City Council voted 8-0 Monday to introduce the Responsible Bidder Ordinance, which will establish additional criteria for businesses applying to carry out city projects.
The RBO, long the subject of consideration, requires bidders and subcontractors on public works contracts of at least $25,000 to have increased safety training, apprenticeship programs and a program for the prevention of substance abuse. Similar ordinances have already passed in other Illinois municipalities including Schaumburg, Des Plaines and Waukegan.
“The point of this is to make sure that the quality of our workforce that are on job sites in Evanston are the best that they can be,” Ald. Bobby Burns (5th) said.
Ald. Clare Kelly (1st) initially proposed the ordinance in March 2024 with support from co-sponsors Ald. Tom Suffredin (6th) and Mayor Daniel Biss. It has also garnered backing from trade unions, with several local organizers coming together to rally for a similar policy in October 2023.
Kelly has pointed to the city’s past struggles with contracting as evidence of the need for the RBO. In a September 2024 letter to the editor in the Evanston RoundTable, she specifically referenced leaks in Fountain Square.
The Minority, Women, Disadvantage and Evanston Business Enterprise Development Committee discussed the RBO at several meetings in early 2025, and it was later sent to the Administration and Public Works Commission. The committees considered the potential burden on local bidders and the possibility of offering a waiver for apprenticeship programs.
On Monday, the council considered additional protections for local businesses.
At an APW Committee meeting earlier that day, councilmembers expressed support for a program that would allow City Council to waive the apprenticeship training program requirement for qualifying local businesses.
Later at City Council, Burns supported a method for Evanston businesses to apply for exemptions from the apprenticeship requirement based on their workers’ proven experience. He said this would allow contractors to avoid an “uncertain political process” in front of the council.
Liza Roberson-Young, the city’s chief legislative policy advisor, said this exemption might place a “significant” paperwork burden on city staff. Kelly added that this exemption would not be “realistic.”
“The concern that has been raised — that staff have — is that this would require both bidders and staff to go through hundreds of hours, multiple years of W2 records, other kinds of work records,” Roberson-Young said. “The waiver process is a simpler way to achieve the same goal.”
Still, the council voted 6-2 to incorporate this idea into the RBO; Suffredin and Kelly voted against the motion.
The council also briefly considered an increase to the RBO’s qualifying threshold from $25,000 to $100,000.
“The reason for this is to spare staff and the businesses the burden of additional paperwork and bureaucracy for small contracts for limited dollar amounts,” Ald. Jonathan Nieuwsma (4th) said.
Roberson-Young pointed out that the vast majority of RBOs in Illinois adhere to the lower threshold. Ultimately, the change was not made.
The RBO will be up for adoption at the council’s next meeting on May 27.
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