Md. Bernstein concurred with the spirit of the motion and thought it was a very good goal to commence a meeting at 8:30. To the extent they have to go forward ivitlt certain items, they tvill have to go forward. There is no way you can finalize things in an hour and a half time frame on certain issues. It would be helpful and he would appreciate it if the City :Manager could coordinate executive sessions so they could accelerate the start of committee meetings on nights when they know that they've got a tough schedule coming. To the extent they have to go late, they should start earlier or put it over, if they have to make a decision that requires more time. Some of their executive sessions are just for informational purposes and if they are being informed about something they could take it home as easily as 12:00 midnight, but he does not necessarily relish the 12:00 meetings, but if they have to do it, they have to do it. He thought they should keep it as it is and use as a goal commencement time of 8:30. The real difficulty is when something is scheduled at the meeting for 8:30, like an awards assembly or somebody coming in to take over as Alderman =�_ and those kinds of things and Council doesn't come walking in until 9:15. That is not good So again it is a coordination issue and sometimes they can determine when particular meetings are likely to go longer and maybe could reschedule certain special events at Council meetings to accommodate those needs. Aid. Rainey said the police awards are scheduled at 8:00 p.m. and they can't be there at _ 8:00. They need to be scheduled at 8:30. Mr. Crum noted it was changed to 8:00 deliberately so they would have a firm time because they have to schedule them about a month and a half in advance. Aid. Rainey recognized that but stated those are very 4 V1110033:05 PM Draft Not Approved important events and they should be there to support the police and the citizenry getting the awards. Aid. Rainey asked for a vote on the motion by Aid. Feldman to express their feelings about this to the Mayor and ask for her understanding and patience for the time being. Aid. Bernstein seconded. Voting aye — Aid. Bernstein, Feldman, Jean -Baptiste, Newman and el Rainey. Voting nay- - Aid. Moran and Tisdahl. RESOLUTION 37-R-03 AMENDLtiG THE COUNCIL RULES REGARDING COUNCIL ;MEETING CALENDAR AND START TIMES: This item came up for one reason only and that is at the time they were adopting the calendar Aid. Rainey asked to have the calendar amended before the calendar was set. She stated that she felt she operated totally %vithin the rules and did not see any reason for any changing of the rules. One thing the resolution says is that annual council meetings will be the second and fourth Monday of the month, except for April or August. The Monday it wasn't was in May because it was .Memorial Day. In flay it did not fail on the second and fourth Monday. She asked why it was not in the resolution. Memorial Day was the reason the dates were changed in May which messed her up. She did not realize the holiday at the end of the month was going to cause a change at the beginning of the month. The issue is when they are asked to adopt the calendar does an Alderman have the privilege to make any changes. Aid. Feldman — ask for changes? Aid. Rainey said yea -- I mean you make a motion that if 3 aldermen say no then you don't make the change. Mr. Crum stated that in so far as you do it as part of the annual calendar adoption he did not think there are problems that they've had in the past. Aid. Newman said you could say regular council meetings shall be typically schedule or usually held on the second and fourth Mondays except in the months of April and August or otherwise provided by City Council. Mr. Crum noted that next year Memorial Day is on the fifth Monday so we don't have a problem. After much discussion it %vas decided that the previous wording and new wording in 16.3 of resolution 3 ,11.03 should be re -written and brought back to the committee. ALDER'.%LANIC ABSTENTIONS — REVIEW COUNCIL RULES: Aid. Rainey said this is on the agenda because in her opinion when Aid. Moran abstained from a vote because he had no pecuniary that he mentioned. There didn't seem to be a conflict of interest or a pecuniary interest that would cause him to abstain and that was always her understanding as to the reasons, unless you have a relative on the board or you are on the board. Aid. Newman said during the time he has been on the Council, since 1991, rule 11.1 has always been construed that there really was not a right to abstain. You had to vote aye or nay on all matters except if you had a personal pecuniary interest or other conflict of interest. When they voted on the resolution related to the patriot act that was the first time since he has been on the Council that language had ever been construed to mean there was &:124033:05 PM Draft Not Approved an option among Council members. He motioned to make this rule consistent vvith the past practice of the Council. He would substitute the words "is expected to" for "shall", then the rule will be consistent with the way they've perceive at least since 1991. id. Feldman seconded. AId. Newman said they've had no abstentions by anybody on anything other than lawyers who have had clients before the Council, which has been the most typical abstention. They have had some occasions where people are part of organizations, but for the most part he has never seen anybody abstain on a difficult or tough rote and knows there has been a tendency to want to abstain by some people, but thought it has been healthier for Evanston because of people who vote and do have to take a position. He thought they ought to clear up this rule and state that "An Alderman shall vote aye or nay..." and if they have a direct personal pecuniary interest then they can abstain or if they have another conflict of interest. They will shut the door to what was open which basically means nobody has to vote on anything, because then everybody can start abstaining on everything and they need to shut that door. Aid. Moran said he had not done any research on this but obviously knew it was coming and did give some thought to it. He thought there may have been a reason why the rule said "expected" as opposed to "shall", he could live with the word "expect", because one would expect that an Alderman who is present would note on all issues that are tender during a course of the meeting. However, he would strongly urge the committee to have our legal department do some legal research on this issue Because he strongly suspects that this Council has absolutely no authority whatsoever to compel any member of this Council to vote on anything. He does not get his authority to come to these meetings and does not get a direction as to ho%v or whether he is going to cote from anybody here. He believes that he derives it from an elector and does not think they can force him, and it really is pretty ironic to him that this discussion comes within the context of the issue that was tender that is giving rise to it, which all people who voted in favor of the resolution seemed to based that vote on questions of personal liberty. This motion is a proposal for tyranny. Not only _ tyranny in relation to what Congress or the executive power within the federal government might do, but what this Council might would like to do in relation to its respective members. He does not think they can do that. He also suggested that if this is the course that people wish to take the committee should ask for research in how other legislative jurisdictions have dealt with this issue. It certainly would be illuminating to find out how the Illinois General Assembly votes, for those who know how that is done, which they don't compel anybody to vote yes or no on anything, as best he knew. In point and fact there was a _ regular practice within that particular assembly to not vote yes or no on a lot of issues. But if this is the direction that Council wishes to take he thinks they also have to examine liberalizing the grounds under .which an Alderman can refrain from voting and certain, if he or she, for purposes of conscience needs, to abstain from a vote that should be allowed to abstain based on a vote of their conscience. In this particular issue there was very, very incomplete, undisciplined, one sided rhetoric. He did not think anybody on the Council ever read the legislation that was the subject of a two and a half hour discussion in the vote. _ It was a discredit to this Council and he found it amazing that the outfall of it is that somebody here tonight has proposed an amendment to the rules saying that you have to participate in this frolicking detour. W1120033:05 PM - Draft Not Approved Aid. Rainey said to Aid. Moran that it had nothing to do with the issue upon which he abstained. It had to do with rule 14.4 and she wanted him to hear that very clearly, it had nothing to do with the issue. What you are saying is that it is tyrannical for rule 14.4 to say that the Mayor shall vote when there is a tie of the AIderman. Then the Mayor could just announce that they can't tell her what to do and she is not going to vote to break a tie. Aid. Moran said the Mayor would still have an opportunity to abstain under certain specified conditions. AId. Rainey said we have rules that we live by. Aid. \loran noted that it could be depending on how it is interpreted. Aid. Rainey stated that she had no problem with going to the legal department and having them do some research on finding out where this authority comes from. That is perfectly sensible and she supports that wholeheartedly, but to say it is tyrannical is kind of off the charts. Aid. Moran said that is just his opinion. Aid. Tisdahl did not understand the issue of why if you have this language and this is the first time it has happened in 12 years, what Floodgates are going to open that is going to be so wrong. Aid. Newman said because it was a precedent sent at that meeting because they did not overrule the Mayor and at least one other member of the Council is not construing that rule to mean that you can abstain. Through every single vote that he has ever had on the Council for the last 12 years there is plenty of votes that you would like to be able to not vote. As the corporate authorities they are granted the right to set their own rules and that is how these rules come about to organi.e themselves anyway they want. He did not have a problem getting a legal opinion. Aid. Bernstein said he to would like to see if there is anything of a legal nature precluding them from using the word "shall." However, to his knowledge there is nothing in the rules that compels them to be present at meetings, as Aldermen. To the extent that he chose not to vote on that issue he could have stepped out of the room while the vote was taken, so what are they accomplishing by striking this language if in fact there is a method. There is a method by which you can do indirectly but they are trying to preclude people from doing directly. He would like to know whether there is some legal reason for which they can not do this and everybody is expected to vote. Aid. Bernstein understood what Aid. Moran was saying, they have a method by which they can ask for additional time, they can ask to hold and as a courtesy another alderman is going to go along with that motion to hold. If somebody needs time with which to further investigate, there is always that possibility. Before they put the language "shall" in there they should determine whether or not they have the ability, legally to do that, and they also should search they conscience as to whether or not it is going to be useful or going to address the question they are trying to get at. Aid. Roney said the key issue is the interpretation of the rules allowing people to abstain when they want to. They should get the information. She asked Aid. Newman if he would mind holding his motion. Aid. Newman had no problem with that. 7 Vir20033:05 PM Draft Not Approved :old. jean -Baptiste thought chat they really were trying to do is to discuss whether or not they want to affirm the kind of history and practice the Counci, has been engaged in over such a long period of time. If there is a deviation from that practice it doesn't mean that they should now move to get a statement that may say to them that they have the right to abstain. That is when you open the floodgate. What they are trying to do is to talk about whether or not they want to continue to maintain a particular pattern, a particular practice, that people do stand up and courageously face the issues and make their statement aye or nay. He would hate to have legal come back and say yea they would grant to avoid tyranny so therefore everybody can do whatever they want to do in regards to voting or not voting. He is more fearfully of that kind of opinion of creating or opening up the door than to fight to reaffirm what is their practice and try to go forward on that. Ald. Neuman stated that he would rather find out that it is illegal because at this point the Aldermen who think abstentions are proper will continue to do it and the Aldermen who think they are not proper ►von't and that is not fair. They should have an understanding of the rules and not have the rules be made up or have different A.ldcrman be able to enforce them differently. He would rather have the opinions no matter how it conies do►xn. The committee agreed to have legal research done on the issue ADIOURNMENT: Meeting adjourned at 8:O5p.m. Respectfully submitted, Darlene Francellno 8 B1U2oMM PM Drof t Not Approved MINUTES OF THE RULES COMMITTEE PUBLIC HEARING ON REDISTRICTING MO DAY. AUGUST 4. 2003 7:00 P.M. COUNCIL CHAMBERS Present: Aldermen Steven Bernstein. Gene Feldman, Lionel Jean -Baptiste, Edmund Moran, Art Newman. Ann Rainey. Elizabeth Tisdahl Absent: Aldermen Joe Kent and Melissa Wynne Presiding: Alderman Ann Rainey Staff Present: Judith Aiello. Roger Crum, Darlene Francellno, Mark Franz, Herb Hill, and Elke Tober CALL TO ORDER: A quorum being present Ald. Rainey called the meeting to order at 7:13 p.m. APPROVAL OF MINUTES OF THE &LI' 7. 2003 I1 FUNUS: Aid. Feldman moved for approval of the July 7, 2003 minutes. Aid. Tisdahl seconded. Motion carried. Minutes approved. REDISTRICTING: Corporation Counsel Herbert Hill stated that in the past the law department has provided memos outlining what they call the legislative principles for the redistricting and those memos have been available to the Rules Committee for over a year. available to the public and available tonight. His objective tonight is to provide a quick oyervicw of the most sienihcant and relevant, but not all. considerations for the redistricting within the city. The fundamental basis for election is the concept of one person one vote. That would require that the size of the ward. with a respect to population, be as nearly as equal as practicable. Not a requirement that the wards be absolutely equally one for one, but nearly as equal as practicable. The second issue with that is the population that is to be counted. The Supreme Court has not made a determination for the entire countn- as to what the population to be counted is. However, the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals, the court of appeals which governs the State of Illinois and the City of Evanston, decision in 199S of Barnett vs. Cin• of Chicago did make a determination that it was citizen voting age population. So when City Council determines the ward conf icurations they must look at its citizen voting age population with the goal to make the wards nearly equal in that category as is practicable. The next significant factor is the concept of how can the wards deviate. What that means by Supreme Court decision over the years as it has been refined, and there has been Supreme Court decisions dealing with states, counties. some municipalities with coneressional and senate districts, and there aren't that many decisions --yith respect to municipalities, so we are taking by inference what applied to one elected body and applying to anothzr. The standard is basically a I0'/o variation which means the ward that is the smallest in voting age population has to be within i 0^0 of that ward which has the greatest population. It is a plus or minus 56G ho,-yeyer you play around with it equaling the lVlo' mean. A second component with that is there are modifications to effect that 10% based upon ho", the yards vary between and among themselves. Mr. Hill went on to state that the first concept of the process of one person, one tote should be to focus on the 10°o variation. The second process with respect to this analysis is the idea of the fairness to minority groups and that is the voting rights act. The noting rights act is set forth in two segments. One segment deals with those states that have been found to have violated the yotine rights and they are subject to what is called section five of the act. The State of Illinois and the City of Evanston, not in that category, are 8/29/20033:41 PM Draft Not Approved subject to section two of the act. The standard the Cite Council has to meet when it makes its analysis of the one man one vote. one voting ape catecorv, is has there been a dilution of the minority groups voting strength. It is not neccssarilti- that a minority croup mus: have a minority represcntan%e, but does the minority group have an effective access to the political pros:ss to be able to elect the representatives nho will represent their interests, He al,o drew attention to t: z idea of totality- of the circumstances. It is not absolute certain. it is not black letter l_%v with a respec: to tt at one must consider all the circumstances in the voter dilution analysis. There is a threshold with a re=pest to %otcr dilution and that is «hether or not a voicr dilution issue under Section' .%ould apply to the Cl:,.- of Evanston based upon its peculiar. very - special, and unique voting history. Tnc City's voting history has had a sery strong representation of minorities and because of that, arguably the Section 2 threshold may not even apply. There is no need to worry about that tonight in the analysis. just be certain to be aware of the issue of voter dilution. Do not reduce the effectiveness of the minori .- croups' voting strengths. The third catcgonv is prett} straight forward, the districts must be. in this situation, compact_ Compact is not a distinctly defined term. The courts basically s icu- compact as ho,.% the district looks relative to themselves and within the City and our small area compactness should not be a problem in our analysis. Aid. Feldman asked if City Council were to assume that the votine strength as it stands now is at its optimum. Mr. Hill stated the City- is required under the federal law, under the state late and the Illinois Municipal code to mare the districts be as nearly as equal in size as practicable based upon the current districts. Based upon the 1990 census they are required to make the change. What is in effect right now is not the optimum. it is not consistent with one man one vote, and it is not consistent with minority representation. There is a distinct definite need to do the redistricting and if redistricting does not occur the City arguably is subject to lawsuits to get it done. Aid. Feldman asked if they were assuming that the last time this City was redistricted it was done so legally and therefore any departure in terms of diminution of minority strength from that is coming down. Mr. Hill said no that would be a standard had the City been a section-5 retrogression community, in other words if the City had violation of the voting rights act before and the issue was whether there was backsliding, there is a benchmarking to what the past %%as. The City is not in this benchmarking as to what the standard past was, that is under Section 5. It is just whether or not the access to voting:, the voting mechanism is preserved for all the groups protected under the act and there are various minority groups protected under the act. Ald. Feldman asked for an example of a criterion that «ould let them know how minority voting rights would be diminished. Mr. Hill stated the reality is what the voting population is today. not what the voting population back in 1990 was. it is the voting population in 2000. that is the first component. The city needs to loop at that and the first component in that analysis is to have the wards as nearly as practicable, but equal voting age population. That is the first criterion. Since the 1990 census numbers have changed in 2000 the wards need to be changed to reflect that one ratan one rote. That's equal protection, 14' amendment, and 1973 Supreme Court cases. There is no way to avoid it. it must be done. The refine question is in 1998 in Chicago vs. Barnett, they cot the approach, it is voting ace population, that is a clarification from vOat tray in effect in 1993 and that is one reason why 1993 numbers may look different. The 1990 analysis would look different from nhc 2000 analysis because they are focusing on voting ace population and he believed that back in 1993 it %%as not the voting age population analysis. After that analysis the nest step is the under voting; rights act and the broad concept is that there is not a dilution of access to the voting process, the cicctro process. that is a matter of looking at voting patterns, voting strengths, etc. There is no magic to say that a district must be 55°0, 5S%. or 60'o minority. That does not apply in this situation. It is analysis of effective voting strength. And the Supreme Court again, in a most recent case in June of this rear, in a different analysis not in the section 2 analysis that we are in but in the section 5 analysis concluded that influence districts are districts where the minority group can have representation, not necessarily what they call representative, but descriptive representation was a proper means for analysis. So the question is there is no requirement that a district be 55°;, 57°0, or 6010 8 /29/20033 41 Pr. Draft Not Approved one way or the other. Mr. Hill added that everything he was speaking about is written in the memos and those memos will be distributed again, and again. Aid.1.an-Baptiste stated the overall presentation redistricting must be done: because of the imbalance in terms of the number of Voting ace po _iation in various wards and that the lain requires that in redistricting there not be a reduction in the votu:_ _ gths of minority groups within the particular municipalities. He questioned w}t»t other ways can o:: preserve the voting strength of minority Croups? In Evanston what other ways can you preserve the o:i..; strength of the black population if not numerically. Mr. Hill said it is a United States Supreme Court c, so it is not rclevant at all that it is Georgia, it applies throughout the countn•. It is a Section 5 assalti sis not a Section 2 analysis. Ile is using it as a persuasive authority. The point being_: of super majority representation that a minority district, the issue is minority representation verses minority representatives and the Supreme Court in this decision drew that distinction and based its analysis on the fact that minont,%- representation can be achieved according to the Supreme Court by representation by other than a minority. The point was the political strength of the minority could elect a majority individual who is btho'.ding politically to the minority for the election. Then you have your representative government in at%t and that's what he thought was the new aspect of the Ashcroft decision. Again it is a Section 5 not a Section 2. There is no Supreme Court decision in Section 2 that applies it and you want to distinguish th.- Georgia case more as a state not as a municipality. it is some guidance for the City in its analysis that what was, even in our earlier memos of 2001 which was pointing out that you needed perhaps a 60°o majority, that arguably now has been changed by the Supreme Court and a 609,46 majority "minority to preserve the minorities interests, the Supreme Court has gone away from. Aid. Ncwman said the 6500 figure is the target for pcoplc over I8 of voting agc that they want to have in each sward to satisfy the requirements of the state and federal case laws. Based on the numbers right now and Council has already decided to use the over IS population we now have currently 8325 people in the first sward and 5381 people in the second ward b.tsed on the 2000 censuses. Under the 2000 census the second ward is 51°a African -American and the 5" ward is 51°o African American, if they were satisfied with those numbers, which he assumed they were on the African American numbers, does the City have the option of not redistricting:' Do they have an o..ion of saying they are not going to redistrict because they want to leave those numbers where they arc? fir. Hill stated City Council must redistrict. There is not an option not to redistrict. The imbalance on the oic man one vote, the 14" amendment, equal protection is right there before your eyes with those numbers. The numbers have to be brought in line to approach or be within that 10,E variance. The second question from Aid. Newman was «hat do they do in a situation where they have 51'/; African -American in the existing 2' ward and 51.6` . African American voters in the current 5' sward? What do they do if there arc not enough African American voters in the immediate area to create two wards that are over 50°a African American? Mr. Hill stated that based upon Evanston's voting circumstances least histor- the City does not ha-.;- to :have two majority. minority .yards. Aid. Ncwman asked if Council chose to have a goal of having t•.s o :majority wards could they have whatever goals they want as lone as they conic up with roughly and s::ck u• ith the 6500 people being the baseline for each ward. fir. Hill stated that was correct whatever the exact number is, if it is 6500, that is the one man one vote main principal in this matter, then you graph on to that the voting rights act and section 2 voter dilution to make your analysis on whether on not t.nere has been such a dilution. Mr. Hill's last point was contiguity which just means a distinct on broken unit, the City can not have a sward that is seumentcd. It has to be one cohesive hold however that hold is defined within the nature of being compact. The memos really express the Intl s as they understand it in more detail. He restated it is the obligation of the City Council to redistrict, the Illinois Municipal code states statute requires it, the U.S. Constitution requires it, and the case lases are ere guidelines to get it done. How the City Council 3 8/23/20033:00 PFA Draft Not Approved does it is within the interpretation of case la« and any map that is drawn certainly needs to be at least looked at for those principals. Ald. Rainey clarified that the deadline to cot the redistricting done is around August 2604. Mr. Hill stated he believed that is the rough of an approximaie date, but his ad% ice at this point was to accomplish this difficult task as soon as is possible. Mr. Franz pointed out that the maps are available on the %cbsite at %k .t <% citvotevanst«n.org. On the front page of the websitL there is a ne+vs brief section, within that you click on redistricting which takes you to another page and has many maps available there and a lot ofother information. He also thanked the GIS di►'ision who has been working on this for many weeks in getting all of this information to them. George P. Mitchell. President, local NAACP Branch, 1229 Emerson amplified the serious implication of redistricting within Evanston. Sonic have questioned the necessity to redistrict and others the need to redistrict now. Others have questioned the fairness of the first map as it appears in the city's website without community process. He knew that the maps drawn were shared %with some aldermen prior to the first public introduction earlier this summer, but that is not a process. It opens the door to suspicion, distrust and cynicism about and effort which should be received as fair and represents the interests of all citizens. In ail candors the elected officials who have drawn maps started the process .which should continue. The issue then becomes how to proceed. Some question whether the earlier map drawing activities were really in the best of the interest of all. Regardless the whole effort should be percei%,cd as fair and truly represents the best interests of all. When he first saw the proposal as published, his first reaction was what happened to the influence of African -Americans and other racial minorities which was the same reaction he received from the NAACP national Iegal staff. As their review continues they have joined with others to challenge, push back, query and work toward true equity in the redistricting process. They are in the process of developing a map even though he found tonight other maps exist. When first started there was one map, now there are 4 using the same data, which does not diminish the 2' ,.yard of the African -American population to 3M° . He knows other maps exist which maintain the compactness in community interest required in redistricting in the 5" ward. There are other interests involved in the redistricting process which involve more than racial influence. He is looking for award map which best represents the interest of Evanston's African -Americans and other minorities and a reasonable time frame to allow maximum community input in the process which reflects everyone. There is no real need to have a new map now, and whenever it is required a true process, with community input should be used even though it is the City Council's responsibility to approve new political lines. But let there be no mistake, these are political lines which require citizen input. Aid. Rainey note that no map has any priority over any other map, even-onc is free to do a map and this is the beginning of the community input process. We've got an entire year to accomplish this, although they would like to do it more quickly. Even body has access to exactly the same information and she encourages anyone who is interested to take on she task. Janet Otwcll, Board member. League of Women Vows of Evanston. 2 %-0 Hurd called attention to some of the convents the League has had up to this point. The League is following, the actions of the Rules - Committee in regard to the proposed ward remap and has been present at all of their meetings at which this issue has been discussed and would like to play an active role in the deliberations. The League strongly urges the Rules Committee to elicit open discussions among citizens and committee members and arrive at a map rshich has a consensus of public opinion in its favor. After reviewing the map released to the public recently, the League has the following concerns: first the process which was followed to develop the map was not open nor inclusive, no open meetings were held to discuss guidelines for the remapping; no access to detailed computer census data was shared with the public; no timeline was initiated for public comment and decision -making; the second ward does not have a super majority/minority populations in the proposed map and in the 1990 remap the Council mandatcd that at 4 8/29/20033:00 PM Draft Not Approved least two wards have super majoriv. minority populations. once this mandate was established, there must be substantial reasons to deflect the majority: and the dispersion of the North,,vestern students into five wards dilutes this population Stroup. saps their voting power, and rcC ;ces their potential for an impact on city decisions. The Leactic's concern is Lased on positions that ha% c bccn established by the national and state Lcaeues. The national LWV position states in part that co tr :pities "should be aware that the Voting Rights position recocnixes that both the Constitution and the Voting Rights act require that reapportionment not dilute the effective representation of minority citizens." The Illinois state LWV position says in part that "the Le11211e supports a redistricting process u-hich is timely and orderly and which includes a formal announced timetable. makes information and related data available to all who wish to participate in the process, offers ample opportunities for exp rt testimony and public reaction to the proposed maps. encourages compromise among partisan representatives. avoids a partisan stalemate and results in maps which offer the voters a choice of candidates for election.- The Icaeue urges Council to take the public's concern scrlouily and set a timetable which will enable all who are interested to take part. David Schoenfeld. 2034 Orrington. I' ward supports the first proposals or a slight variation. Those proposals fit well within the guidelines presented by Mr. Hill in terms of remedying the disparity in the current wards, without doing any significant violence or any violence at all to the racial balancing principals that were also outlined. He addressed and elaborated a bit on the Georgia vs. Ashcroft point being thut it is a very interesting decision and one he thought Council would do well to pay some heed to, not just in its strict terms, but in terms of what it reflects in Supreme Court thinking and the thinking nationwide about the future racial identity politics in this country. A lot of the scholarly, general and political commentary on that opinion has been very interesting in pointing out what it reflects that the Supreme Court is acknowledging and really boosting a move away from racial identity politics in districting decisions. He thought the special circumstances of Evanston's voting history suggest that we are very well positioned to continue that move and to take that into account in thinking about the dilution issues that people have raised in thinking about these ward remaps. He focused specifically on the question of whether moving students into the second ward would dilute the voting population or the voting power of the black populist there. The students are his neighbors and some have lived in his home in the summer. He is pretty familiar with the students thinking as he has talked to them about their interest in City issues focus on things like lighting, security and what he thinks of as constituents service topics. These arc topics to which he thinks of being represented by 3.4 or 5 aldermen is really an advantage rather than a disadvantage. Being realistic about where the push on long-term policies issues is coming from when you think about the influence of students on aldermanic elections. It is coming from the one croup that is interested in those long term issues. it's the administration of the university which wants to control at least one of the wards in this eity. The push to get students involved in aldermanic elections takes place once every 4 years and its focus is on the 1" ward. it is not going to be a driving influence in the 2" ward, the 5" ward or anv other ward. The Council is properly within its rights to take a count of those consideration in thinking about this City's special circumstances when it considers what is the appropriate way to revamp the maps so that we eliminate the unbalances in the raw numbers without un-diluting any of the racial voting blocks or power here. The maps present here do an admirable job, particularly the first proposal and even the third of accompli-shine both of those things and in protecting the interest of tax paying property owners in the V %%ard from institutional encroachment. The things that mould immediately follow sure as night follows day if a e were to adopt the ward remap that essentially disenfranchises the tax paying property owner voters in that ward and relinquish one of the ward sits to the University's control. So for all of those reasons he would urge adoption of either the first or third proposal that has been presented. Bill Joyner of the Sherman Garden community at 1862 Sherman stated he has spoken to various people in his community and they like him are opposed to being cut out of the V ward. He has been there about 15 years and has a cohesive people that exercise their vote at election time because of their ward alderman and because of the case of the voting. There are a lot of seniors in his area and in the Wagner facility who have been made to be very comfortable in the selection and voting on different issues that are proposed in 5 E'29/20033.00 P.M Draft Not Approved and around the City of Evanston. Their ward Alderman has been %cry. very' accessible and they do not want to be put on a trial and error type of expedition to try and Find out what benefits they are coine to recei%-e from a;:oth.r •,%and aldemian. So whatever the rcdistricting is they are oppo,ed to being, cutout of the first ward. Sandra Gros. 2 73- % oodbine, 7" ward was the city clerk from I977 to 1985 and it was her office that did the 1950 ward redistricting, for the city. 1t appears that the redistricting, map proposed in June is advantageous to the alderman who created it in that the student precinct, which largely supported his appoint has been mo%ed out of his ward, this kind of action, though self serving is neither illegal nor uncommon. This does not make it right or fair however. For this reason a request, of an article appearing in the Jule 8 issue of the New York Tinier. be distributed to the members of City Council. The article was jointly written by two members of the G.S. House of Representatives, one republican and one democrat who outlined the dangers of gerrymandering for our democracy. Although the congressmen were discussing: state redistricting marry of their points apply to local redistricting as well. For example, they made the point that elected officials are less accountable to the constituents without meaningful competition. That self serving redistricting results in a more extreme elective body and that the erasing or diluting of competitive races creates apathy in the elector and under minds the very idea of democracy. The article goes on and recommends that independent commissions be appointed to recommend ward redistricting boundaries. When the City Clerk's office under took the redistricting after the 1980 census, she and her staff of 3. were considered to be fair and non -partisan. They worked manually from census track data and observed the usual criteria, equal population among the wards, minority representation, compact and contiguous boundaries, natural boundaries where possible and added their own criterion based on their own experience, which was to affect the fewest number of people possible with change. Their proposed map was sent to political parties and ilia Council for fine tuning and changes %vere made and actually a difference version of the map was adopted. But the initial effort was non -partisan from the City Clerk's office. She would personally like to see an independent citizens committee or the City Clerk's office devise a map according to these guidelines. She reminded Council that there is no rush and plenty of time for a fair and judicious process. despite the roomer that the County Clerk's office wants the new boundaries by spring. County, State & National offices are not likely to be affected by changes in Evanston's ward boundaries since they now elect local officials once every 4 years instead of every 2 years and the next local election is not until 2005. There is time to be fair and open. That is the democratic way, the Evanston way and hopes it will be the City Council's way. John Henry Turner, Center Director, Family Focus Our Place, 2010 Dewey said he had a great concern about the openness of this particular redistricting and hoped City Council would allow to have input, especially from the African American community in the 5� ward and the 2r" ward. In addition a comment was made by Mr. Hill regarding the Supreme Court decision and wanted to point out that that Supreme Court is the same Supreme Court that has not done a lot of affirmative action programs and a lot of the gains made by the African American community and would take that particular decision by the Supreme Court with a grain of salt. The second comment was there has been a strong opportunity for the African Americans to vote in the City of Evanston and that has not been his experience as a lone time resident of the Evanston community, being born here and as well as his forefathers. It has been a diminishing piece and as reflected in th.latest elections there was not a fair African American vote turnout and do not feel it was a reflection of th_ community. Fie would hope that Council Ntiould take his concents into consideration. Michael Hendershot. 2326 Orrington, I" ward encouraged the Council to very seriously consider proposals I and 3 of the redistricting. Redistricting is all about balance because the composition of any ward subsequent to the redistricting has to allow for any candidate to have a fair fighting chance of winning any aldermanic election. Currently in the I" ward there are approximately 8300 individuals over the age of 18 and of those approximately 4300 are students. Approximately 48% of the voting constituencies in the Ist ward are NW students. In the last election Aid. Newman was successful in running and winning over fir. Drebin by a mere 57 votes and that is with 48% representation of students 6 8129120033:00 PM Draft Not Approved in &i 3t -aard. He understood the points being made wday by others with regards to how to pet the l ' w&Zrd dou-n in numbers. redistricted and equal but it is important to consider that if student dispersion is not taken into account in the I' ward it %would end up by 13n' "%ith approximately 6500 individuals over the a!e of I c of which 4300 are still going to be students. The I" ward is eoing to have a composition of rouehlti GO°b of the individuals Deer the age of 1 *S beiniz N%V students, not that there is anything wrong wi r. that. However. he did not believe that is balanced or that an indiyiu::al -vho would campaign against a N%V endorsed candidate would have a fair and tichtina chance. Mr. Baumberger, 3513 Ccntral Street stated that several eloquent speaker have identified some very significant issues with proposal I and some of the outer proposals as well. What he thought was interesting this evening was the number of people who came out for this meeting. the number of people who tool: time to carefully research the issues. and the number of people with Very good ideas about how to trove forward with the process. The key is to look at the process and how to take the collective thinking of the community and arrive at a map that is wing: to be fair to all residents of the community. There is a need for an independent committee to move forward with this issue in an expeditious manner. There is a number of people with the skills that can adequately blend all of the interest. use the available tools to come up with what would be a very logically and viable map to cam us fonward for the next 10 Years_ Jane Lee, External Relations Chair of the Associated Student Government at NWU, a concern student. resident of 711 University Place in the I" ward and a representative of other residents unable to attend this hearing. The proposal to which she will address is labeled proposal =1 and was introduced at the June 2 Rules Committee meeting. A similar proposal is included in the packet tonight. The current redistricting proposal affects twenty-four residential halls, residential colleges and Greek houses and will affect nearly 1800 residents living on and off campus. The 2000 US census data calls for changes in existine ward boundaries for over populated wards such as ward 1. The proposal succeeds to gcrm-mander 45% of the students residing in ward I and nearly 201do of tti'U total student population out of %%-ard I into ward 2. Giving this large statistic of students residing in .ward I and because the timely of this proposal coincides with the time in which residents are out of town. she requested (fiat the second public hearing be held after Sept. 24 when students, w ho are also residents return to Evanston. Because chapter 65 of the Illinois Compiled Statutes Section 5 3.1-20-25B states that redistricting shall be completed no less than 30 days before the first elate set by the general election law for the filing of candidate petitions for the next succeeding election for CLy elections. If the city follows a similar timeline used in the 2001 aldermanic elections. redistricting should be completed by August 2004. Supporters of proposal 1 state that it would enhance student representation because more aldermen will represent students and their interest. She disagrees w ith that logic because students will be reduced and become minorities in more wvards and she feels their interests would be inadequately represented. E---wBton like many other cities and towns nationwide is uniquely made because of its diverse community including its rich student composition. Although they may have differences it is her belief that as community partners they should devise a new proposal that will be more fair and more suitable to all parties. It is her belief that other options are available and she is eager to work with those who share her belief. She respectfully asked for Council's consideration to allow more time on such a sensitive matter that will not oniv affect certain wards. but the entire Evanston community. In that time, she asked that either an independent council commission by the Mayor or all other interested parties devise and review altemate proposals and the public be made an active participant of the process. Aid. Rainey reinstated that this is the first of many public hearings not a public hearing to finish thejob. The only reason there are 4 Wraps is because there are a lot of eager beavers out there putting together maps. As stated before we have till August 2004. The City Clerk would like this information before August of 2004, and she was sure they would finish sometime in the late spring or the early summer of 20j4. There is no rush to complete the map so please get that out of your head that anybody is working _ privately or secretly to pass this. The next hearing will probably be when the students are back. They are no where near finished. 7 B/29/2DO33:00 PM Draf t Not Approved Tom O'Brien. 210 Davis, I" Ward appreciated the openness of the process but disagreed with the position that there ought to be an independent commission to do this. This is a highly political process and is right about where is belongs. The I` ee and is `%V students under proposed maps 2 & 4. it goes to something in access of 60" o. In his yse•.y this euamntees in cs;ence a NW ward and he did not think it was in the best interest of the City. In the last election with the vast of ` W behind Mr. Drebin, with only 4 S"� students almost beat Ald. \eee,-nsn v ho was running against him and chile not selling short the N%V eand:date was unine ole ed in Cs: y «ffa:r s for his entire life when there %vas a discussion at the debate about the dog beach, Mr. Drebin thought it was a joke. To the constituents in the I" ward and in Evanston it -wasn't a joke and the notion of haying Aldermen ►eho are committed to the long term future of the community and the Finances of the community requires somebody who is going to answer to the interest of everybody there, not simple the university. So erudding in 1%1"s safe district, he did not believe was in the Citv's best interest. Mary Bishop, 634 Foster, 1st ward said she simply wantcd to strongly agree with the other tax paying residents of Ward 1, in the statements that have already been made. In addition, she noted that it seemed almost mathematically impossible at the end of all of this to live by the mandates that have been laid down for the redistricting, arid not redistribute the students. She felt they simply were going to find that it is a mute point. Judith Treadway, 612 Mulford stated that this is an important process and not a joke. It is stood the Rules Committee has begun the process of reassessing the configuration of the wards based on the 2000 census in an attempt to balance the voting potential of each es ard. It is not stood for the remap process to diminish the voting base of wards 2 & 5. to reduce the significant majority; minorit} vote potential and reduce the potential for continued African American representation on this City Council. The first proposed remap diminishes the significant majority, minority voting potential of the 5" ward and eliminates the majority/minority in the 2` ward. The first proposed remap compromises the majority,minority voting potential of these wards. A majoriwiminority that was carefully crafted after the 1990 census, carefully crafted to maintain a solid representation on the City Council in the historically predominate African American evards with African -American Council members. In an effort to maintain the integrity of at least one ward, ward 5 and reverse the elimination of the majorityiminority in ward 5, a group of concerned citizens from those re_pective wards and other wards came together to evaluate the first ward remap proposal and create a second .surd remap being rc%-ic%vcd tonight. What is at stake here is keeping the majorityrminority ward voting potential African American representation on the City Council as well as retaining the votin�c stability of the African -American residents- In the first map this is significantly changed in the southwest corner of the second ward and the potential influence of this African -American representation on future developments in the TIFF area. which is currently in part of the second ward that could be influenced by representative mincrity!majority City Council member. This redistribution goal of the Rules Committee does not have to stop at map proposal one and two, as you we have three and four. She recommended that the Rules committee be augmented by having a citizen committee at large to participate in the redistribution process like the formal remap process following 1990 census. This should be the highest priority in this process for the City of Evanston to maintain a significant majority minority in wards 2 and 5. Why? The cost of lie ing in Evanston in expensive even with the utilities like heating, water and cL-ctrcity. Most working class people got barely a 40,,; increase or cost of living. they call it. Why? Because m 10 years. by the time of the nest census in 2010 the rate of housing development in Evanston particularly condos will create a nc%,.- significant population of non - renters or single family homeowners who arc and will be majority white, single and in the upper income ievel. A group that is currently small in numb.rs in the 2 and 5- wards, but clearly makes up, according _ to the 2003 annual report of the Evanston Chamber of Commerce, over 5.675 new residents in Evanston by the end of 2004. 10 years from now the 2" and 5`' wards majority minority voting potential will be totally eroded. Thereby destabilizing traditionally African -American wards bethey will no longer be able to afford to lire in those wards, let alone Jivc in Evanston. Wh}? Because diversity in Evanston _ has been maintained in a contradictory manner. out of the 9 wards only 2 wards have been traditionally 8 3/29/2C©33:00 PM Draft Not Approved marketable as affordable in housing for African -Americans lower to middle income families. X%'hv? Because am• citizen can review tic first map proposal and the second map proposal and sce there is a disparate shift of an expected population in the do•.vntows•n Eyamion area who will be -.white upper middle income and sinzie with no children into the historically African American wards, obviously strengthening the voting potential for the white residents and %­cakening the voting potential for the Af ican-American v residents in tha_z wVords. Why? Because Evanston can not call themselves a diversity community from this day forth because a diversity and intee-ity of wards 2 & 5 c% ill disappear with new residents who are majority white into these swards. Why? Because the first proposed rr,::p clearly has the appearance of a political agenda that should not be exercised at the expense of a ma}onty minority ward or wards. In fact, goes against one of the basic criteria of ward redistricting by total population count, which is greater in these swards and now by voting age 18 and over which is far less. She asked that the Rules Committee look at the second map proposal being before them. equitable, imbalancing the voting potential based on the 2000 census. She aszain asked that then• form a citizen committee at large to participate in this process to maintain equity in this ward rcmap process for the City of Evanston and its constituents especially those living in the 2 and 5 wards. Bob Atkins, President of MV neighbors, 2005 Orrington said this is a critical time. Not only for tax paying homeowners in the I"ward but also for homeowners residine in every surd of our city. The 1" ward is currently the most under represented ward in the city with the voting ace population of 8300, moreover there could be no dispute that the 1" ward voting ace population must be reduced by approximately I S00 person in order to comply with Illinois lass• which mandates that each of our swards "shall be nearly equal in population" in order to accomplish this. Any redistricting must maintain the integrity of our residential community while at the same time reduce the concentration of large numbers of NWU students qualified to vote in the I' ward. Currently the percentage of students living in University housing in ward 1 stands at 48% and that figure climbs to approximately 55%, if still students living off campus. faculty and staff are counted. Unless there is a substantial reduction in the percentage of NWU students residing in the 1" ward, no candidate for alderman could in the future be elected unless lte or she has a close affiliation with the University. Such a result would clearly make a mockery of representative government. for example. what interest would a junior or senior Nt1'U student elected alderman have any important issues facing our ward and the city, such as taxes, zoning. historical preservation, refugee collection, street repair and long terns commercial development. The answer is obvious. Aid. New-man's proposed maps which shifts 1600 students to the 2' ward is fair and equitable. However, Aid. Jean -Baptist proposed map would create a I" ward composed of 58%' students living in university housing. taking into account off campus students and faculty and staff, clearly 2/3" of the voting population of the ward would be closely affiliated with NkVU. The I" ward would now become nothing more than a Nit' satellite. This would be a disaster. not only for the tatpaying residents of the i" sward, but for the entire City. Aid. tiew•ma n's maps which reduce the student population of the I" ward to approximately 33% by shifting students to the 2' ward which hereafter would be 25% students is fair and reasonable and urges its adoption. He noted that with respect to the diminution of black population in the 2' ward this does not result in any violation to the voting acts rights law because as Mr. Hill points out in his memorandum, you don't even get to voter dilution, you don't even get to a possible violation of the act unless the circumstances are such that trigger the application. In addition he sets forth the various criteria, Evanston is not the City of Chicago. and not the State of Georgia or the State of Alabama. The circumstances set forth in Mr. Hill's memorandum talking about the history of voting related to discrimination. there is polarization, the extension of which the histon• of the community has always shown that racial minorities don't get a fair shot at the election process, sec don't have this in Evanston, haven't had it in Evanston and should be proud of it. He also noted that students are not a protected class under the voting rights acts. fie submits that the alternative of allowing NWU students to be a majority of voting age population in the 1" ward stands representative government on its head. Jan Weeks, 2040 Brown, registered license dietitian and one of 33 disable tenants who are part of this town. They have worked hard to form the Evanston Citizen Advisory Committee for Disable Concerns, of which she and her friend Matt are members. She is also an election judge at the Emerson Fire House. 9 8/29/20033:00 PM Draft Not Approved However, their disable population is supposed to go and vote at Springficid Baptist Church and their tenants can not transfer to the lift. So the city is getting an under representation of people who do care and want to submit their input at a place ►%here they don't feel comfortably sate to get on the lift. Her hope was that in Council's con-iderations please make sure that wherever they choose is accessible not only just to v6hceichair, but to people uho are visu311% impaired. and make that a consideration so that you trul do get this theme sane of. one p_rson on ►otz. Because right now you are not getting an accurate representation of lot± of folks that really do care. aid. Rainey stated to GIs. Weeks that the lift at Springfield a ell be fixed. Alan Drebin, 201S Orrington said he speaks only for himself. He has lived in his home for about 22 years, is a perrr,anent resident, and pa,'s a lot of taxes. He did not understand how our community could take a large class of citizens that are of voting age and say they are not entitled to any representation. The talk going on tonight is embarrassing. If that was said about any other class of people you would be in violation of all sorts of rules. It is true that students are not a protected class under the voting rights act, on the other hand they are covered by the U.S. Constitution and perhaps the City of Evanston has lost sight of the Constitution. We just paid three hundred and fifty thousand dollars to Icam about the constitution because we make laws that violate the race of our citizens. Students do have a right to vote and their vote should count. In `ir. Hill's memorandum under the heading "Fairness to Political Parties" doesn't talk about students, but it does say that "a redistricting plan would be found unconstitutional only if a consistently dilutes a voters or a group of voters' influence on a political process as a whole". Now if the people who have tallied tonight about being worried that 48% of the voters in the 1" ward are students. isn't that a group that ought to be protected and not diluted. Don't they have some voice to have representation? The speakers tonight have said we taxpayers must be represented, but students have no rights at all and we have to dilute their votes and spread them among; nine wards so they will have nine aldermen to take care of them. That is ridiculous. In addition he does not have access to the fancy software to make his own map. He was quite concerned about this map. First of all this gives gerrymandering a bad name. the rules are that the districts are suppose to be compact, instead of compacting Ward 1, this adds on more to the southem boarder and takes a bit out of the middle of it. Is that compact'? Part of the argument tonight is that ►ve have to reduce the I" wards population and the only way we can do that is by shifting students in to the 2` «yard. That isn't true. Without using the fancy GiS software. he was able to download the maps and the census data information front the U.S. Census Bureau, and made his own map using straight lines on an excel spreadsheet. He was able to draw contiguous wards compact that were oF6200 and 6900 limit and would have African Americans in what now is primarily the 5" ward at fry` o and in the 2" ward 53°a. He did not count minorities because he did not think Asian Americans necessarily have the same interests as African Americans and according to Mr. Hill's memo ►ou have to sho.%- that there is a single group that has similar interests. Students don't pan in this, but African Americans do. The problem is that you startcd out with the assumption, when map I was drawn we started with the assumption that any ward that was violating within the 6200 to 6900 could not be changed. if you start out ►with a clean slate and go into these other wards you can do it. You can get two wards. one at 641,1`o and the other at 53% of African Americans. If you are willing to reduce this below 64°0- but still have two African American majority wards, u-e are not talking 45?a. For exampic the first map had only 38116 in the 2` ward and 47% in the 5` ►►ard going from 52% on each map. Even map :2 has only 46:o. He suggested that it is possible to have 530 o and 64ri; and still be t%ithin all of the rules. If you start out with the as,z!,umption that we don't have to use the existing ward boundaries and only make gerrymandering chin_cs. a lot could be done. Betty Ester, I S06 Grey, 5" ward said ►► hen this process started in May of 2000 she came to the first meeting and part of the memo dated July 1" ►was discussed and one of the questions she asked was how does minority votes affect this redistricting. She was told she did not have to worry about that because it really is not going to affect it that much. If you look at the changes that have been made the 2nd ward lost a big chunk of African American voters. We talk about map changes that happened in 1970 and 1990, it would be nice to see the data and what that census data was is being changed. Although it talks about the =- 10 8/29/20033:00 PM Draft Not approved history of African American voters it also talked about other issues. It was interesting to read the part about the extent to .%high minority group members bare the affects of past discrimination in areas such as education, cmplo=nent. and health «high hindered the ability to pa .nicipate, because there are heated debates in this city in the terms of the minority kids and how the%- : e not achieving and why they are not achieving. We ha-. c spent probably millions of dollars without getting answers. Some of those that have come out of that system are now ready to vote. The question would. be are they voting from an education sound background? Some would sav yes and some vyould say no. $v changing this we are denying them the opportunit to Ka%e some of the older African americans be the:e to tall: to them and say this is what we did in the past ,%l to we lived there. If you are coins to move tr_m around and segregate them out that won't happen. There is talk about the Council in the past and 51 1,a of the body made a decision, now another body is saying we don't have to line up to that. "'as that in stone or was that lust on a piece of wood and throu;t in the fire. If it was 5101b then. it should 5 [°i nozv for two wards. Peggy Tarr, 907 Sherman stated she was glad to hear that this is an ongoing process, because she thought that many people came here tonight under the impression that this .%as going to be something voted on pretty quickly. She is certainly concerned about the lessening of the vote of African Americans in the 2 ' and 5' ward and thanked Mr. Drebin for suggesting that there are other ways of handling this redistricting. Having heard several people speak about NWU students in amost negative she wanted to point out that the city has spent a lot of time and effort counting NNVU students so they would qualify, by head count for federal grants, categories, or whatever. She realizes that many of the speakers tonight were not the people pushing about the counting of students, but is very surprised and actually embarrassed that now suddenly the students don't count for anything except to people who are here trying to get an alderman in to represent them. First of all, you've got a representative, Ald. Newman who was not a NNVU person an on the other how dare people decided that there should not be someone voted in to represent a certain croup. We have a majority who has representatives all of the time. We need to go back and think what is Evanston actually suppose to be about. Because what I have heard tonight has been really disappointing. Mall Passon, 2040 Brown said that GIs. %Vccks had said Springfield Baptist Church was the voting site and that is no longer true. It once was at Family Focus and nobody wanted to get on that elevator, but now the location is Fleetwood/Jourdain Community Center. Mr. Paswn stated that he has live in Evanston for a couple of years and the students only live here for a short time. why are we worried about them? The people that live here a long time arc more important. Ald. Raincy thanked all the speakers and asked the City Manager. Roger Crum and Assistant to the City Manager, Mr. Franz to speak about what is available to the citizenr: and,..hat we are able to do or how we arc able to help. Mr. Crum noted that basically the do have GIS software that is a fairly elaborate processing of data. What we have done is try to get people to get as close as possible with hand drawn maps and then if a group wishes us to run a particular map, we are capable of doing it, but can't do it for every individual who wants to try every possible combination. Mr. Franz added again a lot of this information is available on our wcbsitc: city fevanston.org. You can co to the home page: (rant page. click on redistricting it takes you to a separate pace and you can see all four maps distributed tonight as well as the current census tracking information. all that information is available and you can specify a class and over 18 population, etc. within those maps provided. It gives a lot of flexibility in creating your own maps. Carol [Mullins asked who prepared the maps available tonight. The response was various members of the Rules Committee, citizen groups to an alderman and sponsored groups. Mr. George Mitchell asked if as new maps are being developed i%ill they be placed on the %vebsite and the second part of the question was is the city going to validate any of the data that may be present in a map. 11 8/29/20033:00 PM Draft Not Approved Mr. Crum said the Rule Committee needs to go back into a regular session to discuss the process from this point on. The intent was that every map that comes before the Rules Committee certainly would be available for anyone to look at. The random maps that people are looking at, the tough data, he doesn't think is quite appropriate to be putting out on the city's web map at this point. For data verification they are using U.S. Census data that is available to any ane who h the correct access to U.S. Census data, there should be no discrepancies in information of data. if there is they would like to know about it very quickly. Aid. Rainey added that if you have a magnifying glass. on the census block maps you can see the population in each block and then break it down by class. Aid. Bernstein encouraged independent committees to Form and come forn•ard with proposed maps. He didn't necessarily think it has to come as a request from this committee. If you are concerned and see fit to sit down and take the time that it does take to do this, please do so. Ald. Rainey added that if anybody thinks they don't have access to information or need help call and they will definitely help. It was agreed upon by the committee that the next regular Rules Committee meeting will be held on Sept. 3 at 7:06 p.m. to discuss the process and the various steps that it Will take. At7JQURti%TFtiT: Meeting adjourned at 8:05p.m. Respectfully submitted, Darlene FrancelIno 12 8/29/20033:00 PM Rules Committee Minutes 9-3-03-draft Not Approved NIL\'U'TES OF THE RULES CO.MN, TEE MEETING WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 3, 2LV3 7:00 p.m. Room 2.104 Present: Aldermen Steven Bernstein, Gene Feldman, Lionel Jean -Baptiste, Edmund Moran, Art Ne—man, Ann Rainey, Elizabeth Tisdahl, & :Melissa Wynne Absent: Aldermen Joe Kent Presiding: Alderman Lionel Jean -Baptiste Staff Present: Judith Aiello, Roger Crum, Darlene Francellno, & Mark Franz Guest: Gerald Adler, Bruce Baumberger, Lori Martin Beauchamp, Eric Beauchamp, Sue Brenner, Suranne B. Calde, Kris Davis, Judy Fiske, Sandra "'. Gross, Elaine Helm, Anny Heydemann, Delores A. Holmes, Clinton J. Hubbell, John Joseph Hughes, III, Judy Jager, Robert E. Jones, Christopher Kadel, Jeanne Lind%%all, George P. Mitchell, Mary• :Morris, Mimi Peterson, Gwen Poole, David Reynolds, Hollis Settles, Jr., Ellen L. 5chrodt, Mary• Lou Smith, & Cheryl Wallin CALL TO ORDER: Aid. Jean -Baptiste called the meeting to order at 7:07 p.m. APPROVAL OF MINUTES OF THE IULY 7, 2003 MEETINGS: Aid. Feldman ma%ed for approval of the August 4. 2003 minutes. Aid. Rainey seconded. IMotion carried. Minutes approved. REDISTRICTIItiG PROCESS: Gerald Adler, 2235 Wesley, (see attached) Aid. Jean•Baptiste gave an update. The 2' ward has the lowest number of 18 and over voters and the I" ward has the largest number. The V and 2"wards are contiguous to one another and therefore most of the give and take, if they assume they want to leave the other wards as they are, had to be undertaken between the I" and 2' wards. From the very beginning there has been some discussion as to how that can be done. Several maps have been presented. He and Aid. Newman have come from discussions with their own constituents to come to the table %%ith their particular views and perspectives. The latest map, proposal 3b is a result of further discussion and negotiations between himself and Aid. Newman which represents some progress and still maintains the majority of black voters in the 2' ward. What they were able to do was take the segment of, he believed, 1634 voters that were bounded by Clark, Emerson, Chicago Avenue & Maple and make sure that entire block vas not transferred wholly into the 2' ward, but a portion of it. There were other small modifications and they are still in discussions and expect to make more progress in the next month or so. He proposed they look at proposal 3b, have some discussions in the next few weeks among themselves to see how they are impacted and propose different modifications. His thinking %vas hopefully by Octo4cr, !:ave another public hearing where they have some discussion and have people make specific input on how they may see the process and hopefully in October or November be closer to making a decision as a Council. He thought more time was necessary. 