Evanston needs to do a better job of educating the community about its $400 million budget, Mayor Daniel Biss and other elected city officials said.
The city has conducted public hearings on the 500-page budget document and distributed information about the spending plan at ward meetings.
“What they did in these meetings was just present the budget,” Resident Kathy Hayes said. “There’s a big difference between educating the community and giving a presentation.”
Evanston City Councilmember Claire Kelly said increased education would help residents understand details outside flashy topics like the new animal shelter or Civic Center improvements. She said topics such as property taxes, long-term financial stability, borrowing and pensions could be further explained.
Hayes said the city should take a two-way, question-and-answer approach to better educate residents on the budget versus a one-way public hearing or presentation-based event. Councilmember Devon Reid said budget ward meetings were presentations with a question-answer component at the end.
“Even though people in Evanston are very smart, when you throw 500 pages at them and say this is what we are going to do (there’s going to be confusion),” Hayes said.
Hayes, resident Ray Friedman, and Kelly said public hearings should also have this question-answer and feedback approach. At both the budget and property tax levy public hearings, a three-minute timer was set for comments, and Biss stopped residents when their time was up without providing any feedback or dialogue.
“It’s important to engage with residents and not just have public hearings for the sake of having them to tell residents, ‘OK, now we’re done with you and we’re going to move on,'” Kelly said. “I think there should be some give and take by answering questions at the hearing as much as possible, especially when staff is present.”
“It’s important for democracy and the health of our city government that we have public participation so being dismissive of that is going to alienate your residents,” she said.
Community Alliance for Better Government on Nov. 6 wrote an open letter to Biss, the City Council and City Manager Luke Stowe advocating for two-way dialogue. CABG President Lesley Williams said Stowe responded, informing the group a City Council member was in attendance at each ward meeting’s budget presentation.
“Unfortunately, Evanston has a pattern of holding ‘public hearings’ that are primarily one-way communications,” Williams wrote. “City staff present lengthy information and residents are given a tightly controlled few minutes to comment but are not given any response to their questions, and City Council members do not engage with follow-up questions.”
Councilmembers Bobby Burns, Kelly and Reid requested another budget public hearing, preferably on a Saturday for increased resident availability. No additional budget public hearing has been scheduled, according to the city calendar, Kelly and Williams.
Hayes and Reid said the budget process should begin earlier in the year. Reid said in an interview that it can be difficult to modify the proposed budget with a deadline approaching and having more time for discussion could allow for more public participation.
Biss said the budget could go up for a vote sometime this month. The Evanston City Council meets every Monday this month, which is expanded from its typical second and fourth Monday schedule.
Corey Schmidt is a freelance reporter with Pioneer Press.