In yet another effort to trim the city’s massive budget deficit, the Fair Share Action Committee is pushing for Evanston to withdraw funding for police traffic control at Northwestern home football games.
Fair Share, an Evanston civic organization seeking for NU to increase financial contributions to the city, wants the university to pay the $10,000 that the Evanston Police Department estimates it costs each home game for EPD to direct traffic on the streets near Ryan Field.
“The issue has become the quantifying services that the city provides to the university,” said Fair Share co-Chairwoman Mimi Peterson. “It would only seem reasonable for the university to pay for services that it is using.”
The issue first arose at a Jan. 14 City Council meeting when Ald. Arthur Newman (1st) proposed the idea as a way for the city to save enough money to keep open at least one of Evanston Public Library’s branches. Newman, who estimated the cost of traffic control to be about $17,000 per game, said the program contributes to the high cost of overtime in the city’s police budget.
Although Newman has since said his proposal is unlikely to be realized, and the council also has guaranteed to keep both library branches open, Fair Share is not backing down from its position that the university should come up with the funding, voluntarily or otherwise.
Vice President of University Relations Alan Cubbage was unavailable to comment on whether NU would pay for the traffic control if the council were to vote to withdraw funding.
Even though NU does not pay for traffic control at its games, it does pay an 11 percent city entertainment tax on each ticket it sells.
While University Police is responsible for all traffic on stadium property, Lt. Dan Mangus of EPD said traffic control on surrounding streets should not be UP’s responsibility.
“It’s an issue of manpower and jurisdiction,” Mangus said. “We’re responsible for the streets outside of the university.”
EPD already has discontinued one service it once provided to NU, Mangus said. EPD no longer provides a police escort for visiting teams from their hotel to Ryan Field, a decision made at the end of last football season by EPD Chief Frank Kaminski. EPD provided the escort to make sure the team could safely enter the stadium through the correct entrance.
Even if NU will not pay for the service, Peterson said it is not the city’s responsibility to shoulder the cost.
“If the university would ridiculously not pay for services it has been receiving, then we should not provide the services and let the chips fall where they may,” she said. “I think the liability would be borne on the university.”
Regardless of the source of the funding, Mangus said traffic control is a necessity.
“I don’t think any of the aldermen want their constituents calling them up saying it took them eight hours to get home,” he said.
