Steve Hagerty, the founder of Hagerty Consulting, which Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass chose behind closed doors last week to lead the city’s rebuilding effort, had a disastrous tenure as mayor of the liberal college town of Evanston, Illinois.
As Breitbart News reported, L.A. hired Hagerty Consulting after a closed-door process in which the terms and price of the contract were not disclosed to the public.
The firm, based in Evanston, has a controversial history: Breitbart News exposed the fact that in 2022 and 2023, former leading consultants for the firm pleaded guilty for defrauding New York City during the Hurricane Sandy recovery effort by claiming reimbursements to which they were not entitled.
As Breitbart News also noted, Hagerty himself served as mayor of Evanston, one of the most left-wing towns in the United States. He “took part in a George Soros-funded mayors’ program, appointed his city’s first chief equity officer, and signed a resolution to recognize that his city’s land was stolen from Native Americans by ‘white colonizers’.”
In addition, Hagerty was mayor when a crisis erupted in city management, during which Evanston failed for years to hire a city manager to run its basic operations. One candidate after another was rejected, including one who was criticized by the Black Lives Matter movement for being too supportive of police. Hagerty left office before the city finally hired a manager — after spending “about $100,000 on hiring firms and countless hours deliberating.”
The real estate news website The Real Deal has more information about Hagerty’s brief and controversial tenure:
In 2016, Steve Hagarty [sic] ran for mayor of Evanston, heavily outspending his opponents in his first foray into public office. He eked out a victory by just 115 votes in a runoff election, the local Patch reported.
Then he hit enough political turbulence to warrant a disaster response. Within a couple months of taking office, Hagerty violated the Illinois Open Meetings Act by improperly calling an emergency meeting to reconsider raising the minimum wage, according to the office of Illinois Attorney General.
The Illinois mayor also became embroiled in controversy over plans, supported by Haggerty, to bulldoze a historic landmark near his house, an aborted investigation into government leaks and the cost of a library, projected to cost $30 million, but which grew to more than $53 million.
Hagerty left office after just one term, becoming the first one-term mayor in Evanston since World War II.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of The Agenda: What Trump Should Do in His First 100 Days, available for pre-order on Amazon. He is also the author of The Trumpian Virtues: The Lessons and Legacy of Donald Trump’s Presidency, now available on Audible. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
