Evanston council adds parks and infrastructure, creates finance/organizational-performance goal, merges public health and safety and renames housing priority

Evanston — The City Council on June 9 revised its high-level goals for the current council term, voting to add parks and infrastructure to the priority list, replace “finance” with a combined “finance and organizational performance” heading, merge public health and public safety into a single item, and change the “affordable housing” heading to “housing affordability.”

Mayor Buess opened the discussion by noting the council’s intent to set clear top-level goals and asked council members to finalize a short list that staff can turn into an actionable work plan. "What we are endeavoring to do with this council is to be much more swift so that we can move on to the more important work of executing against those goals," Buess said.

The council’s decisions matter because staff will use the approved high-level goals to create a work plan and quarterly progress reports. City Manager Luke Stowe told the council staff would "come back within 30 days to share that work plan with the city council, and then we would issue quarterly updates on that work plan." Stowe and other staff also told the council the existing goals document (adopted in 02/2023) should be the starting point for revising subitems.

Discussion and votes Council members debated whether to limit the number of top-level goals and how to group related items. Council member Suffredan moved to add a parks and infrastructure category; Council member Harris seconded. The motion passed 9–0. Suffredan said simply, "I'll make a motion that we add a category for parks and infrastructure." Council members who supported the motion said the change would raise visibility for a long-standing list of deferred park and facilities needs.

Council member Newsom then moved to replace the finance heading with a combined finance and organizational-performance heading (variously described in the meeting as "operational excellence," "organizational performance" or "organizational excellence"). Council member Harris seconded. After discussion about whether organizational performance should be a city-manager-level objective or a council-level priority, the motion carried 7–2, with Council members Rogers and Kelly recorded as voting no. City Manager Stowe and several council members said the new heading should produce specific, measurable subitems such as response-time targets for permit and service requests and employee-engagement metrics.

Council member Kelly moved — later amended by agreement — to change the affordable housing heading to "housing affordability." The motion passed 9–0. Kelly said the intent was to broaden the heading so it addresses affordability pressures affecting current residents, including fees and costs that can accompany housing.

Council member Suffredan later moved to combine public health and public safety; Council member Newsom seconded. The motion passed 9–0. Chief representatives and the director of health and human services were cited during the discussion as indicating there are strategies that cut across both areas.

Where this leaves the council and staff Following the votes, the council had seven top-level items to send to staff. Stowe and other staff asked for direction about whether the council wanted staff to use the existing goals document as the working template; the mayor and staff said it should be the starting point. Stowe repeated that staff would draft a work plan and return within 30 days, and that the council would receive quarterly progress reports.

Council members also urged that staff separate discretionary and nondiscretionary spending when translating goals into budget priorities; Council member Davis said such a separation would help the council decide how to prioritize limited funds and determine whether goals require tax increases or other funding decisions.

Earlier in the meeting, the council had held an executive session with Brad Cole, CEO of the Illinois Municipal League, under an exemption in the Illinois Open Meetings Act. Cole reported no action was taken in that closed session.

The council recessed after the votes and asked staff to draft specific, measurable subitems for each top-level goal and return with budgetary and timeline guidance.