Who deserves your vote?
Submitted by Bill Smith on Friday, March 27, 2009, at 8:30 am
Evanstonians have already begun casting ballots in early voting for the municipal election, and we'll all have to make up our minds by election day April 7, or leave our voices unheard.
I hope our city government over the next four years will:
- Make Evanston more affordable by halting the spiraling increase in city tax rates.
- Welcome new development that strengthens Evanston's appeal as an ecologically sound, transit-oriented community with a strong job-creating economic base in education, health care and new technologies.
- Halt the guerilla warfare campaign against Northwestern and build a stronger, mutually beneficial relationship with our city's largest employer and driving economic force.
Here are some thoughts on how I believe the candidates in contested races stack up against those goals.
Mayoral race
We are blessed with an extremely strong field of candidates for mayor. I believe any one of the four could serve competently in the office.
But since we can't vote for all of them, we have to make distinctions.
I'm leaning toward a vote for Barnaby Dinges, who has waged a grass-roots campaign with more on-the-ground energy than any of his opponents. As a newcomer to Evanston politics, he has made some bone-headed remarks -- like suggesting metal detectors at the high school. And his ideas for solving downtown parking problems need more refinement.
But his willingness to tackle the cost structure of city government and his support for economic development seem clear cut and genuine. And as a marketing professional, he seems well qualified to tackle the ceremonial and promotional aspects of the mayor's job.
Elizabeth Tisdahl has generally been a moderate voice on the City Council and was first among the aldermen to recognize that building a new civic center was a pipe dream given the city's financial limitations.
But I am not convinced she can break free from her deep entrenchment in the community's culture of expansive municipal government to provide the budget-cutting leadership the city needs.
Stuart Opdycke has been a constructive voice on the city's Plan Commission and has also indicated a willingness to tackle the city's budget issues. But his campaign does not appear to have caught fire. Were Dinges not in the race, Opdycke would be the logical choice.
Jeanne Lindwall has strong professional credentials as a city planner. But her record of opposition to new development projects and her effort by lawsuit four years ago to disenfranchise Northwestern students make her a poor choice to lead the city forward.
Township Assessor
It's time for a change in the assessor's office, and it appears Bonnie Wilson can bring a personnel management style to the position that will stop the drain on taxpayer assets created by the current assessor's history of hostile relationships with her employees.
One can only hope that Ms. Wilson will also launch a successful effort to abolish the assessor's position.
Aldermanic contests
First Ward: Cheryl Wollin has done a solid job of negotiating the difficult cross-currents of ward interest groups during the past four years and deserves re-election.
Fourth Ward: This ward features three well-qualified candidates with generally similar views, but I'm inclined to think Donald Wilson offers the best balance of focus on fiscal responsibility and business development.
Fifth Ward: Delores Holmes has been an effective voice for progress in her ward and the city as a whole and merits re-election.
Sixth Ward: The three candidates in this ward seem highly qualified and offer similar platforms. No recommendation.
Seventh Ward: John Zbesko's business management experience should bring useful financial discipline to the City Council, although I'm troubled by signs he's fallen ill with anti-development fever.
Ninth Ward: Michael Drennan would add to the council a welcome focus on environmental issues.
Tags:
People, People, People...vote for Opdycke
Stuart Opdycke is the most educated, the most honest and the most credible of the candidates for mayor. He will make a great ambassador for Evanston.
Stuart Opdycke is an independent and a fiscal conservative. He will CUT SPENDING! Partner with NU and
promote Green Development.
I encourage everyone who doesn't want to see their taxes rise or want to see the Unions or the Evanston Machine control city politics to VOTE FOR OPDYCKE!
Endorsement for opdycke
ms. pappas, like many candidates as well as voters in evanston seem to think we have a chicago-style mayor/council form of government. we don't. how do you all think the mayor will cut spending? the mayor, apart from an occasional veto, has NO say over spending by the council. how will the mayor partner with northwestern? the only effect the mayor could have would be to continue talking to nu and trying to get some kind of rapprochement with them.
unfortunately, the mayor is unable to prevent our taxes from rising, which they will most certainly do given our huge fire/police pension fund deficit.
vote for jeanne lindwall for mayor.
Junad: "Spell Check" is your friend/ Eckersall Flyers
Junad,
I read your stuff and it's cool that you're wordy. Doesn't bother me, everyone has stuff they're passionate about and yours is local politics.