10130/20-038:29 AM Rules Committee Minutes 9-3-03-Draft Not Approved Aid. Rainey asked for an explanation of the not official census data on proposal 3b. Mr. Franz's response was because they provided a census block they had to take some calculations on the percentage of what was in that block to divide it. So they did their own formula, for that one block only, it is not official census block information from the U.S. Census Bureau. Ald. Jean -Baptiste added he had walked that area several times and could not see how the U. S. Census Bureau could identify that block as one block, because it in no way looks like one block. He also asked First Assistant Corporation Counsel, Herbert Hill to do the same. While the census bureau identified this area as one block, it is two or three blocks and should not be viewed as one block. They wanted to try to move toward parity in numbers and at the same time make sure they maintained majority/minority in the 21i and 5s wards. At this point and time this was one of the compromises they had to undertake. Aid. Newman moved to pick a public hearing date in October, call it a special meeting of the Council, hear whatever anybody has to add and at the conclusion of that hearing: have a vote that night and resolve this issue. Md. Feldman seconded. Aid. Newman went on say they started this process several months ago and have had a significant amount of time, if they set a public hearing date in the middle of October that will allow another 6 weeks. One of the concerns have been that NU students would not be in town, they will be back in 2 weeks and the middle of October is more than enough time for people to take this map or any other map and have whatever discussions they want, write whatever letters they want, call who ever they want, and say whatever they want. He felt it was time to mote on. As part of the motion he moved October 20 as the date, which is almost 7 weeks from now. Aid. Feldman said proposal 3b seems to closely answer a lot of the objections, not all but many, that came from members of the V ward and others in the African -American community. A lot of work has gone into resolving some of those objections. While he couldn't possibly suggest that there won't be any minor twitches regarding whatever changes that might occur, it Seemed to him the 2' and V wards have come to some kind of an understanding. If additional differences occur they can always change it, but he believed 6 weeks was a reasonable time for discussion, suggestion or negotiation of change if there need be any. Mayor Horton stated they could not have the hearing and vote on the same night. They could present it that night but had to wait another 2 weeks before toting on it. Ald. Newman explained they were taking 6 weeks and setting a special meeting of the Council which they have a right to do to resolve any issue. That is the motion which has been seconded. Aid. Horan said obviously discussions have been in the press and other places in relation to this process. Although he felt it perfectly appropriate for Council members to discuss their concerns or considerations in relation to maps, his hope was there would be more of a process in relation to the larger community and not simply be a negotiation between aldermen. He sensed there is a larger community they heard from at the List City Council meeting and that are present tonight who are interested in engaging; the Council in a process. He didn't know what that process would necessarily be but assumed it would be a series of meetings related to ward boundaries prescribed by the Council ultimately after this discussion takes place. It seemed difficult to do that between now and October 20 and impossible if they don't set out a process. Without that process it is just left to individual discussions between aldermen. He heard from a lot of people who said they wanted to be involved, wanted to look at criteria set out by some of the corporate counsel memos and possibly heard discussions of having a blue ribbon committee. Some of those people have knowledge of the city 2 1 of 0MG39:2s wd Rules Committee Minutes 9-3-03-Draft Not Approved and a sense of community values and how that would impact the drawing of ward boundaries. He didn't have a particular process, but thought they should explore that a little bit more. Aid. Rainey noted that from her emails it appears they don't need to do anything to facilitate the community effort, that seemed to be functioning independently, in fact when she had asked to see a map she was told not yet. She believed there has to be a step in the process for people to get maps to the Rules Committee so they can be looked at. She has no problem with the 6 we:ks, which is more than enough time to come to some conclusion. But there has to be a way for the maps to come to them and they have to say when and how that will be. There needs to be at least one Rules Committee meeting prior to the Special Council meeting and there is no reason why at this Special Council meeting there can not be a vote on a map. Because ma�-be the process «ill be from a special Rules Committee meeting, there will be a reference and a proposal to the Council to be put on the agenda the night of the Special Committee to deal with the map. There has to be that one step of how people are going to get the maps to them and when are they going to look at other maps. Ald. Tisdahl stated she has been part of several large committees and they don't always work as quickly as had hoped. She suggested having the special meeting on October 20`s and then at the following Council meeting vote. That way there would be a full 6 weeks for these maps to come in to them. It would allow people who are going to draw maps the time to do so and allow her time to look at them. Aid. Newman suggested that additional maps be submitted by the October 6` regular Rules Committee meeting then make them available for people through October 20`b. Ald. Tisdahl said she needed to hear from some of the would-be map makers as to how much time they need or their committee needs and how close their committee is to coming up with something. Aid. ]can -Baptiste said Oct. 20`b should not be view as a date they can not go beyond. What he is hearing is that people would like to get the input so they can consider what people's proposals are. Aid. Feldman had no objections to between now and October 20, either haying a special Rules Committee or another special meeting to consider whatever maps that have been submitted at that time after the Rules Committee. That was more than enough time, most people in Evanston are not map challenged and are able to put together a map in 6 weeks or Iess. A lot of time and energy has already been spent on this and if all the requirements for citi.cn participation are met and opportunities made for that to incur, he sawn no reason why they could not do it on the 20`' and provide, in between now and then, opportunities for the Council to consider or listen to additional people. Aid. Bernstein pretty much agreed with what everybody had said but noted that any trap they pass is going to have to pass legal muster. He has been really amazed at how little continent he has had with respect to redistricting and maybe it is because the 4"' ward is not impacted in a particularly different way. Historically, the last time this map changed the geographic dimensions of the 4" ward were absolutely different. The only communication he has had is from Bruce Baumberger, who has come up with a series of standards which pretty much are what they arc going to have to follow anyway. Personally he can not vote for a map that doesn't have majority/minority representation in these two wards. He felt students, although they need to be represented like all constituents, were not a protected class, so they have a numbers game and that is really what the redistricting is. He would like people to bring in whatever they have. One thing he does not want is for this to go on item for item. just because they have the time doesn't necessarily mean they should take all the time. If they give themselves a reasonable time, which might be'October 20 and maybe it is not sacred, maybe legal counsel might tell them they can't, for whatever reason, adopt a map that they 3 t ar3onoa3U6 wa Rules Comruttee Minutes 9-3-03-Draft Not approved would choose to adopt. However, he thought they needed to give themselves some parameters or else they are going to see themselves in August 2004 still talking about it. It struck Aid. Nloran that if they set Oct. 20 as the time to submit maps really would be in sonic respect the beginning of the discussion. What should be done is get everything; on the table and discuss it. It would be a mistake to say the committee is happy to receive proposals for maps, get them by such and such a date to the committee, then there is a day where somebody drops the gavel and says they like this map and don't like that map. That is not a process. The process, he thought, is a little more like ghat Aid. Tisdahl said, which is get the proposals, put them on the table, discuss them, make changes if needed and engage each other, not somewhere out there but right here, so that everybody has an opportunity to perceive what is hoped to be accomplished with the map making process. They can hear the rationales for the various maps and ultimately everybody can make the sensible and intelligent informed decision about what the best proposal is. He did not think they would get to that point if they say lets have a meeting on Oct. 20, get the maps in by maybe Oct. 10, they uili be sent out in the aldermanic packets, people will look at them on Saturday afternoon and on Monday drop the gavel and mote. That is not a process. All that is being done is setting a date to end this, not to discuss this. Aid. Wynne tends to agree, this has been an ongoing discussion in the community and they should not let this drag on. This isn't the beginning, several meetings about this have been held. She has had discussions with people in her ward and other parts of the community regarding this. People in the community who are eery interest in this lose their passion to continue to pursue the issue in a consolidated fashion. Today is Sept. 3, Oct. 6 is the next regular Rules Committee meeting, which is almost 5 weeks from now. If they say at that meeting anyone who has a map should present it to the committee and advocate for it and present their arguments for that map, obviously they would need the legal department to review any proposed maps, then on Octobcr 210 have more discussions on all the various merits of the maps presented. She did not have any objections to moving on that night. She proposed having a meeting where people bring in their maps and advocate. Her concern was that of Ald. Bemstein's she does not want to be discussing this 8 or 9 months from now. They need to have a consolidated discussion, make a decision and have the decision made in a way that they have an open process. But not have a meeting here and there and lose folks. Someone said Oct. 6 is Yom Kipper, maybe they could hold the meeting on Oct. 7. _— %1r. Adler, a citizen, stated he understood that the state of Iowa does its redistricting by computer and had great success in their remapping of congressional districts which presented even greater problems than what is here. Furthermore, like Evanston they have a great many universities and colleges and so on. He presumed that there might be some concern about the university going this way or that and wondered if the Council might explore the possibility of a computer driven reap, if that is a feasible solution. He suggested that people in America love technology and in Evanston they love blue ribbon committees and search committees even more than technology. He felt search committees and blue ribbon committees arc a waste of time and maybe they ought to look to a computer next time. Aid. Jean -Baptiste agreed with those who said the process has been ongoing. An initial map was presented maybe 3 months ago and then subsequent maps have hit the table since that time. One thing they have not seen is maps from various groups working on them from the community. As Aid. Rainey has stated if people have maps they intend to propose or that they have no%v should try and find a way to bring them forward. It is legitimate for them to want a call for the maps and set a deadline to have the maps in. In regards to engaging each other in the process is more than a 0 notion, the process of doing a map involves taking a look at the census blocks, doing some give and 4 10l301 OM,25 AM Rules Committee Minutes 9-3-03-Draft Not Approved take, and trying to snake sure they get the numbers where they want to get the numbers, it is a very intense and meticulous process. Even when they engage each other it really is around what are the values that are important to guide them. In terms of looking at the map and doing a map people have to really sit down and take a close look at the information in order to get a map done. Aid. Moran added that it has taken 2 years to get these maps. Bruce Baumberger, a citizen commended the committee for putting some bounds on the process because it is something that could drag out for months. He thought it was important to look at the criteria from a Council perspective that they give a framework for the process. The process needs to be driven by criteria which he communicated in a letter to them a couple of days ago. He thought they needed to have criteria to work with and then work with the maps that come forth and establish a process for discussion of those maps. A very specific, objective discussion of how each map relates to the criteria which will give them a rather good comparative framework for which they can make that informed decision. George Mitchell, president of NAACP applauded the committee's efforts, he too agreed if you drag it on it will drag on forever. He thought the public would be better served and benefit most greatly if they knew where each Aldermen stood on particular maps. He therefore thought the process must include submission time for maps and the public would benefit from having a discussion period after submitting the maps and then vote on a future date on that. It gives the public some opportunity to not only know where the committee stands, but the lobby for any one particular map or another. That doesn't necessarily take it out very much further but at least is an opportunity to know where the committee stands before they vote on something. This is a political process, and the political process is owned by the citizens. Aldermen represent the citizens and therefore need to know where the committee stands on issues. Aid. Feldman said at the beginning of this process they were given a set of criteria by their legal counsel. He would have hoped that criteria would have been disseminated throughout the city. He understood that is the criteria they arc following, that is the test and criteria that any map that comes before them for consideration must comply to. If that set of criteria has not been made public it should be, because whoever is going to draw• a map must comply with that. Aid. Jean -Baptiste said a memo has been circulating since last year and basically, quality and population, one person one vote is what they seek clarity.- in the wards, compactness in terms of the boundaries, fairness to minority groups, avoiding voter dilution in the process, and avoiding racial gerryrnandering. And the issue of fairness to political parties is not here in Evanston. He thought Mr. Baumberger's criteria reiterated some of those issues and it is important. He had not heard anybody advocate for other criteria on the Council and thought the process itself w-as one where they try to uphold certain of the criteria. At this point and time the main issue is not so much whether or not they intend to stay consistent with the criteria that is before them, but what is the timetable to get that done and what needs to happen. If there are some maps that are to come forward, they can at least discuss when that should happen. They can separate the discussion of when the maps should come forward and when they hope to have the next public meeting and whether or not that public meeting is a meeting where they will have a special council meeting to vote or not. Those are separate issues, one is when do they expect the maps in; two when do they want to have another public hearing. It was previously stated they had intended to have a second public hearing at least and then whether or not it is appropriate at that public hearing to have a special council meeting simultaneously to adopt the map or do they need additional time. 5 1MO120038:26 AM Rules Committee Minutes 9-3-03-Draft Not Approved Aid. Feldman said with respect to Nir. Mitchell's comments regarding Council's position, it is very important. Whatever legal maps submitted by tonight should be made public and disseminated throughout the community. During that time he expects to hear any advocacy for any given map. They can call him or anyone else for that matter and that would be time enough for an advocacy. There is a motion on the table to specifically have a special meeting of the council on October 20 and if he understood correctly it was amended to include the Rules Committee meeting on Oct. 7 as the deadline for submission of maps and where people would submit the maps and advocate for them. All legal maps would then be made public and on the night of the special meeting there would be additional deliberation, change, alteration, whatever is necessary, and consideration of every map that has been submitted and a vote on that night. Aid. Bernstein asked if this is an ordinance could they introduce, vote to suspend the rules and vote in one night. If there wasn't unanimity the next council meeting is a week later on Oct. 27''. 1ir. Crum asked if this was adopted originally by ordinance: A1d. Rainey said yes. Aid. Newman said it is not an ordinance. Nir. Crum asked if it is a resolution. Aid. Feldman said it was. Aid. Bernstein noted in that case it does not have to be introduced. Aid. Newman said they would find out before the October 7 meeting. Aid. Rainey asked %ir. 1itchell if he was asking that they make their positions known on the current maps. If so, she was not going to do that because she has heard there are other maps out there and had no idea if the perfect map wasn't out there. She was not going to take sides until she saw all of the maps, which is why it is important that they get all the maps in. Nir. Mitchell said that was the gist of what he was suggesting. It is appropriate for them to take in all of the maps, think about them and use their own intelligence to see which one best meets the criteria as they see it. Then aIlo►w themselves to be open to questions and open to lobby. He would fully expect them to let their position known one way or the other during that time frame. If the)- have the vote on the same night as the discussion he didn't think the public would be given sufficient time to not only lobby, but for everyone to have input. The citizens in the community are the same people who vote them in and wrote for other things that go on in the community and therefore needs to know where they stand on this. Judy Fisk, a citizen said in all fairness to the City Council, they have been following the redistricting question for a long time and someone said no map from the community was among those presented. A map she worked on wwith Jcanne Lindwall was in there. They worked on that map from the point of view as residents of the 1" ward trying to look at the 1" ward over the next I0 years and how the 1" ward was going to be impacted by the new construction coming along. They were under no illusions that their map would be accepted as is or that it wouldn't be changed. They tried to present that map by the August 4"' meeting because they understood that was the hearing which meant to them that was the time to submit. This has been going on for a really long time and with all due _- respect to everyone it does not take a very long time to do a map. It is really important to move the - process along so the Council can work on other things they need to work on. It is a good idea to have a discussion of the maps, but she agrees with Aid. Rainey, she would not want to hear from any member of the City Council on a map until they've had a chance to look at everything. She hoped that could happen sooner than later. Aid. Rainey suggested the motion be restated. Aid. Ncwtnan said his motion is to have a special meeting of the council to deal with the issue of ward redistricting on Oct. 20, 2003 at 7:00 and that any additional maps to be submitted by anybody and in the community be submitted by a Rules Committee meeting of Oct. 7. He would also ask the City Manger to look at the question of 10130120038:26 AM Rules Committee Minutes 4-3-03-Draft Not Approved whether or not they have to introduce and make provisions for that, if necessary, so they can vote on the 20`s. Aid. Bernstein asked if they -were going to ask people to submit maps, if any, prior to Oct. 7 so the committee can have a chance to look at them before the Rules Committee so they can give feedback' Aid. Rainey said yes if people can because that way the committee can have them in their Friday packets. \ir. Crum added if a citizen or citizen groups are going to introduce a map that they would like validated through the data machine, a couple of days are needed to run them through the GIS system. They will do a limited number of them as they have staff available to do them, but getting them early rather than later would help. Aid. Bernstein did not necessarily think that Oct. 7ie should be the mandatory cut off, if people have some epiphany on the 7th when they hear the discussion of the Rules committee and have another map to present between the time of the 7 th and the special meeting. Aid. Rainey- said there has got to be a deadline because no map will be voted on, as it is, there will be tweaking of it. She advised that people get what they can in on time. Christopher Kadel, a citizenlstudent asked if they could not vote until Oct. 27 because he felt people would feel more comfortable with them voting on the 27" of October than voting on the same night they present. Aid. Jean -Baptiste said it could be held over because the rules may not allow them, it may have to be introduced first and then at that time the Council would have to vote on whether or not to suspend the vote and make a final decision that night. The vote Bras 6 - 2 to hold a special meeting of the Council on October 20'b at 7.00 p.m. (Ald. Moran and Tisdahi voting nay.) Aid. Rainey asked for clarification, if this is only introduced and is an ordinance there won't be any discussion on that date anyway because they don't discuss items for introduction, so there is only one night of discussion anyway. Aid. Wynne said if it might be an ordinance than they are voting on the October 27". Or they can introduce something October 13 but will see said Aid. Ncwman. Mr. Crum asked if as part of that motion did they set the next Rules Committee to be on the Oct. 7" The answer was yes at 7:00 p.m. Ald. Jean -Baptiste thought everybody had the gist of what has been talked about, the process is not closed, it is ongoing, as they reported earlier there is some progress but they have not reached a point of satisfaction where everyone is happy with where they need to be. REIMBURSEMENT OF CITY COUNCIL EXPENSES: Aid. Jean -Baptiste said along with this reference from Aid. Newman he had asked the City Manager's office to provide an overview of what the policy is and what in fact elected officials in general are able to get reimbursed, which is attached. Aid. Newman said he never heard that an elected official could get a personal phone line reimbursed and as the reimbursement report shows, there is no member of the Council getting a home phone reimbursed, but there is one elected official getting their cellphone reimbursed. He thought that elected officials getting their telephones reimbursed for public business is opening up a Pandora's Box. It has never been authorized by the Council. He has 3 telephones in which he conducts public business, a cellphone, a home phone which he put in for aldermanic calls that he has paid the bill for each and every tinte for 12 years and a business phone which he gets a substantial amount of calls. The idea of an elected official being compensated for telephone calls is something that has never 4 1 7 1 W=0038:2$ AM Rules Committee Minutes 9-3-03-Draft Not Approved been done here. If one elected official gets a benefit it should be open to all of them and his solution is that it should be open to none of them. It is wrong for these bills to be paid and it needs to be corrected. His motion would be that no cellphone bills get paid or no personal phone calls get paid until such times as the City Council passes a resolution authorising the City Manager to pay those bills. To frame the discussion, Aid. Jean -Baptiste read the memo from fir. Franz to fir. Crum stating in the second paragraph "to the best of my knowledge no policy exist on the subject of City Council reimbursements. Furthermore, the Illinois Municipal code does not include any provision about what expenses are acceptable and what are not. City council budget element is approved as part of the overall budget annually and the City Council reimbursement issues have been raised during budget hearings in the past, attached is the 2003.2o,k4 City Council budget element. Over the years City Council members have been reimbursed for a variety expenses including but not limited to computers. internet connections, phone bills, fax machines, fax machine phone bills, cellphones, health insurance and miscellaneous expenses." It is in that context they are discussing this and there is no policy there is a practice that has been initiated. Some time ago he had put this issue of reimbursement on the agenda because he didn't see a particular policy. First they need to discuss what the policy is and then go into the particulars. As far as he understood this year there is $267, 9CV allocated for City Council expenditures. He asked how they were doing in terms of expenditures. \ir. Crum said they are normally right on target. They don't have any major accounts. Most of these expenses are fairly small. Aid. Jean -Baptiste asked if they could talk about what the policy is because that would help him understand. Aid. Rainey said she didn't know if she was speaking to the motion on the floor, or if it was seconded. But she spoke of the blue ribbon committee and the aldermanic pay increases and did not believe it should cost an alderman one red cent to be an alderman. The reason is because there are some people who can afford to have 3 phone lines, a professional executive assistant helping out answering phones, afford their own computer and fax lines, etc. But there are some people in this community who arc just regular people and who can not afford an additional $4,000•$5,000 a year in expenses. She gets a printout of every call she makes and receives and looked at it since the issue of the Mayor's cellphone came up and 99% of every call she made or received on her cellphone is completely, absolutely, unadulterated city related. She would not have that call if she were not an alderman. She has absolutely no problem with people being reimbursed for city expenses they incur working for the city. Some elected officials are able to return their salaries to communities or kindness, some are not. By making this so rigid and not having a policy and people seeing the efforts they make, excludes a whole bunch of people. The Council will become, and she knew some people in the community would like it this way, a completely elitist group of people who can afford being an alderman and that should not be the case. Many aldermen are professionals and take a lot of time out of their work day to serve this city, but there shouldn't be an additional hit for some of them who can't afford to give until it hurts. Her time is one thing but her money is another. She supports city reimbursements. Ald. Tisdahl agreed with everything that Aid. Rainey said and added one of the most important things she has learned in this job is that people .rant you to call them back.' She hated cellphones but uses it a lot now. People say to her they wTotc a letter to the whole City Council and the Mayor :M. called them back. It is tremendous that the :Mayor is well known for calling people back. It is a tremendous asset to the City of Evanston to have a city government that is responsive and she can't think: of a better use of S30 than reimbursements for cellphones and it would be wonderful to do it for everybody. 10/30/20033:26 AM Rules Committee Minutes 9-3-03-Draft Not Approved Aid, Wynne had a sense of how she felt about this until Aid. Rainey spoke. The additional expense she would add in, if she wenc according to Aid. Rainey-'s appropriation, is her babysitting cost. She assumed that when they started this job at 5b,2LX� a year, as her husband says, they would just write it all right back to babysitting because that is essentially what she has done. That is just another factor they have, there is such a wide variation in terms of what the various expenses are. Her concern is what to pay for ciry council expenses. She assumed that was a cost she was going to bare in order to be on the City Council in order to do the job. Just as Aid. Bernstein or any other alderman makes time out their schedule. She was sure he was not practicing quite as much law as he might normally if he wereri t doing this job. Her other concern is she can segregate some of her cost. She would not have that babysitter cost if she didn't have that City Council meeting that went on for 7, S or 9 hours. She can segregate her extra phone line at home that she absolutely would not have except for City Council business and that is all it is used for. They run into this issue whereas Aid. Newman or Aid. Moran or anyone who has a business, how can they segregate the cost of what those City Council calls are that are coming in. She would have a benefit that they would not necessarily be able to have. 'With a cellphone you might be able to differentiate them but how do you figure out what percentage of your business time is City Council time. From an accounting point of view they would have to figure out how would this policy be implemented. She viewed the City Council salary as paying for the babysitting, all the flyers she makes at Kinko's, and the cost she pays the janitors when she rents Lincoln School auditorium to hold town meetings. Aid. Rainey said she was not to be paying to hold town meetings. Aid. Wynne's view was she chose to have the town hall meeting so that is an expense she would incur. Aid. Feldman noted one of the reasons they were there was to decide whether or not the Council or the City 1<ianager sets the policy. He maintained there is a policy that has been discussed and addressed by the City Council regarding almost everyone of these items listed which are computers, internet connection, phone bills, fax machines, fax machine phone bills, and health insurance. He was not certain about the miscellaneous expenses listed, but did know- the Council did discuss various ward expenses for postage and publicity. There has been a policy in resident for a long period of time about aldermanic travel to the National League of Cities. So to say there is no policy or that no one has ever discussed it might be within \Ir. Franz's experience but certainly not within his. There are two issues. One, who makes the policy, is there one and who makes it? Two what should it be? If they decide the Council makes the policies on what should be paid and what should be not, that is what they should do and it want be left up to the City Manager to decide if some person says they'd like something paid. Then all that will have to be done is look at the list and say that is not our policy, if you want to raise it before the Rules Committee to have the policy changed that is what should occur. What has happened is the administration has felt there is no policy, instead of coming to the City Council or the Rules Committee to determine whether there was one or what that policy was, and the City Manager decided took the bills. There is nothing wrong with the City Council making a policy that cellphones used significantly for Council business have either =_ a portion of it or the majority of it paid, if that is what they want to do they should do that. He suggested if they do that they might consider having other phone lines reimbursed or other things that might be eligible for expenses. Keeping in mind that for the past 17 years or so certain aldermen have been on the Council and they have paid for this and never brought it before the Rules Committee asking whether or not this should be paid. He would suspect there are Other legitimate expenses as well. The first thing that has to be done tonight is establish the fact that the City Council sets its policy regarding reimbursement of aldermanic expenses. Then talk about what that policy should be. Aid. Newman said when they discussed computers, it was exactly on the point that Ann Rainey stated. The reason they "-anted members of the Council to have computers was because they were 9 1013=0038:26 atd Rules Committee Minutes 9.3-03•Draft Not Aprrcved getting emails and Council members who couldn't at that time afford to spend 53,0Xh or so for the cost of the computer should not have been put in the position inhere they couldn't communicate with people because of that situation. That was at least 10 years ago. Ho-wever, he completely disagreed - its just not right to get into this thing about cellphones, because cellphones are the most personal thing. There is nobody who is going to have their cellphone bill paid and then have the City pay for personal non city related expenses. A cellphone number is not available to the public, it is a private number. If one person says they call people back on their cellphone, he gets calls in his office all day, he will have to start submitting, his business phone bills. They get salaries, they just raised them and raised the Mayor's salary, there is absolutely no reason whatsoever they should now be piling on another expense that is going to cost the taxpayers S50 per month, times 10, it is not right. It is absolutely unnecessary, if you want to raise people's salaries raise them. What u­as Wrong was if the city manager is going to be paying expenses open it up to all the elected officials. If }people scant to put cellphones on for all elected officials and not just have one elected official have an agreement with the City- `tanager to have it paid then do it. But it is unnecessary because the City Manager said yes to that expense. They don't have to add another S6,000, there are better things they could be doing with 56XXX) and there is no sway that anybody can argue that public officials in this town are not fairly compensated. They are fairly compensated and the Mayor is fairly compensated. They've got 50 different department taking cuts, they almost closed a beach because of $6,000. It is not an insignificant amount of money and should not be tacked on now because people have salaries. If they .want to raise salaries make a motion to raise the salary, but the telephone thing opens it up to business, personal and all types of lines. There is no sway of delineating what is personal and what is not. It should not be paid for by the taxpayer. It is not even a close call on that one. He was sorry in regards to babysitting, but understood. Aid. Wynne said it never crossed her mind until Aid. Rainey raised it. Aid. Neuman said he understood, but if people can't afford to be on the Council then they have to deal with that in the issue of salaries. Everybody is free to make that motion, but to tack on, in the middle of the budget year 10 new cellphone bills for everyone is completely unnecessary and it is not fair to people on the day they are getting their tax bills all over this town. Aid. Bernstein said when they increased the Aldermanic salaries in the Iast Council by $35tx? most of the conversation he heard and that he had made was with respect to reimbursement for out of pocket expenses. That Was the reason he voted to raise it. Like AId. Rainey, he looked at his cellphone bill, and one glaring note was a 41 minute telephone call to another Alderman. They converse by cellphone more frequently than not as they travel from one place to the next. But today he spent $2.40 on parking meters for city related business. He met with three different people and on each occasion had to feed the meter. Ald. \loran asked how many tickets did he get. Aid. Bernstein said today none usually many. If they were going to start on cellphones, his thought was they were each given a computer and internet access because of the a%milability of communication from the City. He thought they were going to be interacting with the City's computers and that has never come to pass. Aid. Rainey said yes it has. Aid. Bernstein said he has never been able to interact. But thought they could access city departments as part of the communication system they just paid for. That is a valid expense if they could just communicate more effectively between staff and Council. But the cellphones is just one of many things they could talk about and honestly, he did not know where it would stop. You don't take this job expecting to be compensated for the hours you put in, because it is public service, but their salaries were raised and in his mind that was to keep them from having to pull money out of pocket. Time is one thing, money out of pocket is another. He was probably losing money but that was ok, this is community sen-ice. Aid. Rainey asked what about all those who can't afford to do that — they are restricted from running for public official. Md. Bernstein did not think that was the case, everybody doesn't have a 10 1 o1332U43926 k1.1 Rules Committee Minutes 9-3.03-Draft Not approved cellphone. One good thing that came out of this is for the first time he actually looked at his minute allocation on his cellphone and realized he was getting hit very badly. He changed it and now it µill be less of an impact. He was able to discern about S 125 worth of city related calls, his cellphone is how he communicates to and from different areas. It's the %my he can get things accomplished during the daytime. If they want to have a policy that is fine, he didn't know that the 56,�%% is that significant of a dollar amount in light of their budget, but it is an amount that is a significant amount, but is only one of many perpetual reimbursable items. That is his concern, not just the cellphone usage. Aid. Moran was sure they've all incurred expenses related to their city council duties that they don't get reimbursed. But he did not really understand this discussion. Somebody said it is 530.00 a month, he spends a Iot of time on city business as he was sure everybody else here does. He could not imagine how much time the \favor spends but it must be a phenomenal amount of time. He could not imagine why they've spent the time they've spent so far tonight to question a $30.00 a month cellphone bill for the Mayor for the city of Evanston to help her communicate with people was beyond him. It is incredible. He did not think they needed a policy on it. He did not need a policy on it, nor as to whether City Council members can submit their cellphone bills. He had no intention of submitting his cellphone bills. He uses his cellphone for a lot of different things, including city business, and probably has spent a lot of money on it for city business, but expects that one way or another he µ-ill absorb that along with a lot of other stuff. But he did not expect the Mayor to be able to function in the fashion he was sure she has to, he can only imagine, and $30 a month in calling that minimalist expenditure as some great big deal they need a policy on seems to be nick picking. He could not even understand why they were spending time on it. He doesn't have a fax machine or a fax machine phone bill either, apparently people have those. Why didn't that come up as in need of a policy' He didn't think they needed to have a policy. He didn't know who had fax machines or who submit fax machine bills, apparently they felt the needed it, fine. They should pay the \favor's cellphone bills and a policy was not needed to figure out that they should pay the Mayor's cellphone bills. Aid. jean -Baptiste thought the logic that propelled the members of the Council at the time the computers were coming out was to allow council members to have computers because they would be using email to communicate with their constituents. The same Iogic applies to the notion of payment for cellphones. He didn't see a major run on the $267XXV that has been allocated and it is not a major morality play for him. If the Council pays him $10,0,L ? a year and allows him to bet reimbursed for some of these expenses, every single one of them on the Council gives much more than they receive, so it is not a morality question. He was not going to engage in any self flagellation because he might get reimbursed for every single one of the categories, which he does not. He doesn't have a fax machine, but was glad to know by the report that if he needed one he could get one. He only has a few of these things, one being a computer but he does not have an internet connection phone bill and that doesn't hurt his inner core, he is not exploding the city for doing that. Neither does he think that the Mayor is exploding the city by utilizing her cellphone at $30 to $40 a month to communicate with the constituents of the City. He thought they have some differences on the Council and applaud the spirit of sacrifice and most of them joined the Council for that purpose, othemise they wouldn't be on the Council, because they would try to get a job that pays more than $10,OLV. He understood the protection Aid. Netivman was seeking to extend to the rest of the constituents and knows his interest is to try to do the best he can for the community and for them to do the best they can, but he did not think this was a real issue. Payment for cellphones does not shift them over the line in terms of commitment, in terms of sacrifice and he didn't think they wanted to forever promote this notion that to be on the City Council is to be self denied. They want people to come to the Council to serve and to the extent that they can be reimbursed for some 11 10J3tti 2003&26 AM Rules Committee Minutes 9-3-03-Drcft Not Approved of these things they come out of pocket for. If you need it they should considerate it, pay for babysiitting expenses, if it is needed and you couldn't do without it. A lot of them sacrifice. If in fact the policy is there as a practice and it is not written down he would like to expand the policy to include the payment for cellphones for those who use cellphones for city business at this point and time. Mayor ;Horton said unfortunately, maybe many of you didn't pick it up on it but the cellphone being talked about is hers. She was really saddened to feel that an Alderman, one alderman would decide to attack a ccllphone used by the Mayor of the City. A ccllphone the Mayor has not even had for a year, a cellphone that does not even belong to the Mayor, it belongs to the City. That hurts her to think that they have sunk to that level in doing their city business. The other thing that kind of upset her was the talk about the computers. She researched it and it is true they had a discussion about wanting to have computers so that the alderman could talk to each other, but the Council never past a resolution nor an ordinance. Aid. Neuman said that was not true. Mayor Morton said she knew what she was talking about and this has gotten out of hand. She had it research through the Clerk's office, what the Council did was to authorize the purchase of computers. They did not authorize the purchase of the computers and state for all aldermen. At a previous time there was an ordinance that authori_ed the purchase of computers for different people, staff and .chat have you, including the City Clerk. She just wanted to make that clear. Number two the city has appointed . compensation. The city offers health insurance and the aldermen who which to have health insurance got insurance. The city of Evanston pays out of the city's pocket, the taxpayers pocket S5,200 a year for the health insurance for those aldermen who subscribe to that plan. Those aldermen who subscribe to that plan pay a portion, about S400 and something. She has never ever had that insurance, even when she was an alderman. If they chose not to take it because their spouse may have it or what have you but the city gigs them compensation because the city is not paying for their health insurance. She doesn't get any compensation because she doesn't take it. She wanted to make it a matter of record that to her it is demeaning as a person, it is demeaning as the Mayor to have an alderman bring up an issue opposed to the Mayor having a cellphone. The money for it doesn't even come to her. The money is in the budget. Go back and check the record of what Jack Siegel has said, once you past that budget and you specify a certain amount of money for phones and what have you, you have already agreed to do it, she has a copy of that document. This is a non issue. She thought it was designed primarily to just do something to continue this spar against the Mayor by Aid. Newman. She wanted to make it a matter of record and wanted everybody to know that she was finally tired of it and absolutely insulted by it. She add::d, the fact that he is putting it on the City Manager that he authorized it, the city manager did not authorized it the Council authori:ed x amount of dollars for cellphones. Again, this is a non issue, it is unfair, it is demeaning and she is horrified by the fact that this is the kind of thing they do here in their City Council. Aid. Rainey said she would like to see the policy or the non policy continue as it is. If there are unusually expenses that an alderman has they should bring them to the Rules Committee. She has a bill right now that she wants the city to pay for. It is not a cellphone bill, it is out of the ordinary and she will discuss it at another time. Maybe at some point the Rules Committee could consider unusual expenses. But she would have to agree, the Mayor should have her cellphone bill paid. And any of them could get their cellphone bills paid for those calls that are made having to do with city business. Using forty minutes going from department to department adds up. She was not asking anybody to pay for her service but perhaps the calls and she was not even sure of that anymore. 12 to, 10039:2s AM Rules Committee Minutes 9-3-03-Draft Not Approved Aid. Neu -man said he was on the A&PNN' committee for several gears and the %favor wasn't here and they had repeated discussions and several votes on the issue of computers. One year he voted for computers and one year he voted against them because they weren't used properly, but he was overruled. But it came to the Council and at that time they voted for computers that would have telephone lines that .would be paid for by the City \tanager, they also had fax service. It came before the City Manager, it came before the Council, and it .vas approved. In rei:ards to health insurance, some of them have it throw-h the city, some have it through District 65. They have voted on the health insurance every single year that he has been on the Council. All 12 years it has been a line item in the budget and anybody has been free to question that. In this particular case he did not care what they ranted to vote for the Nlayor. All the Mayor had to do was come to the Council and say she thinks she ought to have these expenses paid and those expenses could be considered. It shouldn't be a private conversation between the \favor and the City .Manager. The City Manager should not be put in the position .where he has to think about what expenses are going to be approved. Now it is before them and if people cant to approve the cellphones for all 10 elected officials, fine. As far as he was concerned its very similar to things that have gone on here, every member of the council has a right to question whatever expenses come up through the bills. If there is any elected official that feels they can't operate in this job on what they have put forward for them they have a right to come to this committee or the Council and ask for more and that's what should have been done here. He wanted to make it very clear, nobody in this room knew for 2 years that that cellphone billwas being paid and they should have known. It should have been in the open, it shouldn't have been done behind close doors in a conversation to put somebody on the spot and say pay the bill. It was wrong and he wanted it to be clear that it doesn't matter how much somebody gets up and says their feelings are hurt, it doesn't change the fact that in his view, .which he has the right to express, it was wrong and he has a right to do his job and will continue to do his job. That is the sway he calls it, people can disagree and do whatever they want but he calls it the way he sees it and stands by it. Now they are going to have everybody submit their cellphone bill, fine. Now everybody will know about it, the public swill understand it and be aware of it and they will be done with it. But it shouldn't have been done the way it was done. bfayor Morton asked Aid. Newman could he give her evidence that the City 'Manager and the Nfayor, behind closed doors, made this agreement. Aid. Newman said his evidence that it happened is that the bill was submitted and nobody knew about it and in his view it wasn't authorized by the Council. `favor Morton made it very clear that she and the City Manager never ewer had a conversation about a cellphone. So don't put that on the City Manager because therewas never a conversation about a cellphone. Aid. ]can -Baptiste said assuming that this list including miscellaneous expenses can't they interpret that to include expenditure for cellphones? Or are they saying that miscellaneous expenses are already delineated? If they are already delineated then why do they put it in the category of miscellaneous expenses? This is his time he is doing on this Council too, so he has a legitimate interest in trying to characterize how they do business. if he has these contradictions he would rather see them discuss it in a way to get clarification as oppose to engaging in such a major fall out. If the headlines say city council or aldermen question whether the Mayor of the City of Evanston can have a cellphone - they are in the 21" century and business is done through the utilisation of cellphones and if the Mayor of the city has a cellphone it is to facilitate their business. That is his position and he made it clear to those that would publish whatever perspective they would publish on that, because he does not want to be associated with any entity where they are so retrogressive that they can't allow their Mayor to have a cellphone to conduct business that the ifayor needs to conduct. There is a category called miscellaneous expense and they have 5267,900 to spend and they have not over spent and are not abusing it, they should handle their business in a way that is 13 to,sorzooas:si Avt Rules Committee Minutes 9-3-03-Draft Not Approved respectful and constructive to their collective well-being in the City. And their collective well-being is the extent to which they respect and manifest some kind of respect for their Mayor. And of the context of this issue, he thought they just need to discard that issue and consider that miscellaneous expenses include cellphones. If people have that issue they can bring it before the City Manager and seek to get reimbursed for that purpose. Aid. Wynne asked if for instance she had ever submitted her phone bill for her aldermanic line would that appear on the bills list? Aid. Rainey said it would. Aid. Wynne .went on to say her view on all of this is all of them arc clearly doing this as public service. The fact that none of them have submitted extraordinary expenses is a demonstration that none of them do. They all have the mindset they are probably paying more out of our pocket than they arc actually getting back and that is part of the public service, .which is why it never crossed her mind that child care .would be part of this. if they are in it for that, they are in the %.Tong business. They all have a general sense of reasonableness and fairness in terms of what is appropriate for any of them to submit in terms of a legitimate expense. She, Aid. Feldman and Aid. tiew mn shared a cab coming from a meeting they had in downtown Chicago earlier this summer to get back here for a meeting and had discussed should they submit the cab bill. It was clear that was a city expense and they would submit the bill. But frankly she didn't think about charging for the train ride down, it was diminished. They do need a policy because if anyone ever appears on this city council, decides that their $6,000 worth of childcare is reimbursable it is going to appear on the bills list and Aid. Rainey is going to say why is this person getting reimbursed for this much. If someone has an extraordinary expense bring it forward and it will be discussed. The sway they have been functioning has been appropriate and clearly there hasn't been any abuse of it. Aid. Rainey said looking at the budget page attached to the memo, there were some items on there that she didn't even recall what they were. For example, what arc other contractual services' Referring to miscellaneous expense allowance in the Evanston City Council budget is exactly 5100.00, which is ludicrous. For anybody to accuse any member of this Council of spending the taxpayers money irresponsibly in terms of salaries or their expenses submitted for reimbursement is very wrong. Because she feels that every single one of them gives every single taxpayer in this community, more than its fair share of hard work, whether they agree with them or not they do the best they can for a minimal amount of taxpayers dollars. Ald. Feldman asked the City Manager if and of the $10xVO under the category of training and travel had been spent? Mr. Crum said the Mayor has used some of it. Aid. Feldman said without increasing the budget or adding any additional expense what he would like to do is establish a policy that when people feel they would want to be reimbursed for a cellphone it is not miscellaneous expense. Miscellaneous expenses lists things such as flyers for neighborhood meetings, miscellaneous expenses are not regular constant and repeatable kinds of expenses. An item like that should be, if there is such a thing in with fax machine phone bills or fax machine or computers or internet connection phone bills, on there to. The policy of the Council should be that, that is authorized and who ever wants to use it can use it an3 who ever does not, does not, otherwise it is kind of messy. Aid. Jean -Baptiste asked if there were any other comments around the policy. Ald. Neuman said as far as ongoing expenses no ongoing expense should be paid by the City Manager except for what was talked about here tonight, the faxes, the cellphones, and personal lines. If somebody wants another expense that is ongoing they «ill have to come before the committee and ask. 14 1013=0038:25 AM Rules Committee Minutes 9-3-03-Droft Not Approved OTHER Aid. Neuman said the never finished the abstention discussion. Aid. Jean -Baptiste said they asked for an opinion from Counsel and have not gotten that yet. Aid. Newman said the opinion is they can create a rule that says you can't abstain. The committee asked that they get that opinion from Corporation Counsel. ADIO RtiMEtiT: Meeting adjourned at 9:05p.m. Respectfully submitted, Darlene Francellno is 10130120038:26 AM 4-'es Ccmnittee Mmutes I0-7-03-bra; t Not Approved MINUTES OF THE RULES COMMITTEE MEETING TI,-ESDAY, OCTOBER 7, 2N3 i .00 p.m. Room 2403 Present: Aldermen Steven Bernstein, Lionel Jean -Baptiste, Joseph Kent, Edmund Moran, Art Ne«znan, Ann Rainey, Elizabeth Tisdahl, & Melissa Wynne Absent: Aldermen Gene Feldman Presiding: Alderman Lionel Jean -Baptiste Staff Present: Judith Aiello, Roger Crum, Darlene Francellno, Herbert Hill, Patrick Kcagan, and Mark Varner Guest: Gerald Adler, Bruce Baumberger, LoriMartin Beauchamp, Eric Beauchamp, Sue Brenner, Suzanne B. Calder, Eris Davis, Judy Fiske, Sandra %%'. Gross, Elaine Helm, Anny Heydemann, Delores A. Holmes, Clinton J. Hubbell, John Joseph Hughes, III, Judy Jager, Robert E. Jones, Christopher Kadel, Jeanne LindwalI, George P. Mitchell, ,iary Morris, Mimi Peterson, Gwen Poole, David Reynolds, Hollis Settles, Jr., Ellen L. Schrodt, Mary Lou Smith, & Cheryl Wallin, Chris Kirkham, Dave Ellis, Judy Jager, Bob Atkins, Vito Brugliera, Mattie Amaker, Jan Otwell, Sara Whitaker, Tamara Kugel, Gia DiGiarobbe, Baylee Simon, Nicole Schwager, Jerome R. Summers, Kauika Pierson, Matthew Budow, dark Witte, Jane Lee, Nora Lori, Jenny Kim, Lindsay Eyler, Ellen Drebin, Allan Drebin, Sandra Gross, Betty Ester, Peggy Tarr, Daniel R. Merchan, Tom O'Brien, David Reynolds, Ellen L. Schrodt, CALL TO ORDER: AId. Jean -Baptiste called the meeting to order at 7:07 p.m. PRESENTATION OF SUBMITTED MAPS: Aid. Jean -Baptiste stated the intent tonight is to have each group present their map and explain what each trap does and why it should be adopted. After the presentations the committee will discuss timetables for the next step. A public hearing is scheduled for October 20 and the committee has to determine what they will do at that meeting. Most people have already heard about proposal I which was initially proposed. The new maps will begin with proposal 4 submitted by Judy Fisk. Judy Fiske said she would be presenting proposals 4, 6a and 6b that she and Jeanne Lindwall worked on. They both are residents of the V %yard which has some unique problems evident both in this redistricting and the next redistricting in IO years. They also attended a meeting of the 71' ward and listened to the concerns of those property o%%mers. They were very concern about having to take in a number of students and what that was going to mean with minority dilution. The V ward has the most urban housing stock of any ward, dormitories, high rises, a multitude of single family, double family, and condo buildings, and really want to maintain the integrity of the ward. The new maps coming out really started 1 Zules Ccnm,ttee ht,rutes 10-7-03-Drctt fiat Ap;rcved pecking away at the north and south end of the 15t ward which are the neighborhoods that contain a Iot of single family in them and that was a concern of theirs. They don't «ant to lose single family in the I st ward. In order to t r epare for the next redistricting in 10 years, where they felt the ward maps were going to chance dramatically because people will be coming in to the downtown, all of the new buildings will be up, maybe even more new buildings and they did not want to end up %%it+h a 1" ward that was basically high rise buildings, students and the downtown. That was not healthy for Evanston, for the other wards and certainly not healthy for the V ward. They tried to strike a balance that would maintain the quality of life that is in the 1" ward now and also address the concerns especially of the 2°' and 5" wards. They tried to create a map that would affect as few wards as possible but also get the numbers out of the I" ward that are very high and the numbers in the 2'j ward are very low. As you %till also understand as you think about what is going to happen in 10 years, the 3" ward is going to have the development along Chicago Avenue, the 4'h ward is going to be picking up more of the downtown area and in order to maintain the minority population in the 2'' and 56 wards they needed to address that also. Those are core community values in the Zr' and 5' wards and they really wanted to be very sensitive to them. So what they tried to do was create a map that actually increased the minority representation in those wards and retain the single family at the north and south ends of the I" ward. They tried to create natural boundaries, the 8" ward didn't change at all, and the 9" ward changed slightly. They increased the minority numbers in the 5" ward by picking up a little bit west of Sherman Avenue and the 7`h ward only changed a little bit. Again, they were trying to strive for as few changes as possible in the existing wards, but also address those concerns she talked about. She thanked Pat Keagan, GIS Department wbo was a real trooper, lie really, really helped. They had hand drawn their maps and Mr. Keagan made them into beautiful maps. iis. Fisk presented proposal 6a and said again it is in response to a lot of community input on what a map ' could do. It again addresses the question of single family and what happens in the 2' ward. On this proposal the 2`u ward doesn't take in students and she was not saying they were trying to get rid of students Lecause that is not the point. There is one great big census block that is almost 16N students and it's really easy to lose that census block. They don't mean to be picking on anyone but the fact is in the 1" ward at the north and south ends where you have single family the population in those blocks are very low. So in order to get out the number of people they have to get out, in order to balance the wards, they had been focusing on that one block of students. In this particular map they tried to move students in response to the students request for interest in either one or two things. Having a ward created that is mostly students or going with splitting the students between three wards. Students are going to have to think about whether they want to be in three wards where they have three times the chance of electing an alderman or whether they want to be one ward where they can elect one alderman or whether they want two wards where they can elect two aldermen. They decided that in response to student concerns, minority concerns and the concerns of the V ward they were going to again try to retain single family in the V ward at the south end and added single family at the north end, then allowed the 7`s ward to pick up a block of students they had not had before and that creates a very nice voting block for students in the 7" ward. She was not sure if it made any difference to 2 Qwles Carrrnittee Mirutes 10-7-03-Draft Not Apprcved students if they were in the 1" or 7`s ward. The goal as she understood from talking to students was they wanted to be a voting block and that is an opportunity for them to be a voting block. Ms. Fisk continued with proposal 6b stating it is really similar to 6a, it doesn't go quite as far north to Central Street. It picks up students in a slightly different way, but again puts them in the 7-ward. This proposal tries to balance students between the V and 7`s wards, but shifts a lot of them into the 7'' ward. The 4'`' and 1" wards pick up a Iittle bit more of the single family which it desperately needs on the north end. The other thing, keeping in mind when they redistrict in the next 10 years it is going to change dramatically, students that live west of Sheridan Road really have a responsibility and an opportunity to really participate with the neighbors that live around them and everyone east of Sheridan Road, she thought, are rightfully focused on the campus as their main concern. The students that live west of Sheridan Road really do need to start thinking about the neighborhood as their neighborhood and think about concerns like budget, garbage, street li,,hts, maintenance of roads, libraries of schools and all the other things they need to be thinking about like that and really be part of the community. In their proposals they thought they created a healthy 1" ward, not only for these 10 years but the next 10 years also. Mr. Crum asked of the three maps presented were they recommending one or all three. his. Fisk response was they were presenting all three. Their thought was the City Council has the decision to make and they just wanted to say there are different ways of looking at the situation and their main concerns were not to pick a map for right now, but look at what they would have to do in 10 years and in 10 years they didn't want to be saddled with a 1" ward that is basically a high rise, downtown, and student ward. That is not good for anybody in the city. The question was asked if each speaker could address the minority percentages in the 2 a and 5`s wards of all the maps being presented. fir. Crum offered the percentages. In the 2' ward 42.4% white, 43.3% black, and 5.1 % Asian. In the 5" ward 38.8% white, 46.5% black. Ms. Fisk added other important numbers are the deviations and you can't deviate by more than 10%. Proposal 6a identifies the white population in the god ward as 38.2% and black 47.4%, in the 5" ward 39.846 white and 45.9% black. The deviation here is really low and they were running into problems with that. fir. Crum stated there is a 2.8% deviation. 4n proposal 6b the white population in the 2`u ward is 41.1% and the black population is 44.9% and in the 5" ward white is 39.390 and black is 46.4% and the deviation is 3.3%. The question was then asked that the speakers talk about the student population in terms of those figures. Nfr. Crum said at the request of Aldermen he did a rough number based on student housing population and those census blocks that are identified clearly as University properties. In proposal 4 it is 60% students in the 1" ward in student housing of various types, 6a is 35.9% and 6b is 43.9%. Those are not official census numbers those are his rough calculations. 3 Z_fes Ccr„mittee Minutes 10-7-03-breft Not Approved It was asked if the numbers read off are people that were counted in the year 2000 and not necessarily registered voters and are we only interested in the 18 and over who can vote. Ald. Jean -Baptiste said that is correct it is the census from the year 2000 and the population they are talking about 18 and over. The 7 `F circuit in this area has decided 18 and over is the number that is relevant and establishes imparity between the wards. General population is not counted as being relevant. Mary;Morris, resident of the 3" ward presented proposal 5 which she worked on alone. Her map is really based upon responses she heard from citizens to the maps that were presented at the Rules Committee meeting of August 4'. Proposal 5 has really small changes to the 6`h, 7'h, 3rd, 2"' 4`' S 9`h wards. The only ward that didn't change was the 8`h ward. It stays Just as it is now. Some of ward 1 came to ward 3, but they were all really rather small changes. She characterized this as a traditional type of a situation. Again, she was really responding to the general tenor of comments, but also to some specific comments that were made. One concern was from a man from Sherman Gardens vvho wanted that building to remain in the 1" ward. There were other concerns raised about the percentage of black voters in the 2°' S 5`s wards. In the 2' ward the black population is 48.8%, she was really aiming for 50% and the 5" ward is 48.1%. The other concern voiced at the meeting was about the students and she pretty much left the students where they are and have been for many, many years. AId. Newman asked if she had given any thought to residents who have been in the V ward for 20 or 30 years who she moved out of the 1" ward in order to get the numbers down from 8300 to approximately 6500. Nis. Norris said she could not tell that from looking at the map. Ald. Nmvman asked if she had consulted with anybody from the 1" ward who was not at the August 4' meeting. Nis. Morris said she did not consult with anybody in any ward. Mr. Atkins asked what for the percentage of the student population that map. The response was approximately 59.5% students in the 1" ward. George Mitchell, President of the Evanston N'orthshore Branch of NAACP presented and produced two maps. One dealing strictly with the 18 and over population, the other based on total population. They have some guidelines that tell them that total population is the right way to go with this, and he «ill come back to that. On proposal 7b their objective was to see if they could keep the African -American population, percentage wise, at a 50% level in both wards 2 S 5, while balancing the ward count and were able to do that within the deviation limits. Essentially what they did was extend the 2' ward down to Howard Street and made minor adjustments in other wards around that. The percentages as they relate in proposal 7b are in the 2'u ward the African -American voting age population is 51% and the white population is 34.690. In the 5' ward the white population is 36.990' and the African. American population is 50.3%. They were able to achieve that in both wards. In proposal 7a you really have 2 maps, a map within a map. Proposal 7a draws the map based upon total population and then makes the analysis based upon 18 and over within that map. This keeps a higher base count number for the purposes of deviation from the norm and that will reduce the number of people who really have to be moved from one ward to another. It keeps the ward count high and n-inimi--es the number of people who have to be moved out 4 Rules C:m., t-ee Mxiutes 10-7-03-Craft trot Arr,raved of the V ward. So if you draw the lines on that basis and then conic back and put the analysis, based upon 18 and over, you get the ►vhite population of 34.2% and a black population of 51.4% in the 2' ward and in the 5`h ward you get a white population of 35.8% and a black population of 50.8%. Student population on 7a is 5240' and on 7b 62.590 in ward 1. Back in June when they started «ith this he contact their national legal staff and they provided some assistance to them. One of the things that came out of that was the question of why they were going to use IS and over and then the discussion of the Barnett vs. Chicago decision came up. Their interpretation of that was that the Barnett vs. Chicago does not directly deal with the situation here and that regardless of the map being drain on total population it is appropriate and then use the active citiaen voting age to do the analysis work on each ward as it is drawn. In other words, in order to draw the lines you use total population, in order to analyze what you have drawn you use the 18 and over and it makes a big difference in the numbers. Aid. Newman asked if he felt that for an African -American to get elected alderman in Evanston a ward needs to be greater than 50°%. Air. Mitchell said the likelihood of an African -American getting elected is increased. Aid. Newman asked if he wanted to increase the likelihood. Mr. Aitchell's response was absolutely. Aid. Neuman asked if he acknowledge that the town is basically 24% African -American and has elected and African - American Mayor? \fr. Mitchell acknowledged that. Aid. Newman asked if he had any concerns that the map he has drawn creates less diversity in the City of Evanston. Mr. Mitchell said he did not think so, because they have housing patterns in this town and the housing patterns show where people live. There are African -Americans living in every ward but the bulk of them are in the 2"= and 5ih wards. As far as the Mayor's election is concerned, the Mayor's election is at -large and is different from voting in a confine ward. Aid. Newman said one thing done in your map that he believes was done unintentionally, is followed what the Republican Party has followed in the State of Georgia. The Republican Party in the State of Georgia have taken the African -American population and piled them into as few congressional districts as passible. As a result of that the Democratic Party has lost congressional seats in the State of Georgia because almost all of the African -American population has been piled into certain districts. That is a major concern of the Democratic Party, nationally, whether there has been mistakes in taking African -Americans and only concentrating on African Americans as a group in some wards and not spreading the African American population out among many districts and as a result African Americans have ended up with less, if they support the Democratic Party. In the 9" ward as it exist now has 24.9% African -American and in your new map, as you propose, it reduces that to 15.4%. Do you feel that by reducing the African American population to such a significant percent in the 9`'' ward you have made it less likely for an African American to be elected in the 9`' ward? Air. Mitchell said of course he has made it less likely, but it is not likely now. Aid. Tisdahl asked Aid. Newman if he was saying that Air. Mitchell's map was going to affect the national congressional election. Aid. Newman said no I'm saying Mr. Mitchell's map makes the same mistake that was made in the State of Georgia when they went to the very large majority African -American districts. The Republicans purposely did it so that there would be Iess Democratic seats in the State of Georgia and were entirely successful. 