Evanston Mayor, 52, Receives Vaccine Ahead Of Essential Workers

EVANSTON, IL — Evanston Mayor Steve Hagerty admitted Monday that he and other city officials outside the state's definition of the Phase 1b vaccine priority group received COVID-19 vaccinations last week after a city employee apparently determined that he and City Manager Erika Storlie qualified as "first responders."

During a remote meeting of the Evanston City Council, Ald. Tom Suffredin, 6th Ward, asked the mayor if he was aware of any elected officials — who are not considered front-line essential workers under the state's definition of Phase 1b — who have received vaccinations.

"I am not," Hagerty said.

A pause followed.

"I mean, just to — if people are asking, I have been vaccinated as part of 1b," Hagerty continued.

"Because everybody that was part of the emergency operations center — and I'm a member of the 'unified command' — was vaccinated," he said. "But I'm not aware, in terms of other elected officials, unless they were over the age of, you know, 72, that would have been vaccinated."

According to the Illinois Department of Public Health, only the following groups are eligible to receive vaccines in Phase 1b, due to their inability to work remotely and necessary proximity to co-workers and the public.

• Anyone 65 and up
• First responders, including police officers, firefighters, 911 telecommunicators and security personnel
• Educators from child care through 12th grade, including day care workers, teachers and administrators
• Food and agriculture workers, including those who work in processing plants, veterinarians and more
• Manufacturing, Postal Service, public transit workers
• Workers at shelters and rehabs
• Correctional workers and inmates
• Grocery store workers, including cashiers, stockers and baggers

Gov. J.B. Pritzker expanded the list to include 177 state legislators earlier this month, and some elected officials in Chicago — including Mayor Lori Lightfoot — were made eligible for shots under local health department rules. The governor said he would wait his turn.

Hagerty explained that the director of the city's health department had determined the mayor qualified for the group.

"It's all the health director — so: Ike Ogbo — who I don't think is with us tonight, that does this," the mayor said.

When asked how many other city officials who are able to work remotely have received vaccines, Ogbo told Patch in an email that Hagerty is an essential worker who "works closely with members of the EOC [emergency operations center], including me, and as such was vaccinated along with other staff in the EOC."

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Ogbo declined to say which CDC category of front-line essential worker the mayor and city manager qualify as.

But the only one of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's list of Phase 1b essential worker categories of which Hagerty could potentially be considered a member is "Other Justice, Public Order, and Safety Activities," which falls in the category "First Responders."

Meanwhile, the category "Executive, Legislative, and Other General Government Support" falls under Phase 1c, according to the CDC's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, or ACIP.

Leadership of the city's operations center includes police and fire officials, who do qualify as part of Phase 1b as defined by state and federal officials — as well as the city manager, who does not.

No front-line essential workers whose salaries are not paid by taxpayers have yet received vaccines from Evanston's health department, which are available by invitation only.

Hagerty did not immediately respond to questions about the message it sends to the public for city officials to decide to vaccinate elected officials, who are not generally considered members of Phase 1b, ahead of the front-line essential workers who are.

The mayor, who owns a local emergency management consulting firm, declined to seek a second term in office after former state senator and Mayor-Elect Daniel Biss entered the race for mayor last year.

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