Evanston officials cautioned city staff and each other to keep tones of advocacy out of the city’s efforts to educate the public about two referendum questions on the March 20 ballot.
The ballot will include a binding referendum question asking voters whether they want to participate in electricity aggregation. The move could mean lower electric bills for residents and small businesses, officials have said, as the referendum would authorize the city to purchase electricity from wholesale providers.
The other referendum is a non-binding advisory question asking voters whether the city should pursue the dissolution of township government. Some city officials have said dissolution could save taxpayers money by consolidating township functions within the city’s purview, while at least a few residents remain skeptical of that outcome.
At a recent city council meeting, City Manager Wally Bobkiewicz gave an overview of plans to hold educational meetings to inform the public of each referendum question.
But some city officials warned staff to keep those presentations neutral, as the city is prohibited by law from using taxpayer dollars to advocate for or against a referendum question.
“I’m very uncomfortable with it, because one meeting that has a staff member or an alderman say ‘this is a great thing, we have to do this’ and you’ve blown the whole thing out of the water,” said Ald. Don Wilson, 4th.
Bobkiewicz said he has assigned two staff members to handle education efforts, and reassured aldermen that staff would “stick closely” to an attorney-reviewed script.
“Although we want to get the information out, we want to be mindful that getting too far up field…perhaps endangers us for the message being something beyond what Illinois law allows for,” Bobkiewicz said.
Staff’s proposal is to hold a township board meeting and two hour-long community meetings on Feb. 23 (at the Robert Crown Community Center) and March 8 (at the Fleetwood-Jourdain Community Center) to discuss both initiatives. They also propose to attend scheduled ward meetings at the invitation of aldermen, construct “educational web pages” and prepare two short videos informing the public of each ballot measure.
At the request of Ald. Jane Grover, 7th, a third meeting will be scheduled for Jan. 30, possibly at the Civic Center.
