Ald. Peter Braithwaite (2nd) announced as Monday night’s City Council meeting was ending that he plans to resign following the Council’s next meeting on July 11.
Braithwaite, who was appointed to the Council in 2011 following the resignation of Lionel Jean-Baptiste, went on to win elections to the 2nd Ward aldermanic post in 2013, 2017 and 2021.
That makes him the second-longest serving member on the nine-member Council.
In his resignation announcement, Braithwaite alluded to the death of his mother, Veronica Braithwaite, on May 21 at age 86, as having sparked a reassessment of his priorities.
Braithwaite also started a new job earlier this year as director of procurement, diversity and community engagement at Northwestern University.
Braithwaite becomes the second council member to resign since the April 2021 city election.
Ald. Cicely Fleming (9th) announced last December that she was resigning just a few months after starting her second term on the Council.
Her resignation also came shortly after the death of her mother.
Several council members appeared to be caught by surprise by Braithwaite’s announcement.
Ald. Jonathan Nieuwsma (4th) said he was apprehensive about what will happen next and that he “will be sorry to see you go.”
Ald. Eleanor Revelle (7th) said, “My heart sank as I heard your announcement.”
Daniel Biss,in his first term as mayor, said, “Whatever you want to say about this Council, experience is not our forte.” He added that Braithwaite “has been really helpful in providing that background” the newer members of the Council lacked.
Once Braithwaite’s successor is appointed by the mayor, six of the nine alderpersons will be in their first term on the Council.
The only more experienced members will be Ald. Melissa Wynne (3rd), first elected in 1997; Ald. Eleanor Revelle, first appointed in 2015, and Ald. Tom Suffredin (6th), first elected in 2017.
Good, reasonable people can only take so much illogical crazy. Voters take note.
Oh, great, losing one of the few competent and reasonable voices on the Council. We can’t hire a City Manager and Alderpersons are dropping like flies. We need to seriously evaluate what is happening in this City.
Thank you for your service Mr. Braithwaite. You are an example of great governance for the City of Evanston.
I wish you well.
We lost a good one. One of the few who think logically, make logical decisions and want what’s best for Evanston.
Thank you for your service. Give Ald. Reid a smack on the head as you’re leaving to knock some sense into him.
I hate to see Braithwaite go as he became the de facto leader of this Council, saving us, along with Nieuwsma, Revelle, and Wynne, from the regular nonsense proposed by Clare Kelly and Devon Reid. Add to Braithwaite’s departure, the senseless removal of Erika Storlie last summer, the loss of the interim City Manager, Kelly Gandurski, and the inability to attract any decent professional to serve as the City’s permanent City Manager, it shouldn’t surprise anyone that the Mayor and the Council are floundering. When the last City Manager search blew up, they should have offered Gandurski the position and allowed things to settle down for a few years. Instead, each week seems to bring more turmoil.