Northwestern 'Refusing To Pay Fair Share' For Fire Dept: Aldermen

EVANSTON, IL — Ahead of the Evanston City Council's vote to raise its share of property taxes on residents for another year, several aldermen called for Northwestern University to begin compensating the city for the fire and rescue services taxpayers provide.

Evanston Fire Chief Brian Scott said firefighters were called to the university more than 500 times in 2019. About half of those calls involved ambulance rides, which are reimbursed at the same rate regardless of whether a patient is connected to the university.

But the fire and rescue calls that made up the other half of trips to university property are not reimbursed. Scott estimated the total cost of those calls at about $659,000.

As a private nonprofit institution, Northwestern is exempt from property tax. The 1 percent increase in the city's property tax levy narrowly approved by the City Council on Nov. 23 covered a budget gap of less than $600,000.

Instead of covering the cost to taxpayers directly, a discretionary grant program called the "Good Neighbor Fund" provided some money to the Evanston Fire Department. The program was created by the university five years ago and allocated jointly by University President Morty Schapiro and Evanston Mayors Liz Tisdahl and Steve Hagerty.

Earlier this year, that program was rebranded to refocus on racial equity — but no announcement has yet been made about where the money will go, leading to an additional $500,000 general fund hole that the City Council needed to fill.

Ald. Ann Rainey, who represents the city's 8th Ward, said city officials had been talking about collecting fire service fees from the university for years. The City Council's senior member said she wanted to ensure city staff were seriously pursing collecting fees on a regular basis.

"Not just because we're desperate this year, but it needs to be an ongoing regular payment from Northwestern. Not something out of the ‘Good Neighbor’ policy, but a fee for service as we charge them for police services for gameday and other activities," she said.

Unlike the fire department, the Evanston Police Department bills Northwestern University for overtime hours while working at university events like football games. According to Kate Lewis-Lakin, the city's budget coordinator, the city had expected to receive $500,000 in reimbursements but did not anticipate bringing in more than $100,000 amid the coronavirus pandemic.

"Fire services are critical for Northwestern. They don't have an alternative fire department like they have — up until now at least — an alternative police department," Rainey said. "So I'd like to know what the plan is to collect, or at least invoice, Northwestern for fire and rescue services."

City Manager Erika Storlie told Rainey she had been unable to secure an agreement with the university to pay for fire services and did not know whether university officials would be willing to do so next year.

"Northwestern views the Good Neighbor Fund, in the past, as supporting those fire services," Storlie said ahead of the Nov. 23 budget vote. "The allocations that were mutually agreed upon by the university president and the mayor for the past five years allocated the largest portion of the allocations in the Good Neighbor Fund toward supporting fire services." Last year, the university provided $250,000 to support paramedic services through the fund.

Rainey acknowledged that the Illinois Supreme Court has ruled that nonprofits like Northwestern are exempt from property tax. But there is no such exemption for payments for fire services.

"I would hope the community is appalled by the fact that we would even say something like, 'if we could get Northwestern to agree to pay for the fire service.' Because their not agreeing to pay for the fire service means that our community has an additional $658,986 attached to their real estate tax bill for this bill. So I will fight to get this bill pared down to at least below $658,000 — but after that I can't do anymore, because that is Northwestern's burden, and we can't do anything about that, ladies and gentlemen of the city of Evanston, because they are refusing to pay their fair share," Rainey said.

"Everybody wants to defund the police department," she added. "Well, somebody needs to start funding the fire department, and that is Northwestern University for fire services received. And this council can sit mum on that issue, but it is insulting that they will not pay for that service."

Evanston Mayor Steve Hagerty said fire services reimbursement was a legitimate conversation to have with university officials in the future. Earlier in the budget process, the City Council asked Hagerty to seek a one-time $2 million payment in lieu of taxes to help the city balance its revenue shortfalls during the pandemic. Hagerty was asked about the response to that request.

"The official response to me is that, ‘We're willing to talk about the Good Neighbor Fund,’" Hagerty said. "In 2021, they are willing to sit down and have a conversation about that request of: 'can we do more for the Good Neighbor Fund?' — just in terms of overall dollars, as well as fire."

Robin Rue Simmons, 5th Ward, said the request for $2 million was not about the discretionary fund controlled by the mayor and university president. Instead, she said it was about Northwestern pulling together to help the city deal with the financial impact of COVID-19, as other local nonprofit institutions had done.

Rue Simmons called for Northwestern to participate in the business of the city, repeating a request she has made at previous university-related City Council discussions.

"I don't see that they even have enough respect for us to show up and have a comment or an official statement in response to the concerns we have," Rue Simmons said. "Seems the only way to have a conversation is through my public comment and their observation of our meeting. And it's not an unreasonable request — Northwestern should be the partner that they say that they are. They could raise $2 million in one email, based on the network that they have and the access to resources that they have."

Ald. Cicely Fleming, 9th Ward, said she supported Rainey's effort to negotiate a deal for fire service reimbursement from the university. She said she had expected city staff to have already presented such a measure.

Ald. Melissa Wynne, 3th Ward, said Northwestern officials should be aware that they will be expected to provide reimbursement for fire services in the future, although it would be inappropriate to spring this year's bill on them by surprise.

"I think that we do need to put them on some kind of notice that we can't provide free fire services for them going forward, that they need to start paying for this," Wynne said. "Everyone is pitching in during this crisis and we need them to pitch in as well."

Following the meeting, Northwestern spokesperson Jon Yates was asked whether any city officials had put the university "on notice" that the city will no longer provide free fire services going forward, whether the mayor had ever asked for $2 million in additional funding to cover pandemic-related cost and whether any city staff members had requested that Evanston taxpayers be fully reimbursed for fire and rescue services the university receives. He did not say.