Elgin leaders talk diversity, education and image

Elgin’s image, educational options and lack of diversity among staff were the hot topics of a Friday afternoon session during which city leaders discussed strategic goals.

There are 10 goals in all and the city is using them to help develop a strategic plan for Elgin’s future. The plan is expected to be adopted this summer.

The city needs to do more to highlight its positive attributes — like its diverse housing stock and its planetarium — to help destroy negative perceptions others may have about Elgin, Mayor Dave Kaptain said.

For example, instead of going on the defensive about the city’s safety, leaders should say Elgin has one of the lowest crime rates in Illinois.

“We don’t tell our story enough,” Councilman Bob Gilliam said. “We don’t tell people the good things that are going on.”

Because of the negative image others have about the city, Elgin has developed an inferiority complex that has bled over into development and forced officials to offer lucrative incentive packages to lure business, Councilman John Prigge said.

Corporation Counsel Bill Cogley took exception to that and said incentives are the way the development game is played. He pointed out other cities use the same practice, just like Chicago did to acquire Boeing.

“I don’t see it as an inferiority complex,” Cogley said. “I see it as a business decision.”

Another part of improving Elgin’s image involves building a better relationship with Elgin Area School District U-46 and working on two things: helping the district get its positive stories out to the public and creating specialty schools — like charter or magnet schools — to eliminate the perception that there aren’t enough options among elementary schools.

Councilwoman Tish Powell says the latter is a constant complaint she hears from parents who are pulling their children out of the district in favor of another one, or choosing private school.

“U-46 has an image problem, just as Elgin has an image problem and that’s a perfect place to start,” Powell said.

On the diversity issue, Elgin leaders want to ensure the city’s workforce mirrors the community and increase diversity among its contractors.

“There are maybe things in our education requirements or processes that we are inadvertently setting up barriers,” Councilwoman Anna Moeller said, citing the police and fire commission. “Maybe we’re excluding veterans from applying because of the education requirements.”

Rather than lowering its standards, Powell said the city should “cast a wider net.”

“We’re in the Chicago area, which is one of the most diverse metropolitan areas in the country,” Powell said. “There are people here of all different backgrounds and trades that I’m quite sure that you could recruit to our community.”

City Manager Sean Stegall said one of the best ways to increase staff diversity is to hire people of color early in their careers and then to promote them. He acknowledged recruiting has been a bit of a challenge with the layoffs.

The city would likely use the existing human relations commission to work on this issue.

Other discussions centered on economic development, finding an identity for downtown Elgin, the use of grants and funds from tax increment finance districts, cracking down on code enforcement and tossing out codes that have become obsolete.