Mount Prospect posts 96 years of meeting minutes online

by Andrew Wyatt In April 1917, Ella Fitzgerald was born, the United States joined World War I and the first board meeting of the newly organized village of Mount Prospect was held at William Wille’s Hall. And if you wanted to, you could pull up the minutes from this inaugural meeting online. That’s because the...

by Andrew Wyatt

In April 1917, Ella Fitzgerald was born, the United States joined World War I and the first board meeting of the newly organized village of Mount Prospect was held at William Wille’s Hall.

And if you wanted to, you could pull up the minutes from this inaugural meeting online. That’s because the village of Mount Prospect posts the minutes of every board meeting in the village’s history on its website.

This is no small feat, considering that numerous municipalities and counties throughout the state still don’t have websites.

Since 2010, the Illinois Policy Institute has graded more than 300 websites for online transparency as part of our Local Transparency Project. One of the items we look for from each government entity is at least five years’ worth of meeting minutes online.

Mount Prospect is the first local government entity we’ve seen that posts meeting minutes online as far back as 1917.

In comparison, the neighboring village of Schaumburg has less than two hard to navigate and non-searchable years of information online.

When government is more open, accountable and accessible, citizens can actively participate in the Democratic process, and public corruption can be avoided.

We wish more communities were like Mount Prospect when it comes to posting meeting minutes online.