The mayor’s budget task force scheduled to be confirmed Monday by the Evanston City Council includes a strong contingent of advocates for social programs as well as some business owners and people with financial management experience.
The list of the nominees for the panel selected by Mayor Elizabeth Tisdahl is included in the agenda for Monday’s council meeting.
The mayor’s budget task force scheduled to be confirmed Monday by the Evanston City Council includes a strong contingent of advocates for social programs as well as some business owners and people with financial management experience.
The list of the nominees for the panel selected by Mayor Elizabeth Tisdahl is included in the agenda for Monday’s council meeting.
The group is scheduled to come up with budget recommendations in a parallel process to the public budget workshops being run this month by City Manager Wally Bobkiewicz, as the city tries to find ways to close an $8 million projected funding gap for next year.
Here are brief bios of the panel nominees:
- Sue Calder is chair of the Evanston Alliance on Homelessness, an organizer of the Evanston North Shore YWCA-based housing advocacy group Evanston Housing 4 All and a member of the board of directors of the McGaw YMCA.
- Steve Engelman is a partner in the Evanston law firm Engelman and Smith and a former 7th Ward alderman.
- Lou English is on the board of directors of the McGaw YMCA.
- Joseph Flanagan, chairman and CEO of Acquirent LLC, a sales outsourcing firm president of JP Flanagan Enterprises. He’s board chair of Access to Care, a health care program for low-income, uninsured people in suburban Cook County.
- Aleks Granchalek, a member of the former blue-ribbon pension committee for the city, works in the debt capital markets unit at William Blair & Company.
- Candace Hill is an 8th Ward resident who played a large role in organizing the annual Bike the Ridge event.
- Jean Lindwall is a 1st Ward resident, former mayoral candidate and former city employee who’s now a planning consultant.
- Nicki Pearson, the registrar at the Rose Hill Montessori School in Wilmette, is vice-president for development at YOU, a youth services organization.
- Hecky Powell is a restaurant owner, former District 65 board member and long-time community activist.
- Mark Sloane, a former 6th Ward aldermanic candidate, is a certfied public accountant, chief financial officer and a member of the Evanston Playground and Recreation Board.
- Raymond Summers is president of the AFSCME local that represents many Evanston city employees.