After Ann Arbor Assistant Administrator Fournier Backed Out of Evanston Top Job, Evanston Mayor Says, “We Dodged a Bullet”

by P.D. Lesko

In May 2022, Ann Arbor Assistant City Administrator John Fournier left officials in Evanston, IL scratching their heads after Fournier spent a week sending “counters” to an employment contract that had been approved by a 9-1 vote of Evanston’s City Council. The day after Evanston, IL City Council approved the six-page contract which would have paid Fournier $250,000 and provided him an interest free $200,000 loan to be used toward housing/relocation, public records released by the City of Evanston show Fournier sought to re-open contract negotiations. Even though Fournier had, at a public Council meeting in Evanston, accepted the job of City Manager and thanked Evanston City Council members for voting to hire him, it turns out Fournier had not resigned his position in Ann Arbor. He was taken back and is presently the Assistant City Administrator.

More than one Ann Arbor City Council member expressed disappointment Fournier was welcomed back to his job.

The Council members expressed concerns about that they allege is Fournier’s lack of transparency. In his pursuit of the top job in Evanston, Fournier touted his commitment to open exchanges and his commitment to transparency.

In 2021, The Ann Arbor Independent submitted a Freedom of Information Act request for all of the direct dial phone numbers of Ann Arbor City staff. The phone numbers, in many cases, are available on the City’s website, but are difficult to find. Fournier, in his capacity as Acting City Administrator, denied the newspaper’s request for these public records.

On a public Facebook page where local politics are discussed, one Ann Arbor resident wrote when Fournier was offered the Evanston job: “He’s Evanston’s problem now. I just want Ann Arbor to save $$$ by eliminating the unnecessary assistant administrator position.”

Fournier has reportedly said that he withdrew from the Evanston job because the terms of his contract related to housing/relocation were somewhat less clear than he had been led to believe.

Over 800 pages of emails and documents were released by the City of Evanston in response to a public records request by The Ann Arbor Independent.

Among the emails released was one from Daniel Biss, Mayor of Evanston, in which he writes, “Yeah, I can’t explain what happened with any certainty but I do feel completely sure it goes beyond him not understanding a contract we’d been negotiating for a full week.” Biss goes on to say in the email, “In any case, this behavior does make me think we dodged a bullet.”

One Evanston resident with relatives in Ann Arbor wrote to Biss on May 16: “I have relatives in Ann Arbor and they said that their City Council is a mess, Fournier left under a cloud, etc….”

The Evanston resident forwarded to Mayor Biss the email he’d received from his Ann Arbor “source.”

The Ann Arbor “source,” a resident and a former Dean of the University of Michigan School of Social work, told his Evanston relative, “I would be wary of the new city manager [Fournier]. He left under a cloud. Somewhat mysterious! I doubt if his hands are completely clean [referring to the allegations that Fournier discriminated against Ann Arbor’s former HR Dir. Tom Guajardo]. Beware! Our City Council spends more time fighting than leading. Not a very productive arrangement.”

In fact, part of former HR Dir. Tom Guajardo’s discrimination complaint against Fournier involved questions Fournier had asked during Guajardo’s hiring process. Several of them are clearly illegal and all are racially biased. Fournier’s questions to Guajardo, who is of Latin descent, included these:

• “How many times have you been pulled over by a police officer and let go without a citation?”
• “Have you ever been disciplined, suspended, expelled or put on academic probation in high school or a post secondary school.”
• “Have you ever been accused of stealing something from any employer, whether you did it or not?“
• “Have you ever purchased an item that was repossessed?”
• “Have you ever as a juvenile or an adult been accused or suspected of breaking the law?”

Fournier was exonerated from legal wrongdoing, but the investigator confirmed that the HR policies were indeed discriminatory and “contained some inappropriate and unnecessary questions that could result in discrimination against minority applicants.” In his year as interim HR director, Fournier did not change what an independent investigation concluded were discriminatory HR policies.

