Steve Hagerty

Hagerty directly allocated $4 million in good neighbor funds to infrastructure, human services, and public safety projects during his four-year term. In addition, he negotiated a one-year extension and $1.5M increase in the Good Neighbor Fund through 2021 to be focused on equity related projects.

Hagerty's agenda as mayor included economic development, affordable housing, city infrastructure, and youth development and public safety. His final 15 months was consumed with leading the city's COVID-19 response once he declared a local state of emergency on March 15, 2020, the first City in Illinois to do so.

During Hagerty's term, and until the COVID-19 pandemic, the City recorded record low unemployment and vacancy rates, increasing property values, and steadily increasing tax revenue. This was due in part to Hagerty and the council's emphasis on transit-oriented design, adding 1,000 new housing units to Evanston and 3,624 new residents according to the 2020 census results, all in a state with a declining population. Major new commercial developments included Centrum Evanston, Noyes Loft, The Link, Albion, 601 Davis, 1727 Oak Ave, and 1815 Ridge. Additional community amenities included Out of Space Concert Series, Downtown Target, Evanston's first Pridefest, Theo Ubique Theater, and many new breweries and stores.

During the social unrest following the murder of George Floyd, Hagerty had the City establish a Police Frequently Asked Questions page to provide greater transparency into current policing in Evanston. He committed to conduct a 90-day evaluation of the Evanston Police Use of Force policies as part of his pledge to the Obama Foundation's reimaging policing initiative. This evaluation was completed in partnership with Northwestern's Neighborhood Network (3N) Initiative. He also committed to have the police conduct an investigation, including review of all body worn police video, into a May 2020 use of force takedown. Lastly, he held a 9-part series live on Facebook and local television in July and August 2020 to increase the understanding of policing in Evanston and the experience of the young Black male in Evanston. Former President Obama praised Evanston for its collaborative efforts to develop recommendations to change the city's use of force policy and improve training and accountability standards.

Under Hagerty's leadership, Evanston was the first city in Illinois to declare a local state of emergency, activate its Emergency Operation Center, and establish a Mayors' Coronavirus Task Force. Throughout the pandemic, Hagerty communicated extensively with residents, held Coronavirus Q&A sessions, and preached a whole of community effort to the city's response and recovery. He was part of the unified command at the EOC. Under Hagerty's leadership the City recorded one of the lowest positivity rates per capita, fatality rates per capita, and highest vaccination rates of all urban ring cities in the United States. Despite his active involvement in the response and recovery effort, Hagerty was criticized for getting vaccinated in late January 2020 because some believed he did not qualify as an essential worker. The city's Health Department Director, Ike Ogbo, claimed Hagerty was essential and needed to be vaccinated because he worked in the EOC.

In 2020, the City Clerk, Devon Reid, and Misty Witenberg, publisher of Evanston Leads, charged Hagerty with abuse of power and intimidation, claiming he initiated the outside investigation into Reid, the City Clerk. The Ethics Board fully exonerated Hagerty and renounced Reid for his behavior during the five-hour Ethics Board hearing in which Reid shared with the public confidential human resource information that violated the privacy of city employees, according to the HR Director.

During the Fall of 2020, NU students along with other activists demanded the abolition of the NU Public Safety Department. They held 30+ days of straight unannounced, pop-up protests, taking over intersections, marching downtown and through neighborhoods, and protesting in front of NU President, Morton Shapiro's home, as well as Hagerty's home. On Halloween night, approximately 300 protestors, dressed in black and carrying open umbrellas, marched through downtown Evanston. They arrived with their own medics, spray paint, bricks, lasers, and high-powered fireworks. Some protestors extensively graffitied Northwestern's administration building, and damaged windows at Whole Foods and other properties downtown. One police officer was injured, and one protestor was arrested. Hagerty issued a public letter to President Shapiro within 24 hours stating that both police and protestors deserve to do their jobs peacefully, and when that doesn't occur, arrests will be made.

In the summer of 2019, City Manager Wally Bobkiewicz announced he was leaving to become the City Administrator in Issaquah, Washington. The City Council asked Assistant City Manager, Erika Storlie, to become the interim City Manager. In September 2019, the City staff suggested that the Council hire GovHR to lead the nationwide search. Alderman Suffredin and Fleming insisted that the Council interview the three finalist firms, thereby delaying the search five months. In February, on a 7–2 vote, with Fleming and Suffredin voting no, the Council engaged GovHR. Soon thereafter, the COVID-19 pandemic closed down Illinois and Evanston, and Hagerty declared a local state of emergency. On May 26, 2020, at the City Council meeting, Hagerty suggested that, given the pandemic and the excellent work of Erika Storlie, the Council consider disbanding the search, which had yet to really begin, and grant the permanent job to Storlie. The majority of the Council expressed interest in this path forward. However, prior to the next Council meeting, with protests over George Floyd's murder rising, opposition to Hagerty's recommendation mounted. On July 10, 2020, Erika Storlie requested that the City proceed with a national search. After completion of a national search, Erika Storlie was appointed the City Manager of Evanston in October 2020. The evening of her appointment some residents protested her selection. Hagerty described in an Op-Ed the disconnect between transparency and disagreement.

