At least 45 City of Evanston staff members have resigned or retired in the past year, including eight of the nine city department heads, leaving residents to speculate on the reason for the “mass exodus.”
The primary explanation was probably the City Council’s decision to instate a one-year-only “Early Retirement Initiative,” which was passed to save the city millions of dollars, Ald. Steve Bernstein (4th) said.
But “philosophical differences” with former City Manager Julia Carroll, the city’s chief executive, were also factors, said three recently retired department heads.
“The city manager’s management style was certainly a contributory factor in my retirement,” said Jay Terry, the city’s former director of health and human services, who retired in January.
Carroll said she didn’t know of any issues with former colleagues.
“I’m not aware of any problems that they have mentioned to me,” she said. “I don’t know what they’re talking about.”
Carroll, 55, unexpectedly announced her resignation April 28, citing unspecified health reasons. Carroll again cited health reasons in telling aldermen last Tuesday she was leaving office six weeks before her initial resignation date.
The former city manager arrived in Evanston in January 2005 with instructions to help a city in financial trouble. Two years later, she proposed the Early Retirement Initiative, allowing city workers to retire early if they were at least 50 years old and had worked for the city for at least 20 years. It would be a lucrative deal for longtime staffers and save the city $5 million by eliminating some staffing positions and hiring less expensive employees, Carroll said.
The council passed the measure January 31, 2007. A presentation to aldermen two weeks before the meeting said 104 city employees would be eligible to take the initiative while it was offered: July 1, 2007 to June 30, 2008.
Fifty-one of those staffers showed some interest in the plan, the presentation said. Once the initiative took effect, many more of them followed through than aldermen originally expected.
The large number of departures probably negated much of the financial gain, Bernstein said.
“We were told four or five would leave,” said Bernstein, saying the initiative “failed” the city. “Had we known (so many would leave), we certainly wouldn’t have passed the plan.”
Alds. Lionel Jean-Baptiste (2nd), Delores Holmes (5th) and Elizabeth Tisdahl (7th) all said they expected far fewer than 40 to retire.
Some residents said the aldermen should have seen the exodus coming.
“I’ve heard they didn’t realize this was happening until this year – well, hello?” said 64-year-old Elliott Dudnik, who received his Ph.D. from Northwestern in 1983. “I mean, if you said, ‘Hey, all the (NU) deans are eligible to leave, and two-thirds of the department heads,’ don’t you think somebody would say, ‘Hey, this isn’t going to be good, this is going to be a mess for awhile’?”
Some speculated the proposal was part of a plan by Carroll to replace existing senior staff with her own administration, said James Wolinsky, director of community development, who will leave May 30 after working with the city for 31 years.
“There was never any ‘You guys have to get out of here,’ ” said Wolinsky, the last to leave under the initiative. “But you don’t have to tell people that directly. There’s other ways to do it.”
Carroll denied the speculation.
“That certainly was never my intent,” she said. “I don’t know why they would have felt that. It was offered to everyone.”
Mayor Lorraine Morton declined to comment, saying, “The city manager has complete control over the hiring and firing of staff.”
When he leaves in two weeks, Wolinsky will join Carroll, Terry, Assistant City Manager Judy Aiello, City Clerk Mary Morris, Finance Director Matthew Grady, Public Works Director David Jennings, Human Resources Director Judy Witt, Lawyer Herbert Hill and Library Director Neal Ney as senior staff members to leave since last May, according to city records.
Witt, who was also involved in proposing the initiative, retired before it went into effect. Both Carroll and Grady resigned. All other senior staff members leaving accepted the initiative.
The city is losing “institutional memory,” residents said.
“Where are we?” said former aldermanic candidate Junad Rizki, 55. “Everybody left. There’s no experience left in the city. We’re going to have more mistakes and cost the taxpayers a lot more money.”
Having so many people leave at one time may make the city look bad, Bernstein said, adding it also might make it harder to recruit new hires.
But some of the remaining staff said the situation could be positive for the city.
“This gives us an opportunity and a challenge to look to the future,” said Parks and Recreation Director Doug Gaynor, the only department head who did not qualify for the initiative. “It’s a chance to evaluate how we do things and how we can do things better. Hopefully we can bring some new creative ideas to Evanston.”
Despite the setbacks, the city will keep functioning, Bernstein said.
“We play the cards we’re dealt,” he said. “We’ll hire some new people and we’ll get the city rolling. Evanston is a wonderful town that’s not going to be failed by something like this. We will continue to be Evanston.”