5 Rites Ccnni;tee Minutes 10-7-03-Drof1 Not Approved What they did is took the African American population and located them into very few districts and instead of having that African American population in a diverse sense throughout the State of Georgia they ended up making in less likely for democrats to get elected statewide. What is happening here is by trying to concentrate the African American population into only two wards by pursuing the false - African American candidates can't be elected in any ward in this city. The people of the city of Evanston do not vote on the basis of race. This is a great city and a leading city in the racial area and when you take a population, and it has been proven that people don't vote this way by electing an African American mayor, so .when you take the African American population and squeeze them all into one ward what you are doing is reducing that diversity of the various wards of this city. And I think they are making a mistake and just .wanted to point it out. If Air. Afitchell takes the principal that you need more African Americans concentrated in one particular ward to elect an African American alderman what he has done is making an African American election in the 9" ward a lot less likely. Mr. N itchelI said if you look at the way our city is set up right now, the 2' and 5"' wards have large numbers of African Americans in them. There arc not very many African American in wards 6, 7, and 3; there are quite a few in the 8 ward as it currently is. These are housing patterns that dictate where people live. And if what we are saying is because we are drawing tightly representation of the 5" and 2' wards and we are not allowing anyone to win in the 9" or YJ wards, they are not voting there or living there anyway. These 2" & 5'' wards are guaranteed areas. Aid. Jean -Baptiste commented what we have currently. The V ward has 5% African. Americans, 3' ward has 4.9% African -Americans, Ward 4 has 9.3%, Ward 6 has 2.6%, Ward 7 has 4.4%, Ward S' has 41%, Ward 9 has 24.9% and proposal 7a only reduced the population in ward 9 from 24% to 19. 7 %. It increased the African American population in the 8`s ward. We are not talking about breaking up something that existed before. While he appreciates Aid. Ne►wman's call for them to appreciate that we live in a city that is diverse and progressive, the reality is that the history of African American representation has been one that has been fought for and won. Aid. Jourdain had to fight to get access to the city council of the city of Evanston. Even after he won he was stripped of his seat and had to fight back again to get that. All we are trying to do is look at time, case and condition. We are not in Georgia, we are in Evanston and we are saying that the process of maintaining, while you are optimistic about the notion, an African American being elected in a ward that has very few African Americans. He has shared that kind of optimism, but the way that we maintain the very voices, the voices on the City Council is to follow that pattern of tradition that we've started before which is to make sure that we have 2 majority/minority wards where there can be a greater likelihood of black representatives being elected from those two wards. So on the one hand I share your optimism, on the other hand what Air. Mitchell has proposed doesn't break up anything that existed before. We are not looking at a total concentration of African Americans in two wards and snatching them from every other ward where there may be 1% or 2 %. We are not doing anything that is contrary to what is the general pattern right now. But he did want to find out from Mr. Hill in terms of Air. Mitchell's statement that Barnett vs. Chicago gives us latitude to use general populations, because he was operating under a different notion. Rules Comr„ittee Mirutes 10-7-03-Draft Not Approved Mr. Hill said his only statement is he disagrees with \fr. Mitchell's statement that Barnett vs. Chicago doesn't apply. Barnett vs. Chicago is division from 1998, it is by our central district code of appeals, and it hasn't been over turned. The idea of doing; voting age population has been noted by the Supreme Court, the Supreme Court of this country hasn't yet ruled that it must be one way or the other, but in its decisions, leading up to now they have utilized and made footnotes to voting age population. So the recommendation that I am making as the City attorney to the committee is to use voting age population in the analysis. If NAACP has a .written opinion or anything like that he would be glad to look at it and see why they want to distinguish, in our district, Barnett vs. Chicago. Air. Mitchell said I would except that using the voting age population would be appropriate to do the analysis but it doesn't have to be the appropriate way to draw the lines. if you look at it, using total population the analysis comes out on target. Mr. Hill said but if the analysis comes out on target, I think you have a distinction without a difference. Air. Crum added the deviation is what he is talking about. \fr. Mitchell said deviation is the issue. Mr. Hill said then you go to the deviation and now you are dealing with the difference which deals with the primary issue which is one person one vote and equal population. Air. Mitchell said if you draw it based on total population and then come back and do the analyses work you will find that it m4ets the criteria. An NU student asked the City Manager how he defined students in calculating his numbers. He said he merely looked at the buildings occupied primary by students that are on campus, fraternities, sororities, houses owned by the university and those census blocks that have been primarily students. The student asked if went by the numbers of occupants of those students. The City Manger said he went by census numbers in that block and they will be off a little, but they double-checked them with age groups and they are pretty close. Mr. Bruce Baumberger, 3313 Central, representing the Citizen Ward Redistricting Committee. He was speaking on behalf of Kris Davis who was detained. Aid. Newman asked him to identify who exactly was on the citizens committee. Air. Baumberger names the people involved: Sue Brady, Sue Brenner, Sue Calder, Kris Davis, Alan Drebin, Dan Feldman, Mike Faun, Sandra Gross, Barbara Handler, Anne Heyderman, Delores Holmes, John Hughes, Judy Jaeger, Ann Janda, Ken Janda, Bob James, 'Maxine Lane, Ned and Alby Lauterbach, Jan Lee, George Mitchell, ;Michael Eskin, Ellen Schrodt, Hollis Settles, Val Summers, Ken Witkin, Kenneth Whitney, Mark Wold, Cheryl Wollin and John Taveska. Aid. Newman thanked him. Mr. Baumberger went on with his presentation stating one of our primary concetnis has been to work with a former set of criteria, taking; a community wide and holistic view. They were definitely focused on 2M) census data even though they recogriked there are a lot of changes in Evanston. Their committee adopted a map that gives two majority African American wards, not just majority/minority wards. We think there is a definite difference there. They were concerned about having ward lines, given these wards that are compact and contiguous, we think as we look at proposal 8b which is our recommended neap. Certainly we have strived to make sure that all of the aldermen remain in their wards and are working on following nature boundaries, railroad tracks, canals, major streets, and keeping downtown businesses largely together, because we got two very significant communities of interest. We have in fact reduced the 1" ward population. Pul s C-cm-sistee Mirutes 10-7-03-4rcft Not Approved Students are dispersed in among wards 1, 3, 3, & 7. You uili still find the bulk of the students in .surd 1 where they have been for years and the voting age population of each sward is within the legal division. So we have referred to the map that makes adjustments in each of our ward boundaries and gives us a strong 2 ' and a'h sward with strong majority African American voting age population. We have maintained some strong neighborhood orientation in the 8'h ward and the 9`h ward now is being more of the center of an area. The 4" ward picks up a lot of the downtown. The 1" ward is campus focus, the area west of the university and the "ward kind of wraps around as it has in the past. 'Very strong solid ward boundaries that meet all of the criteria have been established and the same point of the University represented in our group have a map that would be acceptable to the community at large. AId. Ness -man asked Mr. Baumberger did him and the committee think that the people of Evanston are not capable of electing an African American alderman in a particular ward unless the sward has the majority of African Americans? Mr. Baumberger said I think it is definitely possible for anyone of any race to be elected in any ~yard in a given set of circumstances. It boils down to individuals and positions on issues at any point and time. It is difficult to hypothesize about what we can expect from the community. Aid. Newman asked did his committee find any history of discrimination occurring in recent years in the City of Evanston that courts have found when they have ordered majority minority districts in other jurisdictions. Mr. Baumberger said we have not researched that, we traditionally established ward boundaries to provide a couple of wards with African American majorities and think that is a desirable thing to continue. Aid. Ncw-tnan said the existing ward 9 has 24.9% African Americans, and if I follow your reason, do you have concerns that an African -American would be Iess likely to be elected in ward 9 because you reduced the amount of African Americans to 15.51u. Mr. Baumberger said not a particular concern. The concern sva_r focused on providing two majority African -American wards and to accomplish that obviously has impact on the African -American representation in other wards. Aid. Newman asked could one argue that if we concentrate the African -American population in primarily two wards that you make it less likely that there would be more than two African- Americans at any time on the Evanston City Council. air. Baumberger said we worked with the criteria to provide for two majority African -American wards. Aid. Newman said there is no criteria that I know of that requires the city of Evanston, in redistricting, to have two majority, over 50%, wards in its redistricting. Where did that requirement come from? Mr. Baumberger said it is not a legal requirement, but has been a custom trusted in the community over a long period of time. Aid. Newman said how long does that custom go back? Mr. Baumberger said the community was looking at that for probably over 30 years. We have a history of structuring our sward boundaries in such a way that we have provided for African Americans to have a stronger likelihood of getting elected than not. Aid. Newman said I just want the record of the committee to reflect that the statement made by the speaker, :fir. Baumberger, that if there is a tradition going back 30 years it is inaccurate and if you want to go back to the ward maps that pre -date 1993 you will find something all together different. Rules Committee Nof.ites 10-7-03-Draft Not Ar,rcvca Ald. Rainey said I'm not being argumentative, and I do support your acknowledgement that we should have Z majoritylminority wards, but its really interesting if you look at the before and after numbers, for example in existing ward 5 there is 34.3% .whites and 51.6% blacks but in proposal Sb the white population jumps 6% to 40% and the black population actually dips 1%. So what really happens in the 5`h ward is there is an increase in the white over black population. We are talking very small numbers but I'm bringing up the point because unless we look at all the numbers, that one number isn't all that important although we do need majority/minority populations, but there is a 690 increase in whites and a 1% percent decrease in blacks. Mr. Baumberger said the idea is, as Mr. Mitchell pointed out, we have to work with the distribution of people as they are in the community now and the argument is that is what it is physically, and what we are suggesting is a reap that we think works. Does that say this is the ultimate map? Not necessarily, there are obviously a lot of perspectives and ideas here and opportunities to adjust, but Nye think this could be a very good framework. Aid. Rainey said I point that out not because of your map, it could be in another map as well, but it is interesting that this does pose a 6% threat if only majority black wards are going to elect blacks, if that concept is valid. Aid. jean -Baptiste said in order for the 5'h ward to get to the 6500, to get to parity, they would have had to add almost 1000 new 18 years and older. So in the process of doing so the population that was available to transfer would either had to come from the Th or V wards which both have very few African -Americans in them. Those were one of the major problems with proposal 1 with the possibility of 1641 students being shifted over it had dipped the African -Americans in the 2 ' ward to about 34%. These are the challenges we have to overcome in our effort to try and come up with a map that is representative of what our interest or what we believe to be the values that will guide what we do. So there is no way he could have shifted an equivalent number of African -Americans. Aid. Rainey said I understand that all completely, my point was that when you look at these numbers it flies in the face of saying that the voting strength is enhance by these numbers. Because in reality the fact is the voting strength is diminished by these numbers. Aid. jean -Baptiste asked are you talking about voting pattern. Aid. Rainey said no, voting strength of black verses white and these numbers don't lie. I'm not challenging credibility, I'm just saying look at the PW numbers, it doesn't enhance the voting strength of African -Americans. I agree with everything that you say I understand why this is the consequence that you stated about the realities of the population and the demographics. All I am pointing out is because this is here does not mean that the voting strengths of blacks has been enhanced, it has in fact been diminished in the map. Aid. jean -Baptiste said that may be true, so in our deliberation as to what to do, perhaps ive will find sonic kind of solution to all of this based on the values that are guiding us at this particular time. These are the realities that we are facing in terms of the population and redistribution. Aid. Wynne asked Mr. Baumberger why he considered it a benefit to have the downtown in a single ward, Mr. Baumberger said it provides a strong focus of an alderman representing that ward. It certainly gives you an opportunity to have the ability to address the issue of quality in an effective manner and certainly all aldermen have concern about downtown. On some issues it could be handled well having that area in a primarily single ward. Aid. Rules Ccrnn ttee Minutes 10-7-03-Dreft Nat Approved Wynne said in my %iew it is probably better not to have the downtown in a single ward. We don't have it that way now and I think it actually strengthens our representation. That simply is a concern of mine with respect to proposal 5b. My only other point is it is hard to come up with natural boundaries that define wards and the 3" ward is one of the easiest one to come up with natural boundaries, because we have the railroad tracks. I see your analysis behind it but I think it certainly radically alters. The 3'' ward is relatively unchanged, but the 4' ward is completely altered. Aid. Newman said one thing we said when we originally took on this task was we wanted to change the wards as little as possible in terms of the boundaries because we didn't want to break up the neighborhoods and didn't want to change diversity. When you did your map, were you aware of any ward in the city having less single family homes than others? Mr. Baumberger suspects that the 1" ward has the least amount of single family homes. Aid. Newman asked in terms of having children, families and single family homes that there ought to be diversity in every ward? Mr. Baumberger said yes. Aid. Newman said and did you take into consideration that you eliminated virtually all of the single family housing in the V ward? fir. Baumberger said the 1" ward still has a significant single family. Aid. Newman said did its percentage go up compared to other wards of the city or did it go down? Mr. Baumberger said he did not look at that particular percentage. Aid. Newman said he wanted to make it of record that there was a comment made by the chair that there was a problem «nth map #1. He had not responded up until this time and felt it was time to respond. In my ,.iety there were two maps initially put out, one by Aid. Jean -Baptiste and one by me. Aid. Jean-Baptiste's map had a higher percentage of African Americans in his ward. I would submit, when voting; patterns are considered and I studied the voting patterns, that my original map #1, and I believe this to the day and am pretty sure that I'm correct on this, made African Americans more electable than Aid. Jean- Baptiste's map #2. I bring this up because there were a significant number of whites that were added in my map I to the 2°' ward and they happen to be from the voting pattern of the people that were added to his ward and were among the lowest likely people to vote. In Aid. Jean-Baptiste's map Z we added 700 whites, I added almost 1600 whites, I %%ill submit today and I will submit then that the 700 whites that he added were more likely to vote in a higher number than the 1600 whites that I added. So I resent and I want to make this clear that when I did my first map #l, I consulted with African American members of the Council, I consulted with African American members of the community and my map #1 makes it as electable for an African American as any map that is put up of all 11 or 12 maps. So there was no problem with my map in my opinion, maybe in somebody else's opinion, but in my opinion the African American opportunity to be elected in my map # 1 was as great as any other map and I consulted with African Americans wheelers of the community before I release them. So I resent the idea that anybody refers to my map as having a problem in that area. What I will say is anybody has a right to suggest a better map, but when my map #1 came out I tried to be as sensitive as I possibly could be to the idea of electing 2 African American aldermen and I share that idea and I don't consider my map number 1 to have a problem with it. I would be very glad to listen to other alternatives, better suggestions, but I resent the fact and think it is an unfair criticism of that map to say there was a problem with 10 Rules C.-mmittee Minutes I0-7-C3-Drc't Not Approved that map. There might not be a majority of African Americans the way some people construe it to be, but in my view that map was as electable for an African American as everyone else's map. Ald. Jean -Baptiste said I support that statement, he did consult with everyone before putting out his map and when I put out my map it was always for discussion, because I didn't see the process as being one that i= determined by one or two aldermen. I saw the process as one that is participatory and that is «hat we are engaged in right now. So on that he is totally correct. My comment was that I .vas giving an example as to what happens when you have to transfer the number of people into either the 5'`-' or 2' wards in order to reach parity. The 2' ward has 5300 people, the 5t' ward about 5600 right now and we need to get to 6500. There are not many places to get the additional numbers unless you alter the map significantly. If you want to keep the ward boundaries pretty consistent as they are right now it means you are shifting whites into the 5" or 2°' wards. If you %vant to get 5O%, 51% or close to the percentage you have to reconfigure the boundaries of the various wards. That was not intended to be a criticism of him; he had been sensitive and had been through the whole issue of voting patterns, so I give him that. Mr. Baumberger said one key point you need to consider if you absolutely want to limit the changes to a couple of wards or if you are willing to take a look at coming up with a fair and equitable map that takes in ward boundaries across the community. Ald. Newman said what you define as fair and equitable is your opinion and the opinion of I -our committee and the political points of view of the people on your committee. Fair and equitable has many authors and many view points. When you use the term that this ward is fair and equitable what proposal 8b does in a lot of ways is wards were totally emasculate or changed. You've basically emasculated or completely changed the 4 ' ward and substantially changed the 9" ward. The Rules committee decided long ago that they were going to try and create as little change as possible because of the fact that it would be more controversial if we did to the individual alderman. We were truing to keep neighborhoods that have been traditionally together in their wards and not have to transfer people around. Now that might be something to your group that is not fair and equitable but people have different views of what fair and equitable is. And when you use the term that your map is fair and equitable it implies that the other maps are not. It was noted that proposal 8b shows 52.5% student population in the 1" ward. Allan Drebin, 2018 On ington, 1" ward presented proposal 9. 1 believed this is the only map that meets the Iegal requirements and is a good road map the committee ought to be looking at. Unfortunately, maybe some have not read the requirements in the memo put out by the legal department or maybe didn't understand them. As an example proposal 3b previously presented at another meeting di%ides a census block. In one case in the 1960 census when they didn't have census blocks they divided census tracks. You can not di%ide a census block so proposal 3b is a non starter. I'm not going to make judgments I'm just going to suggest that we follow the law; I play by the rules and think you should play by the rules as well. For example, the basics are continuity and compactness and all the wards are 11 Rules Cornnittee Minutes Vet Approved contiguous and compacted. In proposal 9 Ward 1 is extremely compact compared to what it had been and Ward 7 was quite elongated and has been shorten. The borders all follow natural boundaries with the railroad tracks. For example the red line is not just some arbitrary division where I decided people on one side ought to be in one ward and those on the other side should be in another ward because you can't get from one place to another. Ward 3 is one but the railroad tracks extend through much of Evanston so most of those are natural boundaries. Getting; to the more basics of why my map is different from some of the other maps, the memo refers to the voting rights act. In voting; rights act there are certain criteria that you must meet and I'm not sure that we can meet them, but we've got enough lawsuits in this city and paid enough money because we lost some of those lawsuits that I don't think it is going; to be north going to court to defend against possible charges here. The criterion is "that the minority group is sufficiently large and geographically compact to constitute a majority in at least a district or ward". My map clearly shows that. One thing we've got to understand is the existing wards everybody is trying; to claim were made under a different law. The existing wards were drawn looking at total population. Therefore it is not logical to expect that a map drawn based on the 18 and over population is also going; to meet the same criteria. It turns out that even with all of the ward boundaries some of the aldermen that currently represent the nine wards live in those particular wards and that is partly,.ti,hy the numbering; system is there. On proposal 9 the ward I designated as the 2" ward current tins two aldermen; Aid. Rainey and Ald. Jean -Baptiste, either one of them could perhaps represent that ward. There is a new ward designated as ward 8 and currently no alderman lives there. As it turns out other than Ald. Newman nobody lives in the northeast corner of Evanston so when you try to draw wards that are equal in population it's not always possible to get there. The second criterion is that of the minority group being politically cohesive. I have a feeling; that the African -American community in Evanston is politically cohesive. The third criteria is white majority vote sufficiently as a block, to enable it is usually to defeat the minority preferred candidate. The question asked earlier about what is the potential for electing an African -American alderman is not relevant. What you arc looking; at is who is going to represent the African American community. Therefore the question about what is the likelihood of electing a black alderman from a district is irrelevant. City Council redrew the map 10 years ago and some of you were on it and some may not have been, but for many, many years Lincoln Street had been the north border of the 1" ward and if you notice the current ward, the word gerrymandering comes up. What I have done is put back together the ward campus, the south campus and the surrounding area and people will tze%v that as a predominately student ward, but that is irrelevant. I looked up some Supreme Court cases; the Supreme Court has ruled in other redistricting cases that it is not legal to make districting decision under the basis of occupation. What that means is you can not ask whether these arc students or whatever. What you can ask is how old are they and I think the City Manager has indicated that there is a correlation of age and occupation in the 1" ward. Mr. Drebin said one reason we are talking about having predominately African -Americans wards is that we have the voting, rights act. The reason we have the voting rights act is after a 100 years of having the 15`h amendment which gave suffrage to African -Americans and says the right of citizens in the United States to rote shall not be denied or bridged by the 12 Rules Ccmn,ttee Minutes 10-7-03-Dreft Not A;proved United States or any state on the count of race, color or previous condition of servitude. That was passed in 1 S70. The voting rights act was passed in 1965 and after almost 100 years it was necessary because despite the 15`' amendment African -Americans were still discriminated against in voting and it was a national problem. After the voting rights act was passed in 1965 the constitution was amended in 1971, and students are not a protected class in their voting rights act because the students were not allowed to vote when the voting rights act was passed. But the language in the 26" amendment of the constitution passed in 1971 for an act in 1971 says the right of citizens in the United States whowere 18 years of age or older to vote shall not be denied or bridged by the united States or any state on the count of age other than over 18. The same words of the 15th amendment and the 19`h amendment, which gave women the right to vote, also reads exactly the same. I think you can see the legal aspects and I think my map is the only one that is represented so far that actually meets all the Iegal criteria. Quoting from the legal departments memo, because people ask if I think a majority is needed to do this or that, says "assuming the Gingles factors exist, a redistricting plan will only be considered to provide'equal participation' if it provides minority voters with 'effective' majority/minority districts in substantially the same proportion to the group's share of the district's population." If you notice the group of 4090' should have 40% of majority districts. We have about 20% African Americans in the city, 20% of 9 is about 2. Also in the memo it says "An 'effective' majority/minority district has been defined as one in which the minority group in question has a voting age population of over 609n." This is not an opinion as to whether an African -American could be elected with 60% or 5596 or 10%. This is the law. It turns out that the 5" ward would have 62% black population. It is not the racial of whites to blacks, the law says 60%, you can change my map to get it down to 60% from 62% but I do feel 60`b is something we ought to have. In the 2' ward the black population is 53.5% which is about comparable to what it is now. There are not enough African -Americans at near compactly that we can get 2 majority African -American wards that is effective majority wards with 60%. On the other hand we can have one with 60% and another with 53% which is about what it is now. Finally, this new ward 8 which would have predominately the downtown area, I think this idea of having diversity in a ward is not the legal requirement. I'm not talking about where you live, we are talking about voting and voting power and the Supreme Court has talked about dilution of voting power and that is unlawful and is the reason I am proposing this. As it turns out this ward 8 is the smallest ward, you can not consider under the law the potential of ne►v residents that live downtown in all of these high rise buildings, on the other hand by having this as the smallest ward there is some slack in there as we go and do it. But I do feel that the residents living the downto►►-n area probably have more power. Ald. Newman said .when you first came to our August 4 meeting you said the map that was put out gave gerrymandering a bad name. I would say that the map you just put out gave gerrymandering an obscenely name, because you've taken many 30 and 25 year residents and eliminated them from the 1" ward. When you submitted the map and you decided to return the 1500 people that you say were taken out in 1993, were you aware of the fact that when you created the map that you created a map that was 85% students? Mr. Drebin said the Supreme Court has said that occupation is not the irrelevant consideration; therefore I don't know how many students are there. Aid. Newman said I just want to be clear, when 13 RLics Ccrnnatee Minutes 10-7-03-graft Not Approved you put together your map and tried to come up With a map, did it enter your mind at all to have as many students as possible in the V ward. fir. Drebin said yes and I do believe that one of the criteria that Herb Hill's memo mentioned, for example in terms of racial gerrymandering he talks about race and then he says "This is not to say that race may not be considered when drafting a plan. However, race must be subordinate to traditional districting considerations, such as compactness, contiguity, respect for political subdivisions, and respect for communities defined by actual shared interest." I believe that the people that are in this district that I have designated as Ward 1 have a lot of shared interest. They all go to the same school, they all are about the same age, they all root for the same team, etc. Aid. Rainey said there was a comment earlier, something about it doesn't matter what ward people live in their neighborhoods. That might be true but the only ward you eliminate is the current S" ward. You say we have a new ward S. I think your map it was extremely hurtful. To think that somebody would take a ward that had come so far in the last few years and completely wipe it off of the city of Evanston. I don't really care whether I live in the 8'h ward or the 2' ►ward or have to move some place else or go to Florida and retire, none of that bothers me. But for you to take a community, and I think a lot of people in the 8'h ward feel that they are S warders, for you to take and eliminate the 8'h ward is kind of shocking and I think that is the purpose of your map. Your map says to me I'm going to produce something that creates real shock value to this community so that it creates controversy and therefore a lot of attention and a lot of discussion. I'm not interested in debating you, the constitution or none of that, but what you did to the south end of town in terms of disbursing people into other wards is really unconscionable and I don't like it at all. And I wouldn't vote for this map if you paid me to vote for it. I really don't want to get into a debate I'm just making a comment. Aid. Tisdahl said Prof. Drebin at one point you said you believed your trap is the only legal reap. Mr. Hill is this the only legal map? Mr. Hill said first of all there has been no analysis of these maps, seeing that proposal 9 is as opposed to any other proposal this is a legal map. The law department has not analyzed these maps to determine whether these maps meet all the criteria for the legality which would be highly determination most likely to sustain in a possible litigation. So to say this map is more legal than another is Prof. Drebin's conclusion, but at this point we have not done that analysis and 'we can't do an analysis of that nature for 16 maps. Ald. Tisdahl thanked Mr. Hill. Mr. Atkins said Prof. Drebin your rendition of the law when you sited our Counsel's memorandum, you ran on for about 5 minutes but you went through one word, assumed. You said assuming, in the memorandum, that the criteria of the Gingles case is carried out and all these other matters may follow, such as majority/minority, impact on blacks and that kind of thing. Now the United States Supreme Court in the Gingles case said that racial block voting typically prevents the minority group from electing candidates of its choice. This is a requirement before the voting rights act was even in operation and suggests "assuming" you get over a huge hurdle, because Barnett Th circuit said when you are looking at the wards of the City of Chicago you had polarized voting, no minority was ever 14 Rules CCr. =Iiee Minutes 50-7-03-Draft tit Approved elected in the City of Chicago in any ward unless it was majority. And that was a finding. This isn't Mississippi, or Chicago, or Georgia this is Evanston and I submit Prof. Drebin that in terms of following the law, the law is being followed, Evanston is a different community and there is no law supporting your premise and if there is no law supporting your premise everything else fails. I would like to say that I do not appreciate, nor do I think the Council members appreciate the threatening manner in which you set possible lawsuits as a result of these maps and their hard work in connection with it. Prof. Drebin said I think Herb Hill has indicated that he wants to rule on the potential but before doing this you ought to consider the potential lawsuits. I'm not threatening a lawsuit, I'm just sayinthat the City should not be involved in this. I did read out these criteria and r- ive said that the minority group is sufficiently large and geographically compact we've got that, that the minority group is politically cohesive, we've got that, the other is a finding of fact. Aid. Bernstein said lair. Drebin when I see a ward proposed of campus housing comprising 85.1% individuals and in your comments that the individuals in the north and south side of the campus had a community of interest. The interest I draw is that you believe that a student should be elected to the City Council. Is that your statement? Mr. Drebin said absolutely not, just as I said with African Americans, it is a representative who represents the students in the City Council and they would like an alderman who will represent them. Aid, Newman said as do all of our constituents. Peggy Tarr said my question is rather general where there are some mixed up facts. I would like to have clarification of what this meeting is about, I thought the intention of the meeting was to have maps presented for our information, whether we agree «zth the mapping or not rather than having a lot of political dialogue. To be very honest with you I resent some of the challenges from some of the people who have presented. Not just Mr. Drebin. I thought this was just so that we could have information and that you an the Rules Committee would receive information. It seems there is a whole lot of hostility going on that is unnecessary. Aid. jean -Baptiste said we are getting the presentations and in the presentations people are justifying the bases of submitting particular maps. We all have the right to question them. I have tried to keep things that are not relevant off the table to the extent that I could. There is no way that We are going to be able to control all of the reactions to the maps. When Aid. Rainey responded about the solid ward that was moved, that was a legitimate reaction. i am hoping that the dialogue will clarify for us certain positions. I mean this discussion around the legal bases for the redistricting process that we have to undergo, the back and forth, clarify for some people what the bases are for going forward. Some of the comments may be offensive, but I think for the most part we've had some good discussions on some of the maps. There are some political opponents who have come forward and people have some issues with them and they may raise it in terms of the intent of their map, but overall I think we have been more civil than anything else. I think we have conducted the process fairly. 15 Rules Cornnit,ee Mrrutes 10-7-M-1,raft ,Unt ,spprored Ms. Peterson said regarding ward I on proposal 9 the percentage of students is S5%. What is the percentage of residential taxpayers? Because that is a significant number that should be noted. Someone said it couldn't be more than 15%. Mr. Drebin said the Supreme Court has ruled that paying taxes is not a criterion for voting. Nis. Peterson said but mutual interest is and we have a mutual interest to be able to run the city. Sue Calder presented proposal 10 and stated that they took 958 people out of the 2' ward and put them in the 6" ward which would bring it in to your 10% balance. I've heard Aid. Newman say that we were mooing toward the least amount of change and what we were doing was community redistricting and Aid. Rainey said she was shocked the last time, I'm sure this map is even more shocking. We decided to say, what if. What if '.Ve went to 6 wards and 2 aldermen per ward? That would increase the number of aldermen and spread their burden more equitably among 12 people rather than 9. So I call this map instead of proposal 10, a what if map. It provides some blocks, you have a southeast block, a northeast block, a northwest block and a western block and then you've got 2 elongated disperse but all the wards are a little elongated. For the most part they are really running on a vertically and that is one way you can look at maps when you just throw things up and say what are we going to look at and that is what I am challenging you. Let's think creatively. If you would draw your maps vertically or horizontally you get a very different picture and in this case the chosen direction was to go up and down. You have alderman representing blocks and in wards 5 S 6 you have people going really from the north of the city to the south of the City. Aid. Neuman said looking at your ward 6 would you agree that one of the reasons we have a ward system in Evanston is so that people who live in the ward would be more familiar with the neighborhood problems in that particular area? Ms. Calder said that is one of the reasons that the wards are currently drawn the way they are. There is another way of looking at it, ward 6 would not be prevential but would look at the entire city because his/her ward would go from the top of the city to the bottom. Aid. Newman said so you _ think somebody who lives right near Isabella would have a good working knowledge of what is going on at Howard Street? Ms. Calder said a good Alderman would. Aid. Rainey asked if changing the number of wards and the number of aldermen if that is a redistricting issue or an issue for a referendum, Mr. Hill said it is a referendum question, not a redistricting question. Aid. Rainey said so this really isn't a map that could be considered for this redistricting vote, is that correct or unless we held a special election' fir. Crum said that is correct, without a doubt this map alters. Aid. Rainey said so we could not adopt this map for this redistricting. Mr. Crum said no. :fir. Hill said for this proposal it is a multi step process, but one of those steps is a referendum of the people to have this change if this change could be on the ballot in the first place. AId. Rainey said ok so that really takes this map out of the running for one of the possible maps we could consider. But it certainly will tickle our brains. Mr. Calder said that is exactly it. It is a concept to try and stimulate discussion, to try and stimulate what are the goals for redistricting and should we stay with what we have right now or should we think more creatively on how we can best serve the citizens of Evanston. 16 R;:'es Cor rotsee Mor,.tes 10-7-03-Draf*. Not A;;roved Ald. jean -Baptiste said map I 1 is sort of a computer created map. Aid. Tisdahl and I came over to get some clarification because it was hard to read the streets and asked Mr. Keegan to see if he could draw• a map that had a criterion close to 50% black majority in swards 5 6c 2. We also look at maintaining some balance in terms of students and non students in the 1" ward and that is what map 11 is about. We are seeing it for the first time ourselves and what it did. Aid. Tisdahl said it is her personal belief that to have a ward that is more likely to elect an African American we needed either to hit 50% or to at least hit 101% of more African Americans than white voters and that is what we asked for also because it is my belief that while it is quite possible for an African American to be elected in the 7'h sward there are so few that it is highly unlikely that any of them would run, because it takes a strange sort of person to do this. She thanked fir. Keegan very much for doing it. Aid. Jean -Baptiste said proposal I 1 has sward 2 at 48% African American and 37.6% whites, sward 5 is 45.9%.white, 48.5% African Americans and the student population is 36%. So as it is right now the 6`s sward is basically unaffected, the 7`h sward is impacted some, 5`' sward took over some areas of the 71h ward and some areas of the 2`' sward. The 2'J sward gives up some area to the -}"ward and the 4" sward takes some of the student population. That swill be the main change for the I" ward. Then the 2" sward would absorb some of the population in the 9`h ward and that is the extent of it. Aid. Rainey said what about the So' sward, it got an entire peaceful population, the cemetery population. Aid. jean -Baptiste said you picked up territory but you didn't pick up population. Aid. Rainey asked why that would be like that. Aid. Jean -Baptiste said there are voters in 2 blocks in that area. Aid. ,Newman disagreed with Aid. Tisdahl on the premise, you necessarily have to have a 10% of plurality in order to make a sward more electable for a certain racial group. One of the things taken into consideration in the maps originally done was voting patterns. The sway maps are done in redistricting numbers are not purely looked at in terms of percentages, you look at voting patterns. For example, when 1500 students were added to the 7'h ward, after 1993 in the elections that followed in 1997 and 2001, almost negligible people voted out of those 1500 people. You can't just analyze a map as to whether or not it is more or less likely to elect a certain minority group or any group without looking also at voting patterns and that is one of the things I attempted to do in my map. So I disagree with the premise that in order for an African American or any racial group to be elected that they have to have 5090 of the ward. I particularly do not think that applies to the City of Evanston where the City of Evanston has elected an African American Mayor. As a matter of fact, my reading of the memo put forward is very similar to fir. Atkins in so much that the City of Evanston does not have any problem that the voting rights act has attempted to correct. The voting rights act cases of 5 communities where there has been discrimination and attempts to prevent minority groups from obtaining political office has not happen in the City of Evanston. I just want to make that part of our discussion. It particularly hasn't happened in recent years in the City of Evanston, we have had a dramatic change in the party registration over the last 10 or 15 years from where it was in the 70's and 60's. As an example Carol Moseley Braun carried out our city for senate by almost 759b or 80% over white. 17 :Z_JeS Com►)ittee 14iri!es 10.7.03-Draft `!ct R; grave Judy Fisk said for the students who are here I have had lots of conversations with you and you know I appreciate you. We do have a new generation of students every 4 years and for those of us who live in swards that have basically been the same shape for 20 or 30 years have a relationship bet%vevn the people who live in those wards over the years when we were talking about who is going to be our alderman. There is a lot of work that floes into deciding who to vote for and V hat candidate to support. We really rely on and have a good working relationship with the other members of our ward that we have worked with many, many years and suddenly that is gone. It is a lot of hard work to lice in this town, people who live here put a lot of effort into making this city a wonderful place to live and to have all of that just thrown out and form these new relationships and basically start from scratch is really unfair to the people who live in the ~wards. That is one of the reasons why I encourage the students to be a little bit sympathetic toward the goals of the people who live in our wards. Get more involved in the current and running problems that are in the city and really help us out in those issues rather than just look on your issues at the time of an election think about the wards and what we have been working on for years. I would encourage all of you to look to and at least talk to your constituents before you radically change all the ward boundaries. Peggy Tarr said I want to address some things I think needs clarifying. One is I think that the only way to insure that an African American can run is to have 2 wards that have majority African Americans in them. The other is there were statements made several times about the election of the 'Mayor in Evanston who is black. There are people now who still don't know that the Mayor is black. The other is Carol Moseley Braun probably got in more because she was a democratic than the fact that she was black. I have lived in Evanston for a long time and I know how my experiences here in Evanston have been, it is not as liberal as it is portrait and I would suggest Aid. Newman that maybe you should have yourself painted black and then live in Evanston and see what actually goes on. I resent having Evanston presented as such a wonderful little place for black people, no its not, and I'm sure there are other minorities here who have suffered. I want to clarify that. A student said I just want to say that I have watched you guys tonight and I appreciate all that you have done and just ask that you continue your interest. He asked why on proposal 11 were 1600 students knocked out. Aid. jean -Baptiste said we could probably talk a little bit about what's going on with that _ 1600 student block. It is one census block and there has been a real difficult fight — we've had difficulty in trying to reach parity in terms of voting age population in each ward and in order to do that we had to move that whole block sometimes to accommodate the change in the numbers. For example in the 2"ward, 3 out of 4 maps moved that whole block because the 2' ward is significantly short and the V ward is significantly over so in order to try and reach parity this was one way to do it because we couldn't break up that block. We couldn't break up that census block and that is why it gets moved together. Aid. Newman said I just want the record to reflect, without responding to that last comment, which 1 thought was a personal and racist attack, I just want to say that I am 18 Rules C^rnittee Mirutes 10-7-03-Droft Not Approved fighting in this map process to keep my African American constituents that I have represented for probably 12 years. I do not want my African American constituents to be eliminated from my ward and I'm going to fight every single day to keep my African American constituents in my .yard and the maps that have been drawn, by political opponents of mine - the so call citi=en committee, in most cases eliminate the African American constituents in my ward, and I'm going to fight to keep them and I have a right to do that. Ms. Hickman said while sitting here a number things have been disturbing me, one is the personal attack attitude that the aldermen think that we have. You as aldermen are suppose to come with an open mind and don't act like it is personal. Everybody knows that it is difficult to get anybody under 30 to vote and to sit here and imply that the students don't need to vote, don't have a right to vote goes against the grain of the future of our country. I want to give you a brief history lesson about Evanston and voting and I'm telling you what I have lived. I don't know what is in the history books or anything else, I'm telling you what I lived. When I was born here blacks lived all over Evanston they literally took the houses that blacks lived in and put them on jacks and wheeled them over to the 5" ward. When Aid. Jourdain was alderman we had a mayoral form of government, he was about to run for mayor and it was at that time they changed the city government from mayoral to city manager so consequently blacks are very concerned about getting black representation. It has always been a struggle to get a black person up there regardless of voting rights and everything else. So when talk about history, we have lived through it you can tell us anything but we know what we have lived through and that is what we go by. Bette Sue Ester said Aid. Newman had mentioned back in August at a Rules Committee meeting that the aldermen representing wards that were affected would get together and draw a map. I've seen his map and the one from the 2 ' ward. Did those other aldermen get together and draw a map? Has that discussion happened? Is it going to happen? Also, I think at one meeting ;pis. Jager had mentioned something about the city ordinance that talks about 5090' in two wards, where is all of that? If people are trying to balance it with the city ordinance was that city ordinance turned around and defeated or is it still standing on the books? Aid. Jean -Baptiste said there are no ordinances that require 50% African Americans in the two wards. Nis. Treadway noted that housing patterns are critically important when removing constituents that are going to vote. We must never ever forget that is an important criterion of reality on who is going to vote because they impact the voting patterns. There is a false idea that the existing housing pattern is going to change people's voting patterns because people who vote affirm that same housing pattern. So though the map proposal I I is trying to give a higher potential of voting based on the census on who is living there, doesn't necessarily mean we are going to get that voting pattern. But it is more likely that if that voting pattern is consistent with that housing pattern then we will have a representative voted for from that ward who is going to represent the interests of that particular group. This is supposed to be a nonpartisan community on politics, so it doesn't matter whether you are a democrat or a republican but that you are a representative of the community and W1 Rules Ccmmittee Minutes 10-7.03-Draft N:t Approved the interest that you live in. This plurality giving potential to the vote is not as important as the fact that if you would Iook at those voting patterns, the plurality chat has existed for years in Evanston says who is voting. That plurality is not done by color. The 8`h ward is no different than any other ward, but like any other ward we want to keep our neighborhood contiguous with some kind of physical boundaries and with some interest. Granted the alderperson in the S`h ward and the 9'' ward may have more black and other minority residents but they have also learned how to deal with those constituent's interests in a more diverse manner. We want to reach a majority minority in the 2' and 5" wards. We want to have the least traumatic change to the existing wards that ►ve have, because those representative wards do have older people and constituents that work together and we don't want to change it that much. We know there has got to be change but we don't want to make it so traumatic that we are all elongated this way and I am two miles from my neighbor or elongated that way where I am going to be so far removed from anything that I won't know who is in my ward. The last thing is the I" ward, the constituents population that Aid. Newman is referring to that is African Americans are senior citizens. We know that they are eery religious about voting and being represented and that is good, but we also want to stimulate voting from young people too and we can't just rely on our seniors to vote our favorite candidate in, we need to get young people involved in voting and we only can do that by allowing them the opportunity to feel that their vote will count in whatever election. Ald. jean -Baptiste reminded everybody that although we didn't review maps I to 3b, these traps are still on the table to be discussed by the alderman for consideration, we wanted to talk about the ne►v maps tonight. We had decided at our last Rules Committee meeting that on the 20'h we intend to have a public hearing where there will be further discussion about all of the maps and there is also a proposal that the aldermen at that time deliberate over which map they would like to adopt and make a decision that night. At this point and time we need to talk about that to see where we «•ant to go and by when. Ald. Moran said I am fine with the hearing on the 20`b but I don't think we should make any decisions then. Tonight from my perspective is the first night that we've really looked at this issue on a broader base. There have been a couple of maps that have been offered previously but there hasn't been any critical analysis, very little by way of comparison. I feel that now having I I maps and seeing the different approaches that people have brought, heard the discussions, see how the issues have been raised and sort of put out for thought, discussion and debate what we've really done tonight is start. I don't think it would be wise =- to end at the start. We should have the meeting on the 20`h but I don't think we should end this process then. The person who said is this going to be a community discussion, a city discussion amongst all the people who are here, I think the answer to that needs to be a resounding yes. Ultimately members of the city council will have to adopt a map, but I'm _ not comfortable with the notion that is simply the members of the city council individually and collectively who will make all of these decisions more or less in the vacuum. I think now that we have created an environment where people are working on these maps, I've been very stimulated and very interested to hear the comments of everybody who was here tonight. It certainly has given me food for thought and I hope I can apply it rationally ultimately to a decision, but I don't think we should cut off this discussion 13 days from C RJes Cemrnittee thrutes 10-7-03-Draft Not App.-cve=4 now. I would like to see us continue the discussion 13 days from now and take the time to do this right and to do it well and to continue to start. This has been a very health} dialogue tonight and I really appreciate it and mould like to scz it continued. Aid. jean -Baptiste asked what kind of timetable he would suggest since we soon will go into budget season. Aid. Moran said it might not be a bad idea to try to conic to some conclusion before the V of the year, when we start going through the budget on a heavy bases. Aid. Newman moved that we as a Rules Committee make a decision on Oct. 20 to recommend the map to the city council for a passage on that night. Aid. Rainey said I will second it if you .will explain recommending passage on that night. Aid. Newman said I am talking about the Rules committee completing its work. Aid. Rainey seconded. Aid. Ncvvman said we have had this at the Rules Committee for over 2 years, talked about this for over 2 years, had a public hearing; in August and then the first map that came out had been out already for 2 months. In September we gave long; periods of time and there have been other maps presented and a lot of discussion but there are also other issues that the city of Evanston and City Council needs to deal with. This particular issue has taken a lot of our time and it is time for closure. People have made the arguments and many of the arguments have been repeated from the public hearing. We had one public hearing in August we are going to have another public hearing on October 20, but there comes a point and time where you have to reach closure and decide on an issue. There were other points made about giving other candidate's time. We need to be done with this issue and I don't think it is unreasonable at some point and time to have a discussion and to recommend a map out of these that are already here to the city council. We've had plenty of time to deal with this, nobody can argue that there has been any form of a rush here at all, because it has gone on, we started this over two years ago and if we were truly rushing we would have been done with it over a year ago. I think we can complete our work, we can hear the additional comments on Oct. 20. I think it is time to bring closer to this issue that is my motion. Aid. Tisdahl said Mr. Hill said he could not give a legal opinion on 10 or 11 maps. I can't vote until I know if I am voting on a legal map. So I would need to have a legal opinion before I vote. So we would need to narrow it down to a number that we can handle. Aid. jean -Baptiste said while I want to get it off the table and be able to move on. I'm just not secure in this process. Even though I have look at the maps very closely, participated in putting one together, and came here yesterday and took another look, but the process itself to me has not been that easy. While we've set down and we've met I don't know whether on the 20' if I will be ready after the deliberation, people present, argue, and promote. I thins: we would need to come back as the Rules Committee and sit down and really go through the map and try to come to some kind of consensus as to .what we will support. I know some of us u-ill be discussing this among ourselves between now and then, but I just don't feel secure in the process between now and the 2O,h that I will be ready to vote for a particular map. I think we need more discussions among ourselves. Ald. Kent and I have been trying to meet. Aid. Bernstein and I have talked about minor deviation, but there is still a lot of work to do in terms of our own consultation in my opinion. 21 pules Cant'n,ttee 1aor_Ies I0-7-03-Draft Not A p!—c.ed , Aid. Bernstein said I think what we are trying to do and what we voted to do the last time is keep the process moving. In our memo and Counsel indicated that we would have to introduce it and then bring it back. So theoretically if more than one individual wanted not to vote on the 20" it wouldn't happen anyway. So I don't see any problem with keeping the pressure on. I read in the paper that there is a four and a half million dollar deficit proposed, we had been remised as a budget committee to deal with these issues in a timely fashion and it is coming. I would like to keep the pressure on. I don't want to defer this if a couple of aldermen don't want to vote it is not going to happen on the 20`s, but I think we should do what we said we are going to do have a public hearing and a potential vote on a map. Aid. Newman said my motion is to select a map and if the Rules Committee selects a map that map would be placed in ordinance form, it will be placed on the agenda probably a week later to be introduced and then it will be voted on in the middle of November. Everybody will know 3 weeks in advance what map the Rules Committee is recommending to the City Council and will be able to comment on it. Maybe we will pick two maps that will go on the City Council agenda for introduction at the meeting that will follow which is Oct. 27`s then at the November 10" meeting there will be a vote. That gives almost 5 weeks from now and will give people plenty of time. We can recommend a map or two or three maps and asks the legal department to look at them, but I see no reason to have our legal staff look at 15 maps, especially maps that don't have a serious chance to be considered for passage by the City Council. I would like us to finish our work as a Rules Committee, have a hearing, and make a recommend to the City Council at that next meeting and then a meeting from that vote. Aid. Moran said I think one of the reasons we may want to have Mr. Hill examine these things from a legal standpoint is that his indication to us as to legalities of various proposals may drag for discussion. Last time we were here Mr. Hill made mention of the Supreme Court case Georgia vs. Ashcroft which I think was decided in June. I went over to the federal court law library today and read the case; everybody should read the case because I think it would change how you .ie%v a lot of what was said here tonight. A lot of what ►vas said tonight may present some serious challenges to legalities of what people are proposing in a lot of these maps. Without the insight as to what those boundaries are I think it would be hard to determine which of these maps will be well insulated from an attack if someone were to decide to challenge some of these proposals. I think there are risks for challenging a number of them in just reading this one case. I support the need for more time. Aid. jean -Baptiste offered a friendly amendment that on the 20" of October have the public hearing and have the next Rules Committee meeting on the 3" of November where tine go over and get a concentrated discussion on the maps and try to come up with maps or a map that the Rules Committee may recommend. On the night of the public hearing there will be a lot of presentations from citizens, we then will go into some discussions that may be _ exhausted. I don't think we will have enough time to really focus enough attention. If we _ come back on November YJ at the next Rules Committee meeting and discuss the map and F 22 Rules Committee Minutes 10-7-03-Draft Not Approved try to come out Kith one or two maps that we can live with then at the next City Council meeting on November 10,h it could be introduced. That would be a compromise in pushing it back. Ald. Neuman did not accept the amendment stating they had too much work and too many different issues and have taken plenty of time on this and would like to have a vote on the motion. Aid. Bernstein said I don't see any problem in supporting the motion, we are either going to accept a particular map or two or three particular maps to send on to the Council or we are not. If in fact the Council can't agree on a group of maps or a map, it is not going to happen on the 20°". Let's just keep the pressure on and not start to defer things. Aid. jean -Baptiste asked Aid. Newman to repeat the motion. Aid. Newman said my motion is that I understand that there is a Special City Council meeting schedule for the 20". I move that we make that a Rules Committee meeting and Aid. jean -Baptiste will chair the meeting as the chair of the Rules Committee and we will meet and hear additional discussion from the public and comments on all the maps and at the end of that meeting, if it chooses to do so, %%ill vote on a map and if we chose not to vote on a map that night we won't. But the intend of my motion is to give us an opportunity, if we choose, to finish our work as a Rules Committee on Oct. 20, introduce the map at the November 10"i Council Meeting if %ve come up,.ith one and then vote on it two meetings down the road. The vote was 5 to 2. Motion carried Aid. Rainey asked if they were still going to have Executive Session Council meeting before the Rules Committee on October 20". The response was yes. Ms. Treadway asked if as of tonight there will be no more new maps accepted. The answer was yes. 'Nis. Treadway said my second question is if there is any map that comes out of the process perhaps on the 20'b will it be legally review and if it is found to be illegal it will be thrown out? Aid. jean -Baptiste said yes, and in terms of our own deliberations it is possible that out of the deliberation of the Council that there is a new map later, but there is no new proposal that comes from any place else. AD1DL'RNNiENT: Meeting adjourned at 9:30p.m. Respectfully submitted, Darlene Francellno 23 Rules Committee minutes 11/3/03-Approved I�iD.UTES OF THE RL L.ES COMMITTEE MONDAY, tiOVEMBER 3, 2003 Present: Aldermen Steven Bernstein, Gene Feldman, Lionel jean -Baptiste, Aldermen Joe Kent, Edmund Moran, Art Newman, Ann Rainey, Elizabeth Tisdahl and Melissa Wynne Presiding. Alderman Lionel Jean -Baptiste Staff Present: Maureen Barry, Roger Crum, Darlene Francellno, Herbert Hill, Pat Keegan, and Mark Varner Guests: George Mitchell, Bruce Baumberger, Jerome R. Summers, Jan Atwell, Michael Blake, Sandra Gross, Tracy Carson, Coley Harvey, Muriel Goodfrond, Jeff Smith, Craig Carter, David Kim, Jay Schumacher, Katie Stallcup, Randy Zwik, John Zbesko, Val Summers, Rev. John F. Norwood, Meredith Kesner, Mike Fong, Amin Siddiqui, John Joseph Hughes, Prajual Ciryam, Corine Onuango, Kerianne Tobitsch, Matthew Budow, Nicole Schwager, Cathy Biglari, Andrew Ptuwancher, Noora Lori, Eva Byerley, Jane Lee, Tamara Kagel, Jenny Kim, Dan Broadwell, Brian Miller, Delores Holmes, CALL TO ORDER: A quorum being present, Ald. jean -Baptiste called the meeting to order at 5:20 p.m. APPROVAL OF MINUTES OF THE SEPTEMBER 3. 