You're starting to bother me continuously making cracks at Mr. Who's education level when I don't know how the heck you made it through Northwestern with the gross grammar you have. Please. Run spell check. Or have your stuffed pig or whatever that thing is you carry around serve as your editor. Pretty please.
I just can't watch you attack someone's education level when you can't spell, use capitalizations appropriately or give a nod to punctuation.
Mr. Who Knows is entitled to being equally wordy. We all are. And for the record I think the most annoying posts on Evanston Now actually come from Kevin O'Connor.
I can make it through Ulysses, but I cannot make it through an O'Connor post before wanting a sandwich and having my mind drift to last week's Gossip Girl episode. Do you think Chuck and Blair will get back together?
Your younger, sometimes wiser pal who is well past voting age:
Concerned and Amused Citizen
PS Did anyone get a flyer today from Eckersall?
This had me rolling for an hour, and I thought Mr. Who would appreciate it:
And I quote:
"Personal
-Resident of Evanston Entire Life
-Grandparents arrived in Evanston at the turn of the century and grandfather was a mailman in Evanston during the early 1900's
-Mother, myself and my son, Edwin III, graduated from Evanston High School"
Really? REALLY?! I grew up in a master planned community that was pretty much slapped down by a pro golf course in the 1980's. We had no history where I grew up. This is so new to me. What does this have to do with anything?
Sorry you do not like my
Sorry you do not like my comments. I am proud that I grew up in Evanston and that my son was a fourth generation to go through Evanston High.
I am doing the best I can. I do not have the "machine" backing". All they can do is dig up a law suit from 8 years ago.
Assess this
". I am proud that I grew up in Evanston and that my son was a fourth generation to go through Evanston High"
Good for you. That's quite an accomplishment. It's nice to know that while others are willing to move from town to town in search of better employment or educational opportunities or just to experience different things, your family has remained in Evanston for 100 years.
Still..how is it relevant to doing the job of Township Assessor? ( A job which many of us would like to see eliminated anyway )
Concerned and Amused
Mr Who - does not appear to have any knowledge of the ideas and concepts he speaks about in regards to the entire process of development. He also keeps complaining about "Nimbys" that is anyone who does not hold his opinion is a Nimby.
My point on Mr Who education level is he keeps on misrepresenting himself. Mr Who keeps on claiming himself to be a professor at NU, and an expert on NPV, when he claims to want honest discussions.
Actually Bill does not have a spell check on here, I am not interested in putting a comment in a word docuemnt and repasting it.
One point you stated I went to NU - I did not attend NU.
Our city, like nearly every
Our city, like nearly every government entity across the country, is facing profound budget challenges. Members of our incoming City Council will face tough decisions that will affect all of us in ways large and small. These lean times require leaders with innovative ideas on how to maintain critical services, increase revenues and reduce costs.
We are fortunate in the Ninth Ward to have a candidate of the caliber and qualifications of Coleen Burrus. Coleen, a nine-year resident of Evanston, has been an active member and community advocate on the city Plan Commission and the Evanston Community Development Committee for four years. But perhaps Coleen’s most critical – and relevant – credential is the time she spent managing budgets and developing economic growth strategies for the City of St. Louis (MO), City of Chesterfield (MO), and St. Louis County (MO) governments.
Coleen’s vast knowledge of city budget and economic development issues will make her an invaluable asset on the new council. And her time on the Plan Commission and Community Development Committee have helped her develop relationships with many key members of city staff. Coleen will “hit the ground running” at a time when we desperately need an informed, knowledgeable City Council.
Her list of endorsements and supporters (available at her website) speaks for itself. She is the kind of innovative leader we need on the council.
I hope my Ninth Ward friends and neighbors will join me in electing Coleen Burrus as our next Alderman.
