Evanston resident Peggy Tarr said last week that she will file misuse of office charges with the city’s Board of Ethics against Ald. Steven Bernstein (4th) and Douglas Gaynor, director of the city’s parks, forestry and recreation department.

Tarr announced at the Oct. 23 Evanston City Council meeting her intent to file the charges.

Tarr is accusing Bernstein of using his influence as a member of City Council to help Linda Dean receive permission to create a mural on the north wall of the Metra underpass on Greenleaf Street. She also contends Gaynor showed partiality in approving Dean’s proposal more quickly than a proposal by Louise Cutler, an Evanston artist.

“My biggest complaint is going to be (Bernstein’s) preferential treatment of citizens and his intrusion into that process (of approving the artist),” Tarr said. “As an alderperson he should not have had anything to do with that.”

Tarr, current chairwoman of Nichols Neighbors, said she will file another complaint against Bernstein for his involvement in the neighborhood group — an involvement she said the group’s bylaws prohibit.

In the past, Tarr has filed charges of retaliation and racial, sexual and religious discrimination against Evanston/Skokie School District 65 with the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the Illinois Human Rights Commission and the state’s Human Rights Department.

The Human Rights Commission found “substantial evidence” supporting two of the retaliation claims but no evidence to support charges of racial, sexual and religious discrimination. The EEOC dismissed all of Tarr’s claims. The Human Rights Department is still investigating the charges of sexual and religious discrimination.

Bernstein denied all of Tarr’s accusations Wednesday, saying aldermen have no influence over decisions and actions taken by the Public Arts Committee, a panel of citizens who decide what type of art can be displayed in Evanston.

“Let her do what she’s got to do, but my sense is that all of this garbage will be unfounded,” Bernstein said.

He said he was involved with Nichols Neighbors mainly as a concerned neighbor, not as an alderman.

Bernstein said when Dean came to him in November 1999 requesting permission to draw a mural on the underpass, he directed her to Gaynor, who oversees such projects.

“I treated Linda Dean just like anyone else,” Bernstein said. “She asked me for help, and I referred her to the right people. I did nothing I wouldn’t have done for anyone else.”

Gaynor said Wednesday his involvement with the proposals was limited to providing both Dean and Cutler with information on how to present their ideas to the Public Arts Committee. He said he also was in charge of seeking approval from Metra to paint on the north and south walls of the underpass.

“Mrs. Cutler’s proposal was more involved than the other,” he said. “They were going to paint the mural on something and then attach it to the wall and we needed special permission from the railroad.”

Cutler said Wednesday she didn’t think Gaynor fulfilled his role in pushing Metra and the Chicago Transit Authority for approval of the mural. Instead, a receptionist at the department made the necessary phone calls to railroad officials.

“No one really pushed the issue for them to read my proposal,” she said. “Even though (the receptionist) was making all those calls, I finally had to do it myself. I didn’t necessarily get the support from (Gaynor).”

But Dean said Gaynor was slow in getting approval from Metra and CTA officials for both proposals, not just Cutler’s.

Dean’s mural, drawn by Evanston artist Jim Parks, already has been painted on the wall and Cutler’s is set to be mounted in the spring.

“He was not partial to anyone,” Dean said. “He’s all for these murals. He just has a very political job and has to tap dance around everyone to get things done.”

Dean said Tarr’s contentions that Bernstein influenced the committee to approve her mural were absurd.

“Steven (Bernstein) had nothing to do with it,” she said. “It was up to the Metra station to say it was OK to paint a picture and up to the Public Arts Committee to approve the picture.”