Open Illinois.org

Policy Resources

The Illinois Policy Institute has developed several resources for you to use both to get general information on transparency and to learn how government bodies have achieved transparency elsewhere. Below–and under the Resources tab above–is a listing of our transparency resources, including model legislation, to-dos and more!

Sample FOIA (Freedom of Information Act) letter. Use this letter to file a Freedom of Information Act request.

How To Get Information Online. Posting information online is a rather simple task given today’s technology. Electronic documents can be placed on the Internet with no software cost, and the cost in personnel time is minimal. The time required is the time it takes to send a document to a printer, save a file and then copy it to a specified directory. In other words, it takes a few seconds of manpower for each document to be made available.

Model Language: Open Meetings. Would you like your local government to improve its process for going into closed session? Could your government’s process be more open than it is now? Liberty Leaders in Champaign proposed the following resolution to the County of Champaign. You can use this language as a model for your own transparency laws or resolutions at the village, township, city, and county levels, and with school, library and park district boards.

How To Approach Your School Board Ideas on how to propose transparency to your local school board.

Model Language: Golf, IL Transparency Resolution: A resolution from the Village of Golf, IL, which passed a comprehensive fiscal transparency resolution in June 2008. You may use this language as a model for your own transparency laws or resolutions at the village, township, city, and county levels, and with school, library and park district boards.

News Media

The Institute and our Transparency Policy Director Kate Campaigne have been are frequently in the news media to discuss the benefits of government transparency.

Below is a selection of media hits from various Illinois newspapers and radio stations.

Ottawa Times: Root out corruption in Illinois with transparency- 121508

PDF- Ottawa Times: Transparency Is Key to Open Government- 072408

PDF- News-Gazette: Governments should make information accessible- 072808

PDF- Ottawa Times: Get the bottom line online- 080808

MP3- Kate Campaigne on WLPO- 082708