Evanston's Empty Ethics Board Seats Postpone Meeting

EVANSTON, IL — A mix of scheduling conflicts, residency changes and the lack of an appointment to a seat left vacant for more than two years left Evanston's Board of Ethics short of a required quorum for its March meeting. As a result, it was unable to hear several recently filed challenges regarding the upcoming April 4 election.

The five-member board has been shorthanded since 2014, when one of its members moved outside city limits and became ineligible to serve. Ahead of a scheduled March 21 meeting, another board member informed the City that they had changed residencies, informing the board they had moved to Skokie. That opened up a second vacancy.

That left only three members available, the minimum required to hold a meeting. Because one of them had double booked their schedule for the night, the board's meeting was cancelled.

The ethics board meets on an as-needed basis. It convenes when complaints are filed and on annual basis to review financial disclosures, according to Deputy City Attorney Michelle Masoncup.

In recent months, the board has received three complaints regarding ethics violations related to the campaign for the April 4 election.

Mayor Elizabeth Tisdahl, who is responsible for appointing members of the board, says she has now made two appointments to the committee, which have been reviewed by the aldermen. She said the new members could be approved during a brief April 10 meeting.

"It was my responsibility they couldn't get a quorum," Tisdahl told the Evanston Review. "I am delinquent."

In the two years prior, the board only met four times. It received only one ethics complaint in all of 2016, Masoncup said.

Board members serve three-year terms, but they are allowed to stay on after their terms expire until a replacement is seated, according to Masoncup.

In addition to the two empty seats on the board, the terms of two of its serving board members expired in July 2015.

Top photo: Evanston Mayor Elizabeth Tisdahl (Patch file)