Evanston Now
Recap: City Council
Here s a recap of our live coverage of this evening s Evanston City Council special meeting focused largely on issues related to affordable housing.
A packet with information on tonight’s agenda items is available online.
The meeting is scheduled to begin at 5:30 p.m.
Meeting called to order at 5:32 p.m.
Mayor Steve Hagerty says COVID-19 numbers have gone down with restrictions some of which are now being lifted. Discusses current pandemic statistics.
Mayor says vaccinations are starting to move to Phase 1b, says the city doesn’t control how many vaccine doses the city gets, and typically has relatively little advance notice of the additional doses arriving. Says residents will be called for vaccination scheduling as doses become available.
Evanston Now
Recap: Administration and Public Works Committee
Here s a recap of our live coverage of this afternoon s Evanston City Council Administration and Public Works Committee meeting.
The meeting was scheduled to start at 4:30 p.m.
A packet with information on the agenda items is available online.
Meeting starts at 4:31 p.m.
Meeting chaired by Alderman Tom Suffredin, 6th Ward.
Minutes approved.
Consent agenda
Consent agenda approved. (It’s 4:45 p.m.)
A2 – Amazon credit card activity.
Approved 4-0-1. Suffredin abstains.
A3 – DualTemp Clauger contract for ice refrigeration maintenance services at Crown Center.
Parks Director Lawrence Hemingway says the work is highly specialized and there aren’t Evanston-based firms qualified for the work.
Council approves grant for rent assistance program
January 12, 2021
City Council voted unanimously Monday to approve a $500,000 grant to Connections for the Homeless for a rent assistance program.
The program is expected to help between 40 and 70 households across the city for up to six consecutive months. Connections for the Homeless will process and approve applications prioritized mainly by census tract, income level and the amount of rent owed.
When the current federal rent moratorium is set to expire at the end of January, over 3,000 renter households in Evanston may be at risk of eviction, according to the November Week 20 US Census Household Pulse Survey for the Chicago metro area and the 2019 American Community Survey data.
Aldermen debated a resolution that would allocate $1.9 million of reserve funding into the general fund balance annually through 2025 at Monday’s City Council meeting, a measure some say could lead to annual increases in property taxes.
“There is no requirement in this resolution for the city to reduce expenditures (and) to live within its expected level of revenue,” resident Jamie Robin-Collier said in public comment. “Make no mistake, a vote for this resolution as it now stands is a vote to increase property taxes, with nothing to show for.”
The resolution would not be binding, but would serve as a budgeting target for City Council.
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