Evanston’s City Council adopted a new rulebook and companion ordinance Monday night, in the process settling a months-long debate over how to pick an acting mayor by voting 5-4 along bloc lines to revert the appointment to a simple majority vote, rather than a two-thirds supermajority.
The acting mayor is a councilmember temporarily appointed to the mayor’s seat when there’s a permanent vacancy due to resignation, disability or death. They have all mayoral powers and responsibilities except in voting, retaining their regular council vote rather than gaining a mayoral vote, until residents can elect a new permanent mayor. The position will likely be needed this fall, as Mayor Daniel Biss won the Democratic primary for the 9th Congressional District and is widely expected to win in November against Republican nominee John Elleson.
In Evanston, the mayor presides over council meetings and votes on motions, but is considered a mostly non-voting member. This means that for most policy votes, the mayor’s vote is not decisive unless there is a tie.
How to pick an acting mayor has been hotly contested since the rules overhaul began in May 2025, as the current council is divided between a majority bloc of five members typically aligned with Biss, and an opposition bloc of four members typically aligned against him. The current rules only require a simple majority of five votes to pick an acting mayor, and the opposition bloc has pushed to raise this to a six-vote supermajority, effectively requiring the majority bloc win one of their votes to pass their pick.
After multiple swing votes and arguments over amendments at the council’s Rules Committee, the rulebook overhaul went to the full council May 26 with the six-vote requirement, only for debate to be frozen and delayed to Monday after another pointed argument. When they resumed Monday, councilmembers picked up where they left off discussing an amendment proposed by Matt Rodgers (8th Ward) to set different vote requirements based on whether a special mayoral election can be called.
‘Five is not a consensus’
The discussion was shorter Monday night, however, as Bobby Burns (5th Ward) signaled early on he would not support Rodgers’ amendment, taking away his key swing vote. Jonathan Nieuwsma (4th Ward) also repeated earlier arguments for keeping the five-vote requirement to stay consistent “with state law and every other municipality” in the state.
Seeming to sense the rule would switch back to a five-vote requirement, Rodgers called it “frustrating and disappointing” that the majority bloc members view six votes as “a high barrier.”
“It just speaks to the fracture that’s up here, and that people are perfectly content governing five-to-four, which is their right to do, but I find that very frustrating,” Rodgers said. “Six [votes] is a consensus. Five is not a consensus, five is a majority.”
In the end, the vote requirement was changed from six to five, and both the rulebook and companion ordinance were adopted. Each vote fell on the same 5-4 bloc lines: Nieuwsma, Burns, Krissie Harris (2nd Ward), Shawn Iles (3rd Ward) and Juan Geracaris (9th Ward) voted yes, and Rodgers, Clare Kelly (1st Ward), Tom Suffredin (6th Ward) and Parielle Davis (7th Ward) voted no.
The new rules will take effect at the next council meeting Monday, June 22. Besides the acting mayor vote, the rules will substantially change the council’s legislative process: a deadline and delay mechanic will be added for “substantive amendments” to items up for final approval, the vote to fast-track ordinance approvals will be lowered from unanimous to two-thirds, and the structure and order of council meetings will change.
Waiting on the state
Rodgers also said residents should be given “the opportunity to vote on a mayor to serve out from 2027 to 2029 by whatever means possible,” alluding to a special election for the back half of Biss’ term in April 2027. Whether this election happens depends on when Biss resigns from the seat, and recent changes to state law appear to set the deadline in October before the general election in November.
Biss said two weeks ago he would do “whatever I can do to minimize ” how long Evanston has an unelected mayor, but this answer was not enough for Kelly. She asked him again Monday whether he would step down in October “if it’s necessary” to trigger the special election, and Biss again answered indirectly.
“The only consideration that I will be guided by is how to minimize the amount of time,” Biss said. “That is the answer. I will make a decision based on information I do not yet have, which is very frustrating, I’m sure, to all of us, certainly myself included.”
