Evanston aldermen voted Monday night on two highly anticipated proposals, passing the city’s 2012 budget and decriminalizing possession of less than 10 grams of marijuana.
The $250 million budget, first proposed in October, was passed with a 6-3 vote.
Both those in favor of and against next year’s spending plan praised their colleagues for making tough decisions and persevering through a budget process dating back to March, when the city first started soliciting citizen input.
Ald. Jane Grover (7th) said budget deliberations were an example of “cooperation through compromise.”
“This budget is by no stretch perfect,” Grover said. “There are things that each one of us would change to improve the budget and to improve our outlook and bottom line. In the end, I think it puts us on a better footing than we were a year ago.”
Stubborn legislators in Washington, D.C. could take a hint from her fellow aldermen, she added.
Ald. Judy Fiske (1st), Ald. Don Wilson (4th) and Ald. Coleen Burrus (9th) voted against the budget. In council discussion, Fiske and Burrus admitted they were more pleased than usual with the final proposition but still could not endorse it given the city’s ongoing fiscal woes.
In explaining her stance, Fiske cited the city’s preference for imposing fees over raising taxes, while Burrus criticized what she considered an overall lack of fiscal restraint.
“I realize the budget will pass, and I do want to say I feel like we’re getting really close,” Burrus said. “I still don’t think we’re where we need to be – fiscally responsible.”
During citizen comment and in council deliberations, one concern frequently emerged: the 2012 budget ‘s elimination of the single forestry secretary position, which costs the city approximately $60,000 a year.
Fiske attempted to start a motion to reconsider the position but was eventually told she could not do so by the parliamentarian because she did not vote in favor of eliminating the job in the first place.
Evanston resident Leigh Skinner-Anderson reminded aldermen many of them were not around in 2003 and 2004, when “there were hundreds and hundreds of residents who came out to talk about trees.” She concluded her two-minute speech by handing a boxed coffee cake to Mayor Elizabeth Tisdahl and saying she hopes the baked good will end up on the current forestry secretary’s desk the next morning.
Tisdahl smiled and accepted the boxed coffee cake without comment.
Also on Monday night, all nine aldermen unanimously voted to lessen marijuana penalties, decriminalizing small amounts of the drug.
Under the new law, anyone found in possession of less than 10 grams of cannabis will receive a ticket instead of being arrested. Instead of facing criminal charges in court, offenders will need to appear before the city’s Division of Administrative Hearings.
“I don’t think it does anyone a lot of good to put someone through the criminal justice system for that level of misconduct,” Wilson told The Daily earlier this month.
The ordinance was first proposed by Tisdahl in late September and unanimously approved by the Human Service Committee during its Nov. 7 meeting.
“The reason that I got into this [is] we were trying to figure out what we could to help 18-25 year olds,” Tisdahl said at that meeting. “They want jobs…and if we pass this ordinance, we will have more of our young people who could get jobs.”
The Daily reported on Nov. 18 that the ordinance was poised for passage by the full council, based on conversations with a majority of aldermen.
Many citizens showed up at Monday’s meeting to voice their opinions on the proposed law. Hecky’s Barbecue owner Hecky Powell, expressed strong support for the ordinance.
“I will confess – when I was a young man, I smoked marijuana and I inhaled,” Powell said. “But seriously, as far as the young people are concerned, if we keep putting these kids in the system then we are really destroying their whole life.”
Evanston resident Madelyn Ducre followed Powell’s statement with an admission of her own.
“I agree that we should pass this ordinance because President Clinton smoked reefer, President Bush smoked reefer, and guess what – I tried it too in the early 1960s,” she said.
While two other public commenters also agreed with the ordinance, former drug addict Albert Gibbs railed against the proposed law until Tisdahl cut him off.
“I seriously disagree with the ordinance as a person who has gone through the trenches with this, as a drug addict who went on to cocaine and some other tremendously heavy drugs,” Gibbs said. “You are doing nothing with this ordinance but telling these kids to get high, and that’s just what they’re going to do.”
Cook County passed a similar ordinance for its unincorporated counties in 2009 and the Chicago City Council made a similar proposal earlier this month.
