Resident presses Waukegan committee for more public outreach, criticizes local conditions

During the public-comment portion of the Waukegan Community Development Committee meeting on June 2, resident Rayon Edwards urged aldermen and staff to increase public outreach and hold town halls to explain agenda items to residents.

"Our community do not understand a lot of things that go on these agendas, and we are passing things, and we are paying for things and ain't nobody explaining nothing to us," Edwards said. He told the committee he sees little visible improvement in his neighborhood and contrasted Waukegan’s downtown with those of neighboring communities, naming Highland Park and Lake Forest.

Edwards said agendas are posted on Fridays but that he wanted more active engagement: "We gonna be getting a million mail ins because y'all gonna need us, the people, to come out and go to these polls to keep y'all seated in these seats." He added: "Be prepared to be sick of me because I will be seeing y'all at every meeting, committee meetings and all, because I'm tired and so are the people of the city of Waukegan."

Chairman Hayes acknowledged the comment and invited others to speak; no other public commenters addressed the committee that evening.

Edwards' remarks were made during the audience-comment period before new business and were not tied to a specific agenda item on the record. The committee record shows no formal response or follow-up direction was adopted at that meeting.