Wanting to bring attention to the importance of preventative care, especially during the pandemic, Hagerty chose to have a colonoscopy rather than attend the City Council meeting on December 14, 2020. Despite the advances in colonoscopy video technology, Mayor Hagerty's procedure was not streamed live on local television or Facebook Live.

Hagerty announced in October 2020 that he would not seek re-election to another term in office. In his farewell address, Hagerty asked Evanstonians not to let falsehoods replace facts, the overly critical replace critical thinking, or division to replace unity.

In an effort to protect resident's right to privacy, Hagerty, the City Attorney, and City Council refused to grant the Clerk the right to view body worn police camera recordings of non-arrested subjects, nor review and determine what is attorney-client privileged information. Hagerty and the City insisted that by law the only people who could review body worn police camera recordings of non-arrested subjects are the police or the subject of the video (or his or her attorney) but not any other City or elected officials, including the Clerk or the Mayor. After the Council refused to acquiesce to his demands, the Clerk filed a lawsuit against the City asking the Court to decide in his favor. In August 2019, Clerk Reid withdrew his lawsuit claiming that the council's move to add additional FOIA Officers, including one from the Police Department, removed his standing.

Due to a recent arrest of the City Clerk by the Evanston Police Department, Hagerty sent a confidential letter to the Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart asking him to conduct an investigation into the leak in order to restore the confidence of employees and the public in the city's ability to effectively manage its affairs. The same day, Hagerty notified the Council of his request. Less than eight business hours later, WGN reported on the Mayor's request for an investigation. The City Clerk subsequently conducted an interview with WGN referring to Hagerty's "Trumpian" ways in calling for an investigation of this leaked report. On August 2, 2019, Hagerty informed the community of his request and the importance of resetting our standards and restoring trust.

Hagerty was chosen to be the 2018 ETHS commencement speaker. The student newspaper, the Evanstonian, criticized the decision with an editorial titled, Graduation Needs a Wildkit, not Mayor Hagerty. They claimed Hagerty was a poor choice because he did not grow up in Evanston, did not send his kids to school in Evanston, and his sense of the community was misguided. Despite the call for a different speaker, Hagerty renewed his commitment to speak at graduation, rewrote his speech, and shared with the 864 graduate and 7,000 attendees at the Sears Arena what he thinks it means to be in Evanstonian and, by extension, a Wildkit.

After ETHS Sophomore Blake Peters hit a last-minute, three-quarters court shot with one second left in the game to beat Maine South 45–44, becoming the #1 ESPN shot of the game, with 2.5M views, Hagerty declared January 29, 2018, Blake Peters Day. Hagerty noted that Peters' shot is a great reminder that the impossible is sometimes possible. Within hours, a petition was circulated to revoke Blake Peters Day, criticizing Hagerty for recognizing something as trivial as a basketball player's shot.

At an election board meeting for the Harley Clarke Referendum in 2018, Lori Keenan, an unsuccessful 2021 Mayoral Candidate, moved to have Alderman Ann Rainey removed from the Election Board due to her support of the demolition of Harley Clarke to create additional open space. During the meeting, Rainey left the dais, confronted Kennan, cursed at her, and issued a threat. Kenan, and two other residents, filed an ethics complaint against Rainey, charging her with intimidation. The ethics board concurred and recommended to the Council that Rainey be prohibited to vote on any matters related to Harley Clarke. Hagerty disagreed strongly with this recommendation because it would disenfranchise residents in the eighth Ward, and therefore recommended censure of Rainey. On a 5–4 vote, with Rainey voting not to censure herself, the censure failed. Hagerty publicly inquired why the subject of the censure gets to vote on their own censure, and the City Attorney responded that the City Code says each Alderman is to determine whether they need to recuse themselves from a vote, and, if so, explain why.

In the Mayoral primary on February 28, 2017, Hagerty received 44.4% of the vote, advancing him to a runoff election facing sixth ward Alderman Mark Tendam, who won 20.5%. Despite Hagerty's lead in the primary, the runoff election on April 4, 2017, was surprisingly close, with less than a one percent margin separating Hagerty and Tendam. Tendam conceded the race six days later. The final election results showed Hagerty winning by just 115 votes, out of 17,899 votes.

Hagerty was sworn into office on May 8, 2017. Members of the 79th Evanston City Council's Rules Committee had raised concerns about a possible conflict of interest before Hagerty was sworn in, since First Bank and Trust, on whose Board of Directors Hagerty sat, was the city's financial institution, but Hagerty stepped down from the Board before taking office.

