Highland Park officials sent a letter to Gov. J.B. Pritzker last week disagreeing with a request from a group of suburban municipalities to make modifications to the governor’s “Restore Illinois” plan that would let some towns open up sooner than others.
The proposal from the Northwest Municipal Conference, a group of 43 municipalities and one township in the northwest suburbs of Chicago, would change the statewide plan laying out the steps to removing restrictions on gatherings, schools and businesses in the state.
The modifications would shift the governor’s four-region plan to an 11-region plan based on emergency management districts, officials with the organization said. Highland Park’s district extends from Evanston to the Wisconsin border.
NWMC Executive Director Mark Fowler said the request to change the plan came from a handful of municipalities within the conference in the Northwest Cook County region. The original request was for a resolution to be passed that would formally ask the governor for several parameters. But Fowler said the board ultimately decided to pass a letter asking for consideration and left it up to the individual municipalities to pass resolutions.
In a letter to the governor on Friday, NWMC President Daniel DiMaria stated “a majority of members” are requesting consideration for various amendments be made to the reopening plan. Those amendments include the previously mentioned shift in regional structure, as well as requesting the governor’s office work with various agencies in the region to develop specific protocols that will allow restaurants and bars to open in phase three as opposed to phase four, the letter states.
Highland Park Mayor Nancy Rotering took issue with the proposed change, saying it ignores the seriousness of the public health crisis.
“(This approach) does not represent the position of the City of Highland Park. The NWMC has taken a short-sighted and ill-informed approach to re-opening our vital local economies,” Rotering said in the letter.
Fowler said the NWMC voted on the measure. He said there were 34 municipalities in attendance at the vote and the measure passed with 20 votes in favor, 12 against and two abstaining.
Those who voted in favor were Arlington Heights, Barrington, Deer Park, Elk Grove Village, Glencoe, Hoffman Estates, Lake Zurich, Lincolnwood, Morton Grove, Mount Prospect, Niles, Northbrook, Palatine, Prospect Heights, Rolling Meadows, Schaumburg, Skokie, Streamwood, West Dundee and Wheeling, Fowler said.
Those opposed included Bannockburn, Bartlett, Evanston, Fox Lake, Hanover Park, Highland Park, Lake Bluff, Libertyville, Lincolnshire, Northfield, Park Ridge and Wilmette. Those who abstained were Buffalo Grove and Deerfield, Fowler said.
In the NWMC’s letter, DiMaria says shifting from a four-region plan to an 11-region plan would allow for greater accountability and maintenance of safe operations. The letter says the 11-region plan also has been used to guide other statewide public health efforts.
The changes would begin with phase three out of five of Pritzker’s “Restore Illinois” plan, which is projected to begin toward the end of May. Fowler said it was fair to say these requests stem from certain municipalities wanting to open up faster, as they are experiencing lower caseloads than other areas.
“We know that phase three demands certain metrics, specifically a decline in cases over a specified period of time,” Rotering said. “My feeling is, if we start to approach opening at a granular level, we’re disregarding science and that people are traveling throughout the region.”
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In Highland Park’s letter, Rotering describes concerns about opening up the area with this approach since Highland Park borders Cook County and Chicago. Her claim is the modified plan would ignore this fact and treat the area as more individualized and independent since Chicago is not included in the EMS region. She said this approach ignores the traveling and intermingling done between residents of various cities.
“The Chicagoland population is driving all over the place,” she said. “People aren’t isolated in their micro-regions …. Chicago is part of this region. People aren’t stopping their travels at the Evanston/Chicago border.”
The discussion for a modified plan took place at the NWMC’s board meeting on Wednesday, May 13. Fowler said the request was a discussion that took place in the board meeting, with the goal of seeing if there was any kind of flexibility in the current plans. He added the board firmly believes in safely reopening and following necessary actions to make that so.
“We had a healthy discussion about it,” Fowler said. “There’s interconnectivity (between municipalities and regions), there’s no doubt about it. But the feeling of the board was to see if there was some flexibility in the plan to look at the regions … under very careful preparations and guidelines.”
Villages such as Schaumburg and Arlington Heights in Cook County were some of the municipalities that made up the original request. Schaumburg Communications Director Allison Albrecht and Arlington Heights Mayor Thomas Hayes echoed similar sentiments to the NWMC, saying they are not opposed to the current plan by the governor. But the request asks for consideration of modifications to the plan.
The modifications requested include the two requests mentioned previously in the NWMC’s letter. Additionally, one parameter not listed in the NWMC’s letter that Schaumburg would like to see enacted includes changing the requirement that an area must see stability or a decrease in hospital admissions for COVID-19 over the course of 28 days to 14 days, Albrecht said.
As a follow-up to the letter, Albrecht said Schaumberg discussed passing a resolution at their committee of the whole meeting on Tuesday, May 19, that would formally ask the governor for these requests. Albrecht said the goal is come up with a balanced approach to opening up the economy.
“If we do have operational restrictions and reasonable guidelines in place for businesses, it would allow some of our businesses, instead of waiting until phase four, they would be able to open in phase three,” she said. “We feel some of the governor’s criteria could be modified to allow a safe reopening of the economy.”
Hayes the goal in mind when bringing it to the conference was to allow struggling businesses to open up quicker.
“(The modifications) don’t discount the metrics that the governor’s plan includes,” Hayes said. “We’re not talking about 100% reopening. We’re talking about a measured reopening with occupancy limits and following social distancing and other gathering requirements.”
Similar to Schaumburg, Arlington Heights considered a resolution formally asking for the modifications listed, minus the 28-day to 14-day change, at their May 18 meeting, which was passed.
While Albrecht would not comment directly on Rotering’s letter, Hayes said he disagreed the modified approach would diminish public health protective actions, saying the modifications look at them in a different way. He added in the past, the 11 EMS regions have been used in health situations.
Hayes said he understands Highland Park’s concerns, but his complaint stems from Arlington Heights being included with Chicago, which he said would slow down their reopening because of Chicago’s high case numbers.
“Some people say this is a political issue, and I completely disagree,” Hayes said. “My motivation is to get our businesses open as soon as possible in a safe and reasonable way. So I think that’s what we’re trying to do by both this letter and the resolution.”
Meanwhile, villages such as Libertyville have stated they support the original plan proposed by the governor’s office. Mayor Terry Weppler said his village voted against the NWMC’s request because of the concerns regarding Cook County and their case numbers. Weppler said while he agrees with Rotering, the village is not planning to take any formal action beyond the vote from the NWMC’s board meeting.
“We’re so close to Cook County, whatever happens to them happens to us,” he said.
Speaking on the benefits of taking this modified approach, Fowler said it could help lead to opening up faster while maintaining caution. But he couched this, saying it was only a request and whatever the governor’s office decides will be the board’s final approach.
“Additional flexibility may not be available,” Fowler said. “If the numbers prove that it doesn’t make sense to do that, that’s absolutely fine. But the board was trying to see if there was some additional flexibility.”
The Lake County Health Department did not respond immediately to requests for comment.