Editors’ Note: This story contains updated information, including the letter John Fournier, candidate for city manager, sent to Mayor Daniel Biss.
Ann Arbor, assistant city administrator John Fournier, told the city that she will not accept the position of city manager of Evanston after the sides failed to reach a final agreement on her employment contract, according to a press release.
And it appears that the city’s press release and Fournier’s letter to the City Council clash over the reasons for his withdrawal.
Fournier is the second leading candidate to step down as manager in less than four months, despite the city having hired companies to conduct surveys across the country. He had been one of two candidates announced by the City Council who went through interviews with community leaders and a town hall with the Evanstonians.
Local activist groups lobbied against Fournier’s selection, preferring Snapper Poche, the other finalist, who is Program Director of the Leadership Team at Bloomberg Harvard City in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Fournier, however, was the only candidate able to muster all seven Council votes for the nomination.
Evanston City Council members voted 9-1 on Monday, May 23, to authorize the nomination.
Fournier, 38, attended the board session with his wife, Chelsea Wentworth, shaking hands in appreciation as board members concluded their vote by officially confirming him as their choice.
But the city maintained in its statement released on Friday, May 27, that Fournier “seeks to reopen contract negotiations.”
The statement said that prior to Fournier’s appointment at the May 23 meeting, the candidate had agreed to an offer made after a week of contract negotiations.
“At the meeting, Mr. Fournier made a statement expressing his excitement at the position and his enthusiasm for living in Evanston,” the city statement said.
“The next day, Mr. Fournier sought to reopen contract negotiations, requesting additional compensation. The City Council responded quickly with a new offer, which was later turned down.”
However, in a letter forwarded to the Roundtable and sent to Mayor Daniel Biss, Fournier said he did not seek pay raises, subsidies or other benefits.
“Once the contract was approved on Monday (May 23), it became clear that there were important differences in how some terms of the contract were to be effected and interpreted, specifically the parts relating to relocation and housing assistance, which we were unable to resolve,” he said.
“Given the city’s position, I asked the Council to amend the contract to restructure (but not increase the dollar amount) of the housing and relocation assistance to allow a reasonable amount of it to be available for relocation assistance and down payment and they were not being able to agree to do so in a meaningful way.
“As a result, I notified the City of Evanston this morning [May 27] that I would be retiring from office. I did not ask for a salary increase, subsidies or other benefits.”
The contract and the story
The contract set out the details of his employment, including a base salary of $245,000 and other benefits, including a relocation clause. The relocation clause required the city to provide a loan secured by a mortgage and $225,000 promissory note towards the purchase of a home in Evanston to assist the Fourniers in the family’s relocation.
On Wednesday, May 25, following the Board’s confirmation vote, Board members convened an emergency executive session to discuss an apparent development regarding Fournier’s appointment.
This is the second time in four months that a candidate for city manager has walked away from an offer from Evanston City Council.
In late January, Daniel Ramos, Baltimore’s administrator and then the board’s top pick, informed officials that he had accepted “a prestigious position in another community.”
Ramos’ notification came as the board members were considering getting ready to notify him that he was their choice for the job.
The city has been frustrated trying to find a permanent manager since Wally Bobkiewicz stepped down in 2019 after nearly 10 years in the job. Members of a former city council named longtime city employee and interim city manager Erika Storlie to the highest post in a controversial move in October 2020.
Storlie ended up resigning from the $225,000 post in less than a year after the board opened an investigation into the official handling of allegations of sexual misconduct brought by female lifeguards against oversight staff.
However, Storlie was later exonerated of all blame in a 379-page report by the law firm Salvatore, Prescott, Porter & Porter. It was clear that Storlie knew nothing of the young lifeguards’ serious allegations because the personnel department did not “share the petition in 2020 with the city manager or his deputies, the Legal Department or others above them in the city government. ” read the report.
The city will continue to work with its recruiting firm, Stanton Chase, on the search process, officials said in the statement.