Pluses and Minuses Regarding Bill Smith's Election Choices
Bill,
Thanks for weighing in with your choices for the April 7th election. Naturally, I have a mixed view of them, with all due respect. I agree with your choice for Mayor in Barnaby Dinges. However, it's hard to believe that you would endorse Bonnie Wilson for Assessor. The disrespect shown Sharon Eckersall ( an elected official) throughout this campaign has been appalling by the City Council and other parts of the Evanston machine. You were at the Norris Center Assessor debate, where it was painful to watch Ms. Wilson ask to have the questions repeated often and she struggled to look for answers to simple questions from her papers. Quite frankly, I don't see her as being qualified and certainly not as experienced as Ms. Eckersall. As for the lawsuits, the 1st one was left over from Ald. Bernstein's ( Wilson's political sponsor ) reign as Assessor, the second lawsuit was when Ms. Eckersall was directed by the COE attorney to fire an employee and the third lawsuit was a direct result of Assessor Eckersall's budget being cut by Ald. Tisdahl, Bernstein and Rainey and the other 6 currently sitting alderman substantially, forcing Ms. Eckersall to reduce her staff by one position. All lawsuits have been settled or dismissed, though the 3rd lawsuit can be appealed within 30 days. With the announced closing of the suburban Assessor's office ( Old Orchard included ) where will the taxpayers go, since you believe the office should be abolished. The alderman as trustees of Evanston Township have attempted to create issues by enacting budget cuts to further their attempt to have their own pliable person in the Assesor's office. Shame on them for trying to further their political agenda at taxpayer expense. It's funny, I don't see any popular uprising against Ms. Eckersall's performance as Assessor for the last 3 terms. Perhaps, its jealously or fear on the Evanston Machine's part since Ms. Eckersall received the highest vote total of any candidate ( even Mayor Morton ) in 2005.
As for the 7th Ward race Bill, I can live without your endorsement, however if you truly believe in your stated goals for Evanston's next 4 years, I'd offer some comments on those goals and my contributions towards those. I welcome new development Bill, just not with public dollars that we don't have to benefit private developers. To repeat my oft used phrase this campaign season: "We must stop privatizing profit and socializing loss whether in Washington, Springfield or Evanston". Our current Council have used sales tax rebates and TIF subsidies (at the expense of taxes being increased by all taxing bodies during the 23 year life of the TIF). As for tax rates, well, look for more after the election given the pension disaster which my fellow candidates did not seem to want to assign accountability for Ald. Tisdahl's part in that. Even with the 9 million plus coming out of the Downtown II TIF neither of my fellow 7th ward opponents wanted to touch the 3rd rail of Evanston politics TIF's( how to create and use surpluses to reduce or eliminate our coming tax increases). I'm happy John Zbesko had his "Nixon Goes To China Moment" ( his own words )regarding N. U.. I'd like to think that my idea shared with Ald. Tisdahl and the rest of her unenlightened colleagues last April & May to use N. U. " intellectual capital " now being used on Tisdahl's campaign literature helped John to change his mind on this subject. I guess it's all right that no one wants to give me any credit for that, but if it was my idea wouldn't I walk the walk better than those that couldn't conceive of a constructive win-win solution on their own. The only candidate that really gets this is Barnaby Dinges, who really gets how to handle the City's relationship with N. U.. Barnaby had his idea, long before I ever met him.
So thanks for your choices Bill, hopefully they'll spark more debate and dialog on the issues facing the City. I will always believe that the Evanston Machine was not expecting anything other than a red carpet walk ( due to their arrogance and sense of entitlement built over many years ) for their candidate slate. If you ask me, deep down inside they're whistling past the political graveyard, hoping that through denial, revisionist history and plenty of campaign cash so they can create a whitewashed fiction that belies their actual poor public record. What hurts is the lack of tougher questions and deeper investigations by journalists via print and on line. Who knows maybe we'll have a new format or communication that won't allow our elected officials to hide so easily in another 4 years.
Kevin O'Connor
7th Ward Aldermanic Candidate
www.rebootev.com
Fallen ill
"Seventh Ward: John Zbesko's business management experience should bring useful financial discipline to the City Council, although I'm troubled by signs he's fallen ill with anti-development fever."
That's putting it mildly. I think that he attended too many CSNA meetings.
The choice in the 9th is puzzling.
Drennan probably would be the best alderman - but it seems that the argument against Opdycke ("his campaign does not appear to have caught fire") applies even more to Drennan. If we had a primary, or requirement that a candidate win 50% of the vote, then Drennan would be the best choice - but if people vote for Drennan and then Mimi squeaks by with a plurality, Drennan could end up being like that other 'Green' candidate - Ralph Nader -who helped deliver Florida to Bush.
I think that pragmatism here requires a vote for Burrus.
Who - Evanstonnow does not agree with your pick
Who - your'e pick for Mayor is off - that is Bill - sees Barnaby Dinges as the best choice.
Wonder why? Who your great inquiring scholarly mind, which never attends meetings ( I forgot you went to the one meeting on the tower ) seems to have never gone to a forum or spoke to anyone running - you could not even muster the courage to go out and talk to Barnaby when he put a flyer on your car.
You belong with Chuckie Dawes, Rush and the few others you speak of here, with your silly views on Evanston politics and development.
Don't use the excuse I am supporting him.