Council will revote on broker of Civic Center move next week

A day after being cited by the state for an Open Meetings Act violation in appointing Jones Lang LaSalle Midwest as its broker for a Civic Center exit, the city said it would bring the deal back to council for a revote in open session next Monday, March 11.

In a public statement posted online Monday, the city said it “remains abundantly committed to compliance with the Illinois Open Meetings Act and transparency with our residents,” but it still “respectfully disagrees with the Illinois Attorney General Public Access Counselor’s recent binding opinion.”

The state attorney general’s office launched an investigation into the City Council’s hiring of JLL to negotiate a lease for office space downtown after longtime Evanston resident Mary Rosinski submitted a request for review Jan. 9. The inquiry ultimately led to the ruling that the city had made a binding and exclusive agreement with JLL while in closed session on Oct. 16, in violation of the Illinois Open Meetings Act.

At a Jan. 22 meeting, when City Council authorized City Manager Luke Stowe to negotiate a lease agreement for office space at 909 Davis St., First Ward Council Member Clare Kelly said she thought the city was violating the Open Meetings Act in the process. Mayor Daniel Biss dismissed that idea, arguing the decision in closed session was not binding but simply direction for city staff to follow.

That night, Biss said the situation was “not within a million miles of an OMA [Open Meetings Act] violation.”

Also in its Monday statement, the city said it had kept the deal with JLL under wraps to prevent potential office landlords from inflating rents.

“Maintaining confidentiality in the marketplace was paramount to negotiating the best terms for Evanston community members,” the statement reads. “Revealing the City of Evanston as the potential tenant would likely have resulted in price gouging with the understanding that there were only two viable options – the City of Evanston cannot relocate elsewhere in the region.”

Meanwhile, according to the city, the required do-over of the agreement with JLL “has no impact” on the 909 Davis St. lease, which was “fully executed” on Feb. 22.