Ever since Evanston Mayor Daniel Biss emerged victorious in the March 17 Democratic primary for Illinois’ 9th Congressional District, public speculation has mounted around how the city will select its next leader and who that leader will be.
In a congressional seat Democrats are heavily favored to retain come November given the district’s historically blue makeup, Biss is all but certain to leave for Washington, D.C., in January.
But that leaves roughly three years remaining on Biss’ current term as mayor. He was reelected April 1, 2025, six weeks before he announced his candidacy for the U.S. House of Representatives seat. That means the Evanston City Council will need to appoint an acting mayor to replace him.
The timing of Biss’ resignation of his mayoral seat will determine whether or not that acting mayor serves out the remainder of his term until 2029, or only until mid-2027.
Although Biss has alluded to resigning in time to trigger a special election in April 2027, he publicly affirmed that intention for the first time during the City Council’s April 26 meeting.
“My basic principle here is unchanged, I think that the guiding principle should be to minimize the amount of time that the city has a mayor who is not elected by the people,” Biss voiced to council members Tuesday.
An acting mayor is appointed when the mayor’s office becomes vacant for an “unexpired portion of the term,” as a result of death, permanent disability, conviction of a crime, moving out of a city or a resignation, per Evanston city code.
Due to a recent state law change on Public Act 104-434, which introduced new amendments to Illinois’ election code, a seat vacancy must occur before the period to file petitions for the next municipal election in order to trigger a special election. The election will be held April 6, 2027, but the candidate filing period will begin much earlier.
Biss will likely have to resign from his position as mayor before the general election in November, depending on the filing period start date for the 2027 municipal election.
He added that he “can’t make a final determination” about when he will officially resign without the 2027 Illinois State Board of Elections calendar being made public. It will announce the date by which candidates must file their petitions to run on the April 2027 ballot.
That calendar is expected to be released in June, Biss said.
“But whatever the (Illinois State Board of Elections) publish(es), my objective will be to minimize the amount of time we have a mayor that the people did not vote for.”
Ald. Clare Kelly, 1st, followed Biss’ comments by asking whether he was indeed “committed to stepping down so that there will be time to trigger the (special) election,” to which Biss responded that it is his “intent” to do so.
“The thing that is frustrating is that there’s been a moving target of what the law is, and what that means and what the date is … but my principle that will guide my decision is minimizing how much time that Evanston has an acting mayor as opposed to a mayor elected by the people,” Biss said.
But the main City Council rule change up for approval at Tuesday’s meeting concerned increasing the number of votes needed to select an acting mayor to a two-thirds majority.
Council members currently use a simple majority system of five or more votes to pass new laws, but a two-thirds majority rule change of the nine council members would make selecting an acting mayor more arduous, especially given frequent council splits on divisive issues.
Ald. Bobby Burns, 8th, proposed at the May 26 meeting a compromise to the two-thirds majority proposal: if council could not reach a decision after three rounds of voting, the acting mayor position would only require a simple majority vote.
This was shot down by council members, however, and Burns moved to support altering the amendment back to a simple majority vote.
Ald. Matt Rodgers, 8th, then proposed changing the rule to set the minimum for approval at a simple majority vote if the vacancy led to a special election and six votes if there was no special election held.
“I’m gonna vote no, just because it doesn’t need to be this complicated,” Ald. Shawn Iles, 3rd, said to Rodgers.
“Every other municipality in Illinois does it with a simple majority vote. I get what you’re trying to do, I get the intent, I understand … I just, we’re making this harder than it has to be.”
Rodgers then asked for a stall on the vote to review “some things that were defeated” during the initial rules process that he hoped to “bring back forward,” pending another look.
“I just want to put out there that once we are deciding who’s going to be acting mayor, I plan to vote in favor of whoever does not plan on running for mayor full time afterwards,” Ald. Parielle Davis, 7th, told council members.
“You guys are super worried. I wouldn’t care who it was on council, as long as they don’t plan on using the incumbency bias … I can tell you right now that that is my only criteria, and I hope that makes it easier for some people.”
The rule change was ultimately seconded for a stall and will be back on the dais at the June 8 City Council meeting for further discussion.