In June 2017, following President Donald Trump's announcement of withdrawal from the Paris climate agreement, Hagerty reiterated the city's commitment to climate action, reaffirming his support of the Compact of Mayors and the Climate Mayors coalition. In 2018, Hagerty committed Evanston to become the first City in Illinois to secure renewable energy for all Evanston properties by 2030, carbon neutrality by 2050, and zero waste by 2050. These commitments were made based on a 17-person task force Hagerty appointed to develop the Climate Action Resilience Plan (CARP) to guide the city's actions over the next decade. The US Conference of Mayor recognized Hagerty for Evanston's outstanding and innovative practices that increase energy efficiency, expand renewable energy, and reduce carbon emissions.

Following an October 2016 Cook County Board measure to gradually increase the county minimum wage to $13, many suburban municipalities passed measures overriding the wage hike just days before the first incremental increase to $10 on Saturday, July 1, 2017, including neighboring Wilmette and Skokie. Hagerty called an emergency meeting of the Evanston City Council on Friday, June 30, 2017, in order to give the Evanston community an opportunity to discuss the issue and temporarily suspend the decision until it's next public council meeting in July. The announcement was met with criticism from local leaders, including City Clerk Devon Reid, who stated that a minimum wage increase was not a "bona fide emergency" and therefore did not qualify for an impromptu emergency meeting under the Illinois Open Meetings Act. Further, Hagerty was attacked for calling the minimum wage increase "a fiscal danger to Evanston's businesses and the City of Evanston's future tax revenues," even though he supported such an increase during his campaign. At the emergency meeting, Hagerty did not call the meeting to order and members of the council announced that a vote on the override measure would not take place, expressing support for the wage increase. A week later, Skokie opted in to the minimum wage increase, and a year later, Wilmette did, too. Two months later, the Illinois Attorney General's office determined that the meeting had indeed violated the Open Meetings Act, although no remedial action was taken.

After Mayor Elizabeth Tisdahl announced her decision not to run for a third term, Hagerty announced his candidacy for mayor on October 18, 2016, becoming the third candidate out of an eventual five. His status on the ballot was briefly threatened by an objection from a supporter of Mayoral candidate Brian Miller, who claimed Hagerty's petitions did not cite the correct date of the election. After the electoral board dismissed this objection, fellow candidate Jeff Smith contested Hagerty's petitions, citing a 1992 city referendum changing the ballot procedure when multiple candidates run for the same office. This complaint was also dismissed by the electoral board. Hagerty's campaign quickly emerged ahead in fundraising; by January 2017, it had raised over $100,000, about half of which came from Hagerty himself. By March, Hagerty's campaign had raised more than all four other candidates combined.

Hagerty's involvement in the Evanston community included seats on the Boards of Directors of Youth & Opportunity United, a youth development agency, and of local financial institution First Bank & Trust. He also served as president of the Evanston Chamber of Commerce. In 2015, Hagerty chaired a city committee to explore options for the dilapidated Harley Clarke Mansion, a source of political controversy.

Hagerty signed a new Inclusionary Housing Policy to increase the number of affordable housing units in new developments and lifting the opt-out fee from $100,000 to $175,000. He also approved an ordinance allowing residents to have attached and unattached accessory dwelling units (ADUs). Hagerty advocated for and supported the first Housing Authority of Cook County (HACC) low income and missing middle apartment complex for seniors, paid for by market-rate apartments. During Hagerty's term, the Illinois Development Housing Agency (IDHA) reported that 17.5% of housing units in Evanston were affordable, relative to 15.4% in 2013.

Hagerty worked in the Office of Government Services at Price Waterhouse and subsequently PricewaterhouseCoopers, consulting with the Federal Emergency Management Agency, before founding his own emergency management firm, Hagerty Consulting, in 2001. After the September 11 attacks, Hagerty and his firm helped manage the federal government's $7.4 billion public assistance fund. Hagerty Consulting also assisted in the response and recovery efforts after Hurricane Katrina, Superstorm Sandy, Hurricane Michael, Hurricane Maria, the California Wildfires, the 2021 Texas Winter Storm, and the COVID-19 pandemic.

Hagerty grew up in Attleboro, Massachusetts. As a teenager, he worked on his family's farm, selling milk and garden produce to his neighbors, and served as a paper boy for his local newspaper, The Sun Chronicle. While attending Attleboro High School, Hagerty played as the only boy on the all-girls field hockey team his senior year before graduating in 1987. Hagerty attended Syracuse University, receiving a degree in consumer studies in 1991, and earned his Master of Public Administration from Syracuse's Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs in 1993. He moved to Evanston with his wife, Lisa Altenbernd, in 2001.

Stephen H. Hagerty (born November 15, 1968) is an American entrepreneur, businessman, and politician. He was the 21st mayor of Evanston, Illinois from May 8, 2017, to May 10, 2021. A month after Hagerty retired from office, Evanston was recognized as an All-American City by the National Civic League due to its local reparation's initiative and Evanston Cares Network, both of which occurred during his administration.