Biss was referring to the official election calendar for the 2027 municipal elections, which the state has not yet released. The dates in that calendar will confirm the resignation deadline for a special election.
After Kelly repeated her question a few times, Biss said to her, “I’ve answered this question.”
“I don’t think you have,” Kelly responded.
After the meeting, Biss told the RoundTable he will announce when he plans to resign after the state’s election calendar is published. City Clerk Stephanie Mendoza, who serves as the city’s election official, said the release deadline is 30 days before the start of petition circulation, meaning the calendar should be published by June 28.
Here’s a recap of other notable items from Monday’s meeting.
TIF decisions delayed again to gather school district input
Councilmembers once again delayed setting new directives for the city’s five tax increment financing (TIF) districts, voting to send the legislation back to two different committees in an effort to hear from the city’s two public school districts. The Finance and Budget Committee made recommendations for each district in recent meetings, including terminating the Dempster-Dodge and Chicago Main districts ahead of schedule.
Nieuwsma renewed his arguments against terminating the Chicago Main district after the end of 2030, seven years ahead of its natural expiration at the end of 2037, pushing instead to just “reconsider” the early termination in 2030. Councilmembers in the opposition bloc argued for ending the TIF early in order to release its property tax revenue to Districts 65 and Evanston Township High School, with Davis noting the council recently received a letter supporting the termination from ETHS board member John Martin, which she provided to the RoundTable.
After a long discussion, councilmembers ultimately voted to refer the entire TIF directives item to the City-School Liaison Committee for discussion, followed by another review at the city’s finance committee. Rodgers, who chairs the finance committee, said he would invite all school board members to attend the latter meeting and provide their input. City Manager Luke Stowe said he will work to book a special City-School Liaison Committee meeting over the summer.
The RoundTable plans to publish a story with more details on the TIF district discussion later this week.
Alternate property tax relief idea sent to committee
Councilmembers voted to send a new concept for providing property tax relief through emergency assistance grants to the Housing and Community Development Committee for deeper discussion. Burns proposed the idea in April after councilmembers rejected the “circuit breaker” pilot program advanced by Kelly, which would have provided more money to long-term homeowners; it remains a potential strategy listed in the new strategic housing plan.
Burns’ idea would expand the existing Emergency Assistance program to allow paying down property taxes for lower-income households facing a financial crisis, drawing on $100,000 from the Affordable Housing Fund for what staff describe as a “soft-launch.” He moved to refer it to the housing committee, sharing that he spoke to Davis about her desire to send it there for more discussion, but still made the case for it as something that’s been in development since before both the circuit breaker and the strategic housing plan were being worked on.
“Considering the amount, the $100,000 amount, while we work on more longer-term solutions,” Burns said, “we have something right in front of us that we can advance that can help people that are truly in emergency situations, and it wouldn’t require us to create anything new.”
Kelly, who in April rejected a different idea from Burns amending her circuit breaker pilot, said she has “many comments” about the emergency assistance expansion he’s proposing now, but will “save those for the [housing] committee.” Councilmembers voted unanimously to approve the referral, setting up the housing committee to discuss the proposal at its next meeting Tuesday, June 16.
Council leans toward permitting, regulating ‘sweepstakes’ machines
Councilmembers delayed a decision on how to deal with legally murky “sweepstakes” machines, but at least three members support permitting them under new regulations. The machines operate and look similar to virtual slot machines, but are legally distinct from video gambling terminals under state law and the city’s existing video gambling ban.
City staff drafted two competing ordinances to either regulate or ban the machines, which the Human Services Committee advanced last week with neutral recommendations after Councilmember Burns, who proposed regulating the machines, had to leave the meeting before a substantive discussion could happen. Councilmember Kelly asked to delay both ordinances until July 13 so she can “survey residents and businesses” in her ward before she takes a position, and the council voted unanimously to grant this delay.