When the Ann Arbor Independent Police Oversight Commission wanted access to police personnel records, Fournier sided with the Police union and denied access, in order to get “a mutually agreeable solution with the union.” ICPOC now has to submit FOIA requests for each record, which delays every investigation.

Clare Kelly is a school teacher and in her first term on Evanston City Council. She was the only member of Council who voted against hiring Fournier. In emails, Kelly grilled Evanston’s Mayor Biss about why Council members had been “kept in the dark” about Fournier’s involvement in the Guajardo allegations of discrimination, and the dismissal of former HR Dir. Robyn Wilkerson in 2019. In one email, Kelly alleges that the Evanston City Council “never even took a final vote” before it was announced that Fournier had been offered the job.

“Council got bulldozed,” said Council member Kelly in an email to Mayor Biss, “and by extension the residents did, too.”

Council member Kelly alleged in her email to Biss that it was “also not surprising that Fournier allowed for blatantly racist HR policies while he himself was acting head of HR.”

On May 31, 2022, after it was revealed Fournier had turned down the Evanston job, former Ann Arbor Council member Jack Eaton (D-Ward 4) posted this comment in response to a Facebook post about Fournier’s bid to serve as the Evanston city manager:

From the Salvatore report “vindicating” Fournier:

“At most, Mr. Fournier was described as having a “certain way of managing people,” and at times being “demeaning,” but no one I interviewed (including the minority staff member who Mr. Guajardo believes was treated badly) said that Mr. Fournier manages in a way that is racially discriminatory or treats individuals differently based on race.”

“In other words,” wrote Eaton, “he [Fournier] didn’t discriminate. He treated everyone poorly. And between the senior staff who was demeaning and the highly qualified minority employee who complained of mistreatment, the one still employed by the City is the perpetrator.”

On May 24, Fournier, in an email to Evanston City Council member Devon Reid, said he was “excited to work with you and council and excited to get started.”

Three days later, Fournier sent Mayor Biss a Notice of Withdrawl in which he wrote that, “I asked the City Council to consider restructuring some of the compensation (without increasing it) to facilitate down payment assistance on a house and relocation costs. Thank you to Council for taking the time to meet and consider my request. Sadly, I cannot accept the position to become your next City Manager under the terms offered. Specifically, I cannot finance relocating our family and acquiring housing within the timelines contemplated in the contract and without serious inconvenience and hardship on our family.”

An email from the Evanston Corporation Counsel, Nicholas Cummings, makes clear what Fournier wanted: “The next day Mr. Fournier sought to reopen contract negotiations requesting to restructure the contract to include part of his compensation in advance. The City Council responded quickly with a further offer which was later declined by Mr. Fournier.”

One Evanston City Council member scoffed at Fournier’s claim in his letter that he “couldn’t finance relocating” his family and “acquiring housing.”

Data from the U.S. Dept. of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) shows that the cost of a home in Evanston, IL is just eight percent higher than the cost of a home in Ann Arbor. Public records show that Fournier purchased his home in 2019 for $400,000. The present value of the home is estimated to be $502,000. As acting City Administrator, Fournier was paid $233,600 and as Assistant City Administrator is paid $153,000.

“Fournier wanted a $900,000 house,” joked one Evanston Council member. “The Mayor doesn’t live in a $900,000 house.”

After Fournier walked away from the Evanston job, in her emails Clare Kelly, the lone Evanston Council member who voted against hiring Fournier, felt vindicated in her conclusions that Fournier should never have been elevated to the position of finalist for the position of City Manager.

Kelly, in emails exchanged with Council members after Fournier’s Notice of Withdrawl, said that her city had avoided hiring a new city manager who was not a good fit for a community working to improve its diversity and equity record.

“We need a City Manager with integrity,” said Kelly in an email. “Hiring Fournier would have killed hope of creating a better, healthier environment in the CoE [City of Evanston].”