Jonathon Perman
Executive Director, Evanston Chamber of Commerce
Personal Resolution: Perman, a jazz singer, wants to write more lyrics. “It’s a creative outlet,” he said.
Professional Resolutions: Priority One, Two and Three for the Chamber in 1997 is to continue to lobby for changes in the way Evanston businesses are taxed, Perman said.
“That’s the most critical development issue and the most critical issue facing businesses in Evanston.” Perman said his group will work with other chambers of commerce in Cook County and together lobby legislators to lower taxes for businesses.
“We’d like to see that property taxes for business are assessed in the same way in Cook County that they are in every other county. In every other county, property is assessed at the same rate regardless of use. Except Cook.”
“It’s a major problem for Evanston, for every municipality in the county. That’s one of the reasons many businesses have made the exodus from Cook County to the collar counties and beyond.”
Allan Alson
Superintendent, Evanston Township High School District 202
Personal Resolution: “I’d like to seek out more time for my family,” Alson said. He is married and has a daughter in third grade.
Professional Resolutions: One nuts-and-bolts goal Alson has for 1997 is to expand Evanston Township High School’s study labs. Students already use the school’s math and English labs, learning centers where they can get help with homework and one-on-one attention. Alson said he wants to beef up the English lab and add biology and chemistry labs.
Another resolution is to get more parents and other residents to visit the classroom. If parents see up close what the school is doing, Alson reasons, they can do a better job helping their teenagers and the teachers.
The first open house of its kind drew 278 parents to the halls of the high school last November. Alson scheduled a second open house for March 26th. He is hoping parents turn out in even larger numbers.
“They get a first-hand look at the complexity of a classroom,” Alson said. “They get a much better look at what it’s like for a teacher.”
Darwin Johnson
Superintendent, Community Consolidated School District 65
Personal Resolution: Johnson, married with two grown children, said he wants to spend more time with his family.
Professional Resolutions: Johnson said one goal at the top of his list is to introduce more civility into the district’s classrooms, hallways and playgrounds. District 65 includes ten elementary schools, three middle schools, two magnet schools and a host of other services such as preschool. Too often, Johnson said, racial divisions and other animosities flare, even among the youngest students.
“What I’m interested in making sure is that our kids learn to respect others, respect property, showing they care,” he said. “We’ve spent a lot of resources in terms of time and effort to make sure our schools are desegregated and now we are charged with bringing integration within the schools.”
Another priority for Johnson: Closing the gap in academic performance among some students.
“If you’re talking about the performance of white students versus the minority kids, there’s a gap. And if you’re talking about our higher-income kids versus our lower-income kids, there’s a gap.”
The superintendent also said he wants the school district to broaden its methods of reaching parents and other citizens. To that end, school officials are planning to publish the district’s first annual report and send it to residents within the first several weeks of 1997.
Frank Kaminski
Evanston Police Chief
Personal Resolution: Kaminski is determined to finish three triathlons in 1997. “When I’m older, I’m going to be in the Senior Olympics and on a box of Wheaties,” Kaminski said with a laugh.
Professional Resolutions: Last October, Kaminski was sworn in as Evanston’s top cop. One of his main goals for 1997, he said, is to find and train at least nine more officers. “We’re going to be more aggressive about recruitment.”
The police department’s budget provides for 161 officers, he said, and that figure could increase in the next year. Three recruits are in training but nine other slots remain open. His aging force may face a number of retirements, Kaminski said, which would fuel the need for even more new officers.
Another goal is to appoint a citizens’ advisory board as part of a community policing effort. Kaminski said he wants to pick 12 to 16 residents from different walks of life in Evanston to serve on the board.
Another resolution is to reduce the number of thefts from cars, garages, sheds and storage lockers in apartment buildings.
Lorraine Morton
Evanston Mayor
Personal Resolution: She declined to give one.
Professional Resolutions: Her goals for 1997 range from rebuilding the sewers to forging better relations among the diverse citizens of the community.
“My goals for Evanston are basically to continue in the direction that we have already traveled and the goals we have set out with the City Council for the future,” she said.
That includes continuing the sewer reconstruction, trying to establish a business research park, and working with the police chief to reduce crime.
Neal Ney
Director, Evanston Public Library
Personal Resolution: “I don’t make (personal) resolutions,” Ney said. “I don’t think I ever did.”
Professional Resolutions: The library director set a goal of having the library’s new speaker’s bureau address at least 16 community groups around town in 1997. Library employees, newly trained in public speaking, make up the bureau. They will fan out to different community groups to explain what the main library and its two branches have to offer and how the libraries’ new computer technology works.
Another resolution is to find new ways to measure how well the library serves its patrons. Ney said he wants to know how long it takes library users to check out their books, especially when there is a line at the check-out counter.
He also wants his librarians to learn how to tackle the challenge of teenage patrons. “How do you deal with the rambunctiousness of teenagers in a library…without sending kids scurrying out of the library?”
Henry Bienen
President, Northwestern University
Personal Resolution: Bienen said he wants to get better control of his busy calendar. An enthusiastic squash player, he also wants to pick up the racquet more often in 1997. “I haven’t been getting on the court enough.”
Professional Resolutions: Bienen said he hopes the highly rated university will continue its mission of academic excellence and serving its students. “We’re always pointing to be a better place.”
But he declined to detail any specific goals. The Russian scholar said he feared faculty members and students might try too hard to read the tea leaves in any New Year’s goals he outlined. “We have so many goals I wouldn’t want to leave one out,” he said.
