Evanston’s Deputy City Manager Joe McRae will depart next month after seven years of service, leaving his legacy in the city’s 311 information service, a project he spearheaded in 2010.

McRae will leave Sept. 11. He also serves as the director of parks, recreation and community services, a job he assumed permanently in 2013 after working in an interim role to reinvigorate the department. McRae and his wife will be moving to raise their new daughter close to family in Cleveland Heights, Ohio, where McRae will serve as director of parks and recreation, city manager Wally Bobkiewicz announced.

Bobkiewicz said McRae was asked to lead the year-long development of the 311 system five years ago based on his talent for local government work.

“I was so impressed by Joe from, really, the day I got here,” Bobkiewicz told The Daily. “I knew if we had a tough job we needed to give it to Joe.”

The 311 system, a call-in and online support center that launched in 2011, has become the “backbone” of community relations in the city, Bobkiewicz said.

McRae could not be reached for comment because he is at home spending time with his newborn.

The city will hire an executive search firm in the next fews week to launch a national recruitment effort seeking a new director of parks, recreation and community services, he said. The position will likely be filled by the end of the year, he added.

“He has a unique combination of intelligence and compassion and good humor that is really unmatched by anyone I’ve worked with in the 26 years I’ve worked in local government,” Bobkiewicz said.

Email: juliajacobs2018@u.northwestern.edu
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