Speculation is already underway to identify potential contenders to be the next mayor of Evanston, following Daniel Biss’ forthcoming resignation from office Oct. 18, ahead of his Congressional run in the Nov. 3 general election.
His successor will serve out the remainder of his term, ending in 2029.
But far less attention has been given to the practical realities of what it takes, financially and otherwise, to hold office. Suburban mayors, as well as trustees, are paid minimal amounts or nothing at all, and many put in full-time hours.
Voters may be surprised to learn that in Evanston, the position to oversee a $400 million-plus municipal government
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and a city of about 76,000 people comes with an annual salary of a little over $25,000.That salary falls well below what would be considered a livable income in Evanston, where median rent for all property types (apartments, condos, houses) exceeds $2,000 a month, according to recent housing projections.
“It’s certainly not a full-time salary, and it’s designed under the expectation that the mayor has outside employment,” Biss told Pioneer Press.
“I don’t think anybody expects somebody in Evanston to support a family on this salary, so whether they have other employment or other wealth or, as in my case, right now they have a spouse who works full-time, I think certainly the expectation is there’s some other reason that they’re able to stay afloat.”
The position is listed as a part-time role, but Biss said the job can fill “as much time as you give it,” but “certainly many weeks it’s been more than 40 hours.”
While Biss said during his time as mayor he has taken on other consulting roles, this is his only current form of employment.
“There’s no way I could have had full-time work and been the kind of mayor that I chose to be,” Biss said.
“Public service is an unbelievable joy and privilege, and you know, I don’t, I don’t do it for the money, and nobody should.”
Each of the nine aldermen serving on Evanston City Council receive salaries of about $16,000 and are classified, along with the mayor, as part-time employees of the city.
The only position serving on the dais that’s a full-time elected government role is the office of city clerk. The clerk position pays an annual salary of roughly $64,000, according to city data.
“One thing that I think is critical is that you want working people and people who are not independently wealthy to be able to do [this job], and so the expectations and compensation should be aligned to make that possible,” Biss said.
But with an annual salary of $25,000, those two principles appear at odds.
Evanston is not unique in this regard. Municipalities across the North Shore tend to offer modest compensation for mayoral and other top elected offices, begging similar questions about who can afford to serve.
In neighboring Skokie, Mayor Ann Tennes earns an annual salary of $35,000, according to recent village salary data.
Despite that salary, Tennes “does not have a full-time job outside of her position,” according to Patrick Deignan, the village’s communications & community engagement director.
Tennes estimates that she devotes a “minimum 35 hours per week” to the role, indicating the position requires more than part-time employment responsibilities as well.
For the villages of Wilmette and Winnetka, their leadership, including presidential positions and Board seats, is entirely unpaid.
While the presidential position is “akin to a part-time job,” with hours per week varying, the “current estimate is about 25 hours per week of work including meeting preparation, resident engagement and official duties,” Village of Winnetka spokesperson Josie Clark said.
“Most of our trustees and Board and Commission members work full-time jobs, as does [Winnetka] Village President [Bob] Dearborn,” Clark added.
Northbrook President Kathryn Ciesla earns a salary of $6,400 per year, according to village data.
Northbrook Village Manager Cara Pavlicek told Pioneer Press there are not “timecards/records that document time spent by elected officials on their duties,” and elected officials “may be privately employed full-time in other activities.”
Pavlicek said Ciesla currently works as a lawyer with her own practice independent of her presidential duties.
“The time dedicated by elected officials to serve the community is extensive,” she added.
The little compensation and responsibilities far exceeding the expectations of many full-time jobs beg the question of who would want to lead a municipality.
“Compensation has some effect on who runs for office,” said Eric Hansen, associate professor and graduate program director for political science at Loyola University Chicago, but “people don’t tend to go into politics for the pay.”
On the contrary, people motivated by high salaries have much better career options outside of politics, Hansen said.
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Although there “isn’t an exhaustive list,” the incentive to run for office generally points to a few ideas, he added, the first being that the candidate is “progressively ambitious,” and will eventually seek higher office.
“Holding a municipal office gives a candidate visibility, experience and political connections they can leverage in future campaigns,” Hansen said.
Candidates may also be ideologically motivated and have a “firm idea of what public policy should be and their convictions motivate them to run for office.”
“This might come across as Pollyanna-ish,” Hansen said, but they may also ultimately feel called to improve their own home (area) through public service.
“We tend to think of politics in cynical terms a lot these days, but especially at the municipal level, I think there are a lot of folks who are intrinsically motivated to get involved and take action to serve their communities,” he added.
And Hansen said research suggests that low-pay and unpaid municipal positions tend to have less competition and therefore are more conducive to a higher rate of diversity among elected leaders who come from a wider range of backgrounds.
Historically, however, even “poorly paid positions still tend to be primarily held by white-collar professionals for reasons that aren’t directly related to the salary offered by the office,” like professionals being able to more easily raise campaign money or because they have “greater autonomy over their time, both to campaign for office and to serve if they win,” Hansen said.
Regardless, the position to lead a municipality is not void of challenge.
“I do want to be really clear that nobody at any level of government should just be doing it for the money, and I never have, and I never will,” Biss said.
“Obviously, I do think you need to design a compensation system that is best for the community, but you don’t want people to be running for public office to get paid.”
If Biss does get elected to Congress in November, as most observers expect, he’ll earn far above the $25,000 mayoral compensation. The current salary for members of Congress is $174,000, according to congress.gov, though strict limits apply on outside earnings.
The site makes no mention, however, of the phenomenal amounts of campaign cash needed to win a Congressional seat.