Government Transparency

In a democratic Republic, government is the servant of the people, not their master. As such, government entities must operate in such a way to enable the people to hold their public servants accountable. Transparency is the key to enabling people to hold their public servants accountable.

In the words of a couple of important Illinois statutes:

"It is the public policy of this State that public bodies exist to aid in the conduct of the people’s business and that the people have a right to be informed as to the conduct of their business."
- Illinois Open Meetings Act, 5 ILCS 120/1.

"Pursuant to the fundamental philosophy of the American constitutional form of government, it is declared to be the public policy of the State of Illinois that all persons are entitled to full and complete information regarding the affairs of government and the official acts and policies of those who represent them as public officials and public employees consistent with the terms of this Act. Such access is necessary to enable the people to fulfill their duties of discussing public issues fully and freely, making informed political judgments and monitoring government to ensure that it is being conducted in the public interest."
- Illinois Freedom of Information Act, 5 ILCS 140/1.

As one of your elected public servants, I would like to see Minooka CCSD 201 run in the most transparent manner possible (consistent with applicable privacy laws).

To further transparency in Minooka CCSD 201, I am recommending the following steps be taken:

1. Posting of board packets (prior to school board meetings) to the District website. Any information for executive sessions should be removed and distributed to school board members separately.
2. Posting of District financial information (including the long form budgets, audits, Treasurer's reports, and monthly lists of bills) to the District website.
3. Posting of contact information (phone number and email address) of current school board members to the District website.
4. Posting of salary & benefit information to the District website.
5. Posting of all contracts (including vendor contracts and collective bargaining agreements) to the District website.
6. Posting of Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) officer contact information (as well instructions regarding how to submit FOIA requests) to the District website.

I believe these steps are fairly easy given the current state of District technology. I also believe these steps will go a long way to ensuring that Minooka CCSD 201 is run in a manner that is transparent to the public. If anyone has any additional ideas regarding transparency, please feel free to post a comment.