Willowbrook Wins Transparency Award
by Brian Costin At the Village of Willowbrook board meeting on April 11th, the Illinois Policy Institute awarded a Certificate of Achievement to the Village Board for their participation and success in the Institute’s Local Transparency Project. “As of an audit on April 8, 2011, the Village of Willowbrook’s transparency score is an 86.8 out of 100. This...
by Brian Costin
At the Village of Willowbrook board meeting on April 11th, the Illinois Policy Institute awarded a Certificate of Achievement to the Village Board for their participation and success in the Institute’s Local Transparency Project.
“As of an audit on April 8, 2011, the Village of Willowbrook’s transparency score is an 86.8 out of 100. This represents a more than a 52.5 point improvement from the initial baseline audit conducted November 2010.”
Certificates of Achievement are available to all local government agencies in Illinois who either:
- Demonstrate a 25 point improvement in online transparency scores, as graded by the Illinois Policy Institute.
- Score an 80 out of 100 or better on the Local Transparency Project, as graded by the Illinois Policy Institute.
The Village of Willowbrook has achieved the 2nd highest score for any municipality, and the third highest score of any local government agency graded in the State of Illinois, so far.
Here’s the story from the Willowbrook/Burr Ridge Triblocal article, “Willowbrook receives transparency award“.
Many of the increased transparency efforts were undertaken by the village’s municipal management intern, Garrett Hummel, who is a graduate student at Northern Illinois University.
Over the past months Hummel dug through old boxes of records, scanning them so that they could be placed online in a searchable format.
Now he says anyone can go back through a lot of documents – extending back for three to five years – that are stored and searchable on the village’s website. That includes things like contract information, budget documents, board minutes and agendas.
“There’s an understanding now that more and more information needs to be available and we’re trying our best to do that,” Hummel said.
He said having the information available online helps the village too. “It helps staff because we don’t have to look through files as much,” Hummel said.
Pictured above on the left is Willowbrook’s municipal management intern, Garrett Hummel, and on the right is Illinois Policy Institute volunteer, Steve Woodward. Steve was our volunteer on the Local Transparency Project for the Downers Grove Township area. Thanks to both for their help on this project.