City of Evanston Blog
Mayor Tisdahl Goes to Springfield
Mayor Tisdahl and I continued our tour yesterday of seats of government with a visit to Springfield. After our four hour car ride, we went right to work. The purpose of the trip is really two fold. First, the Mayor wants to re-introduce Evanston to leaders of the General Assembly who may not have heard much from the City of Evanston in recent years. Many here think of Evanston as only a beautiful city with mansions on the lake. The Mayor is determined that folks here know it as the diverse, culturally rich but challenged community that it is. Second, we are also here to help the cause of the remaining major local government issue still before the Legislature here: police and fire pension reform. There has been discussion for several weeks about a bill that could provide some relief for cities in the timing of their pension obligations. There was hope for a bill throughout the day yesterday, but as we left the Capital yesterday around 5 PM, chances seemed slim.
In the meantime, we had appointments with legislative leaders: Senate Republican Leader Christine Radogno; House Republican Leader Tom Cross and House Majority Leader Barbara Flynn Currie. We met with Radogno and Cross who were polite and recognized the challenges being faced by all Illinois cities.
In the middle of the afternoon, we stopped in to see Evanston's State Senator Jeff Schoenberg. He is an Assistant Majority Leader of the Senate, so has a beautiful office in the Capital Building. During our brief conversation with him, we learned for the first time that day that there was likely going to be no pension bill this week and he talked about his efforts to save the State some money on health care. "Some money" in this case is Billions.
We did not get to meet with Currie. Our appointment was for 4 PM and the House was finishing their sessions at that time. Mayor Tisdahl and I sat for an hour in her outer office which is also the outer office of House Speaker Michael Madigan. The comings and goings in and out of that office were fascinating to watch. The Halloween candy jar on top of the receptionist's desk was very popular. I have learned all about Mayor Tisdahl's history with and opinions of Halloween candy on this trip!!
We decided to try and see Currie today and started out of the building when we ran into the lobbying delegation from the Northwest Municipal Conference, our local council of governments which represents 47 northern Illinois municipalities. Included in their small group lobbying for pension reform was Wilmette Village President Chris Canning. At was then we heard the unfortunate news about the day's pension discussions.
Tired, but not discouraged, we went to our hotel, had a good Italian dinner and I came back to the room to do email. More today.
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