The 21 members comprising the Evanston150 selection jury – publicly unknown up until Thursday’s top 10 ideas announcement – represent at least a dozen local organizations ranging from District 65 schools to arts advocacy groups.
The identities of those on the secret panel tasked with narrowing down ideas for the city’s future were revealed in a news release issued Thursday by Evanston150 project director Stephanie Kulke.
Among the selection jury members: Brooke Schroeder, Evanston Township High School student; Harold Bauer, Evanston Art Center board member; Joe Brownlee, strategic planning manager at Rotary International; Betsi Burns, Northwestern assistant dean of students; Roger Price, Citizen Police Academy member; and Maggie Noonan, WineStyles owner.
All 21 members consented to remain anonymous upon the panel’s formation in August.
Price defended the secret selection jury as a way of insulating members from outside influence.
“Ultimately we thought that it would be more conducive to our deliberations if we could just have those deliberations without people politicking us,” he said. “We were all grown-ups, we all understood what the issues were and we were able to discuss them fully and frankly and freely in that circumstance. I think it worked out reasonably well.”
Evanston resident and selection jury member Lindi Stockton agreed the panel’s anonymity was beneficial in the long run.
“We did not want to be unduly influenced or have any sort of conflict of interest or show of impropriety, so we decided to keep our names anonymous but that we would eventually go public, and I was in full support of that,” Stockton said.
The one Northwestern student part of the selection jury, McCormick senior Michael Giannetto, declined to comment on the panel’s anonymity, saying he “really didn’t do anything” throughout the vetting process due to other commitments.
Giannetto was not present at Thursday night’s Black Tie and Blue Jeans celebration and top 10 ideas announcement at the Levy Senior Center, 300 Dodge Ave.
– Patrick Svitek
