North Cook News

There was a lot of public confusion and anger during a recent discussion over aspects of the Evanston City Council’s budget.

At a Nov. 7 special city council meeting, one member of the community came to speak as part of the truth in taxation hearing and accused members of the city council of lying or keeping information from the public because of discrepancies over the city’s 2022 GEO bonds. There were other citizens who came out to comment as well, most of them were upset that the city was not fully funding the expected amount for the police and fire pensions fund.

After the public hearing section, Hitesh Desai, the CFO, was brought to the podium to address some of the concerns and accusations. Desai, along with city engineer Laura Biggs, explained that the city did not issue any 2022 GEO bonds but, at the beginning of 2022, they made an agreement that the city would spend against the GEO bonds for the year and then reimburse themselves at a later approval. This was done so they could begin their capital improvement funds under the typical designation of GEO bonds in order to best keep track of funding and money trails.

The mayor then addressed some of the comments about aspects of the budget. He admitted that because of the size of the municipality, the budget can very easily appear confusing and complicated and misleading, and that confusion from the public is a sign that they can do better at showcasing and explaining the budget. But he also asked members of the community to refrain from calling out city officials and staff members or calling any of them liars. 

"I think that it's really important as we try to work through these issues, which are difficult, which are complicated, where we may have different opinions, or we will surely have different priorities, and we may at times in good faith, have different understandings of the facts, to find a mechanism to express those challenges in a way that facilitates productive discussion and a meeting of the minds, not one that makes that impossible," City of Evanston Mayor Daniel Biss said at the meeting.