After several delayed votes, the Evanston City Council passed a piece-meal version of the Evanston Green Ordinance at Monday’s city council meeting. Under the ordinance, all new buildings in Evanston will be required to attain a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design rating in an effort to reduce chlorofluorocarbon emissions by 2013.
Ald. Don Wilson (4th) successfully proposed an amendment to the drafted ordinance, striking a contested section of the bill that addressed how the ordinance would affect already-existing buildings. The ordinance had been introduced to the City Council in June and was later referred to the City Manager’s office.
“It’s very important to take a step forward and accomplish something in getting an ordinance drafted, completed and approved,” he said.
Wilson also proposed incorporating recommendations from the city staff by adding an additional section to the ordinance that accepted certain construction projects that are already underway. Wilson said the ordinance otherwise stood “perfectly on its own.”
Ald. Ann Rainey (8th) rejected Wilson’s proposal, arguing that a vote on the ordinance in its entirety should be tabled until December, thus allowing additional consideration of the ordinance by members of the community.
“I’m very surprised by the urge to get notoriety here to get something passed,” she said.Earlier in the meeting, seven additional members were appointed to the Green Building Ordinance Committee.
Rainey said the new committee members expected to have input on all parts of the ordinance, not just a portion of it.
“The people who are on the street who have been doing the work in this town – why are we so resistant to letting them have a conversation and input about the entire ordinance?
There is nothing to lose,” Rainey said. Her motion to table the bill was defeated 6-3.The aldermen passed Wilson’s amendment and voted to approve the ordinance 8-1 with Rainey as the lone dissenter.
Earlier, at the Administration and Public Works Committee meeting, City Manager Wally Bobkiewicz favored raising non-union wages.
“Despite difficult finances, we have very dedicated and capable people who are left to grapple with these issues,” Bobkiewicz said. “Out of fairness, it’s important to move forward with this adjustment.”
The committee agreed with Bobkiewicz.
“We can deal without a lot of things,” Ald. Coleen Burrus (9th) said, “but without good staff that are good at customer service and are really willing to step up and make a difference, we can’t move forward as a city.”
Rainey, the chairman of the committee, said the topic would be discussed further at a later council meeting.
At the Planning and Development committee, the focus was on an ordinance to mandate that condominium owners alert the city when putting a room up for rent.
Rainey said before that ordinance could be enacted, the city needed to come up with a way to notify condominium owners of the mandate.
The committee voted unanimously in favor of the ordinance.