2003 MEETING: Ald. Feldman moved for approval of the September 3, 2003 minutes. Ald. Bernstein seconded_ Motion carried. Minutes approved. DISCUSSION OF REDISTRICTING MAPS: Ald. jean -Baptiste explained that the discussions tonight will primarily be among the members of the Rules Committee. Two official public hearings on redistricting have been held and a semi-public hearing where additional traps were introduced or each of the traps that were prepared by citizen groups or others were introduced and at that time citizens were able to speak out and share their views. There have been other community meetings where there has been significant participation. That is not to say there may not be any exceptions, but for the most part the discussions will go on among the Rules Committee members because they have not heard from the Aldermen in terms of their position on different issues as to how they see mo,,ing forward to adopt a trap. If they are able to recommend a map tonight by majority vote, that map .will be forwarded to the City Council and introduced at the November 10 City Council meeting. Two weeks from that time that trap will be on the Council agenda for action. At both the next Council meeting and two weeks from that time citizen comments will be entertained. So there will still be additional opportunities to participate in this process. And of course, for the most part the aldermen are accessible and people can still weigh in on some discussions with them and let them know where you stand. Ald. Jean -Baptiste stated three additional maps were submitted and invited the proponents of those maps a few minutes to introduce them. Rules Committee minutes 11/3/03-Approved Bruce Baumberger, 3513 Central Street, introduced proposal 13b. He spoke on behalf of the Citizens Ward Redistricting Committee, which had been responsive to the discussion at the last Rules Committee meeting in which they indicated an interest in entertaining maps based on total population. Map 13b builds on map 7a, introduced some weeks ago by George Mitchell based on total population. They used that as a basis and added a number of refinements to strengthen some of the neighborhood boundaries and take care of some of the interests expressed by various people. What they liked about 13b is the fact that it spreads the change across the community. As they realized with the remapping process, they need to make changes in at least 6 wards. They have changes in all wards except ward 6. They've maintained ward 7 pretty much in its current state, with the exception of moving a couple of census blocks at the north end of ward 7 back into ward 1. In terms of the boundaries in ward 1, they kept the tiorris core area and Sherman Gardens inward 1 and kept it quite intact. in the 4' ward they took care of the stair step situation between the 2'd and 4`s ward. That was something deemed appropriate and necessary 10 years ago. They've had a lot of confusion by people living in that area regarding ward boundaries; they felt that straightening stair step situation would work better at this point and time. They had received some concern, he thought, from Aid. Wynne about the downtown situation. in their original map 8b the downtown was all in one ward and is now divided among 3 %-ards. Overall he thought they had a pretty good balance to the enure mapping process, all based on total population which they felt very strongly is the way to go. Aid. Feldman addressed the chair, referring to the minutes of the last meeting: the motion that was placed on the floor for consideration at that time, before going onto everything else, was whether or not which criteria, or both criteria .. whether it be population or 18 or over eligibility -- would be considered before a discussion of the map. He knew it may not be at this moment a substantive debate because there have been credible maps submitted, both in terms of population and the other way. So, in order to satisfy that obligation, he moved that they approve both criteria as possible solutions to the map situation. Aid. Kent seconded. Aid. Jean -Baptiste asked for a vote on considering both approaches as to determine what map they would adopt for the City of Evanston. The vote was 5 to 4 to consider both approaches to determine what map they would adopt. Jane Lee from the Northwestern University Associated Student Government External Relations Committee introduced proposal 14. Their purpose for submitting proposal 14 was to make minimal changes to the existing ward boundaries. They wanted to insure that there were two African American majority wards in at least two wards. There is also a substantial African American population in two other wards, Ward 8 with almost 46%. As for the minor changes that they made, they went block by block and wanted to preserve as much as possible: they knew there were previous concerns that addressed individuals saying that they felt a sense of community with where they were presently at. As for the NWU student community, their numbers stayed the same and they would actually like to stay the same. Aid. Bernstein introduced map 15. He first thanked the NAACP and its representative for sending along the analysis of the voting rights act relative to the issue of total population versus over 18. They've now accepted both as criteria which he thought appropriate so long 2 Rules Committee minutes 11/3/03-Approved as it is constitutionally appropriate in both instances. Given the fact that he thought it is more appropriate for total population in light of the analysis in the cases that he's read since their last meeting. He explained that he and Ald. jean -Baptiste in large part attempted to do that which Mr. Baumberger and the representative from NW did: they tried to maintain boundaries to the extent that they could. In map 15 they have two majority African American wards and one with a 4596 inclusion and have attempted to maintain certain lines of demarcation; he proposed that map 15 does those kinds of things and it addresses the concerns he has had. It also left a substantial majority of students in the 1st and the 7'x' wards, and not the 82% that was previously proposed on one of the proposed maps. He thought map 15 was an equitable and fair map, and one that he could support. Ald. Tisdahl said looking at her ward she questioned map 15 preserving boundaries and asked how that was done. Ald. Bernstein explained it didn't preserve all of the boundaries, it didn't do so in his ward. He came to the conclusion that they can't stay the same, he would like to maintain the propriety of his ward, but this substantially changed the western portion of his ward, expanded it to the north and a bit to the east, and removes some from the eastern boarder. The 7`h ward was just taken into consideration again to match numbers and at the end of the day it is a numbers game. But he thought this maintains continuity of like kind residents of the family dwellers, students have large voting blocks in the two wards now in the 1'' and the 7`h and the configuration of your ward has changed a bit more because he thought initially the configuration -.vas a different thing. It's not as symmetrical as say the 8' or 9'b Kurd, which had fewer changes. They all pretty much changed except for the 6`h ward. Ald. Kent noted that Ald. Bernstein said he was up at the North Shore Channel, which has always been the boundary of the 5'h ward; he noticed that boundary is now down McCormick. He asked if that encompassed the houses that are on McCormick, because otherwise it looks like it extends it north, but the only thing that would be encompassed would be the Ladd Arboretum. Mr. Pat Keegan stated those blocks do not have any population and can go any way. Ald. Bernstein noted that as Ald. jean -Baptiste indicated tonight's mission, if we can arrive at the conclusion, is to propose a map, any map they may decide to vote upon may be tweaked in particular ways. They hadn't had an opportunity to have conferences with every Alderman and he knew there would be people with concerns. He thought this is an overall asap in which they can address the concerns in minimal changes. With that caveat he thought that is how they arrived at that. Ald. Tisdahl asked if he was saying that in map 15 the North Shore Channel would still be the logical dividing place and that is simply a goof on the map. Ald. Bernstein said yes, noting that the GIS map that they were looking at last week was far easier to discern than the map on the screen and the one he was looking at. Ald. Tisdahl then asked Ald. Bernstein why he thought this map was better than, say map 7a, the NAACP total population map, which of your priorities does map 15 accomplish that map 7a does not? Ald. Bernstein said he would have to go back and remind himself of Map 7a. 3 Rules Committee minutes 11/3/03-Approved Ald. jean -Baptiste offered a response stating that he thought map 15 did the least alteration in terms of the boundaries of the other wards to achieve what Ald. Bernstein and he felt were some of the important values, including maintaining the two majority African. American wards and not splitting the students into 3 wards, which he knew a lot of them were concerned about with either a portion of them going into the 2" or 4' wards. As it exists right now there are substantial student populations in the 7'' ward and in the 1" ward, and the student population has remained between those two wards. Ald. Bernstein addressed the fact that, as he recalled, he actually liked the trap to which Ald. Tisdahl referred, the one by the NAACP on total population, with the exception of the fact that he thought there was too much concentration of students. He thought students are absolutely entitled and should be represented as should all citizens in the City of Evanston and they are citizens in the City of Evanston. But he recalled there was a large enough majority to elect a student as an alderman and thought philosophically he would be opposed to that. That «-as the primary distinction he drew between this map and map 15. Ald. Tisdahl assumed that Ald. Bernstein had the same objections to the citizen's committee map and the student's map. So he would support map I5 because it is the only map that could get 5 votes and preserve two majority/minority wards. She asked if that was what was happening. Ald. Bernstein said at the end of the day it is a political decision to make and they will be making it. If people can convince him, and he had been in the minority of votes on this Council before and expected to be again, but he thought as he had expressed before this is a very important project. But at the end of the day he had read an article from someone from the League of Women Voters in which there was a misrepresentation about what they are doing here. They are voting to redistrict to elect Aldermen. It doesn't change the redistricting, it doesn't change anything about the congressional races, senatorial races, anything other than the aldermanic race. When this process first started his enunciated principles were to have two majority/minority wards and he didn't conceive or believe that students were a protected class. That was the statement he had made months ago and thought that several of these maps came close to that. When Ald. Jean -Baptiste and he met they had been on different sides of this issue for some period of time but they did reach some accommodations. He didn't think that anybody was going to walk away from the dais in complete glee about any map they propose. Quite honestly, someone is going to be hurt or offended, and that is probably the nature of negotiation and probably a good deal. 5o is it political? Absolutely, if it wasn't political they could have saved a lot of time. But at the end it is political; redistricting is a very political kind of thing. But the politics about which he was concerned are the racial minorities and he thought they addressed that properly in map 15. Ald. jean -Baptiste noted a small change in map 15 that Ald. Bernstein forgot to mention which is Dawes School, it had been in the 9`s ward and was redrawn to stay in the 9`h ward. It doesn't change the population balance that they have submitted. Ald. Moran said as long as they are talking about the student population he wanted to address that on a number of fronts. It struck him that map 15 clearly targets students and 4 Rules Committee minutes 11/3/03-Approved although it may keep them in two .cards rather than three, it clearly is meant to disperse their electoral poser further than it is now. He had been listening to a lot of the discussions in the past meetings and there were a few things that hev.-anted to state from his perspective on this issue. There have been many things said that .could be suggestive of the fact that a student's voter interest is somehow to be diluted over any other voter's interest with respect to the ward redistricting process. From his own legal and constitutional and ci.iI law perspective, he knew of no ability or any precedent whatsoever in the history of this country that would allow one voter to be differentiated from another voter. As a matter of fact, both the equal protection clause and the voting rights acts are meant to do just the opposite. They are meant to try to establish criteria that will accord to each person who votes the same electoral power. To try to differentiate anyone from the fact that somebody thinks they don't live here that long or whether they pay taxes or don't pay taxes is, in his estimation, completely invalid and illegal. When he hears things like that it reminds him of when he was in college in the 60s and they were told they should trust no one over 30 and he is beginning to think they were right. He noted a memo they received dated October 30, 2003 where corporation counsel concludes that student population does not constitute a community of interest: from his perspective he couldn't disagree more .with that conclusion. He also stated that conclusion was reached, as best he could see, without reference to any particular law or perspective. It may be true that students are not a protected class under the voting rights act but he didn't think it holds true for the equal protection clause, the 14`s amendment to the Constitution. The one case that is sited with some specificity in relation to the impact of the observation that certain voters make up a community of interest is sited at page 3 of the memo and it is a case entitled Theriot .•. Parish of Jefferson, 185 F. Td 477. It says that the Court of Appeals there determined that a community of interest is derived from a common thread of interests and that a community of interest includes similar income .. which at least in his day students had similar incomes; education — if you are a student you certainly have a commonality in terms of education; social concerns .. of which his experience with the NW student community in Evanston have been great; the presence of political organization -- we have seen student political organization come forward to address us about their concerns, that certainly is present; active civic and active community groups - - I think we have seen that to a large degree in this exercise and in others; and express common municipal concerns. He thought particularly in relation to this last point when he'd seen the discussion developing over the course of the last couple of weeks in terms of some of the attacks against students that have been taking place off campus. He thought there is a tendency when we have discussions about tow-n/gown issues to look at a university and all of its constituent parts as being monolithic, but we have seen over and over again that that is not really the case. As other people have pointed out there can be a separation of interest between a university administration, a university faculty, its students, its staff and anybody who reads the Daily with any regularity knows that there is not a monolith in that area east of Sheridan Road or other areas where its community members occupy. But what we tend to do when we think of a monolithic community is we objectify people rather than looking at them as individuals. You think that is them and we are they, it is them and us and that is very unfortunate. We are a community that frequently says we do not objectify people, that we consider each other to be equal and important contributors to the community. He felt this way about the students; they are very important contributors to our community. When we see instances where, for instance, they have been attacked, he would assumed that everybody on the Council would think when someone is attacked brutally they 5 Rules Ccr,vnittee minutes 11/3/03-Approved wouldn't ask what race, religion or nationality they are, or whether they are a student or not, but would say what can we do to try and improve that situation and what can we do to provide some comfort. Those observations should instruct them in how they view this exercise and how they approach the student voter interest. Everybody is entitled to have their own opinions of the relative worth of any particular indhidual, any particular group within the City, but didn't think that differentiation can in any way impede somebody's interest in voting. It is important for the Council to express and honor the fact that every single person who steps into a voting booth and votes as a registered voter is entitled to exactly the same credit regardless of what they think about what community of interest they occupy or what their status is as a member of our community. He felt they should avoid taking steps to dilute the interest of any component of the electoral community including the students and believed everybody is entitled to full faith and credit. Ald. Rainey said she abhor it when she heard of violence against any member of this community, but could tell Ald. Moran that for years people in her ward have been stabbed, shot, robbed, their homes have been invaded, their children have been ripped off on the street from their bicycles, arson, graffiti you name it, it has happened and happens on a regular basis. She thought except for one time when a 12 year old girl was murdered there has never been a TV camera interested at all in any of the events in her ward. So for that to be the basis for some kind of apportioning people to wards for redistricting, she begged to differ with Ald Moran. However, following up on what Ald. !Moran said, her ward has probably always been considered the least effective ward in terms of citizen action, citizen participation and commitment to the community - it is in south Evanston - who cares? People like her have pounded the drums and pounded the pavement to get some attention for the south end of town. To be honest she felt there is a sense of paranoia for people who live in the south end of town and that has been her major objective and goal during her term: to raise the morale of the people in the south end of town and she thought she has done a really good job at that. However, when along comes a proposal based on total population, looking at her ward which has the most number of people in it, 9,000. Why does it have the most number of people, because it has the most number of children in it. Give or take a few 6,500 is the average number of people over 18, not voters, but people over 18 per ward based on the demographics. Her ward currently has 6,400 people over 18. What happens is that number is slashed to 5987: you take away from my ward, not children, but you take away 483 adults who could commit to the power base of this city. The 8'h ward was perfectly normal, perfectly average and that has been diminished, so now there is a deviation from the average number of voters. That should not be the case. In fact one of the reasons she has 6,400 people over 18 is because she also has the highest number of minorities. Many of them are not registered to vote, cannot vote and w711 not be voting. So not only have you diminished the number of people who can effectively take a stand in this community, but you've really said well they are down at the south end of town, we have to whack off a few so let's divide Elks Park in half. She wanted to make it very clear that she didn't mind, didn't care and didn't have any possessive feelings about any piece of that ward. She was not saying you can't take a single family, a condominium, or a rental, take whatever you want she would not fight you on that, but leave her with a respectable number of voters. Don't take her from the middle and put her down at the bottom because that is absolutely wrong. What exactly w-as your thinking? It is nonsense to think that everybody is going to be hurt, so that must mean we've done a great job. That meant to her that you have done a 2 Rules Corrmittee minutes 11/3/03-Approved terrible job. Reducing her ward by 483 over IS is a terrible thing. She suggested they go back to the drawing board because it is not right and it is wrong. Ald. Newman thought it %as an interesting thing from the so-called proponents of the City Manager's form of government, either you like the corporation counsel's view or you substitute your own. From some of the comments heard earlier all the lawyers should stop lawyering and get an opinion from the corporation counsel. Corporation counsel gave them an opinion as to whether students, as a community of interest, equated with African - Americans, Latinos and even women and were told very clearly that students aren't a protected class. Now they can come up with and call students who are legally not a protected class, a protected class if they want to and can say because they are lawyers their view of the constitution is, etc. and make statements like that. But there is another class in the 1" ward that was talked about during the testimony which is singe family homeowners. That is why when you look at the over 18 voting population in the 1" ward it has the least amount of children and there is no question the 1" ward has the least amount of single family homes. Somebody has to go in the 1" ward under the over 18 population or in terms of total population. So it then becomes a question as to ghat type of diversity a ward ought to have. Whether you want to have a ward that is just condos, senior citizen residents, student dormitories and apartment buildings, or whether the 1" ward ought to be at least similar or somewhat like all the other wards in the city which have substantial single family home populations. What maps 13b, 14 and some other maps that are on the table is slash out the single family homes in the 1" ward. The students are here and are an important part of the community, but when people vote in an aldermanic election in April, 25% of those who voted are gone in June and another 25% come in late September. He didn't equate people moving here in September with the 30 year single family homeowners on Dempster. He equated those single family homeowners as people, as individuals and respected them greatly, noting if you move them or move anybody to another ward, you are not taking away anybody's right to vote. Everybody gets to vote for Aldermen and people who have been moved in this process many times you don't take away anybody's vote, you are just not voting for another person. Now in the 6`s ward there are a ton of single family homeowners: there is not in his -,yard so to reduce it makes the 1" ward something different and less diverse than every place else. We still will have, under mop 15, a very large student population. He noted he had some people who have come to these meetings for 25 and 30 years, 7, 8 or 10 times a year who have advocated in regards to the 1" ward. There is a person from his ward here tonight who has probably been in this room in her service for over 1000 times. People who serve on a Council have a right to say we are going to have diverse wards, something else we ought to say when you talk about this is that 1500 students were moved in 1993 to the Ts ward; in the 3 municipal elections since then, not in one election did over 40 of those 1500 vote. We recently had a municipal election for school board where nobody showed up in the 7h Kurd, 9'h precinct. The point is we have a memo from the corporation counsel that clearly says students are not a protected class. If we are in the City Manager's form of government we ought to look to the corporation counsel to give us an objective opinion, not a political opinion from me or from somewhere else on the Council. Ald. Bernstein addressed several things, first this would be a proposed map. It is not an end. all be-all. To Ald. Rainey I know who in my ward votes in elections, I don't know who 7 Rules Committee minutes 11/3/03-Approved votes from your ward. He would encourage her to tweak the map, noting this is a work in progress. He has buildings in his «-ard where 800 people don't come out to vote, if that is the case here he will defer, he had no problems changing the boundaries so long as --ve can ultimately reach some accord. With respect to the issue of students, he recently received an email which he found incredibly insulting, and it in part talked about what we are going to be talking about tonight in Human Sen ices Committee meeting. The import of this letter from a former NM' student, was to tell me because of the distress between the town and gown that the City of Evanston devalued the student population and in fact this letter went so far as to say that we chose not to give them adequate protection. This is in light of a couple of the assaults that happened in the last couple of weeks. He valued incredibly the students in this community: in large part the student population at NW is the largest economic engine in the Cite of Evanston. They are entitled as every citizen is entitled to be safe on the streets of Evanston at any time of the day or night. He abhorred the thought that there is this, which was raised almost to a conscious action of us failing to provide the support or protection that the students needed. Haring said this, he has constituents that reside around the corner of hLain and Dodge that are lobbying for cameras for the same idea, for the issue of protection. People and students came here to the podium, talked about wanting brighter streets, safer streets: they are no different than any other member of the City of Evanston. All of his constituents v.-ant to walk on safe, more brightly lit streets; we are all in this together. His concern, and he thought Ald. Nev.-man expressed it well, is a population whose interests may be consistent; and he wanted to consistently serve the students interest. But the nature of the population is transient and in another vein, he wouldn't went to necessarily impose this job on someone whose responsibility is to get an education, you see what we are going through for a redistricting process which is very important, but it is one of the very, very many important things coming down the pike. He would move the adoption of proposal 15 with the idea being that this is a recommending body to the City Council, that if in fact it is voted upon by majority of this Council it will be introduced one week from this evening, prior to which time we can try to reach some accord with respect to amendments. It will then be on again for action two weeks thereafter, and as is our custom we can debate, add, tweak and get to a point where we are as happy as any of us are going to be about any configuration of a map. Our intention was not to offend any individuals, it was not to particularize any individual, but it was basically to get something on the table which had some benefit to the community, some concurrence with the voting rights act. There are important concerns here, we have addressed those with the majority of minorities in two wards and there are large confluence of minority in yet another ward. He moved the adoption of map 15 as amended by the inclusion of Dawes School. Ald. Jean, Baptiste seconded. Ald. Tisdahl said first she would like to say that the students are welcomed in Ward 7' and would be 50% of ward land she was not trying to save any student from getting an education, but if you want this job she guaranteed it is an education. The only reason she .,will consider supporting proposal 15, and the reason that she had called constituents as much as she had all weekend every since she read proposal 15, is that she believed proposal 15 is the only map that can get 5 votes on this Council and that will preserve two effective majority minority wards. She thanked the NAACP and George Mitchell for all their hard work, but did not believe they could get 5 votes to support the NAACP map. She thanked the Citizens Committee and thanked Bruce Baumberger for all of their hard work, but did Rules Committee mirrstes 11/3/03-Approved not believe they could get 5 votes. But hoped they would make that clear and after this motion she will be moving that they send on the NAACP map and would like people who have all said that this Council is a stand up group and that no one can abswin from a vote, she would like to hear the votes on the NAACP map. They owed it to the NAACP who has worked long and hard to vote on their map. She thought they owed it to the Citizen Committee who has worked long and hard to vote on their map. Aid. Newman said if we are going to address the motion then Alderman Tisdahl's motion should come after this. He was not quite sure there are 50% students in the 7' ward after map 15. But right now we are debating proposal la. But there are other maps that were put out other than by the groups that Ald. Tisdahl named and there are other people who spent a substantial amount of time working on maps other than the groups that were just suggested. Aid. Jean -Baptiste agreed, noting we have been engaged in this process for months and some on the Council and some community folks have worked tirelessly to try to advance proposals. He thought people have recognized these people already, they have come before the Council, before the Rules Committee and before the public at -large and have expressed themselves. Ald. Wynne addressed a couple of points that had been raised. Unfortunately, this process has deteriorated in her mind from the beginning. She didn't think any them had any ulterior motive in terms of not maintaining two majority minority wards; she thought the question is how do you do that and also fit in all of the other factors that are permissible under the law, to consider in this analysis and there are lots of ways to fit the jigsaw puz_le together. To her, one of the critical things all along has been not only that first goal as a primary goal, but the critical goal that a number of people in this community have brought up of maintaining ward boundaries, because those are the communities that have worked together all along. When you look at even the two different standards that we have debated part of the attraction of the over 18 has been the fewest number of people in the city are moved that way and that is a better way to achieve a legitimate valid concern in all of this. She understood that either of these standards can work. To her; one of the critical items is understanding which of the two standards among the maps meets the greatest number of our factors that we consider in all of this. She looks at all of this and ideally if we want to move boundaries the least, then we would use the over 18 population because that is how you move the fewest boundaries. But if we use the total population then we have to look at what does that mean in all of these various permutations. She respected the concern in the V ward of having as many single family homes as possible. As much as she would love to have Holly and David Reynolds and all of those neighbors who work with lakefront neighbors in the 3'J ward as members of her ward, she recognizes what a value they are in the V ward. So she thinks that is a critical issue that they do have to maintain. On the issue of the students, one of the things that the students and maybe everyone is missing is the vote totals in any of these elections; you have the votes right now. The last 7's ward election was a three way race. You have 1800 votes in the 7`s ward, you could have won, you could have elected a student in the 7'h ward under the current snap that we have, and if we divided you into 3 wards, if you look at the vote totals that occur in any of these aldermanic elections, if you get yourself you would have had 3 aldermen. That is the thing 9 Rules Committee minutes 11/3103-Approved that students may not recognize and that's what over and over again she kept thinking about, vote dilution: in some elections we have fewer than 1000 vote. You are not being diluted; you are being given the opportunity to have more seats up here and if you get organized you will have them. She said they are welcome to come up and thought it would be an education. She didn't necessarily think that students represent the broadest interest in the community that represent one interest, but there are 9 of us up here. She just thought that students may not recognize what the vote numbers are and you should go back and look at what the history is and if you want to elect someone, figure out how to do, you've got to go back and look at the precincts. She thought map 15 is an interesting map, as are some of the other maps. Her list of factors are that they obviously- maintain two majority minority wards, that they try to maintain boundaries as best they can with respect to neighborhood and community groups and keep in mind Ald. Rainey's issues which are population. When you look at how we will end up in terms of total population under these maps, some of us will have as many as 2000 more voters than another ward will. That is something they have to look at. Ald. Jean -Baptiste said when people talk about losing voters, these people are not leaving Evanston. They are still active in the city, if they were activists in your community before they will continue to be activists in the city. In fact if they are activists in any part of the community or in any ward they are activists in the City of Evanston, so we don't lose anyone. This issue of the mix that we will achieve is a political process that has been stated before: in order for us to move the process forward we have to gather the most commonalities together and this is what this is all about. We could stay bogged down for a Iong, long time, he said, but the reality is that moving the process forward means combining interest, compromising and moving the process forward. For those who have actually engaged in the process of malting the maps, you realize that in the process of trying to reach something that is acceptable to as many aldermen as possible you've got to take a lot of issues into consideration. That is what this initiative has been and that is what certain maps have sought to achieve. A lot of other districts are drawn on the broad population, people don't look so much as to haw rnany of my people are able to vote within the ward but they Iook at whether or not the populations are distributed equally. A lot of us have already r spoken of a lot of the other concerns that are on the table and he agrees with Ald. Wynne, nothing is being done negatively to students. Students can do what they want with the power that they have. As much as we might make a fuss over whether or not they are a community of interest, the proof of the pudding is in the eating: act and participate as you have been doing which is a good thing. So for anyone who is concerned that students will be disempowered, then fight the power, and manifest it, manifest your position and we will be able to see your interaction and your position on the Council down the line. Ald. Rainey wanted to know what timeline is planned, so she would know what to do. Secondly, she stated that she found this reprehensible in terms of the ward that she represented. She did not look at this as my people, like she'd heard you refer to the people in the ward. She found this really distasteful and wrong and wanted an opportunity to correct it. She was very concerned about Ald. Bernstein having worked on this, knowing that her ward was almost the most affected ward, where it didn't have to be affected at all =_ basically. She felt she was definitely going to be victimized by the process. 10 Rules Committee minutes 11/3/03-Approved Aid. Jean -Baptiste said next Monday the map that we adopt tonight will be introduced by City Council. Two weeks after that it will be on the agenda for action. He participated in the making map 15. Who is not impacted' The only person that is not impacted in the map is ward 6 and still AId. Moran has an issue based on his philosophical position on how things are to go. He did not think that any one of them are victimized anymore than anybody else, nor did he think that any of the proponents of map 15 targeted Ald. Rainey for any losses. Aid. Rainey felt entitled to her opinion, which -,;-as some people benefited from this map, but the a ward was diminished by it. There are other;;ards that are truly benefiting from this map, hers is not. All she wanted was an answer to her question, and has heard she has until Monday when it is introduced. Aid. Moran proposed a substitute motion: to recommend to the City Council that it introduce and consider maps 7a, 13b, 14 and 15. Aid. Tisdahl seconded. Ald. Bernstein said he would not accept that as a substitution. Aid. Rainey suggested that a vote be taken. The vote was 7 to 2. Ald. Moran and Tisdahl voting are. Aid. Bernstein, Feldman, Jean. Baptism, Kent, Newman, Rainey and Wynne voting nay. Ald. Tisdahl said she was going to vote and had told the Th ward she would vote for proposal 15 because it is the only proposal she knew of that can get 5 votes for two effective majority minority wards. The 7`' ward strongly supports the concept, though her constituents said it is a given. She replied it was not a given we take a strange configuration of the 7ie ward. She was fascinated to hear how one of the goals was not to change boundaries; she did realize before Alderman Bernstein told her tonight that it was a political process. However, her constituents all accept one did say that they want to do this, students have always been welcomed. We have National Louis, Garrett Theological Seminary, Northwestern, Kendall, etc. and we have a lot of students in the h ward. So the reason that most of her constituents who are strongly committed to the concept of a diverse city government agreed to the moves is that they support diversity on the City Council. She told them, and firmly believed that this is the only way to get it. If there are other traps that she could vote for that will pass she asked that they tell her which one_ Aid. Newman wanted to say one brief thing because he thought Ald. jean -Baptiste knew this because he probably had more discussions with him about these maps than anybody else. We can acknowledge that everybody drawing the maps was very concerned about African -American representation on the Council. We might have different views on whether or not Evanston is in the same category as some towns around the country, even the City Council of Chicago , but there are some very good statistics in this town especially in regards to the map prior to 1992 or 1993, in the same population breakdown as his map 3b with 45% over 18 and 50-39 African American, in all 12 years prior to that the 5'' ward had elected two African American aldermen. In the years prior to 1992 when the 2"a ward was 56% white at the time that we redistricted Betty Paden and Dennis Drummer were elected in the 2" ward. To take it a step further, Betty Paden defeated Joann Maseray in 1987 in a ward that was 56% white and Betty Paden also defeated Sue Calder in another election in 1991 in a ward that was 56% white- I was reminded that we have four members A of the 202 School Board today where African Americans were elected and we have an African American Mayor. Reasonable people can differ as to whether or not we in this town 11 Rules Committee minutes I1/3/03-Approved have the same type of problem they had in Georgia, Mississippi or even in Chicago, but to him the intent was ah ays clear, at least when he drew- maps and when he talked with members of this Council, that there was a very strong feeling of maintaining African Americans. He thought the maps that were drawn and put forward by other people, not just citi.en groups but other members of the Council, also headed in that direction. Ald. Tisdahl said she %vasn't going to read a letter, but since the school board got mentioned again, she read a letter from her constituent Martha Burns, who has been elected to the school board. She wrote: Dear Ald. Tisdahl, I write to you as a member of the Th wward and a district 202 school board member. I understand that there are some members of the Evanston City Council who may agree that race does not matter because of the African Americans who have been elected in our community. I disagree that my election to the school board cancels out the need for having at least two effective minority wards in Evanston. First school board elections are very different from aldermanic elections. The form of the race is a district wide election where candidates campaign citym ide and is a less intimate race. An aldermanic election is wonward by ward and the candidate must know the cultural makeup of the neighborhood and experience the life of its constituents. There are only two aldermen that primarily represent the African American population in Evanston. I am sure that their presences and perspectives they bring to the table enrich the council discussions and have helped you to make decisions. This representation needs to remain and in fact the Hispanic population would benefit from a candidate coming forth. Race unfortunately still does matter. It matters in our educational system, in our housing patterns, and in your being able to make decisions based on different points of view. Until we are able to embrace difference and build relationships based on mutual respect and shared resources race does matter and we need to have the voice of those underrepresented represented. Respectfully submitted, Martha Burns, District 202 member. Ald. Newman said he didn't think that letter addressed at all the point he was trying to make. What he wanted to say is that he believed that the wards that were drawn in all of the maps were very favorable and were intended to continue to elect African Americans. - But what he thought school board races say as a community — city wide — he didn't think it could be said — if there %vas the type of voter in Evanston that votes in some other communities that are talked about in the voting rights act where race is used as an appeal to voters. Thmes what the voters rights act talks about. You wouldn't have four African Americans on our school board, elected citywide — don't tell me, he said, that the races stayed home when we elected: the people of Evanston in his view are very respectful of M__ diversity and don't judge people on the basis of race.€ Aid. Feldman stated what he was uncomfortable %with is a debate that seems to be going on that this Council is about to settle. That there is by what he perceives to be the coming action, it endorses the whole concept of majority minority wards and protects them in a manner that he thinks is acceptable to most people in this community. For whatever reason, and that has to include that that is a primary value because the two primary issues in this, as - far as he %vas concerned, were resoking the issue of majority minority protection inwards 2 - and 5 and at the same time resolving the issue of over population in the 1" ward. The way _ in which that would be solved, if we did that, we would have to do that in a manner that was least intrusive on the cohesiveness, the historical cohesiveness of wards throughout the city. - 12 Rules Committee minutes 11/3/03-Approved He thought that was very important. We did have many that accomplished one goal more and another goal less and he thought the reason that Aid. Tisdahl indicates that there might be 5 votes for this has to do with the fact that she is right. Those people looking at proposal 7a saw merit and saw some things that weren't of merit and it may have been specifically for their ward. For example, when he saw 7a he thought it was deeply divisive and intrusive on the 9'h ward. It tore apart historical and cohesive communities and he thought there had to be another situation and another solution. The reason he can support proposal 15 is not that it represents anything perfect but it does represent a collective agreement on the part of the Council if it is passed, presenting those values. He thought it solves the issue and what it does do is free them finally from the kind of attention that they have spent on this and allow them to move forward with a united community, one not beset with resentment, anger and disappointment. We are going to need that kind of a community if we are going to face the substantive issues that we have waiting very impatiently in other rooms on this floor and in subsequent evenings and you all know what they are. So he was not unhappy that they are about to come to some kind of agreement on this issue and he thanked the people that went to the trouble of doing it. He knew that there are issues that affect the 9`s ward in this particular map, but for the sake of those values that were expressed already he would be willing to support it. Aid. Moran felt it disappointing to see that other than Li: no one is willing to join him in considering anything other than map 15: it shows a certain closed -mindedness to the extent and depths of which he didn't understand, but it is what it is. In attempting to sponsor for the Council's consideration 4 different maps, each one of those maps maintains two majority minority wards, which he wants to state as a matter of record he is completely in favor of at this point and time. What is bothersome and troubling is that what he really thought that we were here about is the power of the ballot. He really didn't care about where a ward boundary is drawn, didn't think that is the sense of what the 14'}' amendment is about or what the voting rights act is about or all the other stuff that they have been discussing. It is not whether the line runs down a particular street or alley, it is about people having an equal right to vote and having their vote count as much as the next person's vote counts. What is done here in proposal 15, and sadly to hear the statements to the effect that if the students only learn politics they will do good too, is completeness is the point of voting power of the electorate and having districts drawn in such a way that it promotes the ability of people to have their voices heard to the degree they can accomplish it. And when you talk about section 2 of the voting rights act or if you talk about the 14'fi amendment it clearly talks about voting dilution as being something that is not a laudatory goal in redistricting. What map 15 does is it sacrifices the student. He respected the Alderman from the 7' umrd for her position to the effect that she will vote for map 15 because it is the last gasp for those who are interested in seeing two majority minority wards. It looks like it will be an 8 to 1. The only reason he will vote against it is that he thinks this exercise should not conclude with anyone's vote being devalued and that is what is going to happen when the Council votes for map 15 by itself. Some people's voting power will be devalued, he didn't want to see anybody's voting power devalued but will be happy to see two majority minority wards be maintained. 13 Rules Committee minutes 11/3/03-Approved Ald. Jean- Baptiste stated the motion on the floor is that the Rules Committee adopt map 15 tonight and that such map will be forwarded, with the recommendation of the Rules Committee, to the City Council. Roll call. Voting aye - Newman, Jean -Baptiste, Wynne, Bernstein, Kent, Tisdahl, and Feldman. Voting nay —Moran and Rainey. Ald. Jean -Baptiste thanked all of those who took the initiative to engage in the process. It was time-consuming and you put in your time to put your ideas on the table and a number of those people include Ald. Newman, Ald. Bernstein, Judy Fiske, Mary Morris, Jean Lindwall, George Mitchell, Jane Lee, Alan Drebin, Sue Brady, Bruce Baumberger and yours truly. He also said that there were some ideas put on the table that serve as the foundation of the work that they have done. All that they have done has been interrelated and interdependent and even when you didn't participate in the map creaking process, people wade in kith opinions, analysis, some people did research, submitted perspectives and viewpoints that we considered and that assisted them in advancing this process; Jeff Smith and many others who have been accessed by the NAACP. He also thanked aH of the students who have been engaged in the process from the very beginning and have advanced a lot of great perspectives that have influenced some of them on the Council. PROPOSED 2004-05 CITY COUNCIL CALENDAR: Aid. Feldman moved approved of the proposed 2004.05 calendar as submitted by the City Clerk. Ald. Wynne seconded. Motion carried. Proposed 2004-05 calendar was approved. ADTOURNMENT: Meeting adjourned at 6:45p.m. 14 Approved MINUTES OF THE RULES COMMITTEE MEETING TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 10, 2004 6:00 P.M. Aldermanic Library Present: Aldermen Steven Bernstein, Gene Feldman, Lionel Jean - Baptiste, Joseph Kent, Edmund Moran, Art Newman, Ann Rainey, Elizabeth Tisdahl, & Melissa Wynne Presiding: Alderman Edmund Moran Staff Present: Roger Crum, Darlene Francellno, Herbert Hill, Doug Gaynor, Judith Witt Guest: Mary Gavin, Delores Holmes, Mary Morris, Lorraine H. Morton, Bob Seidenberg, and Judith Treadway, _CALL TO ORDER: Aid. Moran called the meeting to order at 7:35 p.m. APPROVAL OF MINUTES OF OCTOBER 7, 2003 AND NOVEMBER 3, 2003; Aid. Tisdahl moved approval of the minutes of October 7, 2003 and November 3, 2003. Aid. Newman seconded. Motion carried. Minutes approved. CITY MANAGER SELECTION PROCESS: Aid. Tisdahl knew nothing about choosing city managers, but when choosing superintendents for schools it has not been all bad to know the person and not use the national search. She asked If anybody knew someone they thought would be good. In other words, is using the national search the only way it is done. Aid. Moran said traditionally that is how it has been done, but it could be done any way they want. Using the national search would be his preference. Aid. Newman, having been through this process once thought they also needed to look at the salary structure of what they have for the city manager and whether or not that salary structure is consistent with obtaining excellence for the position. He did not think that what they are paying their city manager was comparable to what they ought to be paying. What has been done in the past In hiring a consultant to develop and take this process forward, said Aid. Moran, is had salary surveys presented. Most of the suggested recipients of an RFP, are people who have significant experience in recruiting and searching for good candidates for a position like this and that is an issue that needs to be addressed. City Manager Crum said after you've selected a search firm, salary is a topic 7115200511:13 AM Approved you discuss with the Council regarding what they are going for and the current market. Aid. Rainey added they always get from the Northwest Municipal Conference a survey of all city manager's salaries in the area. Aid. Moran also thought one thing they've got to contemplate is, yes they can share the Northwest Municipal Conference data, but if they are going to do a broader search they also have to know what the rate structure is and what the market structure is for whomever or wherever. Historically they've interview people from all around the country. The consultant people are the kind of people who give good advice and are familiar with that. They understand that people are trying to contact good candidates. They understand the market and he thinks they are a tremendous source of information on that. On the timellne prepared by Ms. Witt, Aid. Wynne noted that the target date is the March 8 Council meeting to select a search firm. She asked If they would get their responses to the RFP quickly enough to do that. Ms. Witt said if the committee authorizes the issue, it could be issued tomorrow and two weeks would be enough time to get the responses back. If the committee wants to interview the search firms that would obviously go on longer. Aid. Feldman thought they should make that decision tonight. Their decision requiring any thought would be the choosing of the search firm, but that is down the line yet. They should start immediately to give themselves an opportunity to start making decisions that will narrow it down finally to the proper person. This is very important and it is not going to be easy. It is going to be very hard and very frustrating. And as Aid. Newman Indicated they are going to have to adjust both their expectations and the amount of money they want. Aid. Moran agreed and thought when they are talking about a requisite salary for a top notch person, it will take time to get to that, but they are not there. Mayor Morton stated that because they have some new members on the Council, she reminded the old ones and the new ones that the process for selecting even, the search firm, all of that, is a broad of the corporate - authorities. Tonight the responsibility is just what was already said, to determine whether or not you wish to have a search firm. After that all of the business that comes in, comes to the corporate authorities and that includes the aldermen and the mayor. The staff has nothing at all to do with the process they are getting ready to go through. Judy Witt will handle all of the request for proposals, if that Is the way you wish to go. After that they will meet and determine which way they want to go, what they want to do with the salary, whether they want to look at people Internally and not look at the others, whatever way you wish to do. But it Is solely within the prerogative of this Council. She thanked Ms. Witt for - 2 711 SrXM 11:13 AM Approved providing the information. After reviewing the information she has some things that in Executive Session with members of the Council she would like to make them aware of, because she has been through this process. It can work and work well, but first the Council has to decide whether or not they wish to have a search firm. If that has been decided then Ms. Witt has her marking on it. When the responses come back to Ms. Witt that Information will come to Council. In Executive Session Council will determine what they wish to do about it. So all that can be done in public tonight is just what has been talked about. Aid. Kent remembered going through this before and wants to know what the process is going to be this time around. Personally, he would like to get everything and any internal possibilities out of the way first. What he Is going through with the school district and what he has been through and watched with the city council, he thinks they go out without appreciating what they have inside first. In other words, how do you go through the internal mechanisms? Or is that part of selecting the firm and then letting them know they want to first concentrate on any internal prospects before going out or is it melded together? He personally does not want to think about going outside of Evanston until they know they don't have something right here in our midst, prepared to move up or ready to move up Internally. Aid. Newman thought they needed a special meeting of the executive session of the 10 of them. He thought what they needed to do was really talk about and try and think back on what went right and what went wrong In previous processes, then decided to move forward. And the issue that Aid. Kent raised belongs in that group. Aid. Feldman said in the past internal candidates automatically were part of all people that were being Interviewed, etc. They were looked at as part of a group of people that were offering themselves. His experience is that a judgment should be made in comparison to others that are being offered at the same time. There are a lot of advantages that internal candidates have, but that becomes clear within the context of the interviews, etc., so one doesn't exclude the other. He thought they should do everything possible, and indicate and encourage those people within the organization, who feel as if they want to be candidates to do that. And Council should have an opportunity to make a judgment on that basis. Mayor Mayor said she really thought that the issue raised by Aid. Kent is a legitimate issue, but to discuss it In the public is not to their advantage. Maybe what this Council needs to do, because they are all in this together, is have a meeting amongst themselves first. Which is what Aid. Newman has stated and he is right on target. Aid. Moran said obviously the committee can do whatever it wants, but at this point they have an issue of schedule. To him the first thing on the list is do they want to send out an RFP for a consultant. They can send out an 711 W00511:13 AlA Approved RFP and may or may not hire a consultant. What they can do tonight is agree to give staff the direction to issue the RFP, and move that process, then reconvene as a committee and discuss what to do in terms of consultant selection and/or any other parameters they want to consider as far as the search is concerned. Aid. Feldman moved the motion. Aid. Tisdahl seconded. Aid. Rainey had a minority contractor to add to the search firm list. The committee had no objections to that. The question was raised if those on the list were considered the top firms In the country. The response was yes; they are the ones active In the City Manager business as we speak. The list comes from the Public Sector and the Mercer group was the last group used and Oldano was before that. Aid. Bernstein asked what the approximate cost Is. Ms. Witt stated $25,000. Aid. Feldman stated they ail had things to say, but it might be better said In executive session. He suggested they schedule a meeting date. Mayor Morton noted that the search for the city manager is done by the corporate authorities, which Includes the Mayor. She suggested they meet on a Council night. March 1 was suggested as a meeting date. Mr. Hill asked if the March 1 meeting would be a special meeting of the City Council, because it needs to be a City Council meeting. Aid. Rainey asked if that was done in the past. She remembers the Rules Committee always doing it, the Mayor was a participant and the Mayor ran those meetings. Mr. Hill said under the rules of the City Council now, the Rules Committee consists of the 9 aldermen, the Mayor is not a voting member of the Rules Committee. Aid. Rainey said the Mayor never was a voting member. Mr. Hill said with respect to the presiding, with respect to the City Council making the determination for the city manager it is only the City Council �_ that can vote. It is a vote of the 7 members of the corporate authorities. Seven aldermanic/mayoral votes are required to determine who the city _ manager will be and the Rules Committee only consists of 9 aldermen members. This could be the meeting of the Rules Committee but the vote Is not going to be binding on the process. Mr. Hill said the City Council can make a determination, at this point the proceedings and the authorities lies in the City Council. This matter went to the Rules Committee by this one motion by Aid. Feldman to make this 4 7/15/200511:13 AM Approved one consideration. Beyond that the issue is back to the City Council whether these technical proceedings stay within Rules Committee or remain at the City Council with the City Council in Executive Session as a public body. Ald. Moran said what he thought Mr. Hill was saying is they can't act as a Rules Committee if they are going to make a decision, tonight they can, but not in the future. Mr. Hill said yes, he is suggesting that the next meeting be labeled as a City Council meeting and the City Council goes Into Executive Session and the Mayor then is the presiding officer and you have your votes, etc. The committee agreed that was acceptable. Ald. Moran stated the committee needed to take a vote on the motion made. Motion carried no nays. The committee passed that the RFP go out and suggested that Ms. Witt change the due date time on the responses from 5:00 p.m. on Friday, February 27 to noon to allow Council to review the Information prior to the March 1 meeting. Mr. Crum clarified that on March i there will be a Special City Council meeting held at 6:00 p.m. The committee confirmed. ADJOURNMENT: Meeting adjourned at 8:00p.m. Respectfully submitted, Darlene Francellno 5 WISM00511:13 AM Approved MINUTES OF THE RULES COMMITTEE MEETING MONDAY, MAY 3, 2004 6:00 p.m. Aldermanic Library Present: Aldermen Bernstein, Feldman, Jean -Baptiste, Moran, Newman, Rainey, & Tisdahl Presiding: Alderman Edmund Moran Absent: Aldermen Kent & Wynne Staff Present: Maureen Barry, Patrick Casey, Roger Crum, Darlene Francellno, Doug Gaynor & Vincent Jones Guest: Delores Holmes, Mary Morris, Lorraine H. Morton, Bob Seidenberg, Judy Fisk, Mimi Peterson, Hollis Settles & Byron Wilson _CALL TO ORDER: Aid. Moran called the meeting to order at 6:10 p.m. APPROVAL OF MINUTES OF FEBRUARY 10. 