New Oak Lawn mayor to implement Institute’s online transparency checklist

by Brian Costin Residents of Oak Lawn may soon get a much-needed dose of government transparency. Sandra Bury was recently sworn in as the new Mayor of Oak Lawn, a village in the southwest suburbs of Chicago. As one of her first priorities in office, Bury intends to implement the Illinois Policy Institute’s 10-Point Transparency Checklist,...

by Brian Costin

Residents of Oak Lawn may soon get a much-needed dose of government transparency.

Sandra Bury was recently sworn in as the new Mayor of Oak Lawn, a village in the southwest suburbs of Chicago.

As one of her first priorities in office, Bury intends to implement the Illinois Policy Institute’s 10-Point Transparency Checklist, increasing the amount of information available to Oak Lawn’s citizens.

From the Southtown Star:

In addition to ethics reform, Bury said she wants to bring a new transparency to the village government. She specifically cited a 10-point transparency checklist put together by the Illinois Policy Institute.

Orland Park was the first village to score 100 percent under the institute’s guidelines.

That checklist requires contact information for elected and administrative officials online, information about upcoming village meetings, copies of the minutes of meetings, information packets from previous meetings, publication of financial audits and budgets, salary and benefit information of public employees and access to public records through Illinois’ freedom of information law.

We applaud elected officials like Bury who are working on improving online transparency for their community.

With new elected officials being sworn in across the state of Illinois, it’s a great opportunity for residents and elected officials to start a new push for improving online transparency.

If you are an elected official and want help implementing online transparency measures for your local government agency, please contact me at bcostin@illinoispolicy.org.