Local government transparency naughty/nice list
Nice list Many local taxing bodies in Illinois took a giant leap forward in 2013 when it comes to improving online transparency. And many local officials worked with the Illinois Policy Institute to meet our online transparency standards, per the 10-Point Transparency Checklist. Our report “Obstructed views: Illinois’ 102 county online transparency audit” showed that...
Nice list
Many local taxing bodies in Illinois took a giant leap forward in 2013 when it comes to improving online transparency. And many local officials worked with the Illinois Policy Institute to meet our online transparency standards, per the 10-Point Transparency Checklist.
Our report “Obstructed views: Illinois’ 102 county online transparency audit” showed that six Illinois counties earned our Sunshine Award for scoring an 80 percent or better on the 10-Point Transparency Checklist.
Those counties were:
- DuPage County
- Kane County
- Lake County
- Madison County
- Rock Island County
- Will County
We worked with a number of the state’s largest municipalities on online transparency. Of Illinois’ 25 largest municipalities by population, 11 earned the Institute’s Sunshine Award, including:
- Village of Arlington Heights
- City of Elgin
- City of Evanston
- Village of Prospect
- City of Naperville
- Village of Orland Park
- Village of Palatine
- City of Peoria
- Village of Schaumburg
- Village of Skokie
- Village of Tinley Park
The city of Evanston and the village of Skokie became the fifth and sixth taxing bodies in the state to earn a perfect 100 percent on the Institute’s 10-Point Transparency Checklist.
In 2013, three park districts became the first park districts to earn the Institute’s Sunshine Award.
- Naperville Park District
- Glen Ellyn Park District
- Hoffman Estates Park District
A number of other taxing bodies earned Sunshine Awards this year:
- Village of Huntley
- Village of Bensenville
- Community High School District #94
- Village of Villa Park
- Village of Hanover Park
We achieved a major goal when Hoffman Estates Park District became the 50th taxing body in the state to be awarded our Sunshine Award for online transparency.
Twenty-five taxing bodies earned Sunshine Awards this year. Unfortunately, the good news was overwhelmed by the bad. Four times as many taxing bodies, 102 agencies, failed our transparency test in 2013.
Naughty list
Our report on the online transparency of Illinois’ 102 counties showed 22 counties didn’t have websites at all, despite being some of the largest taxing bodies in the area.
Counties without websites:
- Alexander County
- Calhoun County
- Cass County
- Edwards County
- Gallatin County
- Greene County
- Hamilton County
- Hardin County
- Henderson County
- Jasper County
- Marion County
- Massac County
- McDonough County
- Perry County
- Pike County
- Pope County
- Richland County
- Saline County
- Schuyler County
- Scott County
- Wabash County
- Wayne County
Another 68 counties had websites but still failed our transparency test.
- Adams
- Bond
- Boone
- Brown
- Bureau
- Carroll
- Christian
- Clark
- Clay
- Clinton
- Coles
- Crawford
- Cumberland
- DeWitt
- Dekalb
- Douglass
- Edgar
- Effingham
- Fayette
- Ford
- Franklin
- Fulton
- Grundy
- Hancock
- Henry
- Iroquois
- Jackson
- Jefferson
- Jersey
- Jo Daviess
- Johnson
- Kankakee
- Kendall
- Knox
- LaSalle
- Lawrence
- Lee
- Logan
- Macon
- Marshall
- Mason
- McHenry
- McLean
- Menard
- Mercer
- Monroe
- Montgomery
- Morgan
- Moultrie
- Ogle
- Peoria
- Piatt
- Pulaski
- Putnam
- Randolph
- Sangamon
- Shelby
- Stephenson
- Tazewell
- Union
- Vermilion
- Warren
- Washington
- White
- Whiteside
- Williamson
- Winnebago
- Woodford
Additionally, we conducted a transparency audit of the 25 largest cities in the state by population size. Twelve of the largest 25 cities in Illinois failed the online transparency audit.
- Chicago
- Aurora
- Rockford
- Joliet
- Springfield
- Cicero
- Champaign
- Decatur
- Bolingbrook
- Des Plaines
- Oak Lawn
- Berwyn
The massive amount of taxing bodies failing in the realm of online transparency shows the need for comprehensive online transparency standards to be enacted in 2014.
In 2013, a comprehensive online transparency bill, House Bill 3312, stalled in the Illinois General Assembly after unanimously passing the Illinois House’s Counties and Township Committee.
Hopefully, 2014 will be a better year than 2013 for local government online transparency initiatives on both the state and local level.