Mayor’s withdrawal of landlord’s nomination to panel questioned

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Updated: March 24, 2012 8:10AM

Some property owners are raising objections about a landlord’s exclusion from a city panel established to look at licensing landlords, saying such moves potentially undermine the group’s broad-based mission.

During citizen comment at this week’s Evanston City Council meeting, several speakers — including the landlord whose nomination Mayor Elizabeth Tisdahl withdrew — questioned the basis for the decision. They asked the mayor to reconsider.

Josh Braun, whose name had been withdrawn, said he had received a call initially from the mayor on Feb. 2, saying he was to be nominated to the Landlord Licensing Committee. The group is to look at whether a licensing system for landlords should be instituted and what safety and quality standards would apply.

City officials initially proposed licensing in connection with enforcement of a controversial “brothel law” limiting the number of unrelated individuals who reside in units off campus.

Braun said he received a phone call a week later from the mayor, telling him she would be withdrawing his nomination because of concerns raised by aldermen in closed sessions.

When Braun asked if he could appeal the decision, the mayor suggested he address the council during the citizen comment portion of their meeting.

Speaking at the meeting, and in a follow-up interview, Braun said his family has owned and operated housing around Northwestern University for several decades.

“We try to keep our property maintained,” Braun said. “We work hard with the city. We try to stay involved.”

He said Tisdahl’s current list of nominations to the committee doesn’t include any of the landlords or property owners with properties around the university.

He said the nominations also don’t include any representatives from Northwestern, which has taken an active role in the issue.

Tisdahl gave no indication she would reintroduce Braun’s name. When asked about the withdrawal, she referred to what she called “a long-standing practice” to give aldermen notice a week ahead of when she would place names in nomination, so they could state objections. Prior councils did debate mayoral nominations on a few occasions, focusing discussions on possible conflict-of-interest issues.