Evanston Interim City Manager Kelley Gandurski announced Tuesday that she will resign July 11 to join a land use and government law firm.
Gandurski was named interim city manager last October. She joined the city in March 2020 as corporation counsel and later served as deputy city manager.
She’s leaving to join Elrod Friedman LLP.
In a statement, Gandurski said, “I am proud of the work that we’ve accomplished together during this short time, and I look forward to seeing the community build on the progress that has been made on so many fronts.”
Mayor Daniel Biss said of Gandurski, “Our whole community owes her a great debt of gratitude for an extremely difficult job very well done. I personally thank her for her service and wish her all the best in the next phase of her career.”
Gandurski led a number of key initiatives, including overseeing development of the City’s $43 million American Rescue Plan Act plan, working with key community partners to build a citywide Coalition to End Homelessness, overhauling lakefront operations and improving staff training.
She also collaborated with employee unions to implement a COVID-19 vaccination policy and worked with the City’s Human Resources Division to revamp city policies and to ensure adequate staffing, training and support for all departments.
Biss said information about the appointment of a new interim city manager will be announced “in the coming days.”
Update 12:20 p.m. 6/28/22: Late this morning the agenda for a special executive session meeting of the City Council was posted calling for the alders to meet at 11:45 a.m. on Thursday to discuss “personnel matters.”
Excellent – now we get an interim-interim city manager. I’m sure that person will be fully invested in the job. Although maybe they should be, they might be there a while at the rate and the direction things are going.
One more victim of our dysfunctional City Council. What can we do to stop the hemoraging of tallent?
Well, she gave them plenty of time to find a replacement.