Citing Cost Of Moving, Council's Pick For Evanston City Manager Pulls Out

EVANSTON, IL — The Michigan man selected by the City Council to become Evanston's next city manager withdrew his acceptance of the job offer shortly after councilmembers voted to approve his contract.

After narrowing down the candidates for the next permanent city manager to two candidates, councilmembers picked John Fournier, assistant city manager of Ann Arbor, earlier this month, and city officials began negotiating a contract.

A final version of the contract was presented to the City Council at its May 23 meeting and was approved by a 9-1 vote.

"The next day, Mr. Fournier sought to reopen contract negotiations, requesting to restructure the contract to include part of his compensation in advance," city staff said in a Friday afternoon release. "The City Council responded quickly with a further offer, which was later declined by Mr. Fournier."

In a letter to Mayor Daniel Biss, Fournier said he was "not able to accept the offer" that councilmembers had approved.

"[I]t has become clear as my wife and I explored the housing market and the costs of relocation that the City’s interpretation of the terms would not be effective to accomplish the needs I had discussed with you and other City officials, and the understanding I thought we had," Fournier said Friday.

Fournier's contract included a base salary of $245,000 and a starting date of July 18. He was also set to receive $20,000 in deferred compensation and a $225,000 interest-free loan to buy a home in Evanston. And under the terms of the contract, for every year he remained city manager, $28,125 of the loan would be forgiven.

"I asked the City Council to consider restructuring some of the compensation (without increasing it) to facilitate down payment assistance on a house and relocation costs," Fournier said, thanking councilmembers for considering the request.

The City Council held an emergency closed session meeting Thursday evening, shortly before Fournier's formal notice of withdrawal.

"Sadly, I cannot accept the position to become your next City Manager under the terms offered. Specifically, I cannot finance relocating our family and acquiring housing within the timelines contemplated in the contract and without serious inconvenience and hardship on our family," he said.

Fournier told Patch it was an unfortunate situation and he was saddened to turn down the opportunity. He said in an email that he had tried to have some of the value of the no-interest, automatically forgivable loan converted to relocation and down payment assistance — without increasing the dollar amount.

"The relocation funds provided for in the contract were, it turns out, extremely limited in how they could be used," Fournier said. He said conservations during negotiations had led him to believe the relocation assistance would be much more flexible.

"Tuesday afternoon as I began to discuss how I could use and access the loan funds to begin the relocation process, it became clear that we did not have a mutual understanding. I explained the situation and asked the council to rearrange the compensation in the contract (not increase it), and they were unable to do so in a meaningful way," he added. "We were told Thursday that we should not respond with a counter-offer. Without the option to discuss further, we had no choice but to withdraw."

City officials said they would continue working with the same search firm, Stanton Chase, to identify the next candidate. The city's $70,000 contract with the firm includes a guarantee of candidate placement that has yet to be fulfilled, according to a spokesperson

"Therefore, until the City actually hires/appoints a City Manager, Stanton Chase is obligated to continue work with the City at no further cost other than the reasonable expenses associated with the search," spokesperson Jessie Mayo told Patch.

Fournier is the second candidate to withdraw from City Council consideration while on the verge of becoming city manager so far this year.

In January, Daniel Ramos, then-deputy city administrator of Baltimore, pulled out of the running for the city manager position to take a job in Travis County, Texas, prior to a formal contract offer.

Evanston has had interim city managers for a majority of the time since the resignation of longtime city manager Wally Bobkiewicz in September 2019. His top deputy, Erika Storlie, served in an interim capacity until a divided City Council approved her contract to become permanent city manager in October 2020.

Storlie resigned in October 2021 amid an independent investigation in the handling of sexual misconduct allegations by city staff after negotiating a severance package for herself and former human resources chief Jennifer Lin, one of the senior staffers faulted by the outside investigation.

Ahead of the May 23 vote to approve his contract, a majority of councilmembers praised Fournier. Some mentioned an internal investigation in Ann Arbor into allegations of workplace misconduct against him. That investigation, which was conducted by the same firm that led the probe of lakefront sexual misconduct in the Evanston Parks Department, Salvatore Prescott Porter & Porter, found no wrongdoing by Fournier.

Biss, who as mayor also has a vote on the city manager hire, said the City Council was presented with two very strong candidates in Fournier and Snapper Poche. He said their stark differences made the selection more difficult.

"So it wasn't a question of comparing two kind of similar options. Maybe, on average, people like them equally almost, but their strengths were really, really different. And in that situation, if you're looking for Candidate A's strengths, then you might say, 'Well, gosh, Candidate B's so much weaker in that area, why would anyone feel that way?' and vice versa. So people had really, really strong feelings, which, again, was important and appreciated and beneficial," the mayor said, "but created some tension in the latter days of the search."

Fournier said he had visited Evanston with his family during the application process and felt he could visualize raising his child there. He told alderpeople he looked forward to hitting the ground running in July.

"I come to you humbly with a lot of hope and a lot of ambition to work with each of you to make sure that this City Council is successful, that each of you are able to find success in this city, and achieve your successes, to work with a tremendously talented staff who I was very impressed by and also work directly with the community," Fournier told the council last week. "This is a democracy. This is a big-D Democracy."