But several other councilmembers with machines in their wards have already taken positions: Rodgers and Geracaris, whose wards have machines at the Shell and Citgo gas stations at 2494 Oakton St. and 443 Asbury Ave., both support allowing them since they support the businesses’ revenue streams, giving the option three votes between them and Burns.
On the other side of the issue was Nieuwsma, whose ward has machines at the Davis Pantry convenience store at 927 Davis St.; he said he supports banning them. Rodgers and Geracaris both said later that if the machines are banned, they would support considering a repeal of the city’s video gambling ban.
Activists urge bike lane protections after cyclist’s death
During public comment, several residents urged the city to add protections to “unsafe” bike lanes in light of the June 5 death of Riley O’Neil, a Chicago city worker who planned bike safety and infrastructure projects. O’Neil, 35, was biking in a painted, unprotected bike lane when a parked car driver opened a door in his path and hit him, causing him to lose control and spin out into the path of an oncoming semi-truck, which struck and killed him.
Scott Roberts said cars and trucks frequently stop in the unprotected bike lane on Church Street downtown, forcing cyclists to either go on the sidewalk or into the street, and Gabe Weiss said more than 25,000 bike lane obstructions in Evanston have been reported since 2017 on Bike Lane Uprising. Weiss added that cyclists “got an example” of the importance of bike lane protections at the start of an Evanston Rides! group bike ride last week.
Click on any of the photos above to view them in more detail.
“We all heard a crunch and turned, and a truck had crashed into the cement bollards that protect Fountain Square,” Weiss said. “It didn’t look like anything serious, just a little bit of a fender bender. But we were all fine, because there were physical barriers protecting where we were all standing in the square in the middle of downtown.”
Weiss, Roberts and Elliot Oats each advocated for adding physical barriers to the city’s existing unprotected bike lanes, suggesting bollards or traffic cones as an immediate short-term solution until permanent barriers can be constructed in the future. Beyond the core of Evanston’s downtown, the city plans to start construction in 2028 on protected lanes along two corridors: one on Chicago Avenue between Davis and Howard Streets, and the other on Church Street between Dodge Avenue and the North Shore Channel.
Other Council Bits
- At the start of the meeting, Mayor Biss read a proclamation honoring Rabbi Andrea London, who is retiring as senior rabbi of Beth Emet the Free Synagogue next month after 25 years of service to the congregation. London will leave in July and be succeeded by Rabbi Brian Immerman, currently the senior rabbi at Congregation Sukkat Shalom in Wilmette, but she will remain at Beth Emet in an emerita capacity.
- Biss also proclaimed June as Pride Month and Friday, June 19 as Juneteenth, the federal holiday commemorating when the last enslaved people were freed in 1865 after the Civil War. He delivered the latter proclamation to Juneteenth event organizer Kemone Hendricks, who invited all residents to attend the Opal’s Walk for Freedom event June 19, a 2.5 mile walk that steps off from the Arrington Lagoon in Dawes Park at 10:30 a.m.
- As part of the meeting’s consent agenda, councilmembers unanimously approved banning the use of algorithmic “price-fixing” tools in Evanston’s rental housing, completing a referral first submitted by Geracaris in April 2024. The ban was delayed in the council’s previous meeting since a statewide bill was still pending before the Illinois General Assembly, but the state legislature adjourned without passing it.
- Councilmembers unanimously approved awarding a $269,800 contract to ALFA Chicago, Inc. to remodel the kitchen at the Levy Senior Center into a full-service commercial kitchen. Parks and Recreation Director Audrey Thompson explained that the current kitchen is “so subpar” it cannot be used to prepare or cook food, only warm it, and said the remodel will both allow it to be rented out for events and programming, and enable the entire Levy Center to serve as an emergency overnight shelter through the American Red Cross during disaster relief operations.
Council Bytes from the previous regular meeting on May 26 can be read here.
City Council decides five votes is enough to pick temporary mayor when Biss heads to Washington is from Evanston RoundTable, Evanston’s most trusted source for unbiased, in-depth journalism.
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June 8, 2026 at 11:47PM
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