These municipalities should be commended in leading the charge for innovative problem solving. By using these new communication platforms, municipal governments are not only creating a richer dialogue between residents and government but also opening up new possibilities for openness and reform.

According to the article, the majority of messages conveyed to residents cover the latest local happenings, including road closures, special events, and in one case, the finding of a local missing person. As society becomes increasingly mobile, it becomes increasingly important for all levels of government to take forward-thinking steps and find new, better ways to communicate and provide information.

Similarly, a project of the Illinois Policy Institute, called TweetIllinois.org, uses this same communications platform and enables state politicians to post messages to their constituents. Perhaps the leaders of these towns will take their communications to the next level and use the Twitter platform to update constituents on government actions and decisions.

This is a terrific step in the right direction, let’s keep the ball moving!

Hoffman, concerned by the apparent privacy with which Mayor Daley and the Chicago 2016 Committee are operating, urged a new direction, one that opens the planning to the input of city aldermen, if not the people themselves.

So far Daley and his committee have been operating behind closed doors, lifting the curtain of secrecy only to reveal a jumbled message about Chicago’s eventual financial liabilities for the the games.  It is this exact ambiguity, which Hoffman warns, could damage both our reputations and pocketbooks down the road.

Hosting the Olympics draws an enormous amount of attention on the hosting city, as we saw with Beijing.  If Chicago is chosen to host the Olympic, all eyes fall on us.  Hoffman’s call, then, is of vital importance.

Is this really what has to happen before government run agencies decide to publish their information freely and in an easily accessible way?  Must we have to file FOIA requests, only for them to be delayed or denied? (You can watch Adam Andrzejewski call out Attorney General Lisa Madigan’s office on these delays and denials here).  It’s not that hard for these records to simply be published, something that the new FOIA legislation urges government offices to do, if they maintain a website.  There’s an important step, however, between legislative “urging” and actual online record. It’s called leadership.  Often times, it just takes one person, with a little influence and some elbow grease, to make it a reality.

It will be interesting to see what develops out of the Trib’s legal case.  In the meantime, check out their website section dedicated to transparency issues such as these.  And keep demanding access to your government.

The possibility of Chicago hosting the 2016 Olympics has put even more pressure on the CTA to get its act together. For some reason, the main source of reform continues to be pouring more and more money into a failing system that lacks accountability.

Jon Hilkevitch at the Chicago Tribune writes today that

Chicago officials talk—and so far it’s mostly a lot of talk—about the need to shape up the CTA in time for the city to possibly host the 2016 Olympics.

On the state level, elected officials who repeatedly shirked their responsibility to replace crumbling transportation infrastructure in Illinois are now talking, too—perhaps over-optimistically—that the Barack Obama presidency will do much of the heavy lifting.

There are, indeed, projects that CTA needs to finish. But what is this Obama involvement? read on…

Transit officials are hoping to receive start-up money for those projects in the next federal transportation bill that Congress is scheduled to pass next year. Until federal or state action occurs, the Illinois projects will remain in limbo.

First of all…what? Why is anyone making the assumption that the federal government should take a lead role in resolving CTA’s financial woes?

For over 28 years…since the CTA actually functioned at a break even level (See Brief: CTA Looking in All the Wrong Places)… the CTA has been asking for tax payer funded bailouts. Now, they are looking for such bailouts from taxpayers all over the nation?

Guess what? Money flowing into a system that lacks any transparency, any spending accountability, tends to just add to wasteful spending and inefficiency. The CTA needs to start acting more like a business. The cost of operation should be reflected in the price of a ticket. The goal needs to be to operate in such a way that does not promise astronomical losses.

We know there is no such thing as a free lunch. Doesn’t the same apply to a free ride? The political move of giving free rides to seniors gives the incentive for even MORE seniors to utilize CTA…and on whose dollar? CTA needs to become fully transparent by posting all of their expenditures online in a clear, searchable fashion.

Where DOES the money go?

It seems interesting that, with free rides for some, and, now, a proposed fare hike for the rest of us…

CTA pays among the highest wages of any major U.S. urban transit system, devotes a bigger share of its operating budget to payroll than all but a few other big systems, and has created fiscal chaos by mismanaging its pension system.

If the taxpayers had access to where every CTA dollar was going, perhaps their outrage in the wake of wasteful spending and inefficiencies would cause the government to reevaluate how they do public transportation…

…maybe even in time for the Olympics.

]]> http://www.openillinois.org/cook-county/ctaolympicsobamaand-more/feed/ 0 http://www.openillinois.org/wasteful-spending/padlocked-center-symbolizes-degree-of-transparency/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=padlocked-center-symbolizes-degree-of-transparency http://www.openillinois.org/wasteful-spending/padlocked-center-symbolizes-degree-of-transparency/#comments Mon, 21 Jul 2008 19:18:23 +0000 Kate Campaigne Piercy http://www.openillinois.org/?p=196 Read this article and see why we have such a critical need not only for education reform in our state, clearly, but also a dire need for transparency in government spending.  How can our government dish out all this wasted…

When the story broke in February, aides to the mayor defended the shower, noting that Johnson often works up a sweat by biking to City Hall from Rogers Park. The offices of the mayor, Daley’s chief of staff and the streets and sanitation commissioner also are equipped with showers.

What would help sort out all this nonsense? Need we say it again?  Transparency!

Read the article here, and don’t forget to watch the accompanying video where John Kass, armed with soap and towel, attempts to wash up in City Hall.

He said, ”The thing I hope to accomplish is to let people know what their county dollars do for them. I don’t think most people—anywhere, in the south, or north, or anywhere—really knows where their county dollars are spent.”

Good point. Maybe it’s time for Cook County to shine some light on their spending via transparency. It would certainly help Palatine and Stroger resolve this particular issue. . .

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/politics/chi-bridgeportpark-071024,0,3110301.story?page=1

This deal sounds like a developer’s fairytale: Buy a piece of land for $50,000 and end up selling it to the city for a grand total of 1.2 million dollars (of taxpayers’ money).  There’s more to the story, of course. A developer is friendly with the mayor, who has plans to make a piece of land into a public park. The developer buys the land, and six years later, after various appraisals escalate the land value from $220,000 to 1.6 million dollars, the developer finds himself in a very sweet situation as a result of increasing appraisals and the city departing from its usual method of valuing land at its current zoning.

Dreams can come true in Chicago, especially (and your chances rise exponentially here) if you’re related to or friends with a politician. We need better government at every level in Illinois. Bringing more transparency to how government spends taxpayers’ dollars makes government officials more accountable for their spending decisions. Transparency provides one tool towards achieving better government, and Illinois needs it. Find out how you can make Illinois government more transparent: Contact the Illinois Policy Institute.