2004: Aid. Tisdahl moved approval of the minutes of February 10, 2004. Aid. Rainey seconded. Motion carried. Minutes approved. BUDGET COMMITTEE STATUS: A memo regarding the budget committee was presented by Patrick Casey regarding alternative ways to address the budget. The memo proposed holding quarterly meetings then bringing most of the budget Issues back through A&PW with staff providing a quarterly update on the financials to A&PW every quarter on how they stand on revenues and expenditures. The quarterly meeting in September would be used for a half year review of the current budget and shifting what was traditionally the July public hearing to September. That way it can all be done at once, the community can have some input into the budget prior to its adoption and formation and budget issues could be addressed at a workshop setting at A&PW, expanding A&PW. Or if a special meeting is needed, invite all of the Council members and have that in September on a regular basis. Mr. Casey stated this way during the year staff could keep the Council informed on the financial status on a quarterly basis and have a mid -year review and a mid -year look forward to the next budget. Then if Council has any particular issues that arise with the budget that needs addressing either call a special Council meeting or have it go through A&PW for initial discussions. That way at least Council members will be present, they will be able to get some things out in the open that they may need to get out and keep everybody in the community and the Council up-to-date. Mr. Casey proposed they draft a resolution changing that and all the public I 7/151200511:13 AM Approved hearings so that It all coincides with the September quarterly review session. Ald. Rainey felt something was certainly better than nothing and they didn't have much of anything last year. A&PW seems to have the time to deal with it, could take on more work and has not had to schedule a special meeting in several years. Aid. Newman thought it was a good idea but would like to see A&PW start at 6:00 on Monday nights just to handle the budget early. Hopefully it will be at a time when P&D does not have to start at 6:00. This way at least at all Council members would have the option of attending and if it goes to the extent that an extra meeting Is needed that would be fine. Aid. Feldman stated he liked the idea of starting at 6:00. He did not think it could be done on a regular basis, but whenever it could be done It should. It was a very good venue and he was sorry about the budget committee not working, you try something and if it doesn't work, it doesn't work, but so far two budgets have been passed. Mimi Peterson asked if there was some legal reason the public hearing, usually held In July, needed to be six months or so before the election? Mr. Casey's response was no, the resolution had to be passed that requires them to have the public hearing six months prior to the submission of the budget to the Council. He would just propose that the July public hearing be moved to September in order to have one mid -year workshop that citizens could come to and Council would know that it will happen in September so they could address the budget. It is similar with the budget committee, they didn't get a lot of response on the six month hearing in July, sometimes one or two people, this would not preclude a hearing or public input, it would just delay it to the forum where you would have the major Issues where as staff would report what happened in the last six months with the current year budget, give a forecast of what next year's budget is going to look like and then have Council and the public have Input to be able to tell staff what they should be doing in the next five months before presenting the budget. The question was asked if this was a state statue. The response was no it Is Evanston's own local ordinance. - Aid. Rainey moved to accept the proposal. Aid. Feldman seconded. Mr. Crum asked if the motion included bringing back a change in the rules to eliminate the budget committee. The response was yes. Motion carried. Proposal accepted. JMRGOVERNMENTAL RELATIONS UPDATE: Doug Gaynor reported on legislative issues that have been happening in the last several months. Mr. Crum had asked him to take on this function 2 7/15/200511:13 AM Approved for a while since the advocate position was eliminated from the budget. In tracking legislation, the two most important looked at was, as talked about the HB 599, the widows Bill on the fire department. According to Bill Stafford this could cost the city about 5250,000 a year if passed. The other is the residential inspection ordinance, which basically requires written permission, by the owner, for any inspections to be made in advance of inspectors coming in to properties. Other than that there is a long list of state issues that are changing rapidly in Springfield. Mr. Gaynor and Mr. Stafford went to Springfield a week ago during the NW and Illinois days and did spend some time with both Rep. Jeff Schoenberg and Rep. Julie Hamos and they really didn't have any real specifics as to what direction the budget was going. Rep. Schoenberg and Hamos did indicate that at this point and time they didn't feel there was anything they were aware of that the Governor was going to do that would put an impact on the City of Evanston. Mr. Gaynor did talk with Rep. Schakowsky over the weekend and there is not much money in DC either but they are looking for any kind of funding sources. In previous years the Rules Committee hosted our elected officials both at the state and federal levels at least once. Mr. Gaynor recommended hosting maybe twice a year to keep in touch in meetings that the Committee would designate in order to keep open dialogue, talk about grants, and talk about priorities that Council has for the city. Aid. Newman, in trying to understand the residential inspection ordinance asked if it applied to any form of residential properties. In other words you can't inspect until you find the owner to get consent. Mr. Gaynor stated that this bill is being opposed by both the Illinois Municipal league and the Northwest Municipal Conference, no actions have been taken as of yet. It would appear that the owners and landlords would be pushing this bill. A1d. Newman asked if Chicago had a position on this. Aid. Rainey thought Chicago was exempt. She has read it and written a lot of letters on this. All housing people are writing letters, our people have got to do something about this. Aid. Newman asked Mr. Gaynor if he asked any of our people what the status is. Mr. Gaynor said yes and thought when they talked separately with both Rep. Hamos and Schoenberg they were not supportive of this, but they did not know where it was going to go at this point. Aid. Newman felt they needed to find out because this is a terrible bill for Evanston. Aid. Rainey added that there is a huge campaign going on in Evanston to defeat this by all the housing activist, but the city needs to get involved in that. Aid. Rainey asked if either of the representatives stated that this legislature seemed comfortable preempting home rule? It seems so many bills lately are preempting home rule and that is scary. Mr. Gaynor said that did not come up. Mr. Crum thought that a lot of legislators are taking this on themselves to say they know more than you do at the local level and they are going to try and preempt it, it is a trend. Aid. Moran thought that the Wilmette case is heavily influenced where the guy who shot the 3 7/15/200511:13 AM Approved home intruder and they got this bill that exempts a person who does that, then it has everybody rowed up, there is a ripple effect from it. Aid. Tisdahl noted the Committee should re-establish meetings with their representatives at least once a year, preferable twice. Everyone agreed. Aid. Moran said he would put together a letter, as Chair of the Rules Committee and let the representatives know that they are anxious to talk to them. CMZEN ADVISORY COMMITTEE FOR CITY MANAGER SEARCH: Aid. Rainey asked if there was an aldermanic advisory committee on a city manager search, when are they going to hear from Slavin Management Consultants, and when are things going to be scheduled. Aid. Moran recalled the last time Robert Slavin was he said it would take roughly two to three weeks to kind of gain whatever traction of some sort to move forward. Mayor Morton stated she didn't know what "Citizen Advisory Committee for City Manager Search" meant but had an update from the Consultant. The last time Council met there was some Information that Council wanted added to the contract. That information was relayed to Herbert Hill who turned it over to Ellen Szymanski. It was all incorporated into the contract and sent back to Mr. Slavin by Federal Express on April 19th. As of today she had not received a signed copy of the contract, but did contact him to find out what was the problem. Mr. Slavin informed her that he was trying to get Information needed from a company that makes sure minority companies are included in the process. The legal department had advised the Mayor that that minority clause had to be included and must be signed. Mr. Slavin had not received what he needed from that company because of some contractual problems, but had advised that company to send what they had. Mr. Slavin also told her that he had sent the contract back last Friday and since it has not arrived yet she didn't know if the information regarding the minority companies would be included. The Mayor also reported that she questioned him on how Council should _ proceed until the contract arrived. Mr. Slavin had already informed her that he had planned to be in Evanston on Friday, May 14"'. What he wants to do is schedule a meeting on that day to meet with Aldermen individually first before meeting with anyone else and that is his reason for coming Friday to have that day for Council only. If Council prefers he would meet with them as a group, but his preference Is Individually. After he has met with each Alderman he would like to meet with staff. He also said he would be in the community to do some work on his own over the weekend to talk to people In the community. Mr. Slavin needs to know from Council if they would like to meet with him individually or as a group and if they are available on Friday the 14th. He plans to arrive after 2:00 p.m. on Friday and stay through Wednesday. E 4 7/15/20OS11:13 AM Approved Aid. Rainey moved that they meet individually with the consultant on Friday, May 14t'. And those who can't meet individually on Friday can schedule another time. Mayor Morton noted that three aldermen were not present at the meeting tonight and Judy Witt will be asked to call each Alderman to schedule meeting times. The Committee agreed to meet on Friday individually. Aid. Moran said he had asked that this Citizen Advisory Committee for City Manager Search be put on the agenda. Several people have raised the question of whether there can or should be an advisory committee for some formal procedure whereby there will be some citizen input. When Mr. Slavin was here he indicated that he felt it would be advisable, he considered it to be pretty much standard operating procedure from his perspective. The League of Women Voters has made a call for it, and other people have expressed interest in citizen involvement, so between the committee and the Council, they should discuss whether they should have citizen involvement of some sort. Aid. Newman thought he heard the consultant say that he would be meeting with people in the community. Aid. Newman did not think anybody on the Council had an objection to that. There was a process in 1996 that worked pretty well. The candidates or the finalist were basically produced through the Council process and prior to making any decisions Council had some public meetings where the public could meet the finalist. He had no problem with the finalist meeting and presenting themselves in a public meeting and people taking questions. What he does have a problem with is having people who are going to be submitting themselves confidentially that are going to be in the public. If their names get out there is potential for their employers to find out what is going on. That will discourage people especially if one of our goals is to get people who are highly qualified city managers who aren't necessarily looking for employment right now. You can't really have a public process and solicit those types of candidates and if somebody is going to apply in house, Council has a duty to protect those people who are not going to be finalist from comments that would possibly discourage them from continuing to serve in the city. He would not want to have somebody who's not a finalist In a department head here, have to go through a public process where there may be some people who are very dissatisfied with that person and with that person not even possibly being a finalist. Once you are a finalist whether you work here or not you are probably going to have to be up to some public scrutiny. But have somebody who is working for the city now, who may want to apply, but may not have a chance to get the job, for whatever reason, have to go through a process like that where Council could possibly damage their relationship with those people. He would say, to put it succinctly, have a public process at the end with the finalist. He moved that they do a very similar process as was done in 1996 and if they 5 7/15/200511:13 AM Approved want to develop a schedule on how they are going to run these public meetings once they have finalist, then do that. Aid. Feldman felt it was very important to hear from the public with respect to the kind of candidate they think the city of Evanston needs. He would expect, in the process that they would encourage that, even with a special meeting to take that comment and listen to the values of the community with respect to the city manager. He would like to hear those comments but thought it was a big difference between having a city body have any Influence at all on the person. What the city needs in a city manager are important, but certainly not to decide between one and another, It is almost silly to think that people, not even vaguely familiar with the day to day encounters and operation and relationships that members of the Council and staff have to the city manager should decide whether or not one person gets it over another. But if citizens want to tell Council what values, qualities, character, personality, and talents of a new city manager that they think Council should be looking for is perfectly appropriate. He would suggest they take testimony, but sees no reason to form a specific authorized, appointed, representative body to do that and he would not support that in any way. The process that was just described by Aid. Feldman Is the process that Aid. Rainey thought was exactly what the consultant told them. He didn't tell them an advisory committee; he said he would seek names, city leaders, neighborhood leaders and neighborhood groups. Council would provide him with names or people could submit their own names and Mr. Slavin would survey them for this very information, what do they think, not who do they think, but what qualities they think the city manager should have. On the other issue of confidentiality, for those who are not on the Council, Council had divided up communities where the consultant's applicants had worked. She herself called three or four communities and talked to elected officials in those communities. Of those three or four communities two different cities had the experience of losing highly qualified candidates during the midst of negotiating with the final applicants, because all of a sudden the news media from the hiring town was out interviewing the community in the applicant's town and It caused these applicants such concern that they withdrew from the running. So that is something she would hate to have happen to them. Aid. Tisdahl's way of seeing a citizen advisory committee functioning Is talking about, just as was said, the qualities that they want in a city manager and she did not think that having a citizen advisory committee limited Mr. Slavin in any way to just talking with them. That would be one group of citizens with whom he would speak and she thought it was a good idea. There are people who want to do it and should be able to do it. Then depending upon the advice of Mr. Slavin she would agree to have them talk with the finalist and only with the finalist. And if Aid. Rainey is right and - several of our finalists say absolutely not, then reconsider. But a citizen 6 7/15/200511:13 AM Approved advisory committee to at least talk about the qualities they want In a city manager is very important and she would support that. Aid. Jean -Baptiste agreed with Aid. Tisdahl, let people get involved in the process, but not in the interviewing of candidates and to the extent that it Is allowable by the finalist then they can meet with citizen advisory groups, but he got the sense that they sort of stop from trying to limit, discuss or come from an opposition to a citizen advisory committee. He did not think they needed to oppose it, just define how it functions. And other citizens who want to participate, find some kind of way for them to participate, but he certainly didn't think that the authority to decide, to Interview, or to consider ought to be something that the Council ends up sharing with everyone, because It will compromise the individuals and ultimately a decision has to be made on how Council feels the process works and who they want to best reflect the citizen's interest. Aid. Bernstein agreed it is important to get citizens input with respect to the qualities they would like in a city manager, but asked how big would this citizen committee be and from whom would they select them. His thought was that Slavin's Idea was good, they submit names, he goes to the Clerk's office and gets names of community leaders, he goes out and Interviews, Council holds a public hearing to which hopefully Mr. Slavin would attend and people can talk to him. Aid. Bernstein did not think they should start with a citizen committee because that would be very difficult and might be as difficult as selecting a city manager. Aid. Rainey noted Council has hired this consultant to help them hire a city manager, why not wait till this consultant comes and talk this over with him and listen to his advice. They don't have to take his advice, but he might have a real simple solution to their problem. He has done it with so many other communities and he can compare the pros and cons and take them down the right path. Aid. Newman would caution that he thought they were trying to avoid was having an interim, so every step they put into this could potential delay the process and it is not going to be helpful in that regard. So he also suggests that they wait for the consultant and see what he says. But he wanted to make it very clear that he was not willing to do anything that the consultant that they've hired, that is going to In any way stop them, impede them or hurt them from getting the best candidate that they can get, because that is the objective, to be able to get the best person they can get for Evanston. If some groups wants to get together and give them a report on values on what the think Council should be looking for, he would be glad to read that report, that is different than having that group involved in a separate interviewing process and jeopardizing their ability to get the best candidate. 7 7/15/200511:13 AM Approved Madam Mayor asked to be briefed on not trying to have an interim because she didn't know anything about it. Aid. Newman stated that they had told the consultants when they were interviewing them if process could be done in a certain amount of time because Mr. Crum was leaving on July jL51' and Aid. Newman thought that was one of the points about getting it done. Mayor Morton had raised the question to Mr. Slavin of could he do this in 60 days and he said he was not so sure he could but would like to because he doesn't like to keep people hanging. The whole idea of waiting until he comes is really a good one. She was surprised that she had not received more calls from people wanting to be contacted to talk to Mr. Stavin and wondered if anyone else had. Aid. Newman had received requests from some people in his ward. What Mayor Morton would like to do with the organizations that have asked like the League of Women Voters, NAACP, the Chamber of Commerce, etc. and any individual names that people have she could start tomorrow setting up appointments for them to meet with Mr. Slavin for next week, if that is the direction in which the Council wishes to go. The committee agreed on the Mayor's suggestion. Mr. Crum suggested that Council should discuss with the consultant when he arrives whether or not the names of the applicants would be public, because that is something the consultant should know up front. They should absolutely never ever be public until the final small group is selected. Most cities the size of Evanston probably makes them public at that point. As a candidate and he has been through probably ten interviews as city manager over his career and they would prefer that they never become public until the person is named because it does hurt the applicant back home, it is difficult, but he did not know how it could be done in today's environment. Mr. Crum suggested that a new city manager should be on board before September because that is a critical time before the budget gets heavy. APPOINTMENTS TO SPECIAL COMMITTEES: Aid. Feldman thought that Jack Siegel's had indicated a reasonable way to proceed. That the Council vote on any nomination they've taken from members of the Council and the Mayor. Mr. Siegel clearly indicated that the area directly impacted by NW should be the area from which the nominees are taken and that the Council, including the Mayor is the appointing body. Aid. Newman moved to have this Item on the agenda at the next Council meeting and the Council and the Mayor can submit names from the 8 7/15/200511:13 AM Approved Immediate area for the Council then make their decision at the next Council meeting. Aid. Feldman wasn't sure but thought Mr. Siegel had mentioned that the Alderman of the first ward should be a sponsor. Mayor Morton said no he is suppose to be on the committee, not a sponsor. She also threw out another thought since Mr. Siegel had said they have to do all of this in open session meetings as a Committee of the Whole. She had given a lot of thought to this and Mr. Siegel's saying was not the area that is close to NW but the community that was involved in it. Aid. Newman clarified that It was the area impacted by university activities, Mr. Siegel doesn't mention it but the consent decree itself talks about T1, T2 and U1 districts so if you are in there or live adjacent to it you are in there. Mayor Morton said that is fine but they have to have from Mr. Siegel a more definitive area to be covered because he is the upper authority and he Is the one that will have to represent the city if they get into another lawsuit. The only reason this had to go to Mr. Siegel and what he states in his memo is that there Is nothing in our rules that apply to what they have to do to get this group of people together. Lets just make sure that we do this thing properly and the people who represent us will work in good faith and she did not doubt that they would. What she did was went through all her papers that she gave the law department for the trial to see who were the people, first of all, who recommended that they have the new district because those are the people who, whether you agree with them or not, they were they people who invested their time, put their names down to be the ones to get this new district. She asked if those people should be considered on this committee? The other thing that really pains her to even think about is submitting these names and then voting on them in public. She brought this up to Mr. Siegel and one of the suggestions offered to him was could they all submit names to the City Clerk then maybe this Council could come up with how they would deal with that so that when a resolution comes to the Council floor, the resolution would reflect the people that this Council would like to have represent them without it becoming a public spectacle. She would not want people to be hurt and certainly no name should be submitted that the person has not said in writing that they'd like to be on the committee. Aid. Feldman's opinion was no not in public. A good solution would be to have people contact their Aldermen and have members of the Council submit their two names and the Council makes a decision pre -announced. There is no way he would want to be part of having people's names put in nomination and then defeated. Aid. Newman reminded the committee that P&D has already recommended two names and voted on them in public. He had no problem with any other names being submitted, but would like to get the committee going. He 9 7/15/200511:13 AM Approved thought the Council in the end was going to support the two names that were submitted by P& D. He did not want to back away from his motion so If anybody wants to come up with other names they should circulate them but they need to set a time. He proposed a time of the next meeting of the Council to put this on and he did not want to debate names in public. Aid. Jean -Baptiste thought they have to go back to the consent decree because it is very definitive and very limiting in terms of what they can do. The decree says "University/City Committee. The University and the City have agreed to establish a special committee, comprised of: (1) two representatives from the University, one of whom shall be the Vice President with responsibility for development and land use issues, or other Vice President with responsibility for the issues to be discussed by the committee; (ii) two representatives of the community, who shall be chosen by and serve at the pleasure of the City Council; and (III) the Alderman of the First Ward. The Committee shall meet on a regular basis, or as needed, In meetings open to the public, to discuss and make good faith efforts to resolve Issues relating to: (1) the University's proposed demolition of existing structures on, and/or new construction plans for, the University's current TI and T2 District properties and the University's current Ui District properties; and (if) other issues relating to planning, land use, building and zoning pertaining to the University's current TI and T2 District properties and the University's current U1 District properties. Such issues shall include, but not be limited to, zoning, congestion, parking, noise, citing and appearance." The reality is, people, for as much as they may wrestle over this issue it is very limiting In terms of what they can do and they have to be realistic that that pool of individuals from whom they will chose should be the people who are most impacted by this so they can defend the interest of the community. He understands politics and wanted to broaden it, he had been more focused because he has always wanted a broad committee to deal with city/university relationship at large, but this committee will not be an end all and be all. It will be the committee that holds the line and debate the line around those specific Issues but they probably need to think on a broader level about the ongoing relationship between the city and the university, whether there is another committee that they define in a different way. But this particular committee is very limiting and he thought they ought to be realistic in terms of the criteria of those who they chose from the community to represent the community. Aid. Feldman said what Aid. Jean -Baptiste just read was the thinking of the three members of the Council that negotiated that guide. There was never c a question in his mind who should be the city's representative. It was very - clear that they wanted those people on the forefront of representation of that community to be in that position. What they should have is strong representatives for their neighborhood._ 10 7/15/200511:13 AM Approved Judy Fisk stated she and her neighbors have spent a long time talking about this and believe that the committee should draw from the people who are in the historic district, which runs from Sherman to Sheridan from Lincoln to Emerson. There was three of them who lived in that district who wrote the nomination for the district, two of them live on Sherman, one lives on library Place and the other two live in other parts of Evanston. The other thing that is important to them in the neighborhood is that there are two neighborhood organizations in this neighborhood, Northwest neighbors and Northeast Evanston Neighbors. Northeast Evanston Neighbors tend to be more on the North end of the district and northwestern neighbors cover the entire district and Northeast Evanston Neighbors and Northwest neighbors are working on the Kendall College issue. They are concerned at that end of the district with the buildings on Colfax that will probably be the first ones to go down so they will be Impacted more immediately than the south end. Her suggestion and that of her neighbors is to open up the nominations and get these two community organizations involved. Maybe have the appointees be a member of the board or let their board's decide who the appointees to the committees to the community are. She is not on either of the boards, but Mr. Atkins and Mr. Schoenfeld are both on the NW neighbors one of them could represent the Northwest neighbors board or someone else could be selected from the Northeast Neighbors board. That seems to be a really fairer way to do this, getting those groups involved. The other thing is every one is concerned because it doesn't seem to be clear how long this appointment is going to last, other boards and committees have three year terms. Those neighborhood organizations do have elections usually every two years of their boards so that would probably change. She would really strongly encourage the Committee to build some bridges to this neighborhood that feels so dreadfully impacted by the consent decree and the street lights and all the other things and the Kendall College issue. Aid. Moran wanted to clarify things he asked if he was correct that it is alright for other aldermen to nominate people? The response was yes. He asked if it should be two candidates per Council member and should they go to the City Clerk or somewhere else? Aid. Newman said he has a motion to have this acted upon at the next Council meeting that is Monday night and did not want that ignored. Mayor Morton said that can't be done because she is not a member of the Rules Committee and this has to be done by the Committee of the Whole. They have to function as a Committee of the Whole to make decisions about this so they would have to convene in the matter so the Mayor has a voice. Aid. Newman said they could do a Committee of the Whole at the next Council meeting. Committee agreed. Aid. Newman changed his motion to put this item on the agenda of the second meeting in May then people will have plenty of time to submit names. 11 7/15/200511:13 AM Approved Aid. Moran repeated the motion and stated that everybody else Is entitled to submit two names if they want for consideration. But they need to decide who they want the submission to go to. Aid. Bernstein added that he would suggest at the Mayor indicated, before submitting a name please make sure that person in willing to serve on the committee. The suggestion was made to submit the names to the City Clerk. The Committee agreed. There was no official vote before the meeting adjourned. 12 7/15/200511:13 AM Approved MINUTES OF THE RULES COMMITTEE MEETING MONDAY, AUGUST 2, 2004 6:00 p.m. Aidermanic Library Present: Aldermen Bernstein, Feldman, Jean -Baptiste, Moran, Rainey, Tisdahl & Wynne Presiding: Alderman Melissa Wynne Absent: Aldermen Kent & Newman Staff Present: Judith Aiello, Darlene Francellno, Doug Gaynor, Herbert Hill, Vincent Jones & Jay Terry Guest: Delores Holmes & Larry Sufferdin CAL TO ORDERS Aid. Wynne called the meeting to order at 6:10 p.m. ,APPROVAL OF MINUTES OF MAY 3. 2004: Aid. Tisdahl moved approval of the minutes of May 3, 2004. Aid. Moran seconded. Motion carried. Minutes approved. kLGISLATIVE ISSU Aid. Wynne thanked Aid. Moran for his efforts In inviting the legislators. Due to scheduling conflicts Larry Suffredin was the only one available and is here tonight. Mr. Larry Suffredin shared a couple of county issues. He stated that August 9"' is the last date to appeal to the Assessor for the reassessment notices that people in Evanston received and 4 outreach meetings were held. It Is also the last day for exemptions. They never had less than 100 people, which gave them an indication how serious this Issue of reassessment is to people. By next Monday their office will have helped about 200 people. The Township Assessor has told him that they have helped close to a 1000 people and Mr. Houlihan's office also has told him they have had about 1000 Evanston residence. When you think about 40,000 pieces of properties on the tax rolls that is really a small number of people. Each resident probably got 12 letters from 12 different lawyers all willing to help and his guess was that a number of them are doing well. Mr. Suffredin said he ran into one of his residence and asked if he had looked at his assessment, he quickly named his lawyer and said he was taking care of him. One thing that keeps coming up to him on this whole assessment issue is there are a number of people in Evanston who are not getting full benefit of all the exemptions they are entitled to. There are a lot of people who don't apply for their homeowners exemption or the senior exemption. There are a lot of people who don't apply for the senior 1 7/15/200511:13 AM Approved freeze and their incomes are clearly under the $40,000.00 level that it is at now; it will go to $45,000.00 next year. There are also a lot of families in Evanston where the person who the property is titled to died and they don't go through probate. Therefore you have a next generation and maybe a generation after that living in the same house but the property is titled to somebody who may be dead as many as 40 years which makes it again impossible to get the homeowners exemption or the senior exemptions. He is going to see if he can find some lawyers on a pro bono basis and maybe go door to door and figure some of these out because those exemptions mean a lot in the way our tax system is put together. The 7% solution or 71D/o confusion, depending upon how you look at it, that the legislature passed and the Governor signed will help a lot of people in Evanston. The Coalition that passed that bill were downstate legislators who thought it was a thing they could bring home, there was an opt in that bill for all 102 counties in Illinois that opted in to take advantage of it. To date only one county, Cook under a resolution he sponsored has opted in. Lake and DuPage counties have tests for studying it and all indications are they will not opt in. They could find themselves at the end of the 3 year period with no other county opting in to this, and again Cook County being at a very awkward position. It is one of those things where he hoped they educated people. He thanked the City for running the sessions on the cable system. Mr. Suffredin said the reason they are not opting in is because they don't have the classification system. There system is simpler for people to appreciate. The problem is this crazy classification with different percentages of fair market value being your assessment. They are going to have to watch that and be aggressive with the legislature in coming up with reasons for them to continue this. Because if Evanston had basically a 33% median in this increase and the 7% gets most people to get 21% they are going to have an additional 12% at the end of the 3 year period. If it is not extended that will jump in and you will then be reassessed again and he did not think the sales of property in this community were going to go down. Those sales are what drive the increases of what these percentages are. Hopefully, some of these anomalies they will have taken out so they won't have certain properties in 3 years going up 800/a and 90% which is catching up for 4 or 5 reassessment periods when they were adjusted. This 7% bill has destroyed some of the Coalitions with the schools, because they are all afraid of losing money. That is one issue they are going to continue to work on. Since he got elected Aid. Newman has reminded him about the unfairness of the county parking tax in relationship to the strategies Evanston is working on to try to encourage more commuters to come and park in Evanston and do things. In the next budget process he will attempt to exempt certain municipal lots and certain communities under 150,000 so they can try to do this without adversely affecting the county budget. It is — - only fair and reasonable that they've got to do that. It struck him when he �_ saw Frank Kruesi and he was raising the CTA parking by 50 cent, but still 2 7/15/200511:13 AM Approved under the amount that still imposes the county parking tax. He will continue to work on that. The last issue they have been working on, with some effort, Is trying to get a primary care health clinic within the 13t' county board district. He didn't know if it would be in Evanston, but certainly could be on Howard Street. A meeting was held where Cook County Hospital was represented by Ruth Rothstein who has now left, but the process has been started in trying to determine how they can, in working with the Access Clinic on Howard Street, St. Francis, The Evanston Health Dept. and the Skokie Health Dept. In the county, develop a broader expansion of primary care facilities that would be part of the Fantus Clinic. They also have talked about getting specialty care doctors that would somehow contract with St. Francis Hospital to provide certain types of specialty care to indigent patients at St. Francis. One of the key players in that would be the Access Health Care which is a federally qualified health clinic. One person most enthusiastic about this who was at the meeting is Mike Savage, founder of Access Health Care, which Is a group of 19 clinics throughout the City of Chicago. Unfortunately he was killed in rafting accident. Now they have lost both Ms. Rothstein who left Cook County Hospital and Mr. Savage, but will continue working on putting this together and Say Terry will be invited to every one of those meetings so they can accomplish it. His final item was that Chief Kaminski realized that he was one of the founding sponsors of the Jesse White Tumblers and asked if he could get them for the community picnic. They will be there at 3:00pm on the August 29 to perform. Aid. Rainey asked if there was an opportunity to have the Clinic at St. Francis Hospital on their campus. Mr. Suffredin said that is something they would have to work on with them. He stated of the 820 Davis team he was the only member who has not signed on to an AFCSME, SEIU program this is attacking resurrection. The reason he hasn't Is because St. Francis has been willing to sit down and talk. Aid. Rainey note St. Francis is also the trauma one center that takes all the free gunshot victims, rape victims, and battery victims all over town and she is not signing on either. Mr. Suffredin said the only place where they have legal problems is with the Federally Qualified Health Clinic's (FQHC), which is what the Access Clinic is. They set it up so that a government like Cook County could not do joint ventures with these FQHC's because they were concern that they would create fronts to grab the money. It's a huge pot of money, one of the largest sums of money for primary care and it has some provision for pharmaceuticals though it is not as broad as it should be. The problem with the Federal law is it requires that those clinics be run by community based boards and our elected board doesn't qualify as a community based board, but they think they have come up with ideas to try and deal with them. Dr. Simon's biggest problem, an Evanston resident and runs the Access Clinic, is that when patients need specialty care. St. Francis can handle some of them. The Access Clinic has a contract with Mt. Sinai who 3 7/1s/200511:13 AM Approved can't provide pharmaceutical and Is farther away than Cook County Hospital. So Dr. Simon ends up sending a lot of people to Cook County Hospital's emergency room with a referral and diagnoses to get them into their system and get them their pharmaceuticals. Mr. Suffredin also has been working with Pace to determine if there is a way to create a limited bus service that would run from Skokie, Evanston and Rogers Park to both Mt. Sinai and Cook County hospital to make it easier. Dr. Simon and St. Francis both have told him that certain patients that they can't help and they make the referral to the Cook County Hospital they never get on the "L" because it is two "Us" and a bus. Some patients don't even attempt or some may attempt and just get lost. Aid. Tisdahl suggested if thinking of using St. Francis Hospital, they better talk with them about abortions, birth control, and referrals, etc. Mr. Suffredin said they have to, that's why they aren't doing OB GYN. The County has mandates, the Catholic hospitals where the County has relationships are doing only deliveries and any child born with any kind of difficulty is referred to County through their Neonatology unit which Is ran by a fine physician who also is an Evanston resident. Aid. Rainey asked if there was some connection between Clark Street Clinic and St. Francis. If so then they already have the relationship. Mr. Suffredin said yes they have a clinic. Bennett Johnson helped him get John Stroger, President, Board of Commissioners, to come here and address a number of the black ministers. Mr. Stroger made a commitment to try and help, but said he would have no money for a building. The 820 Davis team has talked with Dr. McClure who has a building, the Access Clinic who has this building on Howard Street, and the people at St. Francis who have a building. It's really a question of if they are willing to give part of their building. He could put Cook County doctors in there and they are not going -pn-- to put any restrictions on what he can have County doctors do. That's the ultimate best thing they can do and they augment their services then. Alderman Feldman asked if a patient needs ancillary services with respect to an abortion case or a rape case or something like that, he could see if it was a self standing building on the campus of St. Francis that doesn't need _- any of their support facilities that might work, but if they get into St. Francis for any reason are they going to be able to do some of these things = that they haven't been able to do in the past? Mr. Suffredin response was rape issues are decided by state law and are mandated to provide certain services that violate the Catholic principals but if they want to keep their licenses they are required to do that. In other areas it is a problem, even renting space from them becomes a problem that's he thinks the Access Clinic, is their best situation. Mike Savage was one of these people Tommy c Thompson sought as a leader in this whole movement of creating these - networks and clinics and he probably could have got some waivers. Mr. Suffredin said he is still going to fight to try and get those waivers and If _ they can they can do something with them. 4 7/15/200511:13 AM Approved Mr. Suffredin stated they are trying to find ways to continue to outreach Into the Evanston community and the rest of this area and hopefully, continue to find programs, and anything that Evanston can see don't hesitate to come to him, because he is willing to try and figure out ways to get additional money for the smaller communities in his district that don't qualify for their own capital development block grant dollars. His district hasn't applied in the past and anybody under the 40,000 population doesn't have it. Evanston has its own block grant but there may be some social service agencies in Evanston that maybe he can help them get money which would free up money they could spend in Evanston. Their Forest Preserve Task Force continues to work on ways to try to Improve the forest preserve. Mr. Suffredin said their garbage pickup is much better at Perkins Woods, they are out there once a week and have not had over flowing garbage there. He thinks they also stemmed the landscapers who where dumping in the woods. They are working on trying to get better use of the Skokie Court house. If he needed a clinic space the Skokie Court house could maybe provide it. It has meeting spaces, but is an awkward building because of all the security requirements. People who have gone there to try and get their property tax assistance have only complained to him about the difficulty of getting In this public building, unfortunately when you have a court room that's what you have to go through. Alderman Feldman asked with respect to the tax appeal, how realistic or effective is the process? Mr. Suffredin explained that one of the interesting studies he saw was that the state agencies, the Assessor, the Board Review and the Property Tax Appeal Board, all three of these places you can appeal to and they all grant about equal whole dollar relief. It's about a 30% chance of getting success at the Assessor. He wishes it were better. One thing he hopes Mr. Houlihan was able to do when he came out here was try to explain that he was trying to get these numbers to be realistic. If people go to the Board of Review they have about a 30% chance there and he is encouraging people if they go to the Board of Review go with a lawyer because there is an evidentiary hearing there and the same is true at P-tab, you've got about a 30% chance there. Ald. Rainey asked how Mr. Suffredin felt about incinerators. His response was he has been In touch with Aid. Tisdahl about that because air quality is something that under both the Illinois and the County ordinances, their County Environmental Services have a responsibility for. He had checked to find out how many complaints there had been in the last 10 years on the incinerator and there were 3, all of them were investigated and determined to be non founded in the pollution levels. He has asked the County to continue to monitor this while Evanston Is dealing with the incinerator issue. At this point there has not been an issue for the county and he will continue to keep in touch on this. Aid. Wynne asked if the County was the appropriate jurisdictional bodies that complaints were made to as oppose to the IEPA. Mr. Suffredin said complaints could be 5 7/15/20OS11:13 AM Approved made to either. There is co -jurisdiction, the both inspect incinerators and the County does it on an annual basis, it was pointed out to him that it Is a non -for -profit and doesn't pay a fee. The letter in the Human Services Committee packets for tonight states that they don't get any funds for doing it. If a building is torn down, even in Evanston, to ensure that asbestos and other environmental issues in the tear -down occur, the County is required to be involved in that process. If the city administration needs assistance from the county for air quality issues he will be glad to ensure that Director Gibbons is made available. One other thing Mr. Suffredin wanted to mention was the Workforce Development Board and the funding of that and the oversight started about 1983 by the Northwest Municipal Conference (NWMC), about 8 weeks ago, Mayor VanDussen of Skokie and Mayor Morton of Evanston and others came to see him at a meeting to tell him that NWMC was ceasing that role, in the interim the State of Illinois is taking it over. He didn't know where they were going with this but the five county commissioners who represent this service territory on the north, which has been covered by this are not in favor of it going to the county, which is one of the options. Unfortunately the federal law says it has to go to a chief executive of a unit of government. They are concerned that if it goes to the president's office of employment training (POETS) that the money is not then guaranteed to stay in the northern region. There are three regions in Cook County, a north, west and south. They are very concerned that our money will be siphon and go to the south, so they are trying to work with the state and with the legislators who are involved here. The five county commissioners are trying to come up with another alternative. We've even suggested the possibility of one municipality taking this on and figuring out how they could buy insurance to indemnify that municipality against the liability, because the biggest issue, he thinks that NWMC became concerned about is that there is a liability if any of these federal funds are misused. This is not an easy process but on the north sector there is the One Stop Center on Oak Street in Evanston and one in Arlington Heights. Those are the only two centers and he has met with the Township Supervisors in New Trier, Evanston, Niles and Northfield who are very concerned about where this all goes. He will keep in touch with this Issue and knows that and knows that Mayor Morton and the people who are on that NWMC committee are also very interested in this. If it does go to POETS then he has to figure out a strategy with the five commissioners to try and ensure that the money doesn't get switched. Aid. Wynne asked when Mr. Suffredin anticipates moving forward with that parking tax issue exemption. He stated that President Stroger should present his budget to them in October. Their budget year starts December 1, it will be something they would have to do with the ordinances that are going to have to be passed and tied into next years budget, because they are going to have to figure out some way to make an adjustment. 6 7/15/200511:13 AM Approved Mr. 5uffredin thanked the Committee for inviting him. The committee thanked him for coming. Mayor Morton pointed out, not for any decision or anything, but to make the committee aware that in their packets are grafts that Doug Gaynor constructed. Not long ago City Manager Crum asked Mr. Gaynor to get this legislative information. She just wanted to make them aware that the City of Evanston pays dues to NWMC who is suppose to keep them involved on legislative issues and they do. There are weekly publications. Mr. Gaynor has spent all of this time doing all of this work, in addition to all the other things that he has to do. They pay into the NWMC 40 cents for each Individual in their city on our regular basis. The amount of money they pay depends on their population. She gets a weekly report as well as the City Manager. This is a duplication of effort and the city manager was perfectly within his right to make that type of an appointment, but she wanted the Council members to know that if they wish they can get a copy of this report and all of the legislative material of the NWMC weekly. Judy Aiello noted they also get a summary from the Illinois Municipal League. Mayor Morton stated she also does and if Council wanted to have a copy it sent to Council it could be arranged. Aid. Rainey noted that there are some really bad legislation in the report they received and some good ones but she thought as a group they should do something about it. Aid. Wynne said that is something that could be place on the Rules Committee agenda. Aid. Tisdahl said Mr. Gaynor did a good job, but she was assuming that it came from some lobbying group, because she was use to the schools analysis which would have had support or oppose written done, but now she understands why it was not included. But usually a lobbying group they have noted what is supported or opposed and also have dollar amounts that you might lose and they tell you If the bill is one to worry about if it is going somewhere or not. Mayor Morton added that the information from the NWMC will communicate whether or not the NWMC is for or against. Mr. Hill stated he was surprised Council did not get the Illinois Municipal League Legislative update because it has been coming to his office regularly and when he goes to the Home Rule Attorney meetings they discuss the proposed legislation and the Illinois Municipal League updates do give everything Aid. Tisdahl mentioned. It is definitely something they should receive In their packets and then the Rules Committee could decide what to do about it. The committee agreed they would like to start receiving these reports. Ms. Aiello said she would make sure they received them. 7/15/200511.13 AM Approved DISCUSSION OF COUNCIL RULE 11.3 WITH REGARD TO APPEARING BEFORE OTHER BOARDS AND COMMISSIONS! Aid. Moran asked this to be placed on the agenda. His issue only relates to the Plan Commission and not the Zoning Board of Appeals (ZBA) rules in terms of aldermanic appearances before the ZBA, which he agrees with the spirit in light of those rules. About 5 or 6 years ago he had a series of what he referred to as ward based issues regarding redevelopment on 82 and it required a great amount of work. A lot of community annexed, many, many meetings and ultimately, whether it was on the side of wisdom or not he did acquire a lot of information and a perspective about what was going on there. As a result of those situations he made a reference to the Plan Commission to examine the requirements for redevelopment in B2 districts and it had to do with things like build a lot line, height, mass and related concepts. He went to the Plan Commission meeting when the item was on their agenda. The two things that happened when he went there was first he was told that he would not be allowed to speak, which is a subject of this rule 11.3 which he was unaware of, but certainly found out very quickly, which was somewhat mystifying to him. The next shocking thing he learned was that there was a Zoning Sub -Committee of the Plan Commission and that committee had taken the issue up, held meetings and filed a written report saying that this was a bunch of malarkey and somebody in the Plan Commission handed him a one page "report" of the Zoning Sub -Committee which he had never heard of and was quite confident that nobody got notices of what the Zoning Sub -Committee was doing. In any event it was disturbing, time went by, most recently he had this Interaction with the Plan Commission in relation to the, not so well, main tear -down issue and found himself going to another tumble of meetings, some of them with the Plan Commission and many of them in his ward and so forth. Again, he was in a position where he had done a lot of work and felt that he had gained a fair degree of knowledge and some perspectives on the issues. Yet as he would go to these Plan Commission meetings he basically was told to not say anything, which he thought was improvident. The rule talks about hearings and people giving sworn testimony. His perceptions of what happens in the Plan Commission are they will fill up a room, you are about to discuss policy issues, somebody at the start says everybody who thinks they might talk tonight raise your right hand and swear to tell the truth. Truth is not the ultimate pursuit in his perception, truth is not the ultimate pursuit of this congregation, it is the formulation of policy. So for someone to say and Alderman shouldn't walk in and raise his or her right hand and swears to tell the truth is irrelevant to what the function of this body is at that point and time. What Aid. Moran is disturbed by is that in a Plan Commission type body where the pursuit isn't for truth, justice and beautify, it is to get good public policy and there are a lot of people who participate in that discussion. Some of whom he thought should be some of the people who are the epicenter of these issues, i.e. Council members who are working them, shepherding them, trying to understand the pros and cons of various 8 7/15/200511:13 AM Approved perspectives and have something to offer. He knows they will not be able to resolve it tonight but with respect to Rule 11..3 he thought the Rules Committee should give serious consideration to amending this rule to the degree that is relates to the Plan Commission. Aid. Wynne stated that she certainly has sat mute through her share of Zoning Committee hearings and Plan Commission hearings all along Chicago Avenue. She has sat and written questions to give to community members to ask because she had experience the issue of being forbidden to speak and being the person who is the most knowledgeable in the room about community issues. it was extremely frustrating because the Plan Commission members will actually know that they were asking a question that she was the only person that knew the answer. Occasionally they had gone off the record to ask her questions, mostly for clarification. She asked if Ald. Moran was looking at just changing the ordinance or at P&D, because P&D in many ways has those types of issues that come through the ZBA. Where they are not quite adjudicatory but are reshaping PUD. Aid. Moran thought that was a good point that he had not thought that part of It through and to the degree that there are separate categories of issues that tend to be outcome determinative before the Plan Commission, he would consider not changing the rule for those. What he is focusing on are these broad policy discussions that are frequently, so if in an incipient stage where people are coming in, they are expressing their emotions of community values. They should think about doing this, perhaps they could do It better this way or another way and discuss, and consider potential solutions to this problem. He was not adverse to the notion that perhaps there might needs to be some differentiation amongst the proceedings before the Plan Commission where there is sort of an outcome determinative mode to the proceeding. If that is the case then he was fine with that. What he is talking about is what the Plan Commission seems to fall frequently into the capacity of saying they are going to have a hearing about something and what it really is is a policy discussion and then Aid. Kent speaks again. After much discussion the committee agreed to place this item on the next agenda for further discussion. ADJOURNMENT: Meeting adjourned at 7:10 p.m. Respectfully submitted, Darlene Francellno 9 7/15/20OS11:13 AM Rates Corrrittee Minutes 9/20/04 Approved MINUTES OF THE RULES COMMITTEE MEETING MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 2004 6:00 p.m. Aldermanic Library Present: Aldermen Jean -Baptiste, Moran, Newman, Rainey, Tisdahl & Wynne Presiding: Alderman Melissa Wynne Absent: Aldermen Bernstein, Feldman & Kent Staff Present: Judith Aiello, Kathleen Brenniman, Darlene Francellno, Doug Gaynor, Vincent Jones, Gavin Morgan &Ellen Szymanski Guest: Mayor Lorraine Morton, Rep. Elizabeth Coulson, Sue Brady, Delores Holmes, Betty Papangelis, Mimi Peterson, Hollis Settles & Cheryl Wallin CALL TP ORDER: Aid. Wynne called the meeting to order at 6:13 p.m. APPROVAL OF MINUTES OF AUGUST 2. 2004: Aid. Tisdahl moved approval of the minutes of August 2, 2004. Aid. Moran seconded. Motion carried. Minutes approved. kERISLATIVE DISCUSSION: REP. BETH COULSON: Aid. Wynne explained that the Rules Committee started several years ago Inviting their various legislators who represent Evanston or live within their jurisdiction to come and discuss issues they think are important and to alert Council on what they see Is important to Evanston as a city. It Id also a way Council can work together with their legislators to advance or halt some to those causes as would be appropriate. The Committee welcomed Rep. Beth Coulson. Rep. Coulson thanked the committee for the invite. She stated she has 11 communities in her district and 2 years the new 17`h legislative district was added which includes most of the sixth ward in Evanston. She has been a legislator for eight years, grew up in the area and is pretty well aware of the neighborhoods. She has been a healthcare provider for 25 years and anything that has to do with health and education is her areas of expertise. She also noted that she and Ald. Moran have had several conversations about some of the road issues In Evanston and she is very interested in transportation. Very Interested in finding out how they can work together 1 Rules Ccmn-Uttee Minutes 9/20/04 Approved and what issues are most Important to the community. What issues need to be addressed quickly and which ones can be done long term. Rep. Coulson stated she and Sen. Jeff Schoenberg for a long time have talked about the railroad viaducts, the transportation and repairs of the viaducts. She asked where that was and where it is in the process. Aid. Newman's response was they have met with Frank Kruesi from CTA, who basically told them CTA had no money to fix their viaducts. The more egregious culprit in this is the United Railroad because they are making a lot more money now off Evanstonians. Their stops are full of probably thousands of Evanstonians who buy monthly passes. Rep. Coulson's understanding was there was money in the budget for those repairs. Ms. Aiello said they had been talking to CTA about five of the viaducts, it is about 25 or 26 million. There was some cost escalations and also cut backs on them, Evanston has gotten commitment for the Main Street viaduct which is in design now and should be under construction In the spring time hopefully. Then in their five year capital plan Evanston has one more viaduct and it has not been determined. At this point we have to continue to be vigilant to make sure that the money stays In the capital plan this year, and every year try and get something more so that Evanston can hopefully get 5 viaducts done in ten years. We had hoped to get done in five years. Rep. Coulson asked If there was a safety concern. Ms. Aiello said yes, these are some of the worse viaducts In their system and CTA ignores them. That's part of the reason why we had been pushing and need to continue to push. The Metra Central Street viaduct was painted, they've been doing some embankment work and now are doing some embankment work at Main Street and have done some at Davis Street, but there are still other viaducts in Evanston that need painting. In addition there are no plans for _ the big viaduct on Emerson Street in our downtown area. CTA has said it is structurally sound and just could use some paint but they don't consider that as serious. CTA has Indicated that the Metra's are safe and it is really cosmetic and it is ADA accessible and that is what they've been working on at both Main and Davis. Aid. Wynne added that CTA has documented that these viaducts fit into their worse category. _ Aid. Rainey noted the Howard Street viaduct is all steel and is all torn and rusted and pieces of steel are coming down and what they've done with - their street scape is put up a sign to hide it, but it really just draws attention to it. Rep. Coulson said she can help to encourage and make sure that it Is in there and asked that she be copied with letters or whatever the amount of the budget needs to be. She does not work in a partisan manner, but It = 2 Rules Committee Minutes 9/20104 Approved helps to have people on both sides of the aisle watching out for you because the budget has to go through both sides. If she knows about things that are important for her district or the area she can make sure they are there. She was able to do that a lot this year because they had so much input. She added that if the committee knows where they are it would make it easier for her to find them, she also will talk to Senator Schoenberg. Part of the problem is most of the money for them does not come from the state. So they don't have the complete authority, but the majority of the money Is coming from the federal government. They only have a certain amount of strings they can attach to and depending on if It is a capital project or not. It's really congress people they need to talk to and she was sure the committee had done that. Aid. Moran asked if some of the viaduct projects originally promised were on Illinois FIRST. Ms. Aiello said yes. Aid. Moran informed Rep. Coulson that part of the committee's discussion tonight is the Northwest Municipal Conference legislative update, a serious of proposals pending before the state. On page 5 of attachment "A", #24 "Release State Grants and Funding" says "Support legislation that would release remaining state funds for any Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity (formerly, DDCA) grants, projects, or Illinois FIRST projects". It appears as though there is legislation pending in Springfield. Rep. Coulson said she has been advocating for the release of those funds and has had many projects released, some of which have been in her district and some in surrounding districts. To her if a promise has been made to a community the state has to pay for that promise. She has several projects that people have loans out because they did It already. She is very happy to continue to do that. The big issue this year is they don't have a capital budget yet. November is when they are going to be fighting out the capital budget which is what this Is. Aid. Moran asked if it would help if Ms. Aiello were to provide some detailed information on the background of what they thought was a commitment, Because they thought they were getting funds from Illinois FIRST for these projects. Rep. Coulson said a memorandum of understanding of some sort would help. Unfortunately she has learned a lot about that in the last year. They have had tons of memorandums of = understanding because they could not understand it. She learned her lesson about 6 years ago that they need to get that kind of thing In writing from who ever promised it, whether it be the CTA or our leadership. Keep that in mind as we go forward. Aid. Newman said what about CTA, don't we have to get by them? Ms. Aiello noted that we are not allowed to be a line item. So it has to come 3 Rules Convni"ee Minutes 9/20/04 Approved from CTA, but she thought if Rep. Coulson were able to get the iegislation to CTA for the viaducts in Evanston that would be a little more specific. Mayor Morton wanted to let everyone know their state representative here tonight has always been a good friend of Evanston's. They have some good legislation to represent them and she surely is one of them. She was delighted that Rep. Coulson was here. The information being read is a survey by the Northwest Municipal Conference's Legislative Committee, which she serves on. This survey has been sent to all mayors belonging to the NWMC to get an idea as to how they feel about these issues. All of this will come back to the legislative, will be tabulated and the legislative committee will discuss them based on the fact that they are just here and also on the basis of how the different communities feel about them. So it is good to know how Evanston feels about some of these things. In addition it's highly possible that some of these issues the Northwest Municipal Conference may be in total opposition. So what goes down to those working in the interest of the Municipal Conference will be presented In a different way. It doesn't delay or interfere with anything happening here today, but for the future she wanted to throw that out. Aid. Moran referred back to page 4, item 22 of the survey stating that apparently there has been a proposal by SBC Ameritech to allow them to charge local emergency telephone systems for the cost of handling wireless 911 calls. Being the chairman of the committee within Evanston that operates the 911 system, that would be very bad for them. This legislation apparently seeks to prohibit that charge back to the systems and in his capacity as chairman he asked Rep. Coulson to get behind it so they don't have to pay Ameritech or wireless calls that they handle. To switch over to cell phones is becoming a drastic alteration in handling, funding, managing and administering the system. Rep. Coulson said there is going to be a whole telecommunications rewrite committee this next year and she will keep that in mind. Aid. Rainey stated she also is on that committee and land lines generate $1.50 to the City of Evanston for its line and wireless is $.75 cents. They've gone way beyond 10 to 20 percent of their calls being from cell phones. If they don't get this money it's a disaster, but this has nothing to do with Evanston this is statewide and the cost of maintaining a 911 center Is astonishing, the equipment every 3 or 4 years is completely obsolete and has to all be re -purchased. Evanston has its own 911 system as does Skokie and a lot of the suburbs, this is really important. She could not Imagine that every community group, every regional group, every sheriff's organization, and every law enforcement agency are not going to be lobbying to oppose this. 4 Rules Committee Mimrtes 9/20/04 App vftd Ald. Newman mentioned another issue involving police chasing. Currently they have been cursed sixteen million dollars in liability in the past 3 or 4 years on two cases involving police chasing and trying to arrest known criminals. The law in this area changed in the late 90's to try and make it easier to get judgments against municipalities. All of that money is going to be paid out of property taxes and we are a town of 72,000 people. If there was a reasonable cap on damages of two million we would be like 9 million dollars ahead. Rep. Coulson said there's a lot of debate on whether they should chase or not, but if it gets out there that you are not going to chase the bad guys try to get away. On the cap issue she would need to learn more about It. She is very willing to listen, but is not sure that's the way to go. However, there are other ways to try to regulate, like, shall we call it frivolous or other kinds of law suits. Is there insurance for cities? Aid. Newman said it Is very expensive. Rep. Coulson said the reason she asked, she was a township trustee before she was a state legislator and In local government Issues one of the real problems is the property tax money that you're collecting. You're not collecting it for some excessive verdict; you're collecting it to provide services to the community. What they found and what they were able to do is pass a law in Illinois where, and this happened to be for the township, you're paying for emergency services for healthcare for anybody who needs it in the township and they were having to put aside millions of dollars not knowing If they had one case that would completely bankrupt the township. Rather than continuing to put the money aside, which they also had lawsuits that said they couldn't hold on to the money. They couldn't have 13 million dollars sitting there. One heart attack could have cost them 13 million dollars. They finally ended up getting an insurance program for the whole state for all the townships for emergency assistance so that no one had to have this huge large pool sitting there, no one kind of township had to have this large pool, there was an insurance pool for the state for all townships. Ald. Rainey said it is important to know that when these cases occurred, they didn't have insurance because the premium was about a million dollars and it was unaffordable, but they do now have insurance. Rep. Coulson said that's why she asked because if a change in state law would allow a pooling of municipalities to put money together because that's what they are finding they are probably going to have to do for physicians. Some kind of a large insurance pool so if there is one huge lawsuit it will not bankrupt any city. That might be something they could look in to, because realistically caps are not going to happen in the State of Illinois. They've been declared unconstitutional twice by the Supreme Court and rather than fighting and barking up a tree that she knows Is not going to happen, she would rather try to think of a creative way to change that. 5 Rules Committee Minutes 9120/o4 ilpproved Aid. Moran referred to health issues because they recently had discussion related to smoking bans and passed a revised ordinance that prohibits smoking in a lot of places. Where the flash point really came was bars and restaurants. He was sure Rep. Coulson knew the hospitality industry is a big part of their economy and there was a disinclination on the part of the Council to pass an ordinance that prohibited smoking In bars and restaurants. The rational was they would be hurting their commercial operators on a competitive basis. He noticed that apparently pending In Springfield, number 20 on the survey legislation would provide a statewide ban restricting smoking in restaurants according to this survey. He did not know all the detail but did want to know what prospects are there for the passage of a statewide ban? Rep. Coulson stated she co -sponsored two bills one of which failed that basically would allow communities other than the 14 communities that are currently allowed to have smoking ordinances which Evanston is one and Skokie is the one that failed. They were not able to expand that because they failed by about 3 votes. It's highly unlikely a statewide smoking ban will pass in the near future. We are in a very diverse state and she thinks that In the northern part of the state it would probably pass but in the southern part of the state and even in Springfield Itself there are restaurants that still don't have no smoking areas. She does not go in those restaurants because she has been in healthcare for 25 years and can't breathe when she goes into a building like that. There is the competitive part of the restaurant but up here the market has driven smoking out of most of the restaurants that she goes through, not the legislation but the market because people won't go to those restaurants and bars that are too smokey. This is a statewide smoking ban is a long shot, they can't even pass a bill that says local communities have the authority to have an ordinance on smoking except from the ones that are grandfathered in. Aid. Jean -Baptiste referred to #18 of the survey regarding education funding. Of the City of Evanston property tax dollars 70% of it goes to the school districts. He wondered if there has been discussion or thinking to alleviate this kind of burden on tax payers. Rep. Coulson said in the eight years she has been there they've had the tax swap concept put forward a couple of times. The biggest problem she had with the tax swap as it was addressed in 1997-98, Is there was no assurance that suburban schools would get their fair share of the money. Because tax swaps you have to raise taxes somewhere at the state level. At that time it was a income tax increase and if these communities, Evanston being one of them, they obviously are high income percentage communities in many cases compared to the rest of state. We are talking all the way down state. What they found as they looked at the numbers 2 Rules Committee Minutes 9/20/04 Approved was the majority of the income taxes were coming from the northern part of the state, Chicago and the northern and west suburban areas but the majority of the money was not coming back here. Her fear was there is no way to guarantee at anytime that that money would come back to our students. Her scenario in playing this out was that they raise the income tax which is what they would have to do to allegedly lower the property tax. There's no guarantee that property tax would go down, because as a legislator you don't have control of the property tax. It's a local property tax. Personally she thought the state should pay more of the education funding. But how with our constitution and the way our taxing bodies are set up do we guarantee that our students continue to get at least as good an education. Until she can figure that one out she is very leery of the tax swap concept. Over the past 8 years she has worked very hard and there has not been a single year that they have not increased education funding at the state level. It's been anywhere from 384 million dollars this year to some years they were able to add a billion dollars worth of new funding for education as they try to find those dollars in the state budget. It's still not enough but the key to her is to protect the schools in this area while helping schools all over the state and this last year the governor's original budget actually took money away from our schools to send elsewhere. Having been on the appropriation committee for 8 years she saw this happening and worked with both sides of the aisle, our senator and other senators from all the suburban area as well as many of the middle size cities to get the governor to not do that to us and in the last two years it has been very tough. If anyone has any suggestions or any ideas she welcomes them. They did pass a bill for property tax relief for citizens In Cook County this year, but she is worried about how that is going to affect our school funding because that's where our money comes from. They all thought income tax was always growing. As you watched over the fast 50 years since WWII the income tax revenues at all state levels have gone up until Z years ago and now have had 2 years of decreasing income tax revenue in the State of Illinois. They are looking towards their third year next year of possibly having decreasing income tax revenues. Her concern with only funding by income tax for education is that depending on what the economy is doing you can literally have a year where you really need more money for education but you'd have less because you are only funding through income tax. She would like to see some type of mix cap. Aid. Wynne thanked Rep. Coulson very much for coming to their meeting. CONTINUED DISCUSSION OF COUNCIL. RULE 11.3 WITH REGARD TO APPEARING BEFORE OTHER BOARDS AND COMMISSIONS: This is a continuation of the issue raised by Aid. Moran at the prior meeting regarding Rule 11.3 of testimony by the Council members before both the Plan Commission and the Zoning Board of Appeals. Staff provided a memo outlining background material on this. 7 Rules Conwittee Minutes 9/20/04 Approved Aid. Moran thought Ms. Szymanski's memorandum sharpened his recollection of the past practice and how It might effect what he has been proposing. The memo raised an interesting issue In relation to what might have come out of the ZBA but his focus related more toward the potential revision of the rules regarding the appearance and address to the Plan commission as a member of the City Council. He feels there is a potential, which clearly was a concern in prior rules of the conflict of interest, in relation to the appearance of an alderman before the ZBA or the Plan Commission which is he or she may, through their appearance and statements attempt to convey to a body that's attempting to act on an independent basis with the notion of suggesting that more weight should be given to the statement of an alderman and anyone else who has a stake In that issue who comes before the ZBA or the Plan commission and he doesn't think that should be done. He thought they needed to preserve the portion of the council rules that relate to this. That suggests that there are situations where such an appearance and statement may be Improvidence. Maybe not in the best interest of that body making a dispassionate unbiased decision but on the best decision it should make. What he has in mind right now is the Zoning Committee of the Plan Commission that is currently going through a series of meetings that are described within our statues as hearings. In his opinion they are not really hearings, they are discussions amongst themselves and citizens and other stake holders who come in and there might be a discussion of what would be a permitted use In a particular zoning district, what would be building limitations In a particular zoning district. There are not Ad Hoc to a particular site per say, they are not Ad Hoc to a particular petition by either an individual or an organization that perhaps wants to redevelop a particular site. They are focused on reformulation of policies and potential amendments to policies as it is moralizing in our colt. In those circumstances an alderman should be able to not only attend those meetings but engage in the discussion, not dominated, not suggest through his or her statement that what they are saying is true or the wises course of action. But there's an institutional memory, there's an Institutional issue orientation that can be developed by an alderman that speaks intelligently and with knowledge of the development of these issues that shouldn't be missed by the Plan commission. There are two aspects of it that are of importance. Number one the alderman's input to the Plan Commission or a committee of the Plan Commission allows that committee or commission as a whole to act on a full record is the way he would put it, to act on all the information, the best information that it can get. He thought it was something of a disservice to them to not hear what the alderman knows about particular issues. 