By Bob Seidenberg
Could the Civic Center be put back in play as the city’s permanent home as a result of today’s election?
It’s a long shot but not inconceivable based on the views of some of the candidates running in today’s election.
In the First Ward, council member Clare Kelly has been in the minority of wanting to stay in the building, a local landmark, at least until a more in-depth study is done on what a renovation would cost.
Now take the candidates running in today’s field: Certainly, John Kennedy in the Third Ward, who spearheaded a referendum in 2007 in favor of the city remaining in the landmark building, would back giving the issue more consideration.
That’s two votes. Then add in 4th Ward write-in candidate Meg Welch, 5th Ward candidate Carlis Sutton, 7th Ward candidate Parielle Davis and 8th Ward candidate Matt Rodgers — all on record, supporting reexamining the issue.
That’s one, two, three, four…all of a sudden you’re up to more than a majority of the nine member council open to looking deeper at the issue.So maybe it’s not so much of a long shot after all?
But even if it is, the exercise tells you something about the power of an election to change a city’s course.
Several years ago activists in Skokie voted to change that village’s election to staggered terms, meaning that instead of electing their entire village board at once, only half the board is elected at a time.
Before the referendum was passed, proponents argued, of the 40 largest villages in Illinois only Skokie did not stagger its elections.
Up until 1993, when the number of aldermen was halved from 18 to nine, Evanston used a staggered system.
Elections were then held on a two-year cycle and even if you weren’t one of the aldermen (term used at the time) up for election, you got an earful of what constituents in your ward were concerned about — and might even have taken note of it with your election two years away.
In Skokie, it was argued that staggered terms increase the number of candidates to choose from as well as the number of voters who actually participate in elections.
