Village of Glencoe Sets State Record on Transparency

With recent improvements to the Village of Glencoe's website achieved a 92.5 out of 100 possible points on our transparency test, the highest score we’ve ever recorded in llinois.

by Brian Costin

The Illinois Policy Institute has developed the Local Transparency Project and the 10-Point Transparency Checklist to hold government & elected officials accountable to the citizens and taxpayers and provide a “best practices” framework to improve government transparency all across Illinois.

The Village of Glencoe was one of 25 local government agencies we graded last July as part of a Local Transparency Project in the New Trier Township area in Northeastern Cook County.

When the initial project was completed the Village of Glencoe scored 49.25 out of 100 on the transparency test, modestly increasing their score by 10.5 points over the course of the 2 month project.

Since July, the Village Glencoe has made huge strides in improving online transparency and improving citizen access to information about the workings and expenses of their Village. They have improved in many of the 10 categories by posting a lot of information online including annual budgets & audits, lobbying, employee compensation, and more.

With these improvements the Village of Glencoe has now raised their transparency score to 92.5 out of 100. This new score represents the highest score we’ve ever recorded in the State of Illinois, surpassing a 90 score registered by School District 54 in Schaumburg Township.

Congratulations to the Village of Glencoe, their elected officials and administrative staff for setting the bar high when it comes to online transparency.

Below is how the Village of Glencoe scored in each category and links to those pages on their website.

Grading Key

Volunteers needed: How does your community rank on online transparency? The Illinois Policy Institute wants to do transparency audits for all of Illinois over 6,000 units of government, but can only do so with the help of volunteers and donors. If you wish to donate your time or resources to the Local Government Transparency Project please contact Brian Costin, Director of Outreach, at bcostin@illinoispolicy.org for more information.