Daniel Biss: Candidate For Evanston Mayor

EVANSTON, IL — Ahead of Evanston's Feb. 23 primary and April 6 consolidated municipal elections, Evanston Patch provided candidate questionnaires to all candidates on the ballot.

The primary ballot will contain races for mayor, city clerk, 4th Ward alderman and 8th Ward aldermen, according to the Cook County Clerk.

Incumbent Mayor Steve Hagerty is stepping down after a single term in office and three candidates are vying to replace him — Daniel Biss, Lori Keenan and Sebastian Nalls.

If any of the three candidates receive more than 50 percent of votes cast Feb. 23, they will win outright and the office will not be on the ballot in an April runoff.

Daniel Biss

Age (as of Election Day)

43

Town/City of Residence

Evanston

Office Sought

Mayor

Does anyone in your family work in politics or government?

No.

Education

Ph.D. in mathematics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (2002), A.B., Harvard University (1998)

Occupation

Clean Energy Campaign Consultant, 1 year Experience

Campaign website

danielbiss.com

Previous or Current Elected or Appointed Office

State Representative and State Senator.

The single most pressing issue facing the Evanston's city government is _______, and this is what I intend to do about it.

The single most pressing issue facing our city is the COVID-19 pandemic and I intend to continue our city’s clear communications with residents, ensure efficient and equitable distribution of the vaccine, and rebuild our economy to a place which is stronger and more just than before.

What are the critical differences between you and the other candidates seeking this post?

I am the only candidate in this race with experience working in government and enacting progressive solutions to our most pressing challenges. During my time in the legislature, I was able to build coalitions needed to pass legislation on a broad variety of topics, including tax fairness, budget policy, retirement security, civil rights, reproductive freedom, political reform, and more, and I am confident that this experience will serve Evanston well as we seek to enact the bold, progressive agenda our community desires.

What do you consider the official duties and powers of the City Council as a whole? How about individual aldermen?

The City Council must steer city policy while also effectuating public engagement. Specifically, there are difficult issues that naturally arise in government, including tough questions about taxes, budget, development, and the pandemic; additionally, the Evanston community wants bold reforms on issues such as public safety, climate, and housing. It is up to the Council to determine our direction on all these topics. Additionally, Council must act as a conduit through which the public makes its preferences heard, and this requires us to go into the community and solicit input, including from those parts of our community that are too often unheard.

What steps would you take to address the city's budget challenges?

There’s no sugar-coating it: Evanston, like all municipalities, is experiencing budget challenges as a result of the COVID pandemic. As we navigate these challenges, we must stick to the following priorities. First of all, if cuts are necessary, make sure that we put people first, especially those who have been most harmed by the coronavirus. Second, in looking for new funds, we must be creative about finding progressive sources of revenue. Third, we should use our cultural and economic assets, education institutions (including Oakton Community College), and businesses to create economic activity that benefits Evanstonians and grows our tax base. Finally, we urgently need help from the federal government -- and I will work tirelessly with our legislators in Congress to ensure our priorities are met.

Describe the other issues that define your campaign platform.

One of my first priorities is reimagining the way we provide for public safety. Everyone has a fundamental human right to live in safety. As our nation finally begins to reckon with the intertwined challenges of white supremacy and police misconduct, it is time for Evanston to commit to and realize a truly reimagined vision of shared safety for all, rather than security for some. We must also address our climate crisis. Sustainability and resource stewardship are among the oldest challenges that humans have come together to face collectively, and climate change is perhaps the most severe problem in human history. Evanston’s approach to this issue must reflect both the urgency of the moment and the need to come together to find just solutions. Finally, affordable housing is both a challenge that can threaten Evanston’s very identity and an opportunity that can define what kind of community we are. We have a number of different affordability problems, each of which is critical in its own way. We must solve them with a clear, strategic, long-term affordable housing plan that is rooted in the values of racial equity, anti-racism, inclusivity, and accessibility.

What accomplishments in your past would you cite as evidence you can handle this job?

As a legislator, I passed almost 100 bills into law, including legislation that addressed some of our biggest challenges in Springfield. After a lengthy battle with special interests, I was able to pass groundbreaking legislation creating the Illinois Secure Choice Savings Program to give hundreds of thousands of Illinois residents a chance at a secure retirement. I also managed to pass social policies expanding reproductive freedom, protecting LGBT youth from so-called “conversion therapy,” and shielding Illinois residents from hi-tech police surveillance.

Why should voters trust you?

I have a record that residents can look at from my eight years in the legislature. I encourage voters to assess my record in the legislative arena in addition to as a provider of constituent services — there is no better way to predict future behavior than to look at past actions.

If you win this position, what accomplishment would make your term in office as a success?

My term in office will be a success if Evanston has become measurably more equitable. We have a racial wealth gap, residential segregation, and significant inequities in health, education, and more. We must make good on our promise to truly make every decision through an equity lens and begin to close these gaps.

What are your views on fiscal policy, government spending and the handling of taxpayer dollars in the office you are seeking?

