by Kate Piercy The Illinois Policy Institute sent a Freedom of Information Request into the state asking for state employee salary information, and it came back with some puzzling data: Illinois taxpayers gave former governor Rod Blagojevich $28,880.07 in 2009. His “monthly salary” was $14,784.33, so it appears he received two months of pay in...

by Kate Piercy The News-Gazette sounded a warning today with regards to the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), reacting to the efforts to weaken FOIA some have already attempted: The new Freedom of Information law was barely two weeks old when legislators amended it the first time in January, repealing a provision that made evaluations of public school...

by Brian Costin An audit of the Hanover Township area in Northwestern Cook County revealed only 1 of 12 local government agencies graded received a passing grade on basic online transparency guidelines.  The “Local Transparency Project”, a project of the non-partisan Illinois Policy Institute, consists of two separate transparency audits 6 weeks apart on 10 different online...

by Brian Costin An 6-month follow up audit of the Schaumburg Township area in Northwestern Cook County revealed that still only 4 of 18 local government agencies graded received a passing grade on basic online transparency guidelines.  The “Local Transparency Project”, a project of the non-partisan Illinois Policy Institute, consists of two separate transparency audits 6...

by Brian Costin An audit of the New Trier Township area in northern Cook County revealed only 4 of 25 local government agencies graded received a passing grade on basic online transparency guidelines.  The “Local Transparency Project”, a project of the non-partisan Illinois Policy Institute, consists of two separate transparency audits 6 weeks apart on 10 different...

by Brian Costin An audit of the Palatine Township area in Northwestern Cook County revealed only 1 of 12 local government agencies graded received a passing grade on basic online transparency guidelines.  The “Local Transparency Project”, a project of the non-partisan Illinois Policy Institute, consists of two separate transparency audits 6 weeks apart on 10 different online...

An audit of the Barrington Township area in Northwestern Cook County revealed no local government agencies graded received a passing grade on basic online transparency guidelines.  The “Local Transparency Project”, a project of the non-partisan Illinois Policy Institute, consists of two separate transparency audits 6 weeks apart on 10 different online transparency categories including elected & administrative...

An 6-month follow up audit of the Schaumburg Township area in Northwestern Cook County revealed that still only 4 of 18 local government agencies graded received a passing grade on basic online transparency guidelines.  The “Local Transparency Project”, a project of the non-partisan Illinois Policy Institute, consists of two separate transparency audits 6 weeks apart...

An audit of the Palatine Township area in Northwestern Cook County revealed only 1 of 12 local government agencies graded received a passing grade on basic online transparency guidelines.  The “Local Transparency Project”, a project of the non-partisan Illinois Policy Institute, consists of two separate transparency audits 6 weeks apart on 10 different online transparency categories including...

An audit of the New Trier Township area in northern Cook County revealed only 4 of 25 local government agencies graded received a passing grade on basic online transparency guidelines.  The “Local Transparency Project”, a project of the non-partisan Illinois Policy Institute, consists of two separate transparency audits 6 weeks apart on 10 different online transparency...