A former City of Evanston employee is alleging in a federal lawsuit that he was fired over his statements and social media posts supporting Palestinians.
Liam Bird, the city’s former manager of organizational performance and equity, filed the lawsuit in federal court on Friday. The 10-page complaint alleges Bird was terminated in violation of his First Amendment rights, and names the city, Mayor Daniel Biss, City Manager Luke Stowe and interim Corporation Counsel Alex Ruggie as defendants.
The lawsuit claims Bird was fired in December for expressing “sympathy for the plight of the Palestinian people in Gaza” in informal communications and on social media. It also alleges city officials “choreographed” public outrage toward Bird over a proposed resolution calling for a cease-fire in Gaza ahead of its introduction to the Equity and Empowerment Commission on Nov. 30.
City spokesperson Jessie Mayo provided a brief statement for the city via email Friday evening. “Although the City of Evanston does not comment on pending litigation, we fully support First Amendment rights for all, including employees, and will vigorously defend against any claim to the contrary,” Mayo wrote.
Biss did not respond to a request for comment, and Stowe and Ruggie did not provide individual comment.
Social media posts supported cease-fire
Bird began working for the city in June 2023, leaving his previous position as director of racial equity initiatives at Chicago Public Schools. His complaint states his main responsibility was to advise on racial equity within the city, which included serving as the staff liaison between City Manager Stowe and the Equity and Empowerment Commission.
The complaint alleges that at a weekly meeting of department directors and managers on Oct. 10 – three days after Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7 – Stowe and Biss communicated city leadership’s support for Israel, as well as plans to display Israeli flags in the Civic Center as a demonstration of this.
Bird told the RoundTable this was the first time foreign policy had been discussed in the weekly meetings since he’d been hired, and said he later emailed Stowe to state that the city needed to “care and sympathize for everyone” affected by the conflict.
“I think it’s important we both support the people of Israel as well as Palestinian people who are both caught in a war beyond their control,” Bird wrote, according to the complaint. “We should make sure to express solidarity and affirm the great challenges both are facing at this time. Let me know if I can help craft a statement for our community.”
Later in October, Bird shared messages in support of a cease-fire on his personal social media accounts, including a message by Bernice King on X (formerly known as Twitter) on Oct. 27. The complaint claims Bird was removed from the city’s internal “Directors list” and City Council meetings on Google Calendar later that day, and he told the RoundTable his removal was “never addressed” by any of his superiors.
Allegedly ‘set up’ ahead of meeting
In mid-November, the Equity and Empowerment Commission began working on the proposed cease-fire resolution. The lawsuit says Bird first learned about the resolution at the commission’s Nov. 16 meeting, and that he sent the draft to Stowe and Ruggie the next morning.
Bird told the RoundTable his role as the commission’s staff liaison was solely to communicate feedback between commissioners and the city manager, and said he had no personal input on the cease-fire resolution. “I had no power to change the resolution in any way,” Bird said.
The complaint alleges that on Nov. 20, Stowe and Policy Manager Alison Liepseiger met in Bird’s office and told him the commission’s Nov. 30 meeting should proceed. Bird told the RoundTable they also gave him edits to the draft resolution to send to the commission, and that he was told Mayor Biss was “communicating to me through the city manager.”
After this meeting, the lawsuit claims, several things happened ahead of the commission’s Nov. 30 session:
- Nov. 21: Bird’s name and work email address were newly listed on the commission’s web page as the staff liaison, according to the complaint.
- Nov. 28: Ruggie allegedly told Bird she’d determined the cease-fire resolution was outside the commission’s scope, but did not send her finished statement until less than two hours before the meeting on Nov. 30.
- Nov. 29: Mayor Biss was quoted as saying he didn’t think the commission should “delve into international issues” in an Evanston Now story.
Bird’s lawsuit alleges this collectively subjected Bird to “trauma and humiliation,” stating he received hundreds of emails opposing the resolution, was called “ignorant” and “unintelligent” in public comments at the Nov. 30 meeting, and one resident wrote to one of his family members.
According to the lawsuit, Bird was placed on leave on Dec. 5 pending an investigation of an ethics complaint filed against the commission. City spokesperson Jessie Mayo previously confirmed this ethics complaint in a Dec. 9 email to the RoundTable, writing that the city’s outside ethics counsel “is still determining jurisdiction.”
Stowe and Ruggie then fired Bird on Dec. 29, the lawsuit claims, and denied it was related to the commission’s meeting. Bird said the only reason he was given was his status as an “at-will employee,” which means the city can terminate his employment for any or no reason.
Bird told the RoundTable he felt he’d been “set up in some ways” as a new staff member, despite receiving “consistent praise” since he’d started working in June.
Social media posts “costing me my job … is deeply upsetting, and something that will follow my career that I’m looking to move forward from,” Bird said.
The full complaint can be read below.
Based only on the scant info presented in the article, taken almost entirely from the plaintiff’s suit, he may have basis to sue. But what were the problem social media posts? What was the resolution supporting Israel? Have other Evanston employees or officials spoken as private citizens in recent years in similar ways to what he claims caused his dismissal? Did they get in trouble too?
More info, please.
As a long time Evanston resident and family member and scholar of Middle Eastern politics, it was very disturbing to read of the racially inflected campaign and firing of City official Liam Bird. This is similar to hostile campaigns by militant Zionist groups to stifle critical discussion of the use of our tax dollars to fully support a campaign of genocidal ethnic cleansing against the native Palestinian population. We witnessed a similar witch-hunt against the first African-American President of Harvard and broader campaign against diversity in the corridors of power in this country. Evanston has long officially taken positions on issues of international concern such as Ukraine. To witness our city leaders siding with those who promote militarism, imperialism, and racism in American foreign policy is truly shocking and not shared by the majority of Evanston residents. Mayor Biss and the other named city officials must come clean in addressing the disturbing claims made in Liam Bird’s law suit.
Sincerely,
Mujeeb R. Khan
Good grief, this complaint holds little to no water. Bird claims in paragraph 22 that “Given his social media posts, his email to Stowe and his comments to Leipsiger,
Bird was a ‘dead man walking’, though he didn’t know it at the time. Defendants realized that
the optics of firing Evanston’s Black face of DEI over ‘progressive’ social media posts would be
problematic, but they had a plan.”
The so-called plan by Biss and Stowe was to get the Equity and Empowerment Commission to consider an ordinance that had nothing to do with city business, have Biss publicly say the commission should focus on Evanston issues, then “associate Bird with the resolution” (par. 25).
How did they “associate” Bird with the resolution? According to the complaint it was by having Bird’s email accessible on the City’s website, listing his job title. The complaint also cites a news story from Evanston Now that only said this about Bird: “Liam Bird, manager of organizational performance and equity for the city, who serves as staff liaison to the commission, did not respond to an email from Evanston Now asking who proposed the resolution. ”
I followed the proceedings of the Equity and Empowerment pretty closely when they decided to take up the issue and I had never even heard of Liam Bird until today.
Bird claims that he was fired for social media posts he made even though there is zero evidence presented in the complaint about city officials’ concern (or even knowledge) about his social media posts. The closest he comes is “Luke Stowe follows me on twitter.”
Given the alacrity to which Bird jumped to sue the city and the lack of evidence presented in the complaint, my feeling is that there is probably lots more to his termination than what he presents in the complaint.