Evanston has fiscal problems that are serious but not crisis-level. In other words, we have more debt than we should and a lower fund balance than we should, but we also should not view this as a cause for panic or rash action. Instead, we need to be careful stewards of public money, disciplined in how we set our tax and spending plans, and thoughtful about the long-term consequences of our actions. We also should be seeking equitable mechanisms to expand our tax base by making Evanston more affordable and dense. Finally, when presented with difficult choices about how to spend constrained resources, we must prioritize people, and especially people who are in the most vulnerable positions or who have seen generations of government disinvestment.

Do you support Black Lives Matter and what are your thoughts on the demonstrations held since the death of George Floyd and the shooting of Jacob Blake?

Yes, I support Black Lives Matter; my family and I participated in many demonstrations last summer. Even in the face of unthinkable pain and loss, it was inspiring to see so many people coming together to fight for justice. I am heartened that people across our community and across this country have reacted to these tragedies by thinking broadly about the consequences of systemic racism, rather than narrowly about what specific small interventions could have prevented these specific events. For instance, while we are fortunate that Evanston Police have not perpetrated crimes like these, it is still the case that the lessons we must learn about the historic connection between white supremacy, the control of Black and brown bodies, and American law enforcement have profound consequences for public safety policy here in Evanston. I believe that the mass movement that has arisen since June of 2020 gives us a unique opportunity to reimagine how we provide for public safety in Evanston, and as mayor I am committed to seize that opportunity.

Do you think the current board has done enough to support racial equality, and if not, what specifically should be done to do so?

Racial inequity is the foundational problem in Evanston — and in the United States. This scourge has presented itself in evolving ways over the centuries, but many of its consequences have been consistent: massive racial gaps in wealth, health, education, access to housing, liberty, and more. Thus, it is of course not the case that the current board has done enough — there is far more work ahead of us.

For a number of decades now, most government policies in America have been formally race-neutral. Gone are the days of government enforcement of residential or school segregation, voter disenfranchisement based upon race, and so on. As a result, some people suggest that remaining racial inequities are a result of racist views harbored by individuals — and therefore that there’s no role government can play in reversing them.

This is wrong.

First of all, the legacy of government participation in institutional racism has created the massive wealth gaps and residential segregation that we see today — and thus government has a responsibility to fix these problems. Secondly, and perhaps more importantly, many of our nominally race-blind policies are in fact viciously racist as applied in practice, as is apparent in critical areas such as policing, housing, education, and more.

Consequently, it is our moral and practical responsibility to infuse every arm of Evanston government with the values and habits of anti-racism.

We can begin this process by:

In partnership with nationally recognized practitioners, designing a city-wide engagement process to determine the community’s definitions and goals regarding equity, and then implementing a training program and assessment tool to ensure that all governmental actions and decisions are made through a racial equity lens.

This process will be designed with the understanding that a comprehensive reckoning with white supremacy will generate significant resistance, and that this resistance cannot be allowed to derail the work.

Remaking and strengthening the Equity and Empowerment Commission.

The commission shall participate in the design of the community engagement process and oversee the implementation and modification of the ensuing assessment tool.

The commission shall designate a member who will:

Represent the commission at any city meeting where key decisions are being made.

Have the authority to speak and ask questions at any such meeting, whether or not they have voting power.

Designating a staff member with certified equity training to devote at least half of their job to advancing equity, and designating a person in each department to implement the equity plan and liaise with the Equity and Empowerment Commission.

Prioritizing language access and translating more materials in a timely fashion.

Recommitting to and expanding the City’s reparations program.

The mayor shall act as a vocal proponent of the program, signaling its importance to the entirety of city staff, and acting as an ambassador to community members who may not yet be supportive.

The City shall advocate with Evanston institutions, including but not limited to Northwestern University, hospitals, and financial institutions, to contribute to the Reparations Fund in proportion to their historic advancement of structural racism in Evanston.

What are your thoughts on the national and local coronavirus response? Do you favor measures such as limiting operation of non-essential businesses and restricting indoor/outdoor dining? And do you favor a local mask mandate?

Yes, I support all of these restrictions and mitigations methods as well as a local mask mandate.

What are your thoughts on the state and local coronavirus vaccine distribution, and how do you think local governments should work together to handle vaccine rollout?

So far, I think our state and local vaccine distribution has done reasonably well with the limited resources they’ve received from the federal government; there were some hiccups in communication that appear to have been resolved. But, going forward, once more vaccine resources are made available, the city must ensure that we have extremely clear communication about our plans, resources, who can expect to be vaccinated when, and why. We must ensure that vaccine distribution is truly equitable and avoid the trap that much of our country has fallen into wherein the most affected communities are also the least vaccinated. We are also relatively unusual when compared to our neighboring municipalities in that we have our own health department, which gives us both a special opportunity and an elevated responsibility to handle this logistical challenge effectively.

Is there any reason you would not serve your full term of office, other than those of health or family?

My plan is to win this election and then run for re-election in 4 years.

The best advice ever shared with me was:

To rely on many different people with many different backgrounds for advice, instead of putting just one idea on a pedestal.

What else would you like voters to know about yourself and your positions?

For more information, please visit my website DanielBiss.com, including its issues page https://www.danielbiss.com/issues which includes links to very detailed position documents.