City of Evanston Blog
Articles Posted in: Administrative Services
3-1-1 Available to All Except AT&T U-Verse and CLEAR Customers
The City of Evanston's 3-1-1 call center is now available on all home, business and cellular carriers in Evanston with two exceptions: AT&T U-Verse and CLEAR. These carriers are unable to connect 3-1-1 with their phone service. Residents using these companies must dial 847-448-4311 to reach the 3-1-1 call center. AT&T U-Verse customers should have 3-1-1 access in the Fourth Quarter of 2011. No date for service is available for those who use CLEAR's data service for telephone service.…
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Report of First Month of 311
Our first monthly activity report for 311 is on-line. 7,834 calls and 954 requests for service in month of March.…
Special City Council Meeting Monday / 311 and Mass Notification
The City Council will be meeting Monday at 7 PM to discuss and approve two new policies to help us roll out two new City services. First, the City Council will get an update on our launch of 311 on March 1 (3-1-11). In addition the Council will be asked to approve service level agreements for the operation of 311. These service level agreements will be the City's contract with the community on the time frame the City responds to…
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Evanston Vehicle Sticker Update
The deadline to purchase 2011 City of Evanston vehicle permits is Monday January 10, 2011. The City is offering extended hours to purchase the permits tomorrow, Saturday January 8, from 9 AM to 1 PM on the first floor of the Civic Center. The Civic Center will also be open on Monday January 10 until 7:30 PM to purchase permits. A penalty of 50% of the fee will be added to all applications received/postmarked after January 10, 2011. The process…
Budget Answers Posted
Answers to the Mayor and City Council's questions raised during the October 23, 2010 budget workshop have now been posted on the City's budget website (PDF).…
FY 2011 Proposed Budget Released
The proposed budget is now posted on the City website (PDF). I recommend reading the budget transmittal letter and budget reduction worksheet that begin on page one of the document for details of the budget. The budget contains a $3,093,288 General Fund deficit, with proposed revenue enhancements and spending reductions to balance. No proposed property tax increase for general fund operating budget. I have proposed eliminating 21.65 FTE positions, 10 currently vacant. Twelve employees would be impacted. There is also…
City Budget Weekend
The City is replaying two recent public meetings this weekend on the budget and a special recap of a third public meeting to inform the public on our FY 2011 budget process through 6 PM Sunday on Channel 16. Turn in to learn more about the budget process and then go to the City's budget website: www.cityofevanston.org/budget for more info and to share your opinions on the budget. A document giving more information on proposed program cuts/revenue enhancements can be found…
Answers to Questions from First Community Budget Workshop
Staff has put together extensive answers to questions from the first Community Budget Workshop. These answers can be found on the City's budget webpage. The second and final Community Budget Workshop is scheduled for this Wednesday, September 29, 7 PM at the Levy Center.…
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Special City Council Meeting Monday / Goals and Budget Issues
The City Council will be meeting to set goals for 2011, review mid-year budget report and hear a preview of the FY 2011 budget process. The meeting begins at 6 PM in the Council Chambers. The documents for the meeting can be found here (PDF). The list of 2010 Council goals are pretty broad, but the Council will receive report on their implementation and will be asked if items should be changed, added or deleted. The report on the mid-year…
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Information from First Community Budget Workshop
The video of the first budget workshop is available on-line as is the Powerpoint presentation (PDF). For more information about the workshops, check out the City's budget homepage.…
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Budget Process Begins
Believe it or not, we are gearing up for preparation of FY 2011 budget. The City is transitioning to a calendar year fiscal year away from our current March 1 – February 28 year. The biggest reason for this is to give Council flexibility in changing property tax rate to occur in a timely manner to impact the budget. The levy must be set by December 15 each year. When we do a budget in February and the Council changes…
City Credit Card Transactions Now Available for Public Review
Beginning on the August 9 City Council agenda and every month hereafter, the City will be disclosing each transaction paid for by a City credit card. These transactions amount to over $100,000 each month and until now have not be easily available for the public's review. Staff has been working for several months on this project to create a report that would be easy to understand from electronic data we receive each month from the credit card companies. Let us…
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New City Bond Rating - AAA
The City received a new bond rating from Fitch Rating today of “AAA”, Fitch’s highest rating, in advance of the capital improvement bonds we will be selling soon. The City’s previous rating was “AAA” Fitch's press release has all the details. I will point out the section “Key Rating Driver”: “--The city's ability to restore financial equilibrium while adequately addressing its severely under-funded pension system especially given the general malaise of the current economic climate.”…
Tribune Article on Vehicle Stickers
The Tribune today ran an interesting article about what area cities and villages are doing to track down residents who have not purchased their city vehicle sticker. The article talks about six dozen Illinois cities purchasing vehicle registration data from the Illinois Secretary of State office to cross reference registered vehicles against those with city vehicle stickers. The City of Evanston is one of the cities in Illinois that does this and has used this state information for ten years…