Illinois transparency headlines
From Sunshine Review
This article is a list of transparency related news from Illinois.
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| Report It • | The Good • | The Bad • | The Ugly | |
Dekalb Daily Chronicle editor: "Transparency already foggy"
Chicago Alderman helps expose bribery
Carothers helped the FBI as apart of an agreement between the two parties. In exchange for Carothers help in exposing local corruption, the FBI has agreed to reduce past corruption charges against him. In 2006, Carothers was charged for accepting a $40,000 bribe from a local developer who was pursuing city approval for a residential development.[1]
In addition, Carothers later admitted in 2007 to having had received around $45,000 from Aiyash in exchange for his support of a proposal that granted Aiyash permission to develop in a certain area.[2]
Sunlight in Illinois school districts
SB 2270 is sponsored by Daniel Cronin, Kirk Dillard, Chris Lauzen, and John Millner in the Senate. It is sponsored by Sandra M. Pihos, Patricia R. Bellock, Sandy Cole, Renée Kosel, Jack D. Franks, Keith Farnham and Linda Chapa LaVia in the House. The bill will require every school district to post on its website a “compensation report” for all administrative officials in the district, including salaries, benefits, pension contributions and bonuses.[3]
Illinois local officials might sue after being insulted
The superintendent and board president of Warren Township High School might look into legal action against a man who they say made "unflattering comments" about them at a recent public meeting.
Superintendent Phil Sobocinski and board President John Anderson said will look into whether the Tuesday meeting's confrontation included defamation when a retired instructor gave a 3-minute spiel. Retired Warren instructor Rick Bryan included words such as "cheating," "deception" and "illegal" in his speech.
Bryan was bringing up a controversy involving the school requiring juniors to meet tougher academic standards before taking an annual achievement test.
Sobocinski plans to consult an attorney about whether to seek legal action against the public meeting commenter. A First Amendment lawyer, Donald Craven, doubts he would get far in the process. Craven said under a state law, the public has more leeway when speaking at government meetings.[4]
Illinois governor signs bill to improve FOIA laws
Attorney General Lisa Madigan has named Cara Smith the states new public access counselor. Smith will be responsible for handling the expanded role of the Attorney general's office and the influx of records complaints that Madigan is expecting as the new Illinois law goes into effect on January 1, 2010.
Gov. Quinn signs improved sunshine law
SPRINGFIELD, Illinois: Gov. Pat Quinn has signed HB 1370. HB 1370 improves the Illinois Freedom of Information Act by reducing from 7 to 5 the number of days within which an agency must respond to a FOIA request. HB 1370 also gives new powers to the Office of the Attorney General of Illinois to resolve disputes over which records are open and which are exempt.[5]
The reforms came about in the wake of the corruption-ridden administration of former Gov. Rod Blagojevich.[6]
Illinois Governor Quinn sheds light on public employee salaries
On August 11, 2009, Governor Quinn signed in to law a piece of transparency legislation that Americans for Prosperity and State Representative Michael Tryon (R – Crystal Lake) spearheaded. The bill, House Bill 35, will create the “Illinois Accountability Portal” as a law, requiring the Department of Central Management Services to create a transparent website with information regarding state expenditures, tax credits, state employee salaries and state contracts.
“I am proud to have worked with Americans for Prosperity on this initiative. After a two-year battle taxpayers will now have an opportunity to see how their hard earned tax dollars are being spent. I will continue to advocate for the type of common sense reforms that protect taxpayers and hold our government to the highest of standards,” said Rep. Tryon.
The 2009 version of the Illinois Accountability Portal (House Bill 35) received bi-partisan support and support from several grassroots organizations, trade associations, press associations, and taxpayer protection groups. There was strong opposition from labor unions because they did not believe salaries of state employees should be made public.
“We are pleased that Governor Quinn has signed HB 35 into law. Transparency is the first step towards holding our elected officials accountable for how they spend our tax dollars. Now, we must ensure that implementation takes place within the 12 month time span dictated by the act.” said Americans for Prosperity’s state director Joe Calomino.
Transparency-improving bill on Illinois governor's desk
This Senate Bill that has been passed on to the Governor as of June 26, 2009, amends the Illinois Governmental Ethics Act. It requires that an applicant (for gubernatorial appointment to boards, commissions, authorities, and task forces) must provide specified documents to the Governor's Office of Boards and Commissions, the Office must hold a public hearing before appointing or nominating an applicant, the Office must provide to the Senate specific information on all applicants nominated for Senate confirmation, and the Office must post specified information on its website about appointment requirements, applicants, and appointees.
The bill requires all applicants and appointees to file statements of economic interests. As of now, only nominees for and appointees to positions requiring Senate confirmation must file statements. These changes would be effective immediately.[7]
Chicago's TIF sunshine falls short
When the Department of Community Development (DCD) spokesperson Susan Massel said, "We believe we've done a good job of meeting the requirements of the ordinance."
The DCD website provides a series of PDF documents in the TIF section that must be downloaded in order to be searched.
The "TIF District Overviews" provides a set of links to seven regions: North, Northwest, West, Southwest, South, Far South, and Central. The "TIF Annual Reports" link provides only six groupings of TIF districts: Central Area, North Side, Northwest Side, South Side, Southwest Side, West Side. Five new TIF districts, all designated in 2009, are not provided on the site, making it difficult to have an accurate count of TIF districts.
Comparing the site to the original legislation, the site does not fulfill the requirements because only the most recent annual reports for TIFs designated after July 30, 2004 are published when the ordinance called for all to be published. Also, many of the links are broken in addition to the five missing TIFs passed in 2009.
Massel called the website "a work in progress," though the deadline has passed.[4]
Local officials urge FOIA bill amendments
The Illinois State’s Attorneys Association and the Illinois Municipal League are also pushing for changes. They are all worried about excessive access to public records that would produce a need to hire more people to attend to the records retrieval and would result in having to fire someone else in the state's payroll.
The organizations "would scuttle provisions" for a counselor assigned to records access disputes and would have subpoena power. The counselor would issue decisions infallible except by a judge. Those opposing the amendment bill think that it's going to cause more trouble for the state.
Prosecutors and the municipal league officials say the bill on the governor’s desk would give too much power to one person in addition to making too much work for the receivers of FOIA requests. They oppose criminalizing FOIA violations.
"With this new law, providing paperwork about governments' activities becomes more important than the activities themselves," Frang writes. "It is regrettable that there may be cases where municipalities will be forced to lay off firefighters and police officers so that they can afford more FOIA lawyers and other responders to help comply with this 'primary duty.'"
The state's attorney association is concerned that undercover operatives and informants will be in danger of exposure.
Don Craven is the acting director of the Illinois Press Association and a Springfield lawyer who concentrates on public-records law and he says this claim is nonsense because the bill already has clauses protecting these situations.[4]
[edit] See also
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