8 Rules Committee Minutes 9/20/04 Approved Ald. Moran said he has sat in on these meetings where there would be a discussion about a particular aspect of the issue and commission members will make statements where it becomes fairly clear to him, and he does not mean this as a criticism, that there is a gap perhaps, in their knowledge of the issue of what has happened in the past which could happen again in the future. That gap could easily be filled -in by the input of an alderman or several aldermen who have specific knowledge as to this issue. He does not think they should be left to deliberate and make a decision without having the most complete information available to them. Number two, assuming they don't have that information and they proceed to a decision and that decision involves a recommendation, potential recommendation to the City Council, the City Council should be able to have confidence that that recommendation is predicated on all the best information they should have. It gives credit to both bodies or several of the bodies whether it's the full Plan Commission, a sub -committee of the Plan Commission, the Evanston City Council, or the Planning and Development Committee of the Evanston City Council all of those entities should have the benefit of having full credit and belief in the recommendation being based on all information available. In short, he thought when it is pure policy discussion, not an Ad Hoc determination on a specific petition, it would serve the city well to have aldermen who are engaged in the issue to come and be able to speak to that body an give their input and hopefully have a positive influence in their determination, whether its consistent or inconsistent with the wishes of that alderman, it will still give them a chance to make the best informed decision. Aid. Wynne thought that Aid. Moran made a lot of good points that are going to give rise to some good discussion. But they needed to continue this discussion at their next meeting. ADJOURNMENT: Meeting adjourned at 7:15 p.m. Respectfully submitted, Darlene Francellno E. Rules Committee Meeting 10/4/04 DRAFT NOT APPROVED MINUTES OF THE RULES COMMITTEE MEETING MONDAY, OCTOBER 4, 2004 6:00 P.M. Aldermanic Library Present: Aid. Bernstein, Feldman, lean -Baptiste, Moran, Newman, Rainey, Tisdahl & Wynne Presiding: Aid. Wynne Absent: Aid. Kent Staff Present: Judith Aiello, Kathy Brenniman, Darlene Francellno, Douglas Gaynor, Vincent Jones, Gavin Morgan, &William Stafford Guest: Rep. Julie Hamos, Sen. Jeff Schoenberg, Delores Holmes & Hollis Settles CALL TO ORDER: Aid. Wynne called the meeting to order at 6:16 p.m. LEGISLATIVE DISCUSSION: SEN. JEFF SCHOENBERG AND REP. IULIE HAMOS: Aid. Wynne reminded the committee that this was a continuation of their legislative meetings. She welcomed Rep. Hamos and Sen. Schoenberg and explained that in the past they have invited their legislators to come in and share their interests in what projects might be interesting and to discuss any other issues. She stated she knows the capital budget is being in formation right now and would like to know if there are any opportunities for Evanston and what Sen. Schoenberg and Rep. Hamos thought might be worthwhile and successful for Evanston and any other issues they might have. She opened the floor for discussion. Rep. Hamos actually passed a bill that will have an impact on Evanston. There was a bill she sponsored which is an energy efficient commercial building code. They did pass it and it overrules even home rule communities. So it is in favor to have statewide impact because that's the way to make this work and to have a true impact on energy savings and saving energy cost both on the usage and cost sides. The bill will affect commercial buildings because you tend to use commercial buildings but under the building code, commercial has a certain definition so it also includes residential high rises. It is a new bill and will only affect new buildings and new construction. The definition of stuff is found in the International Energy building code and there are certain definitions that she does not know by heart but there certainly is going to be all kinds of information available through the state. She hopes the state will also have funding available for training building code inspectors. She noted that the 1 Rules Committee Meeting 10/4104 DRAFT NOT APPROVED committee needed to think about whether they need to avail themselves with that. Aid. Wynne asked if this is what is referred to as a green building code in terms of energy efficiency and low environmental impact building materials? Rep. Hamos said she is told that the way to add energy efficiency standards to buildings is first in the building envelope in terms of insulation and in building materials. But it is mostly with commercial buildings it's more in terms of installation, lighting and windows. The committee probably knows the numbers, that if in every single new building from this point forward really does conserve on energy then that can have a big impact. A second bill and a fairly comprehensive effort that she is very pleased about called the Older Adults Services Act. This is intended to be a balance for long term care system, Think about the fact that the state has made investments more on the nursing home side all these years, spent 3 billion dollars in Medicaid nursing homes and currently have more than 15 thousand empty beds. Because what the seniors want is to be able to stay at home as long as possible and receive services in their homes. So this is going to be a fairly big effort to rebalance that whole system. One of the projects locally coming to them for support is the Mather Georgian project. Alderman Newman asked how that works. Rep. Hamos said she really didn't know, she thinks they are just looking for a letter of support or whatever. She thought the Council had taken action on that. Aid. Newman stated they have taken action on a preservation issues but not on the underling zoning and it would be pretty hard to take a position on that unless you knew the concerns of the neighbors in the immediate neighborhood. From their standpoint the preservation issue is over, it is at the state level. But they need substantial zoning relief backing up to residential neighborhoods. It's a very serious zoning issue. Aid. Rainey referred back to the older American Services Act and asked if the balancing piece of that comes in with funding to other types of living situation? Rep. Hamos said it is a home continual of care and on the one end people are being able to stay in their homes and receive services in their home. Aid. Rainey said so it's either at home services or other kinds of services? Rep. Hamos said yes and those adult day programs. People are staying in their homes and then the whole notion of building more assistant living for lower income populations. Aid. Rainey asked how that was going to affect those who are part of the nursing homes population. Rep. Hamos said the ins and outs of this are that probably people who have already divested themselves of all their assets and are living in nursing homes and are very frail and very elderly are not thinking of what this will impact. But thought it would stem the tide if they could do correct 2 Rules Committee Meeting I0/4/04 DRAFT NOT APPROVED assessment in the first place. One thing they have learned along the way is that when people go into the nursing homes for rehab and sixty days into it, is it a good time to do an assessment in the nursing home. Part of the problem is nursing homes are also looking for residence. So with all these empty beds they are looking to fill the nursing home beds and there is really no one at that critical junction, it is before the Medicare runs out and before they have to get rid of all their assets to qualify for Medicaid because somebody could really be helped. This bill will set up a system over time to do that kind of planning. This year for the first time ever she worked on a piece of legislation on a universal fare card for Metra, CTA and Pace which she has talked about before. Just last week the Speaker of the House set up a "Special Committee on Mass Transit for Northeastern Illinois" and he named her as the chair. It's an interesting project and those viaducts are going to be right in her mind at all times. She also worked on legislation this year to try to nudge this system along as she has been trying to do for six years on a universal fare card. Those are three of her bills. Sen. Schoenberg made his introductory remarks in the context of budget which is the area that he anticipated the conversation would transition towards as they talk about capital and other opportunities that might exist both in the fall veto session as well as any anticipation of the next fiscal years budgets. He stated he sits as the second ranking member, vice chairman of both senate appropriations committees, chair the state government committee which shares all the budget implementation bills and is the senate chair of the economic and fiscal commission which is a bi-cameral bi-partisan revenue forecasting arm for this state. Most recently in the last several months he has been asked by the Governor to sit on a pension reform commission which will help this devise both short term and long term strategies for assisting the state in dealing with the problem that many public entities are dealing with and that is the under funding of their respective pension systems. From a macro view point, and he was sure impacts Evanston's budget in the same way, pension and healthcare are the two spending pressures which drive the states budget. In terms of revenues, the revenue projections are going to stay static, Illinois historically. We may potentially be looking at a tougher spot than we did this past year because we will continue to have spending pressures, Medicaid, family care, kid care, etc. They will have to scrape up the money to come up with a fix share in order to meet the expanding need for healthcare and the pension funding issue has not been entirely resolved on the state. Ald. Newman asked what he meant by the Pension Funding issue. Sen. Schoenberg said that right now the states retirement systems, each have a certified amount that they believe necessary to pay in order to have a adequately funded retirement system at a level that is actuarially and statutorily correct. At the beginning of this budget cycle the state found it self about $527 million dollars short of the figure it needed in order to 3 Rules Committee Meeting 10/4/04 DRAFT NOT APPROVED have those retirement systems meet their projections. They had an early retirement; they had an early out at the end of Ryan's administration where the incentive and sweeteners were boosted up considerably to encourage more people. He had never heard of a situation where you let people buy time to quit the way they did in Illinois and gave them as much as they gave them. The bill came through for all of that. In addition, the number of people who actually took the early out was projected to be about 7 thousand state employees and end up being about 11 thousand state employees. Those costs they will expound eventually and will have to find a way to fund a pension system. The reason they have such a crisis in Illinois is because they didn't over fund. As in the private sectors case you over fund when your revenues are strong and you under fund when revenues are weak but that runs counterintuitive to what many public bodies do as we have a lot of competing spending pressures, especially in the area of healthcare. Nonetheless this is unfinished business. So with revenue projections they are going to only increase modestly for the next fiscal year. Yet spending pressures which continue to grow in the area of healthcare and in under funded pensions. It's going to restrict the options they have available to provide local governments with assistance. What would likely happen, in his view, is as long as the market conditions stay the way they are they will try to take advantage of this as best they can to issuance of debt. But there is only so far they can go with that. In the first year of this administration they used that as a means to sell 10 billion dollar pension obligation bonds in order to do an arbitrage that would yield them the money to pay to fill that hole in the pension system last year. They could conceivably be looking at a much more limited version of that within the next 12 months but revenues are not going to be strong. Illinois, historically runs behind other states in realizing any benefit from an economic recovery. The rule of thumb is that if things start to progress on a national level, because of the nature of Illinois economy it takes a while, they tend to be the caboose on this and as such they should temper whatever enthusiasm they develop over any improvement natural economy. Aid. Feldman asked who goes first if they are last or one of the last. Sen. Schoenberg said it was not a question of getting in line it is the very nature of our economy. We have a combination of heavy service sector, manufacturing sector, rural sector and some of those sectors are moving faster than others. We have a very heavy reliance on hospitality, for example today's news is there is not going to be hardware shore for the first time in 30 years. It's really going to be a major whip to what happens in the Metropolitan Chicago area as far as hospitality and conventions. We tax that specially to pay for a lot of other things. He reiterate to the committee his standing offer to be able to use his various positions within the priority setting mix on the budget end of things to try to help the municipalities where he can, whether it's to help have the department of natural resources get some grants to help deal with the pilot projects for the Elms. Whether it's to boost whatever funding they can get for some 4 Rules Committee Meeting 10/4/04 DRAFT 140T APPROVED IDOT projects or if there are IDA opportunities that are in the pipeline. They finally have a comprehensive view from IDA on how to address affordable housing needs which is something they can be helpful with as well. Rep. Hamos noted that they do believe they are going to have a vote on a big capital bill where they really do need every vote because it's a three - fifths vote that is required. It is October and they never know if they going to vote until they get closer to the veto session, they come in a week after the election. The question is, is there still an opportunity to include a project if there was consensus here around some project that is just sitting out there to be funded. Sen. Schoenberg said he thought they got two bites at the apple. His read on what is going to happen in the fall is , especially if the current political climate continues and all the sniping has not abated since they adjourned, continued at the convention and has continued to manifest itself in a variety of ways. They could conceivably be looking at a more limited opportunity for reauthorization of things which were already in the queue. However as Rep. Hamos said, an opportunity may arise so they should be prepared for that. At the very minimum it's advantages for them to put things on the table because it's October. By December 95% of next year's budget is going to be put to bed. By the time New Years comes along and the governor roles out his budget message within the first two months of the year most of that would be predetermined. So they might get in the queue on that as well. If there are any IDA related activities, those are not things they put in a budget bill. Those are things they get on the phone and call them and tell them to push it up in the queue. Alderman Newman said the committee would have to talk amongst themselves to figure that out. They could come up with a fire station, children's library, streets, parks, buildings, etc. Sen. Schoenberg asked if there was any capital related to the children's library. Ald. Wynne informed him that it's essentially creating a children's services department in their library. Sen. Schoenberg said the reason he asked was because for something like that, as an example, they wouldn't even have to necessarily insert that. There is already a pre-existing budget line with the local municipality. The municipality comes up with up to 250 thousand dollars in the match through the Secretary of State Office. There is a line in his budget where capital money is available. Aid. Newman said they just had a budget presentation and in the state income tax from probably 2001 until now it has gone down over a million dollars. He was not blaming anybody but, whenever that goes down it all ends up on our property taxes. The other thing that ends up on our property tax are all pension for firemen and police, so if you make any 5 Rules Committee Meeting 10/4/04 DRAFT NOT APPROVED changes there that causes any increases in benefits, you are putting money on our property taxes. For us, considering all your problems, it is much better to take money away from us to raise the state income tax, because that's a fair tax and he knows that is not a popular thing because people don't get elected for that but from a point of view of the property taxes coming down, drives up the cost of housing. Evanston already has very high property taxes which make people less incline to invest in our town. Aid. Rainey warned them to keep their eye on that 911 money, because the last threat they heard was that Blagojevich was going to dip in to the localities 911 money and Evanston desperately has to have that to run their program. Rep. Hamos said she had to leave but wanted to come today because she wanted to do a wish list for when there are opportunities that arise. She asked the committee to keep that in mind because they go into session next month. If there is consensus around anything it would be really great to know what those things are, how much it will cost, what the perimeters are and what the program looks like. Aid. Wynne suggested scheduling a special meeting of the Rules Committee to discuss that. Sen. Schoenberg brought up grant applications. In particular, in Mr. Gaynor's case who has been very attentive when there is a grant application pending for something, not just a support letter, but letting him know what the time frame is so that he can call the agency director. It is always better to be able to call the agency director before they have to come in to see him about their budget. Because that's where he let's them know what is on his list of things. So to the extent that there are grant applications pending that you may want to anticipate for the coming year where you see things, whether you see them coming, what agencies you will be pointing towards, how much you'll be applying for, or what is the maximum amount for those grants, because maybe you got a grant, maybe a DNR grant for something and you want to boost it up on another thing because it all adds up. So if they have a way of tracking all of that it would be very advantages for him just to be able to say, as agency directors come to see him or as the budget director who he talks to a couple times a week, at the end of the meeting he can tell them that there is this issue for Evanston and he is happy to put in the time to help the administration, that would help him slot. Aid. Wynne thought that was important for the City Manager's office to keep tabs on and have a regular notification process to you of everyone that we file for and then a tickler system so that as it is approaching it's deadline they send you all of the details and information. , Rules Commkttee Fleeting 10/4/04 DRAFT NOT APPROVED Ald. Newman stated they really don't know because they hear about grants after the fact. They know that Mr. Gaynor applies for a lot because they have seen them. The police department also gets some grants. Sen. Schoenberg gave a good case and point. He and Ald. Wynne met at least a couple of years ago to talk about whether or not there were any resources available on elms. It wasn't a priority for the department of natural resources and the prior administration. It certainly wasn't a priority for the department of agriculture. It wasn't on anybodies radar screen; there was no money to be had. There's a new administration and different emphasis and programs, so he is going to be able to do his best to try to help the city with its application to help with money towards the elms. The point being is that three years ago when they talked about this it wasn't even on the list of things that this agency was doing. Now, if there is money here, that's money you can go after and meet other needs. Sen. Schoenberg said Evanston's situation is like theirs in a sense, their spending pressures are quite comparable to what drives your budget. So it's to the extent that you are able to find a dollar that gets you a match on a federal grant, that dollar becomes two dollars or that dollar becomes something else then we are able to do it. We are in very comparable situations. Aid. Tisdahl asked about taxing the internet? Sen. Schoenberg said it seems to have slowed down. His friend Sen. Rosenberger is a big proponent of that but there has to be a uniformed system of voluntary tax collections among all the states and that seems to have slow down, as he understands it. There has been a lack of consensus thus far on how to execute the third party collection of internet sales taxes. Aid. Rainey commented that when you buy on the internet you frequently see when you go to check out a certain percentage and that money has to be going to the state right? Sen. Schoenberg stated that Brain Hammer, state department of revenue director would probably tell you whether we in Illinois right now have the capability of collecting, especially with the lack of a National agreement. Sen. Schoenberg noted that the other thing he had on his list was the hospital incinerator and that has been put to bed. The Committee thanked him for all the help he did on that. Ald. Wynne said the perennial issue they have is their viaducts. Aid. Newman added that they have an issue with CTA. Right now CTA is looking at night service and things like that and about three of our stations do not measure up to rider ship and our city does not begin with Chicago. They are already looking at our bus routes and re -arranging them. Sen. Schoenberg said it could be PACE, they are re -arranging them to tighten the noose around Pace's neck. He would refer to Julie Moore on 7 Rules Committee Meeting 10/4/04 DRAFT NOT APPROVED the mass transit end of things. He has met with the Chief of Staff to the CTA board chairman here in Evanston a couple of weeks ago and our budget cycles are not concurrent. So without knowing whether the legislature will come up a prescribed figure that %ve need to come up with, and that's part of a larger discussion, because they essentially have to present two budget scenarios. One that assumes that the legislature is not going to make a contribution towards it and one they will assume that it will. They all have done this drill on a variety of other subjects so you put it out there and you make everybody aware of what this situation is and in the interim some relief may occur. In his view one of the reasons this is in such a critical stage right now is because the federal Transportation reauthorization bill has not been finalized. So states don't know what they are getting. We roughly know that we are going to stop being a donor state. This is going to be Congressman Lipinskiy's legacy before he leaves, but because this president has even said no to leadership of his own party on the level, on the sealing for the Federal Transportation reauthorization bill, there has been a lack of agreement on it and now it's just to carry through the election. You could probably get the senate and the house to veto to override a presidential veto, but there is no way they will put the president in that kind of position before an election so it's just going to be on hold until after the election. Because of that we don't know what we are going to be. It affects our mass transit decisions and it affects our IDOT projects as well and believe him the CTA viaducts are personal to him. Aid. Newman asked about the Metra viaduct. Sen. Schoenberg said they are ugly and if he didn't live near the Central Street one it still would not have been painted. Ald. Bernstein shared that he has been in conversations with Dan Lloyd with respect to the funds that CTA took from them. He's now working with Carol Braun who apparently is going to look into it. The committee thanked both Sen. Schoenberg and Rep. Hamos for attending and for all the work thay have done. ADJOURNMENT: Meeting adjourned at 7:00 p.m. Respectively submitted, Darlene Francellno 8 Rules Committee Minutes 01/03/05 GRAFT NOT APPROVED MNUTES OF THE RULES CO.\lMITTEE \fE G MONDAY, January 3, 2007 6:00 p.m. Aldermanic Library Present: Ald. Bernstein, jean -Baptiste, Moran, Rainey & Tisdahl Presiding: Alderman Steven Bernstein Absent: Aldermen Feldman, Kent & Newman Staff Present: Judith Aiello, Kathleen Brenniman, Darlene Francellno, Vincent Jones, Gavin Morgan & Ellen Szymanski Guest: Delores Holmes CALL TO ORDER: Ald. Bernstein called the meeting to order at 6:1 5 p.m. APPROVAL OF ML]\"UTES OF SEPTEMBER 20, 2004 & OCTOBER 4. 2004: Ald. Tisdahl moved approval of the minutes of September 20, 20N & October 4, 2004. Ald. Moran seconded. Motion carried. Minutes approved. CONTINUED DISCUSSION OF COUNCIL RULE 11.3 WITH REGARD TO APPEARING BEFORE OTHER BOARDS AND COMMISSIONS: Ald. Moran noted that the discussion regarding this rule that prohibits aldermen from addressing the Plan Commission should be modified. The way the rule is vvritten they being Aldermen cannot address the Plan Commission. In some instances that's appropriate. If you're going to have people literally give testimony about factual matters, opinion evidence or a unique use or some other aspect that the Plan Commission deals with, fine, let the Aldermen stay away from that. Because with the over arching principle that has been offered, the fact that the Alderman shows up and speaks to an issue, may have suggested that the person's statement may have an undo influence on the proceeding. Proceedings he has been involved in have not been site specific or project specific and frequently are not gravitating toward a fact based determination or what you might consider to be a scientific opinion or some other analytical opinion that would be in the realm of an ea -pert. A lot of times it's just people within the community coming forward expressing their values and it ends up being a dialogue between citizens, other people and the Plan Commission or some committee of the Plan Commission where everybody is basically floating theory. It's a mistake to bar Aldermen from speaking under those circumstances because many times the Alderman of the ward frequently has a long history of dealing with that issue, of being the focal point of discussions, and has sat in on a lot of private citi en meetings. But because of that Alderman's involvement, sometimes long, deep and detailed involvement, it becomes a 1 Rules Committee Minutes 01/03/05 DRAFT NOT APPROVED repository of an awful lot of information and perspective. There are some fundamental concepts in the materials provided that could use some alterations. The most graphic, pointed out every time he goes to one of these meetings, is the first thing that happens is the chairman of the meeting says everybody who is going to speak stand up and raise your right hand and swear to tell the truth. People are not there to be sworn to tell the truth, they are there to have a community discussion with the Plan Commission, and it highlights the notion that, although he knows that these things are all styled hearings, they are not frequently in the category of cases that he was talking about. They are not hearings, other than people are there to hear ghat other people have to say which is far from an evidentiary hearing. Lander those circumstances the Aldermen should be allowed to speak and give some contour and input to the discussion. The specific threat without that alteration is that serious things are missed. It's unfortunate because it puts the Plan Commission in the unenviable position of having developed a record where they get to the end of the hearing and there have been important points that haven't been made and the record becomes incomplete. Incomplete because the person who probably, not always, and he hesitates to suggest that it's the Alderman that might be the repository of the greatest amount of information and institutional history and there might be others who have even more institutional history, but frequently the Alderman are close to the top. its. Szymanski has done a very nice job of pulling together memos of historical nature to describe this circumstance. He proposed that the Rules Committee invite Ms. Szymanski to go through the materials and try to parse out of it language that is not of a "hearing nature," language that does not require a sworn testimony and that is not site specific, which has a policy component to it. A none specific locational component and see if they can't allow the Aldermen to speak to the Plan Commission or its committees on those issues. Aid. Rainey agreed completely but thought maybe it's simpler than expressed. It seemed to her that if an issue before the Plan Commission is not project specific Aldermen should be allowed to speak. Many times the Commission %%ill be discussing matters that Council has referred to them. She was sure staff prodded them with some background material, but there is no way they can understand all of the nuances. In project specific matters, right now the rules are violated because they are sitting there, frequently, desperate for some facts that they know the Alderman sitting there listening has, they tell the transcriber to stop typing, ask the Alderman their questions, then has the transcriber to start typing again and then they move on and become productive again. She asked why they are called hearings. Ms. S--)miwuki explained that the clarion decision is the one now requiring committees to make sure that all persons who wish to address the public hearing body have a full and fair opportunity to do so and that the opposing side be given the full and fair opportunity to cross examine and ask questions. The theory is that the hearings do in a sense adjudicate land right, even though, yes they do go to the City Council and yes they are subject to review by the Circuit Court and State Supreme Court but they do affect property rights. That is the genesis of calling them hearings and having the public testimony requirement. However, she did not want to foreclose where the committee was going with this because 2 Roles Committee Minutes 01/03/05 ORAFT NOT APPROVEb she understood the concerns and thought that in the event the committee gives her direction to give some flexibility it probably could be done. Ald. Rainey stated she didn't care if they were hearings or not. If it's a big deal let them be hearings. At Ieast they'll have an accurate reference. But it seemed to her there is absolutely no reason for them not to participate if it is not a real project specific issue and asked what was the argument against that. Ald. Bernstein shared what he thought the argument was. There is a concept of a one person jury and when a judge or lawyer gets chosen to be on a jury the panel Iooks to that person for guidance. He thought that when this was established the fact that they can address things that are not recommended to them, in fact is a separation of power, and the learn of the people on these various conunissions. Hopefully, they are specialists in that area, chosen by the Mayor and affirmed by the Council, for their areas of expertise without any input. Council always has the last word and can always interject and cure the record. He understands the problem exists, historically, they have seen a lot where they have an issue they want to discuss and it does not get communicated properly so they go off on a tangent. In most situations it would be nice to say "we don't want to talk about this we actually want your input on this." He did not think that the members of the Plan Commission would be intimidated by the present of an Alderman and did not think they would decide based on the analysis of an Alderman. He has always thought there was this division and Council has the final say. The reason it is so clear on the Zoning Board Appeals is because there are certain things that are recommending and certain things that are final with the ZBA. So to the extent that Council has greater knowledge and a position that represents a large minority of their constituency, they have the right to go in and express themselves and hope to persuade them in their direction for final authority. Another thing that is frustrating is when people are denied by the ZBA on something that's final to the ZBA they have to go right to court. That is a big outlay of cash and time to appeal and is a real restraint on the freedom that people have. Because these are not elected people and they to are subjecting this applicant to some problem or some minimization of his land use. He has had people call him quietly and off the record to get the benefit of his wisdom so they can make a full and fair analysis. Ald. Jean-Baptiste's concern was that the Plan Commission hearings %rill become an arena for Aldermen on the opposite side of the issue to engage in a major debate although the parties themselves may debate the issues. It's very intimidating when the Aldermen walks in and has their perspective, you neutralize that panel of experts who come to give an impartial decision or a decision that they think is in the best interest of the City. Council has an opportunity to speak on the issue when it leaves the Plan Commission and influence it in a sense, because if they are in touch with their constituents around a particular project then they are preparing them and engaging in discussion with them. Often what they articulate may be information they have gotten from the Alderman or consulted with them on. He is also concerned that they don't open the door too widely. If there are some specific issues Rules Gatnmittee Minute 01/03/05 DRAFT NOT APPROVED they can make specific exceptions to, he can see that, he just does not see them going in there and engaging and stretching as they would stretch in a discussion with each other around issues they are concerned about. If they were to make an exception it has to be really, really narrowly defined with a policy perspective that clarifies certain position but not necessarily engage in the process of trying to influence one side or another. Staff ought to be in the position to make the input that Council would ordinarily make to clarify a direction that the commissioners may be going in that they don't need to go into. He personally has only sat through a few of these hearings and has not felt the urge to get into the heavy debate unless it was a major policy issue. Aid. Tisdahl stated that before she votes she would like to know what the Plan Commission thinks and whether they feel that the Aldermen's input would be helpful. Aid. Rainey suggested maybe allowing them to speak at their subcommittee meetings and not at the formal Plan Commission. Aid. Bernstein noted that the subcommittee meetings start at 8:00 in the morning and they basically discuss things and bring them back to the full Plan Commission. Ald. Moran said he may not intimidate them but has chastised them about having a meeting on a Wednesday morning at 8:00. You've got 200 people in the neighborhood who have an issue with an item the commission is discussing and they're trying to catch their train or feed their kids to get them off to school. Those people need to be heard. Ald. Bernstein asked if in fact they went and gave the Plan Commission the fullness of their experience and they made a decision why then is there a need for any review by the Council? His genesis of this whole process is it seems like a balance of power. Aid. Moran noted that the last time he raise what the zoning should be in the B2 districts on Central Street he made a very general and generic reference from the Council Moor and asked the Plan Commission to review it. %Vhen it first appeared on the Plan Commission agenda he attended the meeting. At that time he did not even know about this rule and the first thing he was told was he could not say anything so he was not allowed to tell them what the specific matter was that it concerned. Next he was told there is a zoning committee of the Plan Commission which he knew nothing about. Then he found out they had already — met with respect to his reference which took him five seconds in the "call all the wards" to make, they then told him they had voted on the reference and handed him a one page report saying his reference wasn't buttress, now there's democracy in action. Aid. Bernstein said that was only a recommendation to the City Council and as an Alderman you have an opportunity to be heard. Ald. Moran added that he had never noticed Zoning committee meetings, they were never put in any paper or posted anywhere. At least he came away saying people should know there's a zoning committee and their meetings need to be posted, even if it's eight o'clock on Wednesday mornings. Aid. SO 4 Wes Comrnittee Minutes 01/03/05 DRAFT NOT APPROVED Bernstein stated that is a very valid point, but also they are talking about volunteers who often don't want to meet two, three or four nights a month. AId. Rainey said they can't be meeting at that time of the morning. Aid. Moran moved that his. Szymanski, who said there may be some way to differentiate one proceeding from another, be asked to engage in that exercise so that, whether they call something a hearing or not, that they can differentiate from one situation to another such that on matters of policy that are non project oriented the Aldermen would be able to address either a committee of the Plan Commission or the full Plan Commission, and added that they should, as part of that analysis elicit the opinion of the Plan Commission with respect to that notion and find out what they think about it. Aid. Tisdahl seconded. Aid. Bernstein added that maybe his. Szymanski could determine whether they could make some kind of written statement to the Plan Commission %%ith respect to their clarification. Council rules allow for informed staff, but sometimes they can't communicate it to staff and that puts a responsibility and burden on them to write something down. He asked that Ms. Szymanski put out the bullets for the Plan Commission to please address the following concerns. With there being no further discussion the motion was approved. DISCUSSION OF BUSINESS CARDS & PICTURE I.D.'S FOR MEMBERS OF BOARDS & COMMISSIONS: Aid. Bernstein noted that this originally was brought by Paula Haynes, Human Relations Commissions. Aid. jean -Baptiste stated he had no problem with the commissioners having something to give to people in the course of doing their business. The only reason he would object would be because of the expense but he did not see it as a major expense. Aid. Rainey commented that one of the things Ms. Haynes suggested was it would be cards with Human Relations Commission, the City logo and a line for the member's name to be typed in. Aid. Bernstein noted that he did not understand the need for it. The memo said something about when they come together with other people they want to be identified as members of the Human Relations Commission from Evanston, they can say that. Aid. Tisdahl thoughts were that if they wanted to give someone their card and that person thinks about three other things they wished they had said when they met them, they have a name and a phone number on that card and can call them and say the three other things. Ald. Bernstein said so why would we limit it to the Human Relations Commission? Ald. Tisdahl said they are the only ones who have asked. Aid. Bernstein explained why he thought it was not a great idea. There was a situation where the Human Relations 5 Rules [ommi#tee Minutes 01/03/05 DRAFT NOT APPROVED Commission reported to speak for the City and they don't. They had a long discussion with them about some things they had said. He does not want the perception to be that they are the City of Evanston, because the Council is the elected ones that are going to discern whatever they bring them. Unfortunately, in his mind the Human Relations Commission has not brought them enough lately. Aid. Jean -Baptiste commented that was a different issue. Aid. Rainey commented that they haven't motivated her lately and nobody knows what's going on. But said she must have seen Schona Buranda, the Human Relations chair at six block parties in her ward this summer and was impressed. She had to drag herself to them and here his. Buranda is out there introducing herself to people, explaining, and handing out flyers. Aid. Moran's point was it is odd to have one commission have them when they have fourteen or so others. Nis. Aiello added that the recommendation would be if the Rules Committee approves for the Human Relations Commission make it so that any of the boards and commissions .vho wants them can also get them for their board members. Aid. Jean -Baptiste asked ho%v much would the cost be. Aid. Rainey thought from seeing them on the bills, list that they run about $30 a person. Ms. Aiello said the ID cards and done in house. Aid. Tisdahl moved for ID cards. Seconded by Aid. Rainey. Aid. Bernstein said since this is an open meeting he asked his. Holmes what her opinion was on the issue. his. Holmes senves on the Arts Council and said an ID or business card would be helpful. For example, when they are at the Ethnic Arts Festival standing there working and handing out information to people and you tell them you are a member of the Arts Council and they say they would really like to talk to you, that is an opportunity where you can give them your card. Aid. Bernstein thought that ivas an ok argument for all boards and commissions to act cards. After much discussion Aid. Bernstein said the motion is for 1D's and asked if they wanted to increase to ID's and business cards? Ald. Tisdahl changed her motion from ID card to generic business cards for any member of a board or commission who wants them. Aid. Rainey accepted the change. Aid. Bernstein said this is only a recommendation to the full Council. OTHER: Ms. Aiello ask if for the next agenda did the Rules Committee want to bring back the legislators and start thinking about this year's legislative agenda? The committee agreed. 2 Rules Committee Minutes 01/03/05 DRAFT NOT APPROVED Aid. jean Baptiste suggested doing it after the budget session. his. Aiello stated what they could do is meet every month before Human Serices and see if any of the legislators are available. Aid. Moran thought they should probably try to go forward because they are busy. Aid. Tisdahl noted they need to talk with someone about the Tiff legislation and the impact of 1800 Sherman and what the intent of the legislation is. The committee agreed. Aid. Bernstein said they would do that and if they don't have a quorum they won't do it but do go forward with it. Aid. Rainey asked that someone on the Human Service Committee find out who purchased the Christmas cards for the Township. Isis. Vance could have purchased them herself but she has a serious problem if the public paid for those cards. Aid. Bernstein said they would ask the question. ADIOURNM]ENT: Meeting adjourned at 7:10 p.m. Respectfully submitted, Darlene Francellno 7 Rules Committee Nlirxttes 02/21/05 APPROVED MINUTES OF THE RULES COMMITTEE MEETING MONDAY, FEBRUARY 21, 2005 6:00 p.m. Aldermanic Library Present: Aid. Jean -Baptiste, Moran, Newman, Rainey & Tisdahl Presiding: Aid. Jean -Baptiste for Aid. Bernstein Absent: Aid. Bernstein, Feldman, Kent & Wynne Staff Present: Judith Aiello, Julia Carroll, Darlene Francellno, Douglas Gaynor, Vincent Jones, Gavin Morgan, Bill Stafford & Ellen Szymanski Guest: Mary Gavin, Rep. Julie Hamos, Delores Holmes, Ra Joy, Rep. Jan Schakowsky, Hollis Settle & Sen. Jeff Schoenberg I. CALL TO ORDER: Aid. Jean -Baptiste called the meeting to order at 6:13 p.m. II. APPROVAL OF MINUTES OF JANUARY 3. 2005: Aid. Rainey moved approval of the minutes of January 3, 2005. Aid. Tisdahl seconded. Motion carried. Minutes approved. III. LEGISLATIVE DISCUSSION: The legislators gave the committee an update on funding for Sheridan Road resurfacing , Lake Shore Drive extension and parks improvements by the City of Chicago, utilities repairs, the Evanston Law Enforcement Technology grants and requests for bike paths for Ridge and more for Sheridan Road. Health cost for veterans will go up and will affect many of the millions veterans in Illinois. It is said that the community development block grants, employment counseling, housing, transitional assistance, small business loans, and light heat funding will be tremendously cut for Illinois. At the Federal level, home land security grants are cut as is funding for the Centers for Disease Control. It was suggested that the role of the mayors and governors around the country would be very important as this budget gets finally shaped and presented. The legislators asked that the committee forward any comments on the budget cuts that would affect Evanston. It was also noted that work is still being Rules Coaxrrittee Minutes 02/21/05 APPROVED done to get the viaducts improved by CTA and Metra and various other issues relating to transportation. It was also noted that the committee keep the legislators aware of any grants the city has submitted. IV. CITY OF EVANSTON LEGISLATIVE PROGRAM DISCUSSION: V. CONTINUED DISCUSSION OF COUNCIL RULE 11.3 WITH REGARD TO APPEARING BEFORE OTHER BOARDS AND COMMISSIONS: Items IV and V were deferred to the next meeting and no action was taken due to time constraints. VI. AD30URNMENT: Meeting was adjourned at 7:12 p.m. Respectfully submitted, Darlene Francellno - - Wes Committee Minutes 05/16/05 APPROVED MINUTES OF THE RULES COMMITTEE MEETING MONDAY, MAY 16, 2005 7:00 p.m. Aldermanic Library Present: Aid. Bernstein, Hansen, Holmes, Jean -Baptiste, Moran, Rainey, Tisdahl, Wallin & Wynne Presiding: Alderman Steven Bernstein Staff Present: Judith Aiello, Julia Carroll, Darlene. Francellno, Herbert Hill, Vincent Jones, Gavin Morgan & ElkeTober-Purze Guest: Sue Brady, Dave Ellis, Mary Gavin, Greg Hafkin, Ed Hughes, Mary Morris, Mayor Morton, Betty Papangelis, Steve Ready & Hollis Settles, Jr., QILL TO ORDER: Aid. Bernstein called the meeting to order at 7:12 p.m. APPROVAL OF MINUTES OF FEBRUARY 21, 2005 Aid. Wynne moved approval of the minutes of February 21, 2005. Aid. Tisdahl seconded. Motion carried. Minutes approved. SENIORITY LIST: Aid. Bernstein stated there would be discussion later tonight on the reasons they needed a seniority fist initially it Is for a mayor pro tem. RULES DISCUSSION: Aid. Bernstein said unless and until they do something to change the rules they would theoretically operate under the former rules currently In effect, which is the reason for which he was chairing this meeting. He noted they were free to make any change they chose to make as a Council. The floor was open for discussion. Aid. Moran thought the Committee should address the notion of how they organize themselves with the committees. There had been some sense with some people of the Council that it might be worth expiration in terms of looking at changing their committee structure. The basic notion behind that shift would be to try to consolidate. In the 90's the Council operated in a consolidated fashion, in other words they did not break out as Administration & Public Works (A&PW) and Planning & Development (P&D) Committees and they weren't on the basis where they would convene as a Committee of the Whole to take up basically all of the issues that would otherwise appear on P&D and A&PW, work through that and ultimately bring the votes that would be offered by the committee as a 1 Rules Committee Mimars 05/16/05 APPROVED whole to the full council for final action, according to the otherwise applicable rules. He advanced to the Council the notion of thinking about the possibility of doing that. They have a lot of other issues that need to be worked on in relation to how they go about their work in this Council but thought one thing that was a fairly prevalent feeling amongst the people here, is they need to try to streamline, coordinator, or somehow facilitate a process whereby they can work through their work. Not just as committees, but as a full Council and perhaps a little bit more expedites fashion than what they are experiencing at this point. In terms of committee meetings, they started a bit earlier, around 6:00 or so and would try to start discussions on committee agendas, but it had two beneficial affects in terms of the whole council work. One was it allowed all Council members to stay current with significant issues coming up out of the committees. The current difficulty Is some members are in A&PW and others in P&D. Significant issues sometimes are going on in both meetings and the committee members on each of these committees are not following along in the same fashion as they would if they were together. He does his best to keep up with what P&D does but the truth is he can't do it justice as if he were a P&D committee member. One potential beneficial aspect of working in a coordinated fashion is they could all move forward together. He also saw that the committee time, although It may expand, ultimately translated more efficiently in dealing with various issues when it came to the full Council. He proposed they give some consideration and hopefully some discussion about process and procedure and have an opportunity to address that in the early stages of this Council. Aid. Rainey stated as an Alderman who served on the City Council from 1983 to 1993 under the committee structure and as a former Alderman who watched the Committee of the Whole's operation found it frustrating to watch the Council operate. There was a real lack of productivity and creativity on the Council, she found it very inefficient In terms of citizens, it really deprived the community of a lot of the input it now has. Over the last 8 years she found what has been happening is there has been a real enthusiasm and energy on the part of this community whether they were for something or against it. She suggested that Council members could keep up with what is going on if they would communicate with their _ colleagues and the A&PW minutes on a whole have been as explanatory as any minutes. She felt people in this community would be short changed if they made the switch to Committee of the Whole. Ald. Wynne also felt that the committee system has a lot of value to it. She said when you are on P&D or A&PW you build up an expertise and an ability to work efficiently through issues. P&D has had a number of issues that have taken longer, but there are ways they could clearly improve that. She did not see how all of them working through every issue on A&PW and 2 Rxries Committee Mirmtes 05/16/05 APPROVEb P&D agendas, on a single Council night could be an efficient or expedite way to do Council business. she would not want to move to the Committee of the Whole. Aid. Wollin asked if they voted the same night the issues were brought up when they operated under that system. The response was yes. Aid. Wollin suggested it may have had connotations, but if there was a working session and a vote the following week it would give people time, because the fact that one-third of the Aldermen are uninformed on an issue is extraordinarily sad. As for citizens, they are asked to repeat a lot and to come back, and come back. If there was some way they could streamline that so citizens would only make their presentations once that would certainly help the system as well. Council meetings starting so late because of issues in committee meetings means citizens who come at 8:30 p.m. for Council to start are waiting around an hour or more, which is also not fair. Her greatest concerns are not knowing what is going on, especially for projects in her ward. Aid. Jean -Baptiste did not see moving to the Committee of the Whole as the resolution of this particular problem, because starting at 6:00 p.m., which they do anyway for Executive Sessions and then go straight through committee meetings, it still does not lead them to cover everything on their plates. When there are major projects or issues in the city that A&PW thinks need to be addressed prior to a Council voting session they set special meetings and all are welcome to come. Troubleshooting the problem of lack of involvement in a particular issue is to have special meetings. This merely puts aside the time to take care of the important Issues they all need to be involved in. After much discussion it was asked of the City Manager how the process in Naperville worked. City Manager Carroll stated they did not have committees, for example everything went directly from Plan Commission to the Council. The difference was Naperville would hold public hearings at the Council meeting on landuse issues, annexation or special use permit rather than in a committee structure. They would have one at the Plan Commission too, but depending on what it was, how their code was written, was a little differently but it worked fine. They did get through issues because there was a limited amount of time for the public hearing process. The developer had so many minutes then the people could sign up and they had to get through that in so many minutes. That is one experience but there are others that could be sited. They had Council workshops which were reserved for the second and fourth Mondays, which were for major policy discussion items, not landuse discussion or anything like that. It was for building a public works facility, or about the transportation plan or some major policy or major public works project. 3 Rules Committee Minutes 05/16/05 APPROVED Aid. Moran moved for temporary assignment for the upcoming week, those people who currently sit on A&PW and P&D be asked to sit on those committees again and that Aid. Wollin and Holmes be placed on P&D and Aid. Hansen on A&PW. Then set a special meeting of the Rules Committee and take votes on what they want to do on this issue. In the intervening time gather materials from league of Women Voters on their study on forum in terms of Council and Committees and any other materials people feel pertinent. Examine the materials and prepare to come back for a follow-up Rules Committee meeting for a vote. Aid. Bernstein seconded for discussion purposes. Aid. Rainey along with some others did not want to prolong the process of making decisions regarding how the Council was going to function. M91Lon failed.. (3-6). Aid. Wynne moved that Aid. Bernstein, Rainey, Moran, Tisdahl and herself be assigned to P&D, that Aid. Hansen, Jean -Baptiste, Holmes and Wollin be assigned to A&PW and that they hold a reservation of whomever wants to be assigned to Human Services along with Aid. Jean -Baptiste, Moran, Hansen and Bernstein. Aid. Rainey seconded. Motion failed (3-6). Aid. Holmes agreed to sit on Human Services but wanted to discuss sitting on P&D because that is the committee she was interested in. She also did not think it was fair to put all three new Aldermen on A&PW. Aid. Jean - Baptiste noted that Aid. Holmes and Wollin both are interested in sitting on P&D and thought they should try and accommodate their request. Aid. Wollin moved that P&D become a Committee of the Whole and that A&PW and Human Services be the other two committees that meet. She also included in her motion that P&D probably should meet on the off Monday and let Human Services and A&PW meet on the same night as Council because they have bills that have to go before Council for approval that same night. This would give the P&D limitless time to talk about the issues that are before P&D. Aid. Moran seconded. Aid. Jean -Baptiste suggested an amendment to the motion that P&D become a Committee of the Whole and the other committees are to stand alone or however you characterize it of the standing committees of the Council. Vote on that and then propose a schedule and deliberate over that. Aid. Wynne suggested changing P&D from a committee of 5 to a committee of up to 9 members. Aid. Wollin accepted the amendments. Motion failed (4-5). Aid. Moran moved that the P&D Committee become a committee of 9. Aid. Wollin seconded. Motion passed (5-4). Aid. Bernstein said they now have a P&D committee of 9 and the quorum will be S. Now they would have to change the rules with respect to the 4 Rules Convnittee Minutes 05/16/05 APPROVED meeting times because now 9 members will be at P&D at 7:00 p.m. and 4 are to be at A&PW at 7:00 p.m. Aid. Wynne moved that this Committee of the Whole of P&D now meet from 6:30 to 8:30 and that A&PW meet from 5:30 to 6:30 on every Council night and that Human Services remain on the first Monday of the month after Rules Committee. Aid. Bernstein seconded. Motion Dassed 8-1 Aid. Bernstein confirmed that the formation of the committees is P&D Is a committee of 9, A&PW Committee is Aid. Jean -Baptiste, Holmes, Wollin and Hansen. Human Services will consist of Aid. Tisdahl, Bernstein, Jean - Baptiste, Moran and Holmes. On other committee assignments Atd. Rainey asked to remain on Economic Development Committee and Housing & Community Development Act Committee. Aid. Hansen requested to sit on Housing & Community Development Act Committee along with Aid. Jean -Baptiste and Bernstein. Aid. Moran, Wynne, Tisdahl and Jean -Baptiste requested Economic Development Committee along with Aid. Rainey. Aid. Rainey moved approval. Aid. Jean -Baptiste seconded. Motion passed (9-0). Aid. Bernstein moved that the Rules Committee appoint to the Parking Committee, Aid. Wynne, Bernstein and Moran. Aid. Rainey seconded. MQtjon pp2 ss ed (9-0). Appointment to the 911-Emergency Telephone System Board was held because it deals with an ordinance. The Rules Committee appointed Aid. Jean -Baptist and Holmes to the City - School Liaison Committee, but noted that committee is open to all Council members. Aid. Bernstein and Wollin will sit on City- Chamber Committee. Aid. Jean -Baptiste will continue on SWANNC. Aid. Tisdahl will continue on the Flood & Pollution Control Commission along with Aid. Wynne as long as the meeting night is changed and Aid. Tisdahl will continue on the Lighthouse Landing Committee. The Rules Committee passed the above (9-0). Aid. Rainey pointed out a few changes/clarification in the rules. On page 5, rules 5.6.4 says "Boards, Committees and Commissions composed entirely of citizens shall elect their chairs except the Zoning Board of Appeals and the 911-Emergency Telephone System Board" she noted that the 911-ETSB is not made up of entirely citizens and it has two Aldermen that sit on that board. The reference is incorrect. On page 8, rule 9.6 reads "Planning & Development Committee ... The duties of this" and the rest is left out. On page 10 under rule 9.11, second line the word canceled Is misspelled and on page 19 at the bottom of the page under "Extraordinary Votes," A) 3/4's of the (Elected) Aldermen" and then it says 5 Rules Coavrittee Minutes 05/16/05 .APPROVED under B) "3/4's of Aldermen Present" either put not applicable or eliminate B). There were other items that needed clarification such as the statements about Aldermen being entitled to sit on any Executive Session of any committee whether they are on it or not. That was established some time ago and is not in the rules. Another issue is the rules say "the Mayor is entitled to view any records..." Aldermen are entitled to the same right and it is not mention in the rules. Aid. Bernstein requested from Mr. Hill a policy on absenteeism. After a lengthy discussion Mr. Hill said the law department would go through the rules and make suggestions for the next Rules Committee with a respect to a clean up and also with some time management issues with a respect to the consent agenda, the 911-Emergency Telephone System Board and other issues and bring it back to the next Rules Committee for their approval. City Manager Carroll suggested a change for rule 14.7.2 on page 13 regarding Mayor Pro Tem for the committees consideration. Instead of using a seniority list as a temporary chair, she would suggest making the Mayor pro tem a rotating schedule on a quarterly bases, so that in the event of an emergency they would have someone that the administration could call on and know that that person would be most likely to be available. Aid. Rainey noted they already have a schedule the City Clerk puts together and which serves the same difference. More discussions were held and the committee then voted. Motion passed (9-1). CHAIRMANSHIP SCHEDULE: Aid. Tisdahl moved that P&D continue to rotate and that the rotation be consistent with the seniority list. The motion was seconded. Motion passed (9-11. It was moved that Aid. Wynne serve as chair for Parking Committee and Aid. Rainey serve as chair for Housing & Community Development Committee. The motion was seconded. Motion passed (9-0) AD30URNMENT: Meeting adjourned at 10:12 p.m. Respectfully submitted, Darlene Francellno R Roles Committee Minutes 06/6/05 DRAFT NOT APPROVED MINUTES OF THE RULES COMMITTEE MEETING MONDAY, JUNE 6, 2005 5:30 p.m. Aldermanic Library Present: Aid. Holmes, Jean -Baptiste, Moran, Rainey, Tisdahl, Wollin & Wynne Presiding: Aid. Melissa Wynne Absent: Aid. Bernstein and Hansen Staff Present: Judith Aiello, Julia Carroll, Darlene Francellno, Herbert Hill, Vincent Jones, Gavin Morgan & ElkeTober-Purze Guest: Mary Gavin, Barbara Janes, Mary Morris, Mayor Morton, & Bob Seidenberg 9AL1L TO ORDER Aid. Wynne called the meeting to order at 5:40 p.m. STRATEGIC PLANNING PRESENTATION: City Manager Carroll introduced Rob Oberwise and his team from Executive Partners who would present the outline for the strategic planning process. A copy of the outline was distributed. After the presentation, it was suggested that entire community should be a part of the process either by a town meeting or a survey. Mr. Oberwise stated the committee needed to decide how citizens input should fit into the process, but the number of participants should be around 100. After much discussion the committee decided they would each give about 10 names from their ward to participate in the strategic planning process. City Manager Carroll and Mr. Oberwise would get together and come up with a date for the session for citizen input and notify the aldermen. Other dates will be scheduled for Aldermen only and a town hall meeting. Mr. Oberwise thanked the committee for their time and said they were very excited about this opportunity, it will be a lot of fun, very productive and interesting. He looked forward to working together. The committee thanked him and his team for attending. APPROVAL OF MINUTES QF MAY 16. 