By Bob Seidenberg Evanston elected officials could be subject to official misconduct charges for inappropriate behavior under a recommendation from the City Council’s Rules Committee Aug. 1 that will be moved to the full Council for action. Former Second Ward Alderperson Peter Braithwaite made the referral in March, proposing amendments to the City’s Code of…
By Bob Seidenberg The city isn’t moving forward with City of Urbana administrator Carol Mitten, the lone finalist in Evanston’s city manager search, in a mutual decision that she was “not the right fit,” officials said Aug. 3. The city said in a release that Mitten had withdrawn her name from consideration in mutual decision…
By Bob Seidenberg Evanston City Council members are next up, deciding where they stand on city of Urbana administrator Carol Mitten as the city’s next City Manager, in a process that has already resulted in two failed searches. Council members had shown the requisite amount of support for Mitten as their lone finalist in order…
By Bob Seidenberg A lot had been said about City of Urbana administrator Carol Mitten since the City Council announced earlier this month she was their lone finalist to become Evanston’s next city manager. In her first meeting with the Evanston public July 28, Mitten had the chance to talk about her record herself. ‘Consider…
I’m shaken by two terrible events that happened in Evanston in the last few weeks. On the evening of July 14, a young man who was walking with his daughter near McCormick Boulevard was shot and killed. Then, this past Monday evening, a teenage girl was shot while attending a backyard party. She is currently in the…
By Bob Seidenberg Evanston’s Service Center, which holds the Public Works, Fleet Management, Parking Management and other city departments, is regarded as the heart of city operations. But it is showing wear and tear and in need of a major plan to modernize its operations, officials said in a presentation at the July 25 City…
Community Development Director Johanna Nyden will resign from her position effective August 16 for a new opportunity with the Village of Skokie, the City announced today in a release. Nyden has served the City of Evanston since 2010 in several key roles, including economic development manager and, most recently, community development director, a position she has…
By Bob Seidenberg The 13-year-old girl critically injured in a shooting on the 1300 block of Fowler Avenue July 25 was attending a party in the backyard of a residence with other juveniles when an unknown gunman rained down at least 10 rounds over a fence before fleeing, Evanston police said at a press conference…
Mail By Bob Seidenberg Evanston zoning codes sometimes mandate land use that is economically inefficient, requiring excessive lot standards and setbacks — standards that can have “an inherently exclusionary or segregationist effect on housing.” That observation was found in a report on Evanston’s zoning code last fall. Evanston-based Connections for the Homeless, a leading group…
By Bob Seidenberg The Evanston Public Library received high marks on a community survey conducted earlier this year designed to gauge how well the system was meeting needs. But some concerns were voiced about parking and the loss of neighborhood branches, catching the attention of some Library trustees at their July 20 meeting. A consulting…
