Rules Committee approves council committee rosters, sets temporary chairs

The Evanston Rules Committee approved committee assignments and temporary chairs for the newly seated City Council on May 5, voting to populate standing committees, permit remote participation for one council member and adopt temporary chair appointments for first meetings.

The action matters because it determines which council members will handle ordinance review, budget oversight, planning and development and other council business in the coming months while the rules committee finishes a separate rules-drafting process.

After brief corrections to the April 14 minutes, the committee moved to assign members to standing committees. The committee then approved the committee rosters by roll call. The committee recorded the minutes approval as seven yes, zero no and two abstentions. Later in the meeting the rules committee voted to approve the committee composition “on a ten-zero vote” and approved temporary chairs for first meetings on a 9-0 vote.

Chair Suffredan led a round of selections to fill each standing committee and to resolve instances where more council members sought a seat than the committee size allowed. Members generally deferred to the slate prepared by staff and used seniority, attendance and overall committee load as tie-breakers where multiple members sought the same seat. Council member Burns joined remotely after the body voted to allow his remote participation; the committee approved that remote participation by roll call with votes recorded as “Aye” for the participating members.

The finalized standing-committee lineups announced during the meeting included: Administration & Public Works (Nousma, Harris, Burns, Suffredan, Davis); Planning & Development (Herakaris, Burns, Rogers, Kelly, Davis); Human Services (Iles, Harris, Herakaris, Burns, Rogers); Referrals (Mayor Biss, Suffredan, Nousma); City School Liaison (Herakaris, Harris, Davis); Economic Development (Nousma, Burns, Suffredan, Rogers, Kelly, Davis); Finance & Budget (Nousma, Suffredan, Rogers, Kelly, Davis); Housing & Community Development (Herakaris, Burns, Rogers, Iles); Social Services (Harris, Iles). The committee left the Environment Board council liaison slot vacant after confirming vacancies on that board mean a council member is not required for quorum purposes.

The committee also named temporary chairs for each standing committee for the purpose of the first meeting: Suffredan (Administration & Public Works), Burns (Planning & Development), Herakaris (Human Services), Mayor Biss (Referrals), Kelly (Economic Development), Nusma (Finance & Budget) and Iles (Housing & Community Development). Members said those temporary chairs are for initial meetings only and that final chair appointments or longer terms will be decided later, guided by additional staff work and follow-up by the rules committee.

During the assignment process council members raised practical concerns about committee workload balance, quorum problems on citizen boards and whether code or rules govern some appointments. Staff confirmed that some committee appointment processes are set in code and others in rules; the rules committee asked staff to prepare a consolidated matrix showing which appointments are governed by code, which by rules and where code changes would be required.

The rules committee recorded the formal approvals by roll call and closed the item without further substantive amendments to the rosters. The committee directed staff to prepare documentation of assignments and to return to rules committee for any changes required by city code or future council direction.

The committee then proceeded to additional agenda items.