2005 Aid. Tisdahl moved approval of the minutes of May 16, 2005. Aid. Rainey seconded with a correction that the Housing & Community Development Committee does not have rotating chairs. Motion carried. Minutes approved. Rules Committee Minutes 06/6/05 DRAFT NOT APPROVED g IES orscussrow Aid. Rainey had pointed out a number of discrepancies in the rules. Staff reviewed the rules and now has provided copies of the existing rules and the proposed changes. Ald. Wynne suggested they walk through the rules one by one and discuss them. Aid. Rainey added that a sub committee of a few Aldermen was always formed to sit down and look over the rules, find the rules that no longer apply, add new rules and then bring them back to the Rules Committee and the Council. She brought attention to the first page of the rules, "Quorum is six........" she felt a quorum for a City Council meeting should be five which is a majority of the elected Aldermen as opposed to six including the Mayor. The rule changes the number of Aldermen needed to be present when the Mayor is out of town, six Aldermen would have to be present. In addition the City Code states five Aldermen. Mr. Hill noted the State Statute defines Corporate Authorities and Corporate Authorities consist of the City Council and City Council consists of nine aldermen and the mayor. A quorum is a majority of the Corporate Authorities, if the Corporate Authorities are nine plus one the majority of ten is six. The dichotomy comes about when you go to pass an ordinance. An ordinance is passed by the number of people who can vote which is nine, so it takes five of nine to pass an ordinance because in our form of government the mayor does not vote but for those specific circumstances. They will further review the law on that and bring it back to the committee. Aid. Rainey said she would appreciate it if the law department double checks, she has also written Jack Siegel asking him to please clear this up. Aid. Rainey continued with page 3 rule 1.3 "The Council shall adjourn at - 11:00 p.m. unless extended by a vote of 2/3 of the elected Aldermen". She highly recommended that this Council not consider that. This Council needs to do its business and if you think six people should be present to conduct city business those six people ought to be present to conduct city business until the business is finish without a need of 2/3 of Aldermen voting. Aid. Moran said this provides flexibility where if someone feels they are having a serious discussion and It is going to go past 11:00 p.m. and 6 Council members are saying this is absolutely something they have to stay on task then they will stay, but it would be interesting to see how they operate under this rule. They have all said at one point or another that their critical thinking doesn't improve at one in the morning, and it doesn't get better after 11:00 p.m. If it doesn't work, they can drop it or modify It but he thought it was something that was worth a look-see. Rules Committee Minutes 06/6/05 DRAFT NOT APPROVED Ald. Wynne said she would do the opposite. We have a new Council and we might very well be more succinct on this new Council. What she thinks will end up happening is they will end up moving to extend frequently even if they are only extending for 15 minutes, and they will be moving to extend for every meeting. She would prefer they not put this into place. After a lengthy discussion the committee agreed to form a sub -committee to go through the rules one by one and bring it back to the committee. The sub -committee consists of Ald. Rainey, Wollin, Moran and Holmes. QTHER: Ald. Jean -Baptiste stated he had circulated an email requesting that an Item be placed on the agenda but it did not make it. The issue was Council members need more help in getting their work done. For example, if he gets a call about garbage not being picked up, he calls the City Manager's office and asks that they please make sure it is picked up and then he has to follow-up because a lot of times he does not get feedback because it sits among the many different priorities that staff have to deal with. Ald. Holmes said she received the email and was really glad, because being the new kid on the block she thought it was just her. Part of her issue Is she does not know a whole lot so she constantly sends emails to the assistant city manager, the city manager or whomever. She does get calls back but no answers for folk. In her case it is the length of time and the lack of knowledge. People think because you are the Aldermen you have all the answers and she is still learning a lot and some things she just does not know. Other issues discussed were citizens should not have to call their Aldermen to get a garbage can and they should not tell them it will take two years. The city should not have to come out and inspect if you report your can stolen. After much discussion about the need for more help, City Manager Carroll explained that staff would be willing to help just let her know exactly what specific kind of help they are looking for. She also indicated she would work with staff to improve follow-up with the Council. ADJOURNMENT. Meeting adjourned at 8:00 p.m. Respectfully submitted, Darlene Francellno NEXT RULES COMMITTEE MEETING: TUESDAY, JULY 5, 2005 AT 6:00 P.M. 3 Rules Committee Mimrtes Revised 07/05/05 DRAFT NOT APPROVED MINUTES OF THE RULES COMMITTEE MEETING TUESDAY, JULY S, 2005 6:00 P.M. Aldermanic Library Present: Aid. Bernstein, Hansen, Holmes, Jean -Baptiste, Moran, Rainey, Tisdahl, Wollin & Wynne Presiding: Aid. Melissa Wynne Staff Present: Judith Aiello, Darlene Francellno, Herbert Hill, Vincent Jones, Gavin Morgan, ElkeTober-Purze, James Wolinski, Ellen Szymanski Guest: Scott Gordon, Daily NW, City Clerk Mary Morris, Mayor Lorraine H. Morton & Jack Siegel .CALL TO ORDER: Aid. Wynne called the meeting to order at 6:20 p.m. APPROVAL OF MINUTES OF JUNE 6, 2005: Aid. Tisdahl moved approval of the June 6, 2005 minutes. Aid. Rainey seconded. Motion carried. Minutes approved. KLAEREN DECISION: Mr. Jack Siegel, Corporation Counsel stated on Dec. 2, 2002 the Supreme Court finalized this decision in a case called People ex rel. Klaeren v. Village of Lisle. For lawyers it is 202 I11.2d 184. This case turned Illinois zoning law upside down particularly with respect to special uses. It arose out of a combination hearing conducted by the Village of Lisle with its Plan Commission and Zoning Board in considering annexation with the special use and zoning variation. It was done all before a joint meeting of these various bodies presided over by the Mayor. The property was not in the Village, it was pursuant to an annexation. It involved a Meijer's department store which was a very controversial issue in the Village of Lisle where lots of neighbors objected. Rather than getting into big details, the Mayor running the meeting did not permit cross-examination of witnesses, did not allow certain testimony to be given and only allowed two minutes for anybody to speak. The fact that a special use ultimately would be granted by an ordinance and special uses are a special category within the zoning ordinances that depend on certain findings of fact. The Appellate Court 2nd District, for the first time, said its an administrative decision. Therefore it is to be reviewed by the Administrative Review Act. The consequences of that, with respect to special uses, were prevented in the past. When it was actually taken by a legislative body challenged in court, it was heard de novo meaning what happened before at the 9/30/20OS12:50 PM Rules Committee Minutes Revised 07/05/05 DRAFT NOT APPROVED legislative level or at the hearing level was not admissible and parties involved in a case in the Circuit Court were required to put on new evidence to try the case before the judge and the record which happened below, was not part of that record. Under the Administrative Review Act, the reviewing courts can only consider the records made before the administrative agency. By turning special uses into administrative bodies the natural consequence are any review of a special use, if it goes to court, has to be done based upon the record made by the hearing body. Evanston's Plan Commission hears special uses and historically have kept very good records but in the Klaeren case the decision on special uses ultimately was made by the City Council. If it was ever challenged it would be a matter of de novo review in a Circuit Court. This means, with respect to special uses, that the only thing that would be subject matter in a review court would be the record made before the Plan Commission. Historically, the Planning & Development Committee gets their recommendation from the Plan Commission. They listen to the neighbors, sometimes affirm what the Plan Commission does, sometime say no, and sometime modify it. Often those decisions are made as a result of the testimony or opinions offered before the Planning & Development Committee. The application of the Administrative Review Law, the review of special uses, means the only evidence admissible and to be considered is that made by the hearing body. The question then becomes, what is the function of the Planning & Development Committee in light of the fact the review of special uses directly goes to the Circuit Court in a case where the decision is challenged. The decision continues to be made by the City Council but whatever the City Council considers doesn't count. What counts is in the record for the hearing body. One possibility is to continue the hearing from the Plan Commission into the Planning & Development Committee and then conduct, in effect, a second type of hearing which obviously means, first of all, you neuter a Plan Commission and if the City Council is In fact to conduct another hearing, that says the Plan Commission really has lost much of its authority. Secondly there are time problems, as far as the Planning & Development Committee is concerned, but most of all there is the problem of conducting a legal hearing which, if it is to be part of the record, requires testimony under oath, cross examination, stenographic record, exhibits, etc. The Klaeren decision really goes beyond that because the Plan Commission now addresses itself full force to the zoning procedures and says in essence that a public hearing requires the application of due process in the most conventional ways, meaning testimony under oath, cross- examination, and an opportunity to be heard. The Supreme Court said all of these neighbors have a property interest, therefore are entitled to stand and be heard and can be subjected to cross-examination. Since that time 9/30/200512:50 Phi Rules Committee Minutes Revised 07/05/05 bP-AFT NOT APPROVEb there has been at least one subsequent decision by the Illinois Supreme Court in a case called Hawthorne v. Olympia Fields which involved a variation. The question was do we apply Klaeren to variations, the Supreme Court said no. Variations are granted by ordinance therefore it is a legislative act, special uses are granted by ordinance but they don't think that is a legislative act. Basically the Supreme Court is saying special uses are administratively reviewable under the Administrative Review Law and apparently everything else continues to be legislative. Amendments and variations, the other two of the tripods on zoning relief apparently are still legislative acts. An amendment where you either change the language in the text or have a map amendment where you re -zone something from RI to R4 like with Kendall College, would be an amendment and would presumably follow a traditional path where if challenged would be reviewed de novo. And what happened below, apparently, would not be admissible. The problem, however, since there is so much emphasis on the Klaeren case on due process, aspects of "a public hearing" is required for amendments and variations as well. A party challenging a variation or an amendment could raise the issue of denial and due process if the public hearing, which ultimately resulted in zoning, did not have all those attributes; testimony under oath, cross-examination, reasonable period of time and to express themselves on the part of all property owners. City Manager Carroll had asked him in May to come and present implications on the Klaeren case particularly with respect to procedures of the Planning & Development Committee. The letter dated May 23, 2005 is a response to her request. The last page sets forth six points he thought the Council might want to consider. The obvious one is the Planning & Development Committee should reassess its role, if they want to get involved with respect to passing on PUD's, at least the procedural requirements that the Klaeren case adheres to. Aid. Wynne asked if they now needed to have a court reporter at the Planning & Development Committee and swear people in. Mr. Siegel said yes. She then asked if they wanted to hear from someone. Do they have to have a court reporter, sworn testimony and then permit cross examination by both sides? Mr. Siegel responded if you are going to conduct in effect a second hearing you have to give some kind of notice that you are going to consider it. Aid. Moran asked what is considered a public hearing. Mr. Siegel's thought was if you are going to take testimony which will influence a decision that Is a public hearing. If you are just going to discuss among yourselves and not take testimony he did not think that was considered a public hearing. Aid. Moran said in other words if someone other than a Council member stands up and says they are for or against something and give reasons why, they are then in a public hearing? Mr. Siegel believed that was so and a transcript had to be created for every hearing. 9/30/200512:50 PM Rules Committee Minutes Revised 07/05/05 DRAFT NOT APPROVED Aid. Rainey stated that many of the transcripts and minutes regarding special uses and planned development appear to be extremely redundant, you might get a shred of new information from testimony. The most significant difference is the depth of the questions P&D members ask compared to what ZBA or the Plan Commission would ask. At times those questions can be answered by staff that has probably done a lot of research on the various projects. What would be so awful in sending the recommendations of the Zoning Board of Appeals and the Plan Commission directly to the Council? At the Council level they would discuss in depth without a public hearing and with the benefit of staff. Because if they were to do a non hearing meeting on a special use or a planned development in a committee setting it invites participation. They want to follow the letter of the law in this and not end up having five extra meetings a month when they have special uses and planned developments, maybe they could skip the committee level. Aid. Wynne agreed, it frequently is redundant and many times they have stopped someone as they hear the opening statement because they've already heard and read it at the committee level and tend to get a lot of valuable dialogue back and forth. There are questions that are not asked by the Plan Commission because of their role that we ask as legislators that are somewhat different. Or there are questions the Plan Commission asks that thinks the answer was not complete and would like follow-up. There are also times when Plan Commissioners open an issue that she thinks is insignificant and maybe they get something worthwhile out of it or sometimes they see issues that she does not see. They loose something If they weren't able to have some of their own questioning at one point. Aid. Rainey asked what other communities are doing. Mr. Siegel stated some are simply requiring that they tighten up their hearings, which is what Arlington Heights is doing. They get a report from the Plan Commission and the neighbors talk at the Village board meeting not at a hearing of the Zoning Board. Aid. Wynne said let's say that what we've done for the last year and a half under what classifies as the law, if the only true public hearing on an issue occurred at the Plan Commission and we had what we normally do hear from citizens and nobody is sworn in and we have a recorded record. Let's say one of those two parts, either the community or the developer take the appeal for City Council decision. Klaeren is saying the only records they are going to look at Is the public hearing records. For instance, the Plan Commission recommended yes on a special use, Council said no and then somebody appeals it, the court Is looking at a denial but then they are looking at the record of an approval. Mr. Siegel said that is absolutely right. 9/30/200512:50 PM Rules Committee Minutes Revised 07/05/05 DRAFT NOT APPROVED Aid. Moran said the question is does somebody say something in between. The public hearing has taken place at the Plan Commission and then if the record is just handed up to the City Council, they can disagree before talking between each other and can say thumbs down and they can say thumbs up. The key is that the first person that stands up and says they want to address City Council or Planning & Development Committee, you then have a public hearing and if they are not sworn in, and there is not a transcript, and there is not cross examination and everybody hasn't been heard and they challenge that in the Circuit Court Cook County it is going to get thrown out on procedural grounds that you didn't do those things. Mr. Siegel said the problem is you may have a situation where the Plan Commission makes a recommendation when you also vote opposite. If it is reviewed only on the record then the administrative hearing before the Circuit Court, looks at that record and it is the decision of the City Council to get the manifest way to the evidence. The problem is more likely than not. This is a basic problem that nobody ever looks at. Theoretically the Plan Commission and the City Council on hearing these things are supposed to be a neutral body to consider the evidence. If all evidence is by the developer and you don't have any evidence on the contrary and it is reviewed on the record, there is nothing there except the developer's evidence. This is not unusual, this happens frequently in other communities where the staff makes a recommendation. In Schaumburg their staff makes recommendation on all these matters. So at least there Is something in the record. Aid. Moran added that it is a significant piece of evidence because presumably staff has gone to the site, got out their tape measures, brought their education, experience and expertise to the site and now are expressing all the things that come together, the mixture of the expertise and the facts. Mr. Siegel said it is very significant, the point is when you are dealing with administrative review you've got to have some evidence in the record to support the ultimate decision or else you are down the drain if anybody challenges you. Mayor Morton asked how does the fact that these boards and commissions are supposedly "advisory" to Council fit in to this. Mr. Siegel said that was the way up until Klaeren, because the Plan Commission, Zoning Board or whomever heard special uses, made the recommendation and then the Council or the Village Board acted in the legislative capacity except to advise, just advise, not binding. But what this case does, is it says make the decision of the hearing body decisive or subject to review without the legislative body getting involved. Mayor Morton said so it is negated to pay no attention to the fact, the way they would consider advisory is that someone would tell them what they think and then the Council will decide on it. But they claim that is no weight? Mr. Siegel said if the testimony was given before the Administrative Agency then it is given weight. But it 5 9/30/200512:So PM Rules Committee Minutes Revised 07/05/05 DRAFT NOT APPROVED is the decision of the Administrative Agency, Plan Commission in this instance, that makes the decision, and the record is made there. There is nothing that says it has to be a Plan Commissioner or it has to be a Zoning Board or Planning and Development Committee. Some municipalities have smaller ones what they call the Zoning Committee, those members of the legislative body in the hearing and that is possible under the Zoning Neighboring Act and certainly is possible under home rule. It certainly, historically, is going to happen in Evanston and it happens in Wilmette. Aid. Jean -Baptiste didn't see them being able to get around having to continue hearings on certain matters. Some things they will have to hear additional information in order to make a decision. They may just want to be selective and take the record, deliberate amongst themselves, and make a determination as to whether or not to continue to hear it. If they decide to -continue it then get a court reporter, invite the parties to come and present testimony and swear them in. To the extent they can make a decision on the records presented before them, they can make that decision and move on. it seemed to him the Klaeren case is consistent with what should happen, in his opinion, If you have a full blown hearing, you have records and then you have a second session where everybody puts all kind of evidence on the table and you consider the evidence. Sometimes they might make a decision that is contrary to the recommendation, but what bases have they made this decision if it is up for review? They have to accept the fact that they may have to continue hearing on selective basis. Mr. Siegel stated one implication is the type of hearings on other special uses. At this point Klaeren is addressing only special uses. So conceivably, with respect to amendments and variances, you don't get too many variances where the zoning board has final jurisdictions on most. In Arlington Heights he Is proposing they make what they call PUD's as "permitted uses" and then set up the criteria for PUD's. Not sure If this will work or not, but what he wants to get away from is the review under the Administrative Review Act because that means you've got to have an opportunity to defeat a bad use. For information purposes Chicago has PUD's final with their Plan Commission, Ald. Bernstein noted he liked Aid. Jean-Baptiste's method. He didn't want to abdicate his responsibility. Sometimes, if they are doing their job correctly, the Plan Commission and the Zoning Board both of whom hears special uses under our system, make their decisions on the bare legal arguments. He could not conceive Administrative Review court going against findings of fact in the lower court without any thing between. So to the extent they want to hear additional testimony, they are going to have to create a method by which they invite testimony and do it. There 6 9/30/200512:So PM Rules Committee Minutes Revised 07/05/05 bRAFT NOT APPROVED are many situations where they don't want to dispute the findings or ask additional question, and they don't have to have those hearings. Ald. Moran saw problems with that. There are political considerations and that is what it always comes down to. He has been through a bunch of hearings this year where political considerations came into play when the Plan Commission decides and then it gets to Planning & Development and it gets political. The City Council reviews 20 transcripts from the Plan Commission and that says 4 they are taking to P&D and the other 16 can scoot by. That opens up a vulnerability to the process because somebody is going to say why me. It would only be relevant if in fact they were going to uphold the decision of the advisory body, note Aid. Bernstein who thought it would not be a problem. To the extent they are going not to, it becomes a question. For example, economics may not be a part of the special use standards that they have to take into consideration. Aid. Moran saw it this way, you have a potential through a poison pill, in the poison pill is the decision of the Council to hold this case versus another case. Now that is a little pill that is sitting out there. Then when you hold that hearing, what are the questions, what are the answers, who is showing up, who is not showing up. This thing may or may not explode but it is a seed that is planted there and depending upon how the hearing goes and the pros and cons on this particular project, those people if they loose, are going to go back and say remember the seed they planted. Then they are going to go right through the record and scrutinize every question and everything else. He thought this merited some thought. There are pluses and minuses noted Aid. Wynne the problem is it slows the process because they have a meeting in which they've all read the transcripts and then they discuss, and it adds at least one other meeting to the process. Aid. Bernstein proposed a favorable amendment. They spend as much time now as they would on the hearings. The only difference is the lack of formality, so it is going to cost them a few more bucks. To the extent that they agree, they don't have to ask any questions and they don't have a record other than they affirm the decision of the advisory board. His real concern with a 4 to nothing vote is the dynamics of 4, when you need 4 affirmative for one or another, there is a real dynamic going on and one doesn't want to upset the others. The Zoning Board cancelled its meeting tonight for want of a quorum. In his opinion they are not doing their job. The Zoning Board doesn't even ask any questions for special uses for restaurants, important kinds of things they would want to talk about. If they could tell people at the expiration of the hearing that the next step is the City Council, and that they will bring in a court reporter. Mr. Siegel suggested a new zoning board. The committee agreed. 9130/200512:50 PM Riles Committee Minutes Revised 07/05/05 DRAFT NOT APPROVED Aid. Rainey encouraged the committee to read the Klaeren case which Is available on-line. She thought that the reason for the lawsuit was extremely justified because what happened was the citizens of Lisle, and Mayor Morton would have never had done this. The Mayor was running the meeting and when it got time for the people to talk the Mayor said you all are from different groups, you have to pick one person from each group to speak and you may only speak for 2 minutes and there was no cross examination. Aid. Wynne suggested that copies of these decisions be distributed to them and everything that is cited in Mr. Siegel's letter. And she would like to get copies of both these decisions and have copies distributed to all of them of Hawthorne vs. Olympia Fields. Everything that is cited in Mr. Siegel's opinion letter should also be distributed. Also if there have been any articles that would be helpful to them they would like to get copies of that. She would also like to know the status of the legislation in more detail and what can they do. After much discussion Mr. Hill said he would have Ellen Szymanski put together as much information as possible as they can to comply with Klaeren. DISCUSSION OF COUNCIL RECONSIDERATION FOR ORDINANCES: Aid. Rainey thought this would fall under the revision of the Council rules. Which the subcommittee for that will be meeting right after this meeting. Aid. Wynne agreed and stated this was originally her reference regarding the motion for reconsiderations. Regarding the timing issue so that the public, as well as other Council members have notice that a motion of reconsideration is being contemplated. PARKING PERMITS FOR ALDERMEN ON CITY BUSINESS: Aid. Jean -Baptiste brought this up to request something to put In his car window while doing city business. After a lengthy discussion it was decided that each Council member would be provided with a parking sign for official business. In addition two parking spaces would be designated for aldermen in back of the Civic Center because parking can be overwhelming at times. READING OF CONSENT AGENDA: Aid. Bernstein said they have been talking about expediting their meetings and the reading of the consent agenda which often takes 20 to 25 minutes and it is ridiculous. There should be a method by which they can just say a 9/30/200512:50 PM Rules Committee Minutes Revised 07/05/05 DRAFT NOT APPROVED consent agenda, if anybody wants something off just pull it off, otherwise it is just as is without having to read it into the record. Aid. Rainey thought reading the consent agenda is important because it Is the only way the public out in TV land knows what they are dealing with. There is a way to read it and be descriptive about it without it be boring. Aid. Tisdahl asked if they could show it on the television screen. Ms. Aiello said one of the thoughts they were looking into when they saw this was whether or not starting maybe on Friday mornings if they could get the cable company to scroll the agenda. The matter will be looked into. ADJOURNMENT: Meeting adjourned at 7:50 p.m. Respectfully submitted, Darlene Francellno 9 9/30/200512:50 PM Rules Committee Minutes 09/7/05 DRAFT NOT APPROVED MINUTES OF THE RULES COMMITTEE MEETING WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 7, 2005 6:30 p.m. Aldermanic Library Present: Aid. Bernstein, Hansen, Holmes, Jean -Baptiste, Moran, Rainey, Wollin & Wynne Absent: Aid. Tisdahl Presiding: Aid. Melissa Wynne Staff Present: Judith Aiello, Julia Carroll, Darlene Francellno Douglas Gaynor, Paula Haynes, Vincent Jones, Gavin Morgan, Max Rubin, Mamie Smith, Bill Stafford, Jay Terry, James Wolinski Guest: Mary Morris and Lorraine H. Morton CALL TO ORDER: Aid. Wynne called the meeting to order at 6:35 p.m. KMRINA DISASTER RELTEE.: City Manager Carroll stated this item was placed on the agenda because there has been an expression of interest on the part of the Council to have the city do something. Judith Aiello received a call from Adam Prager wanting to look at using Kendall College as a possible site. Talking with the developer they are not real excited about doing that for several reasons. They hope to proceed at some point on that location and are concerned about liability. Aid. Wynne reported to date Evanston has sent 4 firefighters, a police officer and a truck to the Gulf region. Jay Terry reported the Mather Foundation has made an offer through its networks of homes for the aging. The Mather Gardens has been increasingly vacant over time, as the development debate is going on. They have 110 units in their building and have made the offer that if there are older adults who are displaced by the hurricane they would be willing to put them up for a 4 month time period. They are still hopeful that there would be Council approval of their project and would be ready to demolish sometime after the first of the year. That is a possibility that is out there, but it is unclear whether anyone will take them up on that offer. And, how do you get the word out and how do you transport. Apparently there are negotiations between the Red Cross, the State of Illinois and the Best Western, which also has a high vacancy rate. But the Best Western may In fact become a place of residence for some number of people. Rules Committee Minutes 09/7/05 DRAFT NOT APPROVED Aid. Rainey said when she thinks about this and from talking to the two families that her family is close to and Aid. Holmes knows two families that are here also, they have lost everything. She has a real concern about them taking on people. Her interest is finding a place to put some money where they know it would be spent to help these people. She would like to see them reach into their general fund and send money. She does not want to be in a position of having people here and saying in 4 months they have to get out. If they have emotional paralysis or the inability to get out, she does not want the city to be in that position. Aid. Jean -Baptiste said ultimately they have to make a statement that they stand, support and want to help and how they may collaborate with what is going on already. City Manager Carroll questioned how the committee would like staff to help and what they want staff to do. There is information that there are some 20 students in the schools already from that area. The Chamber of Commerce is organizing some efforts. A fund is being set up at Harris Bank, managed by the Evanston Community Foundation where citizens can contribute money and Harris Bank will match up to one hundred thousand dollars. It will open tomorrow. In the memo from ]onathan Perman he talks about there being a national restaurant association sponsored event that will be raising money which will include Prairie Moon Restaurant and a couple of others. Senator Jeff Schoenberg called her and has been talking to other staff about things he is trying to get the State to help with and he is willing to serve as a resource if the committee decides they want to do something. If the negotiations with the Best Western become a reality there will need to be some agency to help coordinate and help anybody staying there. Mayor Morton also had a call from Sen. Schoenberg, mainly calling to say if they wanted him to be the point man on things they wish to do he has the staff to do it and would be delighted. He mentioned the dormitories at Kendall College and that if they were to get them into condition to house people it would probably be cheaper renting rooms in the Best Western. Another possibility he mentioned was there are 4 houses at Kendall, three Ott have five bedrooms, one has three bedrooms that could be fixed up and used. She also received a call from David Cherry who very nicely has given $5,000 and was directed to take it to the Harris Bank because as you know they have offered to be the depository to collect funds from people in the community who wish to make a major contribution. The Baptist churches in town are raising money as well as other churches in the community. Rev. Meeks in Chicago is taking a lead and bringing people in but is doing what she would consider, providing social workers, people to interact with the people who come here. Find out information about them, what they want to do, and to see if they can do some interaction with them to get Rules Committee Minutes 09/7/D5 DRAFT NOT APPROVED them where they want to go. If that is not done then it is just a matter of warehousing people and she did not think that was the vision. You would also have to Coordinate the food, whether you are going to set up a system for them to interact with their relatives back home, provide clothing, bedding, laundry facilities, etc. It is not going to be easy, there has to be people available to do all kinds of things. She has been trying to get a handle on where people can take donated clothing. Aid. Holmes stated she had talked to IoAnn Avery who is handling clothing donations at Family Focus. Family Focus is working with the Lewis and Porter families that are here and any donations for those families should be labeled with their names on it. Family Focus gets a lot of donations and wants to make sure any donations for these families go directly to them. She was not sure if Family Focus could be the depository for the entire city. The African American Ministers started a collection on Sunday for the whole month. She suggested the Mayor might want to talk with them about possibly one of the Churches being a place to take donations for the entire city, they will be meeting on Monday. Aid. Wynne thought there were some critical issues, one being the potential of housing people for only four months. The other is shipping donated items. Where do you ship them and where would the delivery point be. She heard on the news that the Salvation Army collection point in New Mexico has asked people for a 48 hour reprieve because they are overwhelmed. The committee needs to figure out a way so they don't cause more of a distribution problem and what is an effective use of their aid or what is the most effective aid they could provide. Aid. Rainey said they need to make a firm commitment to help, but take time and decide when, because help is going to be needed for years. Mayor Morton understood there was a list of places like the Salvation Army, Red Cross, etc. but some people don't want to send anything to the Red Cross because they've left a bitter taste in their mouth. They need to offer the community a place to do something where they will feel comfortable making whatever donation they wish to. People are looking to our city government to do something. The fund at Harris Bank is already set up and that Information needs to be put on our cable and internet. After they offer the community this information then they need to work out what they plan to do. Aid. Bernstein philosophically thought they had to decide whether they as a Council can give away general fund money for something like this. They absolutely should facilitate collections, provide a depository for things that are collected somewhere, but did not know if it was their right to do charity work from their general fund. Aid. Rainey said she thought they 3 Rules Committee Minutes 09I7I05 DRAFT NOT APPROVED could do it from the real estate transfer tax by passing an ordinance. The question from Aid. Bernstein is can they do that morally and legally. Aid. Jean -Baptiste said there are a number of notable organizations doing things and maybe they could put out a press release informing people about those local initiatives to get help and advise them to check the national sources available for them to channel resources. That would be his proposal as the general thrust, a statement that they need to do something about Evanstonians joining in that help. The decision on whether or not the City of Evanston can take money from the public funds and send it to help the victims is up to them. In terms of the city taking an Initiative to try to manage housing folks, there may be some initiatives going on already. If they can empower their city manager to seek out that information where they may need to intervene, through either Human Relations or the Health Department, to try to facilitate whatever they can and make a smooth transition for those coming here. City Manager Carroll noted that anyone coming here and moves here that are eligible for our services will receive those services. Mr. Terry has already found out that they are kind of waiving some requirements. So anything that comes to the health department, they are going to help with and anything coming to Human Relations, Ms. Haynes will help with. For clarification purposes City Manager Carroll said staff would facilitate organizations, put that information on the website and cable and do press release, etc. and publicize the Harris Bank fund. But wanted to be sure the committee did not want to use any city facility for any collections of goods or clothing or any other efforts? Staff was ready to issue a press release about the firefighters being sent and that kind of stuff but didn't want to do that until this meeting because she wanted to be comprehensive about how the committee wanted to address this. She also wanted to know what follow-up or what reporting back did the committee want staff to do or other efforts they might do down the road. What are the expectations and timeline on things because Mr. Terry or Mr. Rubin may need to contact their people at the State? Aid. Rainey did not think there was a big rush, she agreed with the Mayor, they have to make a statement immediately about Harris Bank. But in terms of the city doing something important, there is so much time because people are going to need for months and months. They should just take their time a figure out what they should do. She would like the legal department to tell them is it a proper function of this Council to direct money from the transfer tax to this tragedy. City Manager Carroll said she would get that information. The Mayor suggested a water collection and having the recycling center be the depository. After a lengthy discussion it was decided that it would be 4 Rules Committee Minutes 0917/05 DRAFT NOT APPROVED easier to send money to a water company and have them ship the water since there is no real shipping location, because of gas, storage, etc. Aid. Wynne stated she would like to get information on the number of children in our schools who have been transferred here. Aid. Wollin added that if they know the sizes and ages of those children ESSCA could handle clothing for them. Aid. Wynne said it is also important to say to people that they are monitoring the situation and it is an ongoing crisis and somewhere down the road they will be able to give more aid and when they understand the most effective ways they will proceed with the aid. It was suggested by Aid. lean -Baptiste that they post on the website, email, and cable that our health department is available for Katrina victim who have been brought to our community. Aid. Rainey added they might want to send a letter asking if citizens know of Katrina victims in Evanston who need our services and what they might need and a letter to District 65. Mr. Terry announced that they have families coming in tomorrow morning, the federal government and the state has already issued new interim guidelines on immunizations and his understanding is they have, in two cases, waived guardianship issues and just accepted the children whose guardians are not present. Mayor Morton asked Mr. Terry if it would be alright to publicize that people can contact the Evanston Health Department regarding immunizations for getting these children into school? That would be very positive. Mr. Terry said that would be ok. City Manager Carroll thanked the committee for their direction and staff would proceed. REPORT OF RULES COMMITTEE SUB -COMMITTEE: Aid. Rainey suggested this item be held until the next meeting because, the paper work expected, a black line version of the rules with the sub- committee's suggested changes/revisions, was not provided. There was nothing really urgent except some issues regarding quorums but the committees are functioning. Aid. Moran said the committee has been carrying for a long time potential changes in terms of aldermanic commentary at Plan Commission meetings which seemed to have faded from the horizon. He strongly requested that the agenda item be brought back soon. Aid. Wynne asked if this is the issue of Aldermen being barred from testifying or speaking at any forum before the Zoning Board of Appeals or the Plan Commission on all issue on which the ZBA or the Plan Commission are not the final. Aid. Moran said yes and Ellen Szymanski has worked up 5 Rules Committee Minutes 04/7/05 DRAFT NOT APPROVED some language and she needs to make a couple of changes to her last proposal. Aid. Wynne stated that the problem is, frequently the Alderman is the most knowledgeable person on something, especially in front of the Plan Commission, it may be a text amendment that they've proposed or a zoning change and the alderman is prohibited from speaking to the Plan Commission which has presented problems. They started this discussion when they had a different Council and there are arguments on both sides. She suggested they put this item on the agenda with the rules. KIAEREN DECISION: Aid. Moran said he had not had the opportunity to read it all, but this is an Important issue they have to tackle with exuberance. He was not sure as he read the Klaeren decision that what the city was imposing on the ZBA, Plan Commission, Planning & Development Committee and the City Council was correct. There might be other ways they could design or streamline their process to minimize the potential adverse impacts of some other case that would try to follow in the path of the Klaeren decision. Until they can get other people on the ZBA, they are having a hard time getting a quorum right now which is a terrible problem. They are also putting ZBA in a straightjacket by imposing some very restrictive elements to their tasks that are slowing them down even when they can get a quorum. They are not being consistent in their application of what the legal department, which he does not agree with, says are the procedural structures for voting on landuse issues. The ZBA needs to be invited to a Rules Committee meeting to explain what is going on at those meetings. Aid. Wynne said for the last year and a half Ms. Szymanski, at P&D even under the old Council, has said to them they need to have findings of fact on the basis of their decision and they have. Aid. Moran said they never make any findings of fact at P&D. People are giving their opinions, not talking about facts. Then they sit down and the committee takes a vote, there are no findings of facts. They are violating the legal department's construction of the Klaeren decision, if it were correct. Aid. Hansen noted that she remembered them doing it with the property on Custer and the one on Maple. They had standards and it was a = discussion between them and at one point in time she said she thought that project demonstrates this standard that they were giving approval because of this that and the other. She also thought they started doing that when the developer did their presentation on Bank One Plaza project. Aid. Moran said maybe he had a different interpretation of what is a finding of fact. Aid. Wynne added that the problem is under Klaeren and they are not a legislative body when they review special uses, they become this _ administrative review board so they do act in the judicial sense. Rules Committee Minutes 09/7/05 DRAFT NOT APPROVED Aid. Moran stated they need to clearly determine what Klaeren requires ZBA, the Plan Commission, P&D and the City Council if it continues to allow people to step up to the podium and talk. Aid. Wynne noted the whole point of why they were discussing Klaeren is the realization that there is this decision out there and they have not been, in their legal department and staff's view, appropriately behaving. The legal department should have been here tonight to discuss this issue. Ms. Aiello noted there was a conflict in scheduling with the lawyers. But In most of the Plan Commission's reports during the last, probably 6 months, Ms. Szymanski has been making them do the refining of that so when you adopt the report as an attachment to the ordinance you've got the findings of fact. What needs to happen is, hopefully for the next meeting have the legal staff layout what they believe, under Klaeren, needs to be done at Plan Commission, ZBA and P&D. After much discussion Aid. Wynne suggested the committee schedule two Rules Committee meetings in October. One just for Klaeren and get from the legal staff some kind of bullet point description of what their recommended procedure should be at P&D, ZBA Plan Commission and City Council. Have the legal staff present and invite ZBA chair Bob Creamer so he can speak to the committee and tell how they are progressing or not progressing and invite the rest of the ZBA members. They should put their shoulder into this legislative effort to cure Klaeren. She thought they should hear from their legislators on what they can do. Aid. Moran added that they need to examine how bad Klaeren is or find how they can live with Klaeren without doing all the things that people seem to develop this paranoia. The committee agreed to cancel the October 3rd Rules committee due to the Rosh Hashanah holiday and hold a Rules Committee meeting on Thursday, Oct. 6 at 6:30 with Plan Commission testimony by aldermen on the agenda and invite the legal department, chairs and members of the Plan Commission and the ZBA members. Hold another meeting on Wed., Oct. 26 at 6:00 with legal staff and on the agenda will be the rules from the subcommittee with a blackiine copy of the rules and the Klaeren issue. ADJOURNMENT: Meeting adjourned at 8:15 p.m. Respectfully submitted, Darlene Francellno NEXT RULES COMMITTEE MEETING THURSDAY, OCTOBER 6, 2005 AT 6:30 P.M. �r Rules Committee Minutes 10/6/05 DRAFT NOT APPROVED MINUTES OF THE RULES COMMITTEE MEETING THURSDAY, OCTOBER 61 2005 6:30 p.m. Aidermanic Library Present: Aid. Hansen, Holmes, Jean -Baptiste, Moran, Rainey, Tisdahl, Wollin & Wynne Absent: Ald. Bernstein Presiding: Aid. Melissa Wynne Staff Present: Julia Carroll, Darlene Francellno, Vincent Jones, Gavin Morgan, Herbert Hill & James Wolinski Guest: Sue Brady, League of Women Voters & Robert Creamer, Chair, Zoning Board of Appeals CALL TO ORDER: Aid. Wynne called the meeting to order at 6:37 p.m. APPROVAL OF JULY 5, 2005 AND SEPTEMBER 7. 2005 MINUTES: Ald. Tisdahl moved approval. Aid. Wollin seconded. Minutes approved. CONTINUED DISCUSSION OF COUNCIL RULE 11.3 WITH REGARD TO ALDERMEN APPEARING BEFORE OTHER BOARD AND COMMISSIONS: This meeting is to finally deal with the reference made by Aid. Moran about the issue of whether an alderman could be permitted to testify in front of the Plan Commission and Zoning Board of Appeals. Staff recommended some changes to the language in a memo to Julia Carroll from Ellen Szymanski, with background materials, dated Feb. 21, 2005. The thrust of Ms. 'Szymanski's suggestions, Aid. Moran generally liked, but thought there should be a few tweaks to address a few things. On page 2 the suggested revision in 11.3 is to delete the entire second sentence "An Alderman may give such testimony before the Zonina Board of Aianeals only when the Alderman is the =titioner." In the third sentence delete only the words "...during its consideration of the Alderman's reference made pursuant to Rule 9.9.3....". He moved to direct legal counsel to develop a revised amendment to rule 11.3 consistent to those changes and bring it to the Council for consideration at its earliest opportunity. Aid. Jean -Baptiste seconded. Motion carried. Mr. Hill stated since the Rules Committee is considering the massive changes to the rules at the Oct. 26 meeting he would like to suggest putting this change in that packet so everything gets amended at one time Rules Committee Minutes 1016105 DRAFT NOT APPROVED as opposed to doing it on two separate resolutions. The committee agreed. KLAEREN DECISION: This item is scheduled for the October 26 Rules Committee meeting but since Mr. Robert Creamer, Zoning Board of Appeals chair can not attend that meeting he is present tonight. Aid, Wynne introduced Mr. Creamer and invited him to discuss the effects of the new Klaeren procedures on ZBA and its function. Mr. Creamer stated their biggest problem has been getting a quorum, but understands nominees for the ZBA have been introduced. Under their current rules they need 4 people for a quorum and only have 5 members total for a board that requires 7. If 2 people are absent ZBA is out of business, which has happened about 3 times in the last couple of months. Mr. James Wolinski added that they also need 4 members to concur in order to approve variations. Mr. Creamer said several months ago Corporation Counsel approached ZBA with some suggestions to their rules in light of Klaeren. ZBA had some fairly long and vigorous discussions about that. In his former life he use to represent coal companies who strip mined in farming country in Central Illinois. All of the neighbors hated that and tried to stop the mining and one of the first things you do when you are an environmental lawyer representing the miners is see who has standing, which Is mentioned in Klaeren. Standing is important for lawyers and non -lawyers alike because standing determines not only who can cross examine, but also who gets to go to Circuit Court if they are unhappy down the line. Given his background _ as a coal mine lawyer, one of his considerations was it didn't do much goo_ d if you over -extended what your concept of standing was because you would invite, not only people who come in and take over your proceedings, but you also enlarge the number of people who could go to court. So his perspective and the perspective of other members of the board, after two or three meetings on this, was that the proposals they initially got from city staff were that they adopt some kind of system where people could declare themselves to be an interested person. That would then give them the right to present evidence and cross examine witnesses and that is how they would determine who was a party to their various hearings. Mr. Creamer re -read Klaeren this afternoon and said the mischief is that there are different concepts with the same name. A person who has - standing under zoning law, coal mine law and environmental law, is a person with a legally protected interest. A person with a legally protected Interest has standing and has standing for the purposes of due process. That Is, the right to get notices, the right to appear, the right to put on evidence and the right to cross-examine. The problem comes in when Rules Committee Minutes 10/6/05 bRAFT NOT APPROVED people start talking about people who are interested, and interested parties. The over -reaction to Klaeren has been, by some people, as they say these people are interested, they are interested parties and therefore they have standing therefore they can cross examine. And anybody who wanders in, be they from Baghdad or Wilmette, if you say they are Interested people then you have just conferred upon them, in his view, standing, where you didn't have to and you have created a whole new class of people who can come in and jam up a ZBA hearing or a Plan Commission hearing and then go to Circuit Court because we have given them standing. Aid. Wollin asked is it not by the footage of where they live? After reading the statue and existing ZBA rules, amended in May 2005, Mr. Creamer said they amended the rules to say people who had a legal interest in property within 500 ft. of the subject property of the application or appeal would have the right to present testimony and examine witnesses. That is what they came up with based upon the existing rules. Under their existing rules people are entitled to notice if they are within the 500 ft. bubble which is bigger than the statute. In the statute you are only required to give notice and bring people in or permit people in if they are within 250 ft. But because they had a 500 ft. notice rule, he could only sell his fellow board members on the 500 ft. bubble. That is where they have defined standing. Aid. Wynne thought it varied, some 250 ft., some 500 ft. and some 1000 ft. depending on what the issue was. Mr. Wolinssi responded that PUDs are 1000 ft. from the property boundary as are a map change and new developments that go before the Plan Commission. Major variations are 500 ft. from the property boundary and go before ZBA, and minor variations are 250 ft. which go to the zoning administrator who has final authority but can be appealed to ZBA and then it goes from 250 ft. to 500 ft. Everything ZBA deals with is 500 ft. from the property boundary. They do not deal with PUDS. Aid. Rainey asked how does ZBA go about changing the rules? Aid. Moran said ZBA has the power to set its rules. Aid. Wynne added that Council does the notice permission. For clarification Aid. Rainey asked if that meant that anything now that appears before the ZBA whether it is a final authority or a recommendation is 500 ft. even in the current zoning ordinance? Mr. Wolinksi said yes. Aid. Wynne asked if ZBA has essentially defined interested persons as what would be defined as legal objector in their ZBA ordinance? Mr. Creamer said no, he wants to not let people use the term interested parties because that is the problem. They have defined people with a legally protected interested as people within 500 ft. Interested party does not 3 Rules Committee Minutes 10/6/05 bRAFT NOT APPROVED exist in their lexicon, because anybody can say they are an interested party. They do not use legal objector anymore. They use persons with a legally protected interest, because that is the lingo from the Illinois State cases on standing and in Klaeren as well. Persons with a legally protected interest are people who have standing and those are people they want to corral. They want to draw a circle around that group and make those the people who can put on witnesses, cross-examine witnesses and potentially file an administrative review. Everybody else they call members of the public. If you have been to their hearings lately, when they get through hearing from the people with the legally protected interest he then asks anybody else, who does not have a legally protected interest, if they have something to say to come up and say whatever they want to say. In his view those people who do not have a legally protected interest, are just there to give their views and he would not subject them to cross examination. He received some comfort from the Klaeren case today because there was a piece he had forgot, it gives the presiding officer a great deal of discretion on limiting cross-examination for people who are not people with a legally protected interested. He does not want to get into a situation where somebody wanders in and says they are an interested person and lives on the other side of town or in Wilmette, because with the skateboard issue they had people from Libertyville, Arlington Heights and all over the place who believed they had standing in that case. Mr. Creamer said he is trying to be very careful about people within the 500 ft. radius to let them have their due process, ask any questions and put on any testimony they want. He asks them all two or three times if they are finished with everything they have to say if they are within the protected group. And when all that testimony and evidence is done they open it up to people who just want to give their opinions. Aid. Jean -Baptiste asked why does notice change when it is a minor variation being appealed from 250 ft. to 500 ft. Mr. Wolinski replied that it is going from a minor variation decided by the zoning administrator to an appeal, which as he recalls in the ordinance requires the 500 ft. designation. Aid. Wynne wanted to know if ZBA had seen the effects of their procedural rule change since May or are they seeing any effects? Mr. Creamer thought so, he has a litany he reads before each meeting, which are sort of the marching orders. It has helped people understand where they belong in the process and people have picked up on it. That has been the biggest change. - Hearings have gone better and they've had fewer people Interrupting one another. Aid. Wollin remembered the skate board issue with the huge crowd and everyone was holding their skate boards. They have discussed the speed 4 Rules Committee Minrtes 10/6/05 DRAFT NOT APPROVED with which the process progresses, she wanted to know if they heard everybody that was in the 500 ft. bubble could they at some point in the evening cut off those people and listen to those that are outside the 500 ft. Mr. Creamer said they haven't really had to do that for a couple of reasons. With the skate board issue and the Starbucks on Central Street issue they had 100 people in the room at one time. They say to the people if you are going to tell us that you agree or disagree and are not within the group, give your name and address and if you agree with somebody else who has just spoken, say you agree with the last speaker or whatever. People have been really good about that. On the Starbucks issue they had about 20 people to pop up and it took 10 minutes, because they just gave their name and address and said they were against this or they agreed with the last speaker or whatever and it went pretty well. Aid. Moran said the idea of moving these cases through with a little bit more expedition, and sometimes it has happened historically, is one that is appealing to him. To try to get to certainty sooner rather than later would be helpful. Given that they make major demands on people who agree to serve on boards like the ZBA, who really give a lot of their time, attention and effort to the City for no other reason than their generosity of spirit, they should try to support what Mr. Creamer and his colleagues in terms of making their jobs easier. Being in P&D a couple of times when they are in this post Klaeren era where they kind of clunk along with some of these things of cross-examination and so on and so forth, obviously they need to comply with the law of Illinois. Including what the Supreme Court says but he was not sure he wanted to ladle more on to it than what is specifically directed to them. So whatever they can do, whether it is in the ZBA context or otherwise that allows them to 1) comply with the law, but 2) not over do it, is something that would help them all. Aid. Hansen noted they should take stock in the question of how it is working when the preliminary speech is given before the hearing starts. Because her observations from P&D people are confused and don't know if it is their time to speak or when they can ask questions. In their last P&D meeting they took their vote and then had a host of questions of the process maybe they too should have some type of preliminary speech. It works a lot easier when people realize how the process is going to work as oppose to having no idea. Aid. Rainey agreed and thought the preliminary speech should be typed out on a sheet of paper where the only follow-up work would be xeroxing. People need to have that because their whole process is confusing. When people come to the Council and they've come for a certain issue on the consent agenda they don't know that sometimes it has already been handled and people sit there all night until they realize it. She thinks that one major problem with ZBA that has nothing to do with the board it has to 5 Rules Committee Minutes 10/6/05 DRAFT NOT APPROVED do with scheduling. A lot of the time their perception that things are taking a long time is because they are never heard for maybe 3 meetings and it doesn't happen all the time, but sometimes somebody doesn't show But you can look at the agenda and know that these cases can't possibly all be heard also items for the next meeting are listed and this list sometimes goes on and on. Staff needs help with scheduling for the boards and for the community. You have people coming who are no longer interested person, but whose property is within the 500 ft., who never get an opportunity to speak for weeks at a time and you have the subject coming, attorneys coming, architects coming and who ever they are bringing and it's a very unfortunate situation that they have to come back time after time after time. Mr. Wolinski added that he has had discussions with the City Manager and Mr. Hill about Klaeren and how it should be interpreted threw their various public processes and he thinks they came to a conclusion. The Klaeren rules would only apply to special uses and PUDs. He thinks they were taking that beyond and applying it to preservation cases, major variations, etc. Ms. Szymanski wrote a memorandum to the boards and commissions stating that fact that only special uses and PUDs would follow Klaeren and luckily for the ZBA the majority of their cases are variation cases. In addition it is unfortunate that Mr. Lawrence Widmayer, chair of the Plan Commission couldn't be here tonight. But it is the Plan Commission where they have all the PUDs and all the rezoning going on which is where the greatest issues of how Klaeren is being utilized or manipulated. So he suggested that the Klaeren discussion not be put on the back burner until they also get a chance to talk to the Plan Commission. Mr. Hill wanted to clear up a philosophical point to the discussion. The Planning & Development Committee role with respect to Klaeren and how the Planning & Development Committee meetings become another hearing with a transcript and court reporter, etc., etc. The role of the P&D Commiftee could be altered to limit its review to the transcript as provided by the ZBA. What the P&D Committee would be doing is not finding new facts and modifying their determination based upon new facts, but saying it has received a complete record from the ZBA. The ZBA then has done its function and its job as it should and now we have their recommendation, we have their facts, we've read the transcript and based upon what we see in the transcript with a respect we agree with the ZBA or we don't agree with the ZBA and we have the facts in the transcript. You can limit it to that basis and you do not have your Klaeren hearing, you do not have a long ZBA hearing. What that does is takes the P&D Committee out of a fact finding mode, out of a hearing mode, out of a mode where citizens can come in and have another bite of the apple. If citizens get another bite of the apple then you are subject to the rules that you find cumbersome. If you limit your review to the transcript then you don't have that. There is a Rules Committee Minutes I0/6/05 DRAFT NOT APPROVED trade off there. He was not making a recommendation one way or the other, just making an observation from what he has seen happen at the meetings and time drags on. Aid. Rainey asked if they did that what would be the point of allowing citizen comment if they were only going to tell people they could only read the same speech they read at the Plan Commission or ZBA. Mr. Hill said citizen comment could articulate a disagreement with the conclusion or recommendation of the ZBA based upon the facts as introduced by ZBA. You are not getting a new fact. They will point out to you that they could give testimony of such and such, they don't support x or y, maybe the ZBA has to make, if they possibly could, a more complete recommendation with citations, etc.. But P&D is not having a hearing, not spending two or four hours taking testimony and continuing meetings. What P&D is doing is maybe spending two hours talking about the transcript to argue they have the facts here and based upon the facts that they see in this transcript, they agree with it or change the recommendation. You give a factual basis, not getting new facts. Aid. Holmes asked if there was something in between because it seemed to her that not always but most of the time its not new evidence or new facts that are coming, people are simply repeating what has been said over and over and has already been read transcripts. Mr. Hill said he just threw out this idea, there is nothing in between. Aid. Holmes asks if they could just say it is limited to new facts, because there are times when there are new facts. Mr. Hill said you could say yes it is limited to new facts but that situation puts you back to incurring the time problem. With all due respect to the ZBA Aid. Wynne was reluctant to rely entirely on the ZBA. As cumbersome as Klaeren is right now she would want to accept the transcript and simply discuss it among themselves, she would so prefer to have a cumbersome Klaeren hearing. There are ways of making it less cumbersome than not to be able to interact with people because the course of her experience on P&D is that they elicit different, not necessarily new information, but they have a different type of discussion with people who come to testify before them than the ZBA does. Aid. Tisdahl added that people expect to be able to tell their aldermen and all the aldermen, whatever it is even if they said it to the ZBA. There is not new information often, occasionally it is. But most of it is not and even - though they may walk away mad if they don't decide in their favor, they do expect to be able to have a chance to tell us directly. Aid. Holmes said they will then come and have their say again at Council. The committee said that was correct. Rules Committee Minutes 10/6/05 DRAFT NOT APPROVED Aid. Moran thought what Mr. Hill is suggesting is worth consideration. He knows people want to come and talk but his sense is they come and say to them what they've gotten in their packets Thursday night and a printed transcript of what they said to the ZBA or the Plan Commission. He is huge on first amendment and think people should be able to come in and say what is on their mind. But he gets tired when he has heard it for the 8"' time and the only reason he is listening to it for the 8"' time is that there seems to be some ethos that says somehow some virtue or vise will spring out of the 8"' recitation of the statement as opposed to the 7`h, 61' or So. Again, he is all for public input, access, notice, commentary and everything, but does not think they have to put themselves through the ringer all the time and then over and over again. If they thought about that a little bit they could probably come to the conclusion with the citizenry that that is not a terrible idea. Aid. Wynne did not think they heard things 7 or 8 times. She has been on P&D for 8 1/2 years and that has not been the case since the Evanston Hospital garage issue when they had the giant 550 page transcript. They all read every word of it and told every person who got up and started to recite that they were sorry but they had read it before and moved on and that has been fairly effective on P&D. Sometimes they have longer discussions but she would really not want to give up, as Aid. Tisdahl said, the ability for people to come in and talk to them. Aid. Moran said he understands that but that is an expectation that they have but they have created that expectation because they have been so iineate about telling them they can come and tell us again and again. In the last 4 years that has not been the case at P&D and Aid. Wynne said they have had big, big issues come in front of them and she does not see this as what is making P&D cumbersome. Maybe in the earlier days they did have people stand up =_ with the same testimony. - Aid. Jean -Baptiste stated things are constantly changing from the time it leaves ZBA or the Plan Commission and gets to them and many things could have happened. on a lot of these projects there is continued negotiations going on to try to reach some kind of agreement between the conflicted parties. In a sense when folks get before them it is a town hall ��= meeting. They want to be able to express themselves and say what they want to say and he did not think at the P&D level they have been holding anything significantly, people have been able to come and make their presentations and in the last year or so maybe things have lasted 2 or 3 meetings before but not in a way that impeded stuff and sometimes when it has lasted 2 or 3 meetings they have seen progress in between those meetings. So it is important for them to continue to hear people. The Klaeren process gives them an opportunity to have more discipline. He did not think it encumbers them to the extent that they can limit those who will participate to those who have standing. You sort of control the mob a Rules Committee Minutes 10/6/05 DRAFT NOT APPROVED and push it through, let people talk for a limited amount of time and then move on. There is a structure in which they speak, you are able to do cross examination and then they present whatever their views are and somebody else asks the questions. They have created the kind of atmosphere that people can be heard, they've also created a process of engagement in those projects and that is why you want to go through the Plan Commission to be able to have the right to be heard because we engage in all of these things. He would not just want to limit work at the P&D to deliberation only on transcripts that come before them. As far as scheduling goes; at the last ZBA meeting he went to his crew got through at about 11:30 p.m. The ZBA had tremendous pressure on them to go beyond that time because some people who were scheduled to go, perhaps they were on the schedule a couple of times before. There was a woman who was looking for parking and she had some people there that were pro and cons and was arguing they had a life and while they were here it should be handled. ZBA members were looking at the court reporter saying how are you doing and can you last. Scheduling is very important and he did not know what the pipeline was at the ZBA level, but he does know that at the Plan Commission there is a lot of stuff before it. If we think something is going to take a lot of time and sometimes they may be able to ask the proponents how many witnesses they expect so we can know how to schedule it. They should try to schedule it so that they have one or two issues on their agenda. Aid. Jean -Baptiste asked if ZBA usually stops at 11:00 p.m.? Mr. Creamer said usually 11:00 to 11:30 p.m. Ald. Wynne stated there use to be a rule that you didn't start a new case after a certain time. Mr. Creamer said they haven't relaxed it just haven't enforced it. Aid. Rainey noted there was a time when it was 11:00 p.m. and there were still 40 people in the room on the Vineyard issue but realistically if you've got a room full of people you can't just stop. Mr. Wolinski addressed the issue of scheduling. He said as soon as they have completed their paperwork and are ready to schedule people for the ZBA those people want to get an the next available meeting, even if they tell them there are 6 cases ahead of them and that they probably will not be heard. They still want to get scheduled in the hope that something is going to happen and that maybe a couple of cases will be continued quickly. Aid. Wynne suggested maybe having a standby list and state that this is what will fit on the agenda tonight and then the next case you will be notified if one case is removed or if something happens. Staff will just have to hold the line and say sorry, if something ahead of you cancels then we will notify you with enough time for you to bring people in. Mr. Creamer said the issue there is the notice which has to be posted not less 9 Rules Committee Mimites 10/6/05 DRAFT NOT APPROVED than 15 day and not more than 30 days. He is hopeful that when they get a full complemented 7 members they will not get backed up. The past couple of months have been difficult because they have had to cancel Z meetings for lack of quorum. Aid. Rainey stated it cost us money for the notices, we notice and people show up and then we have to notice again. Mr. Wolinski replied that actually if the chairman continues the cases they are continued to a date certain so they don't have to re -notify. So even if Mr. Creamer has 3 cases and he knows they are not going to hear them he will continue them to a date certain and they are not required, under the ordinance, to re -notify. Mr. Creamer added there have been times when they have had 8 or 9 matters on the agenda and it is 9:00 p.m. and he can see they are not going to get to the bottom of the agenda. They take a brief recess and ask people if they want to continue it so that they can go home before 10:00 p.m. and the people will say no they will stay. So ZBA is getting pressure from both sides so they just do the best they can. Aid. Wynne thought that staff maybe needs to hold back a little bit more and just say this is what is going to happen. Aid. Rainey added that the chair needs to say they are not going to hear your case tonight because you know that. Aid. Hansen said what she has been doing at P&D is when someone gets up and say their name and want to speak she highlights their name and goes back to the transcript and they don't really say anything new. She thinks what may happen is those who have been on the Council for a long time or P&D maybe have a different take or different insight that some people on the Plan Commission might have and you might ask a question that was never asked before of that person speaking. So she does not really think the citizen that get up to say something or ask questions of the developer has been new, the Council's discussion or questions are new. So in line with Aid. Holmes there is a better process. She is not sure what it might be thinks it is something in between just reading the transcript and something between that and what they have been doing. Aid. Wynne stated that is what they use to do before Klaeren. They would have people stand up and give their statement and frequently it would be some what changed from P&D especially the developers from Plan Commission and there might have been a meeting between the neighborhood and the developer and the problem is Klaeren has changed that. Because they did not take testimony in the formal way that they do now, but she thinks the Plan Commission asks different types of questions. They as some of the same questions but the Council always ask different _ questions. You can see in their discussion that the Plan Commission �-- 10 Rules Committee Minutes 10/6/05 DRAFT NOT APPROVED leaves things to the Council and that is the difference. We have this new set of procedural rules that Klaeren presents to us that adds things previously they didn't feel were necessary. They just went to the issues that were relevant to them that they wanted to discuss further. Aid. Rainey asked Mr. Hill what was being done to set aside Klaeren so that they can go back to their other life? Mr. Hill said there is a proposal. He could not say where it was right now but would get that information for the next meeting. He thinks the home rule attorneys have communicated with our representatives and will have a better picture on that for the next meeting. Aid. Wynne requested that Mr. Hill get to them the most up-to-date report which would be very helpful and if they need to communicate very clearly as a Council it will be time well invested, because living with this they either spend the time now or spend it over and over again. She also requested that the Chair of the Plan Commission and any members that are available to attend the Oct. 26 meeting. ADJOURNMENT: Meeting adjourned at 7:45 p.m. Respectfully submitted, Darlene Francellno NEXT MEETING WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 26, 2005 AT 6:00 P.M. it Rules Committee Minutes 10/26/05 DRAFT NOT APPROVED MINUTES OF THE RULES COMMITTEE MEETING WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 26, 2005 6:00 p.m. Aldermanic Library Present: Aid. Bernstein, Holmes, Jean -Baptiste, Moran, Rainey, Tisdahi, Wollin & Wynne Absent: Aid. Hansen Presiding: Aid. Melissa Wynne Staff Present: Judith Aiello, Julia Carroll, Darlene Francellno, Herbert Hill, Gavin Morgan, Tracy Norfleet, Ellen Szymanski & James Wolinski Guest: Zach Brennan, Evanston Roundtable; Plan Commission members, Douglas Doetsch, Al Hunter, Stuart Opdycke, Larry Raffel, Alice Rebecchini, Larry Widmayer, James Woods; Zoning Board of Appeals member, Steve Samson CALL TO ORDER: Aid. Wynne called the meeting to order at 6:08 p.m. APPROVAL OF OCTOBER 6, 2005 MINUTES: Aid. Tisdahl moved approval. Aid. Rainey seconded. Minutes approved. KLAEREN DECISION: Discussions have taken place in order to come up with a legally appropriate method to cope with this decision and not stall or significantly slow down the process. Members of the Plan Commission were present to give their thoughts on the Klaeren decision. Larry Widmayer, chair, Plan Commission said it is slowing them down tremendously on a number of different angles. In the past they have been a little overly generous on establishing standing. But 1000-ft. is harder to judge than 500 or 250 ft. That is one thing they have to tighten up on and be very serious In the future about who has standing, and who can speak continuously. Aid. Wynne clarified that the notice provision for PUD's is 1000 ft. from the edge of the property line and by living within that notice distance, you then become a legal objector and you have the standing to testify, toJ'.