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While the township itself passed, thirteen out of 14 government agencies within Hanover Township failed an assessment of transparency by the Illinois Policy Institute.
The nonprofit, nonpartisan research and education organization released last week the results of an online transparency audit of government agencies falling within Hanover Township. Of 14 units audited, only Hanover Township as an individual entity passed the group’s online audit by meeting its transparency standards.
Failing entities included the village of Bartlett, Bartlett Public Library, Bartlett Park District, School District U-46, city of Elgin, Elgin Community College, village of Streamwood, Streamwood Park District, Gail Borden Public Library, Poplar Creek Library, village of Hanover Park, Hanover Park Library, and Hanover Park Park District.
Because the institute focuses on free-market and economic liberty, Director of Outreach Brian Costin said the audit’s objectives were to ensure that each entity was exhibiting a high level of transparency to its citizens.
“Transparency is one of those things if you shine the light on government, people will be more encouraged to act better and it will be easier for taxpayers to figure it out and correct bad behavior,” he said.
The institute conducted its initial research in late May, Costin said. After consulting with each entity about their scores, the government bodies were given six weeks to make improvements before a second and final audit was completed.
Ten criteria were used to score the agencies’ websites, including whether each listed information about contacting elected officials, meeting schedules, Freedom of Information Act requests, budgets, and employee salaries and benefits. Similar to grades, scores were out of 100 points.
Initially, Hanover Township scored a failing 12.9 percent, but during the six-week period, officials made improvement to increase the final score by more than 57 points to more than 70 percent.
Simple actions such as posting contact information for officials raised scores.
Costin said the institute is driven by citizen concerns, and it was Hanover Township’s May announcement of its investigation into fraudulent activity by the former director of welfare services that prompted them to conduct the transparency audit in hopes of providing preventative insight.
Hanover Township Supervisor Brian McGuire said the township’s website was undergoing a major overhaul, resulting in lower scores when it was first audited.
“The first audit brought to mind some of the things we could put on our website,” he said. “Our view was we wanted to be as open as possible and make it as easy as possible for people who are looking for information.”
While the township itself passed, thirteen out of 14 government agencies within Hanover Township failed an assessment of transparency by the Illinois Policy Institute.
The nonprofit, nonpartisan research and education organization released last week the results of an online transparency audit of government agencies falling within Hanover Township. Of 14 units audited, only Hanover Township as an individual entity passed the group’s online audit by meeting its transparency standards.
Failing entities included the village of Bartlett, Bartlett Public Library, Bartlett Park District, School District U-46, city of Elgin, Elgin Community College, village of Streamwood, Streamwood Park District, Gail Borden Public Library, Poplar Creek Library, village of Hanover Park, Hanover Park Library, and Hanover Park Park District.
Because the institute focuses on free-market and economic liberty, Director of Outreach Brian Costin said the audit’s objectives were to ensure that each entity was exhibiting a high level of transparency to its citizens.
“Transparency is one of those things if you shine the light on government, people will be more encouraged to act better and it will be easier for taxpayers to figure it out and correct bad behavior,” he said.
The institute conducted its initial research in late May, Costin said. After consulting with each entity about their scores, the government bodies were given six weeks to make improvements before a second and final audit was completed.
Ten criteria were used to score the agencies’ websites, including whether each listed information about contacting elected officials, meeting schedules, Freedom of Information Act requests, budgets, and employee salaries and benefits. Similar to grades, scores were out of 100 points.
Initially, Hanover Township scored a failing 12.9 percent, but during the six-week period, officials made improvement to increase the final score by more than 57 points to more than 70 percent.
Simple actions such as posting contact information for officials raised scores.
Costin said the institute is driven by citizen concerns, and it was Hanover Township’s May announcement of its investigation into fraudulent activity by the former director of welfare services that prompted them to conduct the transparency audit in hopes of providing preventative insight.
Hanover Township Supervisor Brian McGuire said the township’s website was undergoing a major overhaul, resulting in lower scores when it was first audited.
“The first audit brought to mind some of the things we could put on our website,” he said. “Our view was we wanted to be as open as possible and make it as easy as possible for people who are looking for information.”
The township touts a new transparency center link on its website that provides financial records, staff salaries, board agendas and minutes, budgets and financial audit reports.
“All of this is public record,” McGuire said. “It’s kind of silly to try to hide something. That’s the approach we’ve taken, because we can be open about anything we want to.”
Bartlett Public Library Director Todd Morning said the library is in full compliance with FOIA standards and the institute’s audit results don’t accurately reflect its practices. He said the library didn’t take the results too seriously because they reflect only one group’s opinion.
“This isn’t the sort of thing that worries me because it is arbitrary,” he said, adding certain documents aren’t online because they weren’t able to be formatted correctly.
Morning said the library will gladly supply residents any document through a FOIA request.
