President Linda Gerber called the meeting to order at 7:30 a.m. on the dot with the ringing of the bell.

 

Helen Oloroso read “Why We Are Rotarians,” followed by the thought for the day: “Seek out your brothers and sisters of other cultures and join together in building alliances to put an end to all forms of racial discrimination, bigotry and prejudice.  There are people of goodwill of all races, religions, and nations who will join you in the common quest for the betterment of society." -- Dr. Bernice King, youngest daughter of Martin Luther King, Jr. and CEO, Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change in Atlanta.

 

 

Rebecca Mendosa – Reviewed the “Empowering Girls Initiative 2022” program and introduced Cherie Animashaun from “Her Rising.”  More information on this initiative will be forthcoming.

 

Chris Joyce – Our club will have a table at the ETHS Civics Day event and would like to have a few volunteers to man the table.

 

Hillary Hufford-Tucker – Gave a PowerPoint presentation on the work the Community Engagement Team is doing. 

 

Don Gwinn – Showed a video of the first house being built by Evanston Development Cooperative (Dick Co) using pre-fabricated panels.  He will be soliciting volunteers to help with the finishing of the house soon.  This is part of the affordable housing focus for our club. 

 

Sue Bova – Gave a brief report on the International Service Committee grant awards.

 

Steve Goranson – The Community Service Committee is meeting on Wednesday, Feb. 23, to evaluate the grant proposals that have been received.    

 

 

Kellie Fidei - Boasted Hillary Hufford-Tucker and her team for her work on the Community Engagement project.

 

Steve Goranson - boasted Lyle Staab for organizing clubs in the District to benefit the eradication of polio campaign. Lighthouse Club members Don Gwinn, Bryant Wallace, Nick Krayacich, Steve Goranson and friend Bob Boone joined 5,000 golfers (playing on golf simulators) on 3,000 courses in 50 countries to raise $750,000 to eradicate polio. Some 80 members of the District played in this event. Thank you, Lyle!

 

 

 

 

Chief Eddington is the interim chief of police in Evanston.  He served as Evanston police chief from 2007 through 2018 and has more than 40 years of law enforcement experience.

 

Chief Eddington holds a Master of Arts degree in Law Enforcement Administration from Western Illinois University and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Law Enforcement Administration from Loyola University.  He is a graduate of the FBI National Academy and is designated as a Retired Certified Chief by the Illinois Association of Chiefs of Police. 

 

After being introduced by Dan Coyne, Chief Eddington began by talking about the “Citizen Police Academy” program that is run two times a year.  It is designed to engage Evanstonians and promote better relationships with the police department. 

 

With crime statistics nationwide on the increase, there are two issues facing the department at this moment that are on his mind.  First is the staffing of the department.  Currently, there are 22 open positions due to retirements and quits.  This is being addressed by more focused recruiting of trained officers and changing the shift hours to provide for a more balanced life of the officers.

 

The second is handling the aggressive panhandling in the downtown area.  For this, more officers are on foot patrol and are accompanied by a representative from Trilogy, a behavioral health organization.  Also, signs encouraging donations to organizations that help people are being posted around the area. 

 

Several questions were addressed by the Chief:

 

Dan Coyne – How does training mitigate the use of guns by officers?  The response is training to get away from intimidation by an officer using a gun to mitigation of the situation without the use of a gun.

 

Kelly Fidei – Saw two officers interacting with a panhandler who was told by the officers to go back to Chicago.  Kellie asked if the officers were trained to offer help to that person.  The response was that the officers are trained for this, but likely knew the panhandler and he had refused help in the past so they directed him to leave.   

 

Keith Banks – Asked about the excessive use of force by police officers.  The response was that his department has been working to reduce the use of force and has been one of the first departments to use body cameras to train officers in mitigation.  He also mentioned that statistics on the use of force are on the Evanston Police Community Dashboard.  cityofevanston.org/epdhub. 

 

What are we doing to require police officers to live in Evanston?The response is that the cost of housing in Evanston is a deterrent to living in the city.There is no easy answer to this.Also, he is looking forward to re-starting the Police Explorer program at ETHS to begin to build career interest in serving as a police officer in Evanston.