°>=, cross- examine and appeal in a court of law and so on. Mr: Widmayer went on to say there was one situation where a citizen, strictly for the sake of the record and in case they wanted to later sue, Rules Committee Minutes 10/26/05 DRAFT NOT APPROVED read for a half hour. The hope was somewhere down the line something like that could just be submitted to the record. It was an expert testimony, for future reference, and there were only one or two things that might have been new. Everything else had already been presented by someone else. He did say it was the Plan Commission's decision at that time to allow that and they are continuing to look at ways to cut that down. The Mather issue has been going on for 5 months now. There has to be some way to insure that only new information is presented. A procedure or method should be established that they all use and all agree to whether they are coming before to the Plan Commission, ZBA or Planning and Development Committee or whomever so they are all standing on the same line. little things can help like being confident that they all agree that If somebody is a citizen that wants to speak and does not have standing it is ok to limit them to 2, 3, or however many minutes, so it doesn't go on forever and maybe decide they can't speak or if some expert has something they want to put in the record let them submit it in writing. It was noted by Aid. Wynne that Council already started addressing that at citizen comment, which has made them much more efficient. They let people know they have x amount of time to speak but they can submit materials. Aid. Moran added that in Klaeren there was a 2 minute limitation and the one thing that the court really focused on is if you are cross-examining an expert witness, 2 minutes doesn't get it done. Aid. Wynne said the total time for citizen comment at Council is 45 minutes. They divide that by the number of people and the amount of time an Individual can speak is 3 minutes. Aid. Rainey said however, the current rule says Council shall begin its deliberations 45 minutes from the time the first speaker speaks and it never happens. There is also a provision that allows an alderman to suspend the rules. Mr. Hunter asked if it would be possible to allow 60 seconds for each speaker and still follow the Klaeren decision? Aid. Moran commented that the overarching approach of -the decision is flexibility, for example if somebody comes'in and says they -don't like glass buildings, the way he read the decision, they might not need to allow that person to be cross- examined or to cross-examine somebody on whether they like glass buildings, because it is an expression of an opinion and nothing more. Mr. Doetsch said one of the flexibility points Klaeren makes is that there is -a relationship between the extent of the property Interest of someone at stake and how much due process you have to give them. So if somebody lives right next door they'are deserving of more time and more due - process than somebody who Is 500 yards away. Whatever rule they come up with should somehow embody that standard. You have to look at the Rules Committee Minutes 10/26/05 DRAFT NOT APPROVED extent of the property interest, which might be judged by how far away someone lives. A second issue, very clear in Klaeren is it is permissible to have a reasonable limitation on cross-examination or other portions of the process. The Plan Commission now seems to have no limitation whatsoever. Mr. Widmayer added they are very up in the air on what kind of restrictions they can put on these things. What they are searching for is where they can draw the line, how they can draw the line and how they define that. Aid. Rainey reminded everyone that they were told not to use the term standing, instead they are to use the term legally protected interest. But the event that resulted in the Klaeren decision was an abomination of government at its worse. However, our legal department and Corporation Counsel, Jack Siegel, should just give some direction, general enough so they all can use it as guides and be able to get on with the business at hand. City Manager Carroll stated she has asked Ms. Szymanski to get some specific procedures and put them together. She and Mr. Hill are working on them. She noted that Klaeren only applies to special use, so the fact that ZBA and working out variances and things that are using those rules are really not necessary, in her opinion. The law department is more conservative, but she is pushing them along to do only what they have to do. one major point that was part of the problem and was viewed by the court, was unequal treatment of the developer getting much more time than the public. In Ms. Carroll's opinion, the issue of legally protected interest - needs to be dealt with first. If people don't have that they should not be _ talking. But if you want to have a public hearing or a public comment period, make it short. 30 minutes is probably long enough to deal with people who don't have a legally protected interest. They can still have their opportunity to speak but they do not need to be cross-examined and the cross-examination period needs to only be something that is actually going to help the commissioners make a decision regarding the case. Aid. Rainey said once they get those regulations and standards down on paper, everybody gets an opportunity to have copies and those who do not have a legally protected interest and has something very significant to say can communicate with those that do have a legally protected interest and ._ can share their.knowledge that way. Another suggestion City Manager Carroll thought they might want to . consider is adjusting back to 500 ft. because 1000 ft. is a long distance. That would take away perhaps a lot of people who are clogging up the Rules committee Minutes 10/26/05 DRAFT NOT APPROVED system. Aid. Wynne thought they should be careful about the 1000 ft. verses 500 ft. because the sizes of the PUD's coming through really do affect people. The 500 ft. is less than the length of a block in Evanston and there are a lot of PUDs they have come through that have a greater impact than a single block. Mr. Samson spoke on another problem at the Plan Commission, which is the procedures themselves which he thinks creates the repetition. They start out hearing from the applicant, then those in support. They cross- examine those people, they get people in opposition, cross-examine those and then hear from the applicant again. It is the same stuff over and over in the same case. His suggestion would be get a witness on, get the applicant's case up, get everybody who is in opposition, anybody who wants to ask questions, cross-examine as long as they want or within a time frame, and go through everybody in the room that wants to speak. This way they don't have to hear them twice. Because if they go back and hear the applicant's case, cross-examine, hear the opposition case, cross- examine, and then wrap up from the applicant. It lets people catch on to somebody else's thought and it keeps revolving over and over. The second biggest stumbling block they've seen since Klaeren are the standards. The standards at 2BA are easy, at the Plan Commission they go on and on. For example, the Mather case already is in access of 250 pages of transcripts to go through to match the standards. They have to find some way to streamline the standards. Alice Rebeccini added the standards in many cases are redundant to one another and often inapplicable. When they are going through the recitation of how the applicant responds and the standards, so much of what has been said is irrelevant and idiotic. It would be better to have standards thatare more pertinent, there is so much they never use because it doesn't apply to the situation. It is so awful they don't want to make motions anymore. It is difficult just to manage the dialogue and speak to the court reporter and say the right thing. Ms. Szymanski said when the recitation is going on, if the standard is inapplicable her advice has-been to simply say this is inapplicable., Some.. -- standards do call for repetition.. If a standard has already gone through ;- the first section and you get to that same subject matter again, simple say this was covered previously, it meets the standard or it doesn't and then move on. There Is no need to repeat the findings for similar standards. A lot of the standards simply don't apply, o_ r so rarely apply that there Is no need for them.. : Mr. Morgan said he thought the state statute for special uses is 5 _ standards and the additional for Evanston are unique. Aid. Jean -Baptiste thought that was something they needed to investigate further. Ms. , - Szymanski said Evanston is home rule and the standards in the zoning 4 Rules Committee Minutes 10/26/05 DRAFT NOT APPROVED ordinance are historic, but that doesn't mean they can not be changed. There is a need to compare them with state statute and with other municipalities to see what is going on. Mr. Wolinski said having observed before and after Klaeren Plan Commission hearings and testimony, one of the biggest problems is the way they have moved from a fact finding to a very adversarial postion. The cross-examination aspect has really lit a fire under this, so to speak, because right now the applicant is being cross-examined by multiple neighbors, sometimes with the same question, sometimes not, but there is a line of people that want to ask that expert witness a question. Many times the opposition does not have an attorney or legal advice and there are some high power attorneys working for the applicants. If the proposers have made their case some of the poor citizens that are there just to raise an opposition, are on the verge of going into a panic attack, because the opposition attorney is really working them over on what they've said. For the first time in his 18 years with the Plan Commission, Chairman Widmayer actually had to throw a person out of one of the hearings on Kendall because it became so adversarial. Aid. Wynne summarized the critical issues. She stated that uniformity between the Plan Commission, ZBA & P&D is an excellent idea. The chair of ZBA reads into the record the basic procedure so that all present will know about it. There was even discussion on having those printed up so everyone gets essentially the procedural hand book of this is what is going to happen and if someone is planning to appear before the Plan Commission or P&D they will know what those basic procedures are. She suggested they also be on the website. Coming up with perhaps a change in procedure is more efficient because you will not have people coming back repeatedly. Working on the standards is really important and balancing time to make sure there is fairness in terms of the amount of time allotted. Aid. Moran thought one key aspect that won't get written into the procedures is the presiding officers in these hearings have to exercise and appropriate amount of control. When you hear somebody under the guise of cross-examination, just yammering they should be stopped and asked to go on to the next questions. Aid. Wynne noted that having written procedures will help in terms of making it clear that these are the types of question that are appropriate and -these are the question that are inappropriate and you will be asked to move on. Aid. Jean -Baptiste said as legal counsel considers the procedures -they ; :.- should think about time limits for presentation of the cases, even the propondnts ought to have a time limit to present. If they know they have a time limit they know what to do within their time, unless the particular body feels they need more time. They can also limit the opponent to a 5 Rules Committee Minutes 10/26/05 DRAFT NOT' APPROVED certain amount of time as well and cross-examination to about a third of that time. However, many people want to participate in that cross- examination should be limited to a certain amount of time. He then asked what is the difference in the amount of time people spend in presenting between pre-Klaeren and past-Klaeren. He suggested that Council really think about time constraints, because if they want to protect the rights of people to participate and have access to equal time they should define the time that is reasonable to present the case and move on. Aid. Wynne added that the critical element of that is giving people notice. Mr. Doetsch thought that was the single best suggestion that Aid. Jean - Baptiste made, telling the presenters they are limited. For example, in every discussion they always get at least ZO minutes of a traffic study which always includes the same thing. It would be more than adequate if there was maybe an hour and a half limit on the entire presentation for PUDs. That would shorten that up, but they would also have to be concerned about equal time. If the first set of presenters have not gotten 6 hours to present, the Z"d group doesn't need 6 hours. The overarching Issue when Council does pull these procedures together Is making sure there is a certain smoothness and facility in the process so that the city can actually get its business done. Particular issues the Plan Commission and ZBA have faced have gone to the side of due process. When they go through procedures now, if the mandate from the Council to the law department is to try and revisit these, it really needs to be done in every respect with an eye toward increasing efficiency because of the kind of specific proposals. Mr. Hunter asked what are the provisions for submitting written testimony and can they use written testimony in lieu of verbal presentation. Ms. Szymanski responded that the concern with written presentations are the presenters have to be available for questions. If the person who wrote the document is there and available to answer questions, then everyone has an opportunity to read that document and then ask questions of the presenter and that would be acceptable. Although there is still the need to let people have time to read the document, not sure how much time would be saved. City Manager Carroll asked if they could set a rule saying if you are going to present something in writing to the commission it must be done 48 hours in advance of the meeting so it can be shared with the commissioners. Ms. Szymanski said that could be done. Mr. Widmayer answered Aid. Jean-Baptiste's question regarding the difference between pre and post In the Plan Commission. In pre-Kiaeren everybody said what they felt kind of.from the heart. They now have people who are making sure they get something into the record in case they want to sue later, so that 5 minute from the heart discussion becomes a I5 minute because they've got to get everything in the record so when the judge reads it all the testimony will be there. That, probably as much Ruses Committee Minutes 10/26/05 DRAFT NOT APPROVED as anything, generates delays and the adversarial relationships that come out as a result of it. That needs to be controlled. Aid. Sean -Baptiste noted that on written documentation in court, many of the judges will tell you they don't want more than a certain amount of pages. If you are responding to something you are limited to x, if you are replying you are limited to y. In the same way with an eye towards efficient process they put a limit. Mr. Samson said what they are looking at is the nature of the projects coming forward. As they get closer to residential districts they are finding more animosity in the room. He would want to see the procedures or changes that are going to streamline things in the face of what is going to be continued animosity. He does not think it is just procedures alone or Klaeren alone it is the nature of the projects that are here that are going to continue to be here and that is what the procedures need to address. I don't see any really difference between post-Klaeren and pre-Klaeren animosity. Aid. Wynne said they have a higher number of PUDs and they are larger and larger. City Manager Carroll shared with the committee a bit of hope on the horizon. Sen. Susan Garrett has sponsored senate bill 94 which would take the special use to the pre-Klaeren rules. She urged all to contact their legislators and support them. It is going to be considered in the veto session. Aid. Rainey said Monday night at A&PW and then at Council they made a purchase of a consultant service, Virchow-Krause for assistance with the development process and was wondering if there would be some effort to take a took at ZBA and Plan Commission procedures with that consultant. Ms. Aiello said part of what the Consultant will be doing is to have some Interviews with members of the Council and the appropriate boards and commissions, so there will be another opportunity for the Plan Commission and ZBA members and the Council to give the consultant their perceptions r.,, .. ni u- :of.the-issues,, •Then part of what the consultant will do in addition to :r;!talking with staff will be to begin and go -through and map the process, understand each step which will include the procedures and then look at _ best practices across the country and make some recommendations. Aid. Bernstein thought they should start with the standards first because, if they can clarify, make them unambiguous, or make them relevant then :.:.there is less need for an applicant to take the gunshot approach. Because you get one bite of the apple, you have to make every conceivable argument that you think you have to make in order to cover all of those bases.: To the extent you can clarify and simplify the standards without Rules Committee Mimics 10/26/05 DRAFT NOT APPROVED giving away the store that is going to help them. If they start there that will take care of itself at the other end. Mr. Doetsch asked what if they were to work backwards from the procedures, get all of the presentations, the questions of the presentations, and questions of the questioner, and try to set up a budget of maybe 3 hours for any given PUD from beginning to end. He threw this out as an idea because right now they have essentially no limitations. They are facing an infinite space right now and if they all knew that any given PUD had 3 or 4 hours to present and make its statement, you would have questions from the commissioners, from the public, time for discussion among commissioners and then have time for a vote. If all that could be packed into a 3, 4 or 5 hour period it would simplify all of this substantially. They have a huge backlog right now and it is going to get worse. They have to find a way to do this actually better than pre-Klaeren, because pre-Klaeren was not necessarily the good old days. Aid. Wynne said her question would be that not all PUDS are the same. So what do you do when you have something like the Mather versus something that only needs 2 or 3 hours? Mr. Doetsch said if they could do it shorter and maybe have an overall limit, you have ammunition where possible to use less time in order to move things along. Right now they are taking substantially more time, and he would feel much better about having a 4 or 5 hour limit per PUD than the approach they have right now, which Is totally ad hoc. He would rather give the small projects the same 4 or 5 hour limit, which is too much, but they would be better off with a limit that applied overall rather than where they are right now. Mr. Hunter said most of the discussion about Klaeren and what they have been facing is the, question of efficiency. It is clearly important that they not lose sight of the other- value they are dealing with which is the question of the democratic due process of the citizenry. And that is where he checked out precisely on Mr. Doetsch's point. There is a fairness question here and whatever procedures are done it is fairness that should determine what is done. Whether it is the amount of time, etc., most of the discussion has been concerned about efficiency and that disturbs him a .. bit. He would like to hear a little bit about the legitimacy of the process on the part of the citizenry. Aid. Wynne said there are appearance issues as well. There are people who feel as though they need to have at least one real estate agent on their block to put into play when they have a legally_ protected interest. That is a concern that people feel they have some part of the process. Aid. Moran said fairness is a good point but fairness comes in different S shapes and forms in this thing. One of the signal points in Klaeren is that people need to have an opportunity to protect their interest. To have the people who volunteer their time on the Plan Commission and ZBA listen to a Rules Committee Minutes 10/26/05 GRAFT NOT APPROVEb something 8 times is not fair, they need to be fair to everybody. To have somebody come forward with a project in the city of Evanston and have it pending for 3 years, is no fair. Mr. Widmayer's observation in terms of fairness in the Plan Commission constraints is that it is becoming very obvious throughout a number of these hearings when a neighborhood feels they have to gather to oppose something. They form a body, sort of develop a leadership, whether there Is an attorney amongst them or not. Limiting the time will not hurt the fairness of the citizens because they seem to all come together anyway. And it seems after a couple of local meetings there is a body moving forward and a body moving this way. They might or might not be quite as well organized but they are real close. So he does not think by limiting their time to an amount equal to the time the presenter gets going is going to hurt anybody or affect the fairness to anyone. Aid. Jean -Baptiste said tonight they don't want to try to discover all possible options, but would think they ought to provide the leadership. If they set the time limitation and also allow people, in their application, to say if they need more time state why. If they could get a proposed procedure for discussion they could get at something. He would suggest in terms of the development of the standards that some proposals come from members of the Plan Commission as to what they see are the best statements of standards. Mr. Wolinski passed out the listing of proposals they currently have and all the proposals that are completed applications into the city and are scheduled now. There is also a list of those that are somewhere in the review pipeline, either waiting for information or whatever. Aid. Woliin said they are meeting a week from Saturday to do Strategic planning on the Council but thought this Council needs to come together in a common vision of what they see strategically for their downtown. She understands wanting growth in the last 10 years and wanting to encourage tax revenue etc. but they are now at a stage where they have to = look carefully about where they want to be, where they want height and how close to the transition area they are going to allow that. She wished she had a plan she could say to her constituents that this is what we are looking forward to and this is what we are going to encourage and this kind of development which might be wonderful for the developer is not =� really What we want at this point in the city id this area. There are a number of developments coming in the first ward and there is an enormous amount of resistance out there. It would help all if they could,,, -'get a clear picture of what they are ready to accept. j Aid. Holmes said in addition she thinks they need to have a boundary of what downtown is by the east, north, west and south. Because she had a Rules Committee Minutes 10/26/05 DRAFT NOT APPROVED conversation with some people at First Presbyterian Church and they were talking about 1567 Maple. Her position was if there are going to be tall buildings she would want them down town and they said that is not downtown. But in her head all the way to Ridge is downtown and then she has other borders in her head of what is downtown. That would be very helpful because the lady that what she had said made sense. Aid. Wynne said their limits now are viewed as platforms, in 1992 those things that were established as upper limits are now viewed as starting points for a lot of those developers. So they end up pushing over the limit ever so slightly. Mr. Opdycke asked if there were any intentions of including the Plan Commission in the conversations. Aid. Wynne's thought was they needed to keep those meeting separate. Aid. Wynne thought the discussion was very, very productive and thanked all for coming. She suggested they all take the City Manager's suggestion and write to their representatives in the strongest possible terms to urge them to support this. She asked Ms. Aiello if she could provide email address or phone numbers for the representatives. Ms. Aiello said it would be Included in their Friday packet. Aid. Wynne also suggested they compose a letter from the Council to be sent. The Plan Commission and ZBA could do that also. REPORT FROM RULES COMMITTEE SUB -COMMITTEE: The sub -committee of the Rules Committee consisted of Aid. Rainey, Holmes and Wollin. Aid. Rainey began the report with the "Glossary". They wanted to add a definition of abandonment of office because there is reference in the city code and other place but no where does it say what that means. The discussion came about in relation to Joe Kent and John Holsman who for one reason or another stopped showing up because of either lost of - interest or circumstances changed_. They did not come up with a definition because they wanted to discuss it with the committee. Aid. Moran believed there is some state statutory treatment of this issue that he presumes would preempt anything they would put in their municipal code. Aid. Rainey said they were thinking in terms of 3 months worth of Council, meetings. Mr. Hlll'said1 the first: question is` what do you intend to do with the result of the abandonment of office. If the result is ,just to censure the alderman, In =_ • other_ words 15 meetings have been missed in a year, Council can vote to clear the censure of the alderman. If the City Council decides to take abandonment of office to the ultimate step, which he did not believe could 30 Rules Committee Minutes 10/26/05 DRAFT NOT APPROVED be done, which is ouster, they you can't. But even with that the City Council will need to take a formal action, after an alderman misses whatever number of meetings the Council decides, City Council will vote to censure that alderman letting that be a mark for the next election, so to speak, Council can do that. Aid. Rainey asked Counsel to look into it. Mr. Hill said they began looking but was not sure of the results the committee was looking for. The state statute had an 1880 case which had an alderman who lost office because of excessive absences. There was another 1904 case which said you need the intent to abandonment and there needs to be intent to abandonment above and beyond mere missing meetings. He did not believe City Council could disenfranchise a whole ward of an alderman not being there. But beyond that with a respect to censoring, reprimanding that power you have, there is no case that would prevent City Council from doing that. Mr. Hill said to summarize City Council can not create a rule to remove an alderman from office. But too address absences the City Council could set a standard and then declare this is the consequence of meeting that threshold and that could be censor, reprimand or any term they want. After much discussion it was decided that the legal department would figure out what feasible or how it can be done. Aid. Rainey went on to page 4 of the rules where they wanted to add to the order at Council meetings, executive session. There was much discussion _ on this item and they committee decided to move forward and skipped this item for further discussion. Aid, Rainey moved on to page 5, rule 2.6 which refers to getting agenda items on the agenda prior to the meeting. The other night they had wanted to add something on the Rules Committee for the meeting tonight and were told they could not. After much discussion the committee decided to leave rule 2.6 they way it was. ' ' y -On'page 6 of the rules under "Appointment -Except as designed below" the committee decided it would be more feasible if the Mayor would submit to f Council in confidence perceptive applicants for Boards, Commission & Committees 3 week prior to placing names on the agenda. This way it will give Council members time to review the applicants in a timely manner and allow another week to get the names on the Council agenda. The applicants should be called only to say they are considering them for a specific board or commission. Once this process has been completed the applicant can be called back and told that their name will be placed on the Council agenda for consideration. it Rules Committee Minutes 10/26/05 DRAFT NOT APPROVED The committee agreed that on page 6 of the rules where there is a reference to boards and commissions that report to standing committees. Any committee that reports to Human Services, A&PW, Planning & Development, etc. should be listed. It was agreed upon rule 11.3 reading as follows: "An Alderman shall give testimony before the Zoning Board of Appeals or the Plan Commission in the following circumstances a) when presenting the official recommendations of a Council committee or subcommittee on a matter within its jurisdiction and upon which a formal vote by that committee or subcommittee has been taken; b) may testify before the Plan Commission when the Plan Commission is considering amendments to the zoning ordinance which are not site -specific; c) may testify when the alderman is the petitioner; d) may give such testimony only when the alderman is the appellant before the Zoning Board of Appeals or Plan Commission." Mr. Hill gave a consideration for the next meeting which is a change in the state statute. It changes the power between the Mayor and the Aldermen. The way it reads now, when the Mayor submits a veto the Aldermen are required to vote at the meeting the veto is returned and under the state statute that law can be changed where City Council can consider an override of the veto at the meeting after the next meeting. It gives the alderman two more weeks to go over whatever opinion they want. The committee asked that he get clearance and bring it back to the committee. The committee agreed with items 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 and 12 of the July 22 memo from the Rules Committee Sub -Committee. The remainder will be discussed at the next meeting. ADJOURNMENT: - - - Meeting adjourned at 8:05 p.m. Respectfully submitted, Darlene Franceilno .; . :�r.rr,:s�. _ �i3r, r �_�3 ,. _ •,+: _.� �;x,.;r, .:� df_ - i+'sr1: .`a: 'l: .:r'�'ir- - `��` •.�titr - =1i: - f -- --i:' -t :l ;ye= .<:�.. :. 1 ._ z;_,_ .t: .__� .._ :� �•.: . - r-� • �'ii 1�=�� .ir£r�r:c??:�t':r1a1'I6+ i--� �..t1• ic�:.r;i-�.-. - •_ - - .._ �• - _- - ! - _ � ,� �_ - _!�- �-i fit'; I't.? L. � ,i_ .. w�f� lf��et r. 12 Rules Committee Minutes 11/7/05 DRAFT NOT APPROVED MINUTES OF THE RULES COMMITTEE MEETING MONDAY, NOVEMBER 7, 2005 6:00 p.m. Aldermanic Library Present: Aid. Hansen, Holmes, Moran, Rainey, Tisdahl, Wollin & Wynne Absent: Aid. Bernstein and Jean -Baptiste Presiding: Aid. Melissa Wynne Staff Present: Judith Aiello, Julia Carroll, Darlene Francellno, Herbert Hill, Vincent Jones and Gavin Morgan Guest: Mary Morris, Ciarain McEvoy, Medill School of Journalism CALL TO ORDER: Aid. Wynne called the meeting to order at 6:05 p.m. APPROVAL OF OCTOBER 26. 2005 MINUTES: Aid. Rainey moved approval. Aid. Wallin seconded. Minutes approved. APPROVAL OF THE 2006 CITY COUNCIL MEETING CALENDAR: Aid. Rainey moved recommendation to the Council the 2006 City Council meeting calendar. Aid. Tisdahl seconded. Approved. CONTINUATION OF THE REPORT FROM RULES COMMITTEE SUB- COMMITTEE: Aid. Rainey started with item #13, rule 10.7, "Abandonment of Office" of the July 22, 2005 Sub -Committee report. The committee was looking to receive information from the legal department as to whether or not there was any Illinois State Statute definition. Mr. Hill said the legal department came up with nothing different from the last meeting, it is an elected office and they have language dealing with the qualifications. It is up to the City Council if they want to deal with an Alderman who is missing meetings, either through an automatic notice, or through a formal censure. Abandonment of Office occurs if an Alderman moves out of town or moves out of the ward. If the committee wanted to take a different approach to putting an Alderman on notice, they could devise a concept, `Neglect of Office" and define that as an Alderman missing 9 consecutive meetings. This way it is formal with some sort of notice specifically to the Alderman. It puts a stamp on the Alderman that could affect the next election. It is a censure, but using a different term than abandonment. He suggested they create something for what the need is they are trying to address. "Neglect 12/1/20059:34 AM Rules Commi"ce Mirutes 11/7/05 DRAFT NOT APPROVED of Office" is not saying they have abandoned the office, it says they are not showing up. Aid. Wollin noted that they've also had Aldermen who refused to serve on standing committees and was not sure if that should be part of it. Because Joe Kent said he would never come to a standing committee meeting. Aid. Wynne asked if the Council wanted to have some kind of censure for neglect of office without reasonable explanation to the Council. Aid. Moran said they have censure provisions somewhere already. Aid. Wynne thought if that provision exists, would they want to use that and say neglect of office becomes censurable. Aid. Wollin added that the constituents are the losers here because they don't have somebody to speak for them. Mr. Hill said perhaps the Council would prefer it to be self-executing where censure would automatically be placed on the agenda for consideration without any elected official making a motion to have it done. So for example, if an alderman misses 6 consecutive meetings it is automatically placed on the agenda for consideration by the Council. The committee did not want to do that. Aid. Holmes thought that missing 3 months of meetings without reasonable explanation should be put in the rules, with the exception of Illness or some other extenuating circumstances and said she would make such a motion. She said it was the duty of all 9 of them as a whole who are going to be making decisions for the city to be sensitive enough to everyone else to say if they have an illness, not to tell every detail, but certainly say they are going to be out for the next 4 or 6 months or year if that is what it is going to be. It is a responsibility they all should be sensitive to and that has not happened in the past. It is a lack of respect for the office and a lack of respect for the people you are representing. Aid. Rainey asked if this would be a form of resolution that they would have to pass or could it just be added in the rules. Aid. Hansen asked if they were giving up the idea of having legal staff look _- into abandonment of office on whether or not there are any other definitions or if other municipalities use this idea they are trying to move toward. Aid. Wynne noted it is pretty clear there is no way to remove someone from office for failure to serve. Her understanding is legal staff is going to determine whether there is some kind of state definition for abandonment of office and if there isn't she thought they should craft one for either failing to meet the qualifications to be an alderman, sending in a resignation letter, or making a statement of resignation of some sort. The other issue now is whether they should have some kind of automatic 12/ 1/20059:34 AM _ Rules Committee Minutes 11/7/05 DRAFT NOT APPROVED censure placed on the agenda for vote after an alderman has missed 6 consecutive meetings without reasonable excuse. Aid. Moran sees problems with that and Aid. Holmes feels very strongly about it and would like to make a motion. Aid. Holmes said she would make that motion to include it in the rules as 10.7. Aid. Rainey said the real factor in the cases of Joe Kent and John Holsman there was never any intention of ever returning. Aid. Wynne said there is a motion on the floor. Aid. Wollin seconded. Aid. Rainey thought it should be 10.6. Aid. Wynne didn't think so because it was different than abandonment of office and she thought they were going to come up with a definition of abandonment of office. Aid. Rainey said according to Mr. Hill the definition is you are no longer qualified and there is no other definition. Mr. Hill said what they are going to research is if there is any other approach to abandonment of office. The definition is as Aid. Rainey stated not having the qualification or resigning. Aid. Wynne asked if they needed to have what abandonment of office means? Aid. Rainey thought they should just clarify it for the next Council. The committee agreed with that. Aid. Rainey then asked if it was going to be that the resolution will come to the Council automatically for consideration after 3 months of misses, because they ought to be very careful about qualifying the 3 months except for illness. She did not think they should say if there has been no contact or anything like that. Because when the resolution appears before the Council it could be said this doesn't apply because that individual has been in constant communication. Aid. Holmes asked if that happened wouldn't it come to Council. Aid. Rainey's response was it would if the individual had 3 months of absences. Aid. Wynne saw a problem with that and disagreed because she thought they should not have to have it removed from the agenda. Aid. Rainey noted it gets a little political if you don't automatically have it come. Aid. Wynne said it is going to get political at the Council meeting when someone says they've talked to the individual and he/she has given a reasonable reason why they are not here and someone else might say they don't think that reasonable reason is reasonable. Aid. Rainey's final comment was something should be done about people who never return. The committee moved on to item #14, rule 11.1, Conflict of Interest and Abstentions, changing the word "should" to "shall". Aid. Rainey said the 12/1/20059:34 AM Rules Committee Minutes 11/7/05 DRAFT NOT APPROVED sub -committee felt they should make it more stringent while Aid. Moran wanted it less. Ald. Moran had no problem with changing "should" to "shall", but stated that somebody for the purpose of conscience or otherwise, might feel they are not in the position or won't be put in the position of voting on something their conscience restricts them from voting on one way or another. They should be allowed to announce that and it should be part of the rules. Aid. Rainey stated while you might be extremely intense and would only apply this in certain cases it could certainly be used to weaken this rule. For example, someone might say they have a really strong feeling about this and do not feel their conscience will let them vote on this. The problem, as Aid. Wynne said the last time, is there is probably a lot of agreement and disagreement about what is a matter of conscience. She thinks that is murky. This is one of the best rules they have because it forces them to come to a conclusion of yea or nay. Also she did not necessarily believe that anyone on this current Council would abuse or use this in a way that she would disagree with. Having every Council member be required to vote, absent a conflict of interest, as defined in their rules achieves a really good goal. Which makes them come to a decision and if someone does not feel comfortable voting on something then they could hold it over. There are ways to table it, you could vote no and say the reason you are voting no, especially on issues where someone feels very strongly. People follow the Council and listen to what the reasoning is on the votes and there is plenty of opportunity to say you disagree and are voting no because you don't believe it should be on the agenda. For the record Aid. Moran moved to amend the motion that rule 11.1 should be amended that would have an extra provision allowing for an abstention based upon a member of this City Council feeling as a matter of conscience that he/she can not vote on a particular issue. Hearing no second the amendment failed for want of a second. Aid. Rainey called the question on the "shall". Aid. Wynne asked for a vote on substituting the word "should" to "shall" in rule 11.1, both the words should. Motion carried. Approved. Item #16, a staff recommendation for rule 13.1 under "General Provisions" reads "The Powers of the City Council shall be purely legislative except when deciding a soecial use or_olanned developMat." Aid. Rainey suggested they ought to leave it in. Aid. Moran stated they have the Klaeren rule and already are trying to work to defeat this in the legislature. Why would they make this a rule? It 4 12/ 1/20059:34 AM 2ules Committee Minutes 1117/05 DRAFT NOT APPROVED is a pronunciation of the Supreme Court. Maybe though they will reverse themselves or there might be another case this next term that somebody will convince otherwise. It seems that the committee does not like it so why write it in. Aid. Rainey asked for a staff explanation. Mr. Hill explained that the existing language read "The powers of the City Council shall be purely legislative.", and has been in the rules over the last 20 years because of a city manager form of government and to clearly have the demarcation between the administrative function, which is not a function of the City Council, and the legislative function which is, was stated in the affirmative the powers of the City Council shall be purely legislative. But now because of the Klaeren case there are instances in which the functions of the City Council are not purely legislative. That is why the other language was put in there. It needs to be the rule that "The powers of the City Council shall be purely legislative." He suggested deleting the new language" ..... except when deciding a special use or planned development." Because they have Klaeren and they abide by that anyway. Aid. Wynne moved to delete the new language with no offense toward staff. Aid. Rainey seconded. Motion carried with approval. The next item #17, rule 13.3 Aid. Rainey stated is in the municipal city code and she has always wanted it to be in the rules. It reads "Each alderman shall at all times have access to any and all records, documents, and information relative to any and all functions of the municipal government as allowed by law." Mr. Hill brought to the committee's attention that the language in the city code, section 1.5.10 is a little bit broader and reads "An alderman, at all times, may examine and inspect the books, records and papers of any agent, employee or officer of the city when such examination and inspection is reasonably necessary for the exercise of the alderman's legislative function, and such books, records and papers are kept in the ordinary course of the duties of the agent, employee or officer." The language in the rules does not bring it back to the legislative function. This language from the city code, section 1.5.10 can be put in the rules which are much broader. Aid. Rainey asked what is it that they are denying them the right to see. Ms. Carroll's response was personnel records such as performance evaluations, because that is an administrative function. Aid. Rainey asked if the Mayor sees those. Ms. Carroll stated that as far as she knows the Mayor does not see those records. Mr. Hill said the mayor has a broader scope and he did not have that language with him, but he did not believe the Mayor could see personnel matters either, again it is preserving the city manager form of government. 5 12/1/20059:34 AM Rules Committee Minutes 11/7/05 DRAFT NOT APPROVED Aid. Rainey asked if they would be denied police reports under this wording, because each alderman who cares anything about their ward ought to be entitled to police reports having to do with their constituents. Aid. Wynne stated rule 13.3 is new and without it the provisions that have applied to them all along have been rule 1.5.10 of the city code which has been in operation all along. Mr. Hill said it was an inconsistent change and at the time the language of 1.5.10 was overlooked when going through preparations for the Rules Committee meetings, section 1.5.10 of the city code is a relatively new ordinance that was passed in 1997. Ald. Rainey moved that section 1.5.10 of the city code be put in the City Council rules in place of 13.3. Aid. Wollin seconded. Motion carried for approval. Aid. Rainey continued on to page 16 under "Minutes", rule 17.1 and moved that it should read as follows: "A journal of the minutes of the City Council and standina committees ...........". Aid. Moran seconded. Motion carried for approval. Also on page 16 under "Minutes", add a rule 17.3 that reads "Approved City Council and Standing Committees minutes should be posted in a timely manner to the City of Evanston website: www.citvofevanston.orq." Mr. Hill asked if the committee wanted to change the word "should" to "shall". Ald. Rainey moved approval of 17.3 with the change of the word should to shall. Aid. Moran seconded. Motion carried. Aid. Rainey moved approval of rule 21.4 on page 19 under "Quorum" changing the number of Aldermen from three to five. Ald. Moran seconded. Motion carried. The last item was to be consistent in spelling of the word canceled. Either use one 'I" or two "II". The preference was to use two "II", cancelled. Aid. Wynne moved approval. Aid. Moran seconded. Motion carried. Ald. Rainey moved approval of all the changes from the Sub -Committee report dated July 22, 2005. Aid. Moran seconded. Motion carried. Mr. Morgan distributed copies of draft rules (XX-R-05) with suggested staff changes and were originally brought up in June, before the subcommittee was formed but were set aside. The changes consist of a few operational and housekeeping items that need clarifying. Aid. Rainey moved to table this until the next meeting because they did not review them prior to tonight. 12/l/20059:34 AM Rules Committee Mirwtes 1117/05 DRAFT NOT APPROVED Aid. Wynne asked Mr. Morgan to prepare a memo similar to what the rules subcommittee had done to let them know which items are left undone that staff recommended, either by email or in a memo. Mr. Morgan stated they would incorporate all changes made at the last meeting and tonight and provide a list of what the additional changes are. Aid. Moran suggested highlighting what is not part of the amendments so they would not have to hunt for them. Aid. Wynne stated they should also put on the next agenda the issue of what is the definition of call of the wards. Aid. Moran said what is the proper subject or what is the proper way to proceed in the call of the wards. The graphic example was at the last meeting he was trying to announce that they were having a ward meeting and the Mayor seemed to think that was not consistent with what the rule says on what they can talk about in the call of the wards. The Mayor seems to be interpreting it now as though there is some phrase in there that says what you want to say to the Council and she appears to be interpreting that as you can't say it to anybody else, so if you have a constituent out there who might be interested in what you are saying during the call of the wards, that is a no no. You have to say it to her. Aid. Rainey did not think it mattered what you say the Mayor Just wants you to face the Council when you say it. Aid. Hansen disagreed because there have been other occasions when other Aldermen have got up to announce meetings happening in their ward and the Mayor has made a comment about that announcement. Aid. Wynne thought it was a bit more specific, stricter in terms of whether that is something that is an appropriate matter. Aid. Wollin read rule 2.1, #10 " ...at which time the Alderman shall be called upon by the Mayor to announce or provide information about any Ward or City matter which that Alderman desires to bring before the Council." Aid. Moran said and the Mayor is saying before the Council meetings you are only talking to the other Council members. Which he does not think is the correct interpretation and maybe they need to clarify that. ADJOURNMENT: Meeting adjourned at 7:04 p.m. Respectfully submitted, Darlene Francellno 7 12/1/20059:34 AM Rules Committee Minutes 12/5/05 DRAFT NOT APPROVED MINUTES OF THE RULES COMMITTEE MEETING MONDAY, DECEMBER 5, 2005 6:00 p.m. Aldermanic Library Present: Aid. Bernstein, Hansen, Holmes, Jean -Baptiste, Moran, Tisdahl, & Wynne Absent: Aid. Rainey and Woilin Presiding: Aid. Edmund Moran Staff Present: Judith Aiello, Julia Carroll, Darlene Francellno, Herbert Hill, Vincent Jones, Gavin Morgan and Elky Purze Guest: Mary Morris, City Clerk CALL TO ORDER: Aid. Moran called the meeting to order at 6:10 p.m. APPROVAL OF NOVEMBER 7. 2005 MINUTES: Aid. Wynne moved approval. Aid. Tisdahl seconded. Minutes approved. CONTINUATION OF THE REPORT FROM RULES COMMITTEE SUB- COMMITTEE: The committee was presented with revised rules including all additions and deletions discussed at the last few meetings along with a chart of recommended amendments to Council rules. Aid. Moran had Concerns on page 2 of the chart, rule 7.1 and 7.2. Rule 7.1 reads "The City Manager shall be appointed by a two-thirds vote of the Council. (7 votes) " and 7.2 reads "The City Manager may at any time be removed from office by a majority vote of the Council. !6 votes)". "Corporate Authorities" has been lined out and the word "Council" is used in both. The Mayor votes on hiring the city manager, should it read "Corporate Authorities"? Mr. Hill explained that the glossary reads "City Council and Corporate Authorities shall mean the nine Aldermen and the Mayor and may be used interchangeably." Mr. Hill further stated the difference is it was determined by the prior Council of 8 or more years ago that to appoint a city manager it would take 7 votes and the selection process to remove remained as an absolute majority of 6 votes. The recommendation is it should be the same, it should be as difficult to hire as it is to retain. The question is does the Rules Committee believe the numbers should be consistent, perhaps 7 to hire and 7 to remove or 6 and 6 or does the committee believe it should take more votes to remove than to hire. 1/24/200610:56 Alf Rules Committee Minutes 12/5/05 DRAFT NOT APPROVED The Committee agreed to change "two-thirds" to "seven" in rule 7.1 and "majority" to "seven" in rule 7.2. Aid. Moran asked for an explanation of the new provision added on page 4, rule 19.1 that says "....Items so marked on the consent agenda shall be presented to the City Council by a reading of the title of the action [65 ILCS 5/3.1-40-40]. It was explained, by Mr. Hill, that it is within the scope of the state statute not to require as detailed a reading as we have, as long as the agenda item itself is informative. As it reads now City Council can vote on it just by citing the title of it; for example, Ordinance 25-0-05 authorizing the city manager to enter into an agreement with such and such. That is all that it would be. There is an informal timing situation as to how much time is devoted to the consent agenda and this would save the City Council 5 to 10 minutes if not more by not reading it completely. Aid. Jean -Baptiste felt it is a benefit to those who are listening to read the agenda as it has been read. By reading just the heading, even though the state only requires that, does not give enough information to someone sitting at home listening or sitting in the audience. Sometimes it is hard even after you have read all of that to truly understand what is going on. The time savings is not significant enough for him to want to change the rules to read heading only. They do a great service by trying to give as much information as possible. Aid. Tisdahl brought up the point that they had talked about having the agenda roll on the cable channel before the meeting begins and it gives people something to look at when they start late. In addition, have copies of the agenda available for the public the night of the meetings. Ms. Carroll said that is something they can talk with the Evanston Community Media Center about. Actually, when the agenda goes out to Council on Thursday, they could put it up then, and people could have the whole weekend to look at it. That would eliminate the need to read the items. Aid. Wollin added the agenda goes out on the website and people could print them off. Aid. Holmes said that would work for people who have computers and cable, but not all do. Aid. Jean -Baptiste suggested they provide more information on cable, have it on line and read it as they have been reading it. Aid. Bernstein thought they should authorize the minimum and let the senior member use his or her discretion because some things don't really need everything while others do. The committee agreed. 2 1/24/200610:56 AM Rules Committee Mimrtes 12/5/05 DRAFT NOT APPROVED Another suggestion from Aid. Moran on page 4 of the rules "Call of the Wards,...." It reads ".......provide information about any Ward or City matter which that Alderman desires to bring before the Council." He would add in there "or announce to the public". Aid. Wynne thought it could read "Call of the Wards, at which time each Alderman shall be called upon by the Mayor to announce or provide information about any Ward or City matter." That last phrase "....which that Alderman desires to bring before the Council." is what is causing confusion. The language after the word "matter" on page i of the chart, rule 2.1, "Call of the Wards,..." is a little bit different but should also be deleted. Aid. Tisdahl moved approval of the final revisions. Aid. Bernstein seconded. Motion carried. Approved. The committee approved all staff recommendations on the chart of "Recommended Amendments to Council Rules" in relation to their discussion. Aid. Moran asked if there was anything else related to rules. Ms. Carroll mentioned when discussing housekeeping issues staff thought they should raise if there was the need to have rules for standing committees in order to have a process that gets followed consistently. Aid. Wynne asked if she was talking about something to hand out to the public as discussed with the ZBA and Plan Commission chairs/members? Ms. Carroll's response was yes for order of business, procedures for taking testimony, hearing citizen comments, etc. at the P&D committee. Aid. Wynne liked Bob Creamer's idea for the Zoning Board of Appeals where he reads the rules. Having something for P&D and A&PW that can be distributed will let everybody know what the committee is going to do. She was not sure they would want to discuss timing, but thought rules/procedures would be very helpful and have it available with the sign - in sheets so people can understand what is going on. Mr. Hill added there is the whole issue of when something is put on the City Council agenda and sent back for action. it is a matter of procedural rules to get items on the agenda of the City Council, when they go on the agenda through the committee, if something is held in the committee, if it Is not held in the committee and what that means. The whole concept has not been followed out, but there is inconsistency between Human Services and A&PW as to something being held or going on to the agenda and sent back. Rules would just make it a more compulsory process; you do this and it is on the agenda for consideration. With P&D it is very difficult to have an ordinance introduced and then sent back to the committee for the following 2 weeks and write something up that is going to be written up at 3 1/24/200610:56 AM Rules Committee Minutes 12/5/05 DRAFT NOT APPROVED the committee. It is done that way all the time and it is not the best way of handling issues. It gets things done quickly, but he is not so sure it gets them done well. That may be an issue he would at least want this committee to consider for the standing committees. Ald. Wynne stated they could let people know what is happening by describing for example here are the four or five things that will happen with a particular item. It will either be held for more information or it will be sent on to the Council. Whatever the rules are they should state for example, here are the 5 possible things that can happen with any matter. Ms. Carroll said staff would need to first get something together that the committee all agree are the correct procedures and once that gets approved then make sure they can address how the public would review that information. Aid. ]ean-Baptiste thought timing was an important issue to discuss. Particularly with regards to ZBA and Plan Commission because they talked about it at the last meeting and could see the consequence of a lack of structure to allow only 2 hours or 4 hours of discussion, two for each side. The Mather has gone on forever and it is still on for the 7`"• There are about IO items backed up and it is time to really try to establish some structure. Ms. Carroll said Ellen Szymanski and Mr. Hill are working on new procedures for the Plan Commission that are supposed to be adopted at their meeting of the 7"'. Staff has been talking about how time can be controlled. She has talked with Jim Wolinski about maybe not dedicating an entire meeting to one item. For example, one item from 7pm to 9pm and at 9:00pm bring another item forward so you are not occupying 3 or 4 meetings in a row with one item. Another procedural change that staff is looking at is the use of sub -committees. They are going to be bringing this concept forward to the Council at the Planning & Development Committee. The goal is to structure the sub -committees, so that they can consider things simultaneously. This will prevent logjams in the future. Ald. Bernstein wondered if they should wait for the analysis by the consultant that is doing the development process. Ms. Carroll said they have some analysis that staff have done and basically the timing is 2 to 3 times what it use to be at the Plan Commission, primarily since Klaeren. In the last 2 years it has been extremely delayed. But we have also had more planned developments and will be looking at that and the process related to that. She still feels they need to try and get some rules that are very structure so that the chair of these committees can keep things moving. Aid. Bernstein did not think Klaeren had dictated the length of the Plan Commission meetings, it always has been contingent on the particular issue. Klaeren has been effective but they have not talked about it until 4 1/24/200610:56 AM Rules Committee Minutes 12/5/05 DRAFT NOT APPROVED the last 6 or 8 months and meetings still went on sometime interminably. He does not have any problems with limitations to the extent they can do that. Ms. Carroll said her main concern is that it is fair to both parties. Aid. Holmes said one thing that happens is people who have this desire to let everyone talk and talk and say the same thing over and over. Everyone is saying pretty much the same thing and in reading the materials sometimes the chair has cut people off. At other times people just go on and on and you hear the same thing said in a different way. Aid. Bernstein said it is the applicant's responsibility to prevail, it is his/her burden of proof and they have to have more time. Aid. Holmes asked if there would be a difference in terms of the applicant making a presentation of their request and then the people who are either for or against. That is where you get tied up, not necessarily with the applicant. Aid. Jean -Baptiste suggested each presenter be allowed 4 hours in total. The presenter has the first 2 hours, give responses art hour, and the rebuttal for an addition hour. People don't have to use all that time, find a way to give people adequate amount of time to do whatever they have to do, not the time they want but the time determined by the committee. Ms. Carroll noted currently the rules state that it takes one alderman to get something on the agenda. She asked if the committee would be willing to consider something that would require 3 Aldermen to get something on the agenda, so that there would be at least a base consensus before a lot of time is spent on researching. Aid. Moran said there was some utility to keeping it at one, but needed to give it some thought. He agreed with the premise about staff work developing proposals, but was not sure that the rule of one Alderman to get an item on the agenda encompasses all of the situations. There might be some simple item not involving any staff work that one Alderman feels there is an urgency to and it is a strongly held feeling on their part. If you go to a rule of 3 or a rule of 4 then that ability to bring something to the Council's attention is impaired significantly. Aid. Bernstein thought people first needed the facts to determine whether or not an item should be considered by the Council. If it is a simple issue that is one thing, what is being asked to do in effect is to pre -judge a particular issue. You've got almost as many as you need to pass it going in and that sort of precludes innovative kinds of things from happening. He doesn't necessarily want work done for nothing either, but was not sure and needed some examples. Mr. Hill said that the system now in place, with an alderman placing an item on the agenda rather than it coming through a committee, actually weakens the committee structure. For example, if the committee chooses 1/24/200610:56 AM Rules C c=irtce Minutes 12/5/05 DRAFT NOT APPROVED not to deal with a Human Services issue the Alderman can, sensing that the committee will not want to deal with it, place it on the Council agenda for action. In such a case, the item is not subject to committee review, which is the purpose of the committee structure. Such an item will be placed directly on the agenda and work will be done with respect to that agenda item, circumventing the process that is in place with the Committee structure. Aid. Bernstein said he can't think of an item that an alderman can put on the agenda for a vote without having gone to a committee. Mr. Hill said this method allows it. Aid. Moran thought it could be a matter sufficiently important that it should be brought to the Council's attention and may not have required, demanded or allowed for a committee meeting. He did not know what it would be but maybe they need to do something and get it on and get it before the Council and have it voted on. It might be even an item that if more time is needed they would work it through one of the committee routes. He feels they need to preserve that option. Aid. Wynne stated that the most she would consider would be two aldermen. There are situations where the ability to put something on the agenda has been used by alderman. Mr. Hill stated it has happened in cases of moratorium. Where the Alderman is aware of something in the ward that they want to have a debate on and rather than have it go through the P&D Committee twice it is put on the agenda directly at the request of the Alderman. Under the rules the manager can put something on the agenda, so that is another way of getting it done, but it is more of a manager via the alderman or maybe have 2 votes. If it is going to be acted on immediately there should be some consensus among more than one alderman. Aid. Moran said the more they discuss it the more he thinks he does not want it. Aid. Jean -Baptiste said the proposal is aimed at avoiding the necessary investment of time. He had not heard any example of that being a problem when an item has been put on the agenda. If it is put on the agenda by one individual then usually it doesn't require a lot of time. If it leaps straight to the Council's agenda, if it is an urgency, a moratorium, or something of that nature, even a moratorium goes through committee and certain steps may be bypassed in terms of introducing something. He did not think the danger of any investment of time exists right now. Ms. Carroll said her preference would be that the committee has the discussion and then direct staff to prepare an ordinance instead of the other way around, where the alderman is directing the ordinance to take 6 1/24/200610:56 AM Rules Committee Minutes 12/5105 DRAFT NOT APPROVED to committee before anybody has really talked about it. The committee structure being used is best used by the Committee talking about an issue that an Alderman wants to have brought back before Council rather than having an alderman call it in, unless it is an emergency. Aid. Moran said for instance when there is a reference, it goes to a committee, and then presumably the committee does the initial planning on these things. The committee determines whether or not they want to discuss the item and have the staff do research and draft an ordinance or resolution. If there is one person on a 5 person committee that wants that it is not going to happen. Ms. Carroll stated that maybe she had not been hearing it correctly because what she has been taking with those references is that staff needs to be moving forward with bringing that thing back for the committee. What she is hearing is it needs to go to the committee for discussion first and then be directed to have an ordinance. If that is how it operates she would be fine with that. Aid. Bernstein noted that should be how it operates. Ms. Carroll said that is not happening in A&PW. Aid. Jean -Baptiste said this discussion goes to the whole issue of what is the relationship of the Council to the staff. As the Council provides Its leadership In whatever arena, it is legitimate for a Council member to ask staff to research an area, even try to develop a proposed ordinance to present to committee. Part of the Council's work is to try to give leadership in whatever area we think leadership needs to be provided. He did not think they were wasting staff time by asking that the research be done, the information brought back, and then the alderman tries to advance the particular issue. He thought that most of the time they were operating independently, doing their own thing, preparing whatever they need to prepare to communicate with the constituency. But he has been told that city manager staff is his staff and he does not think that works consistently. Council members may call for a particular complaint from a constituent but the kind of in-depth analysis, research and preparation, he hears staff resisting that as wasting time. Ms. Carroll said that is not what she was intending to communicate at all. She just wanted to be sure that if they are going to work on something that there is enough interest among the Council members. If she was asked to do research for all of them that is what she would do. She was thinking that it would be in the interest of the committee or the Council to have at least more than one person having some consensus on the idea before it goes forward. If that is not what they want, that is fine and staff will continue operating the way they have. Aid. Moran said that much of the Council would agree with the spirit of what is being suggested, but was not sure that this rule of one person 7 1124/200610:56 AM