Editor's Note: Group Seeks to Map Out a Plan to 'Restore' Illinois

NPR Illinois | 91.9 UIS | By Dana Heupel

Published December 1, 2011 at 12:00 AM CST

“We’ve got to get money out of politics! This is intolerable!” insists a government reform advocate seated with about 30 others around a square configuration of tables in a 37th floor conference room in a Chicago high-rise. Another man exhorts, “We need to be a strong countervailing force to the status quo!” A woman across the room later declares, “People in the system trying to help the public can’t get the information they need!”

Such are the contentions during a mid-November gathering among representatives of many of the state’s most prominent government reform advocate organizations and a handful of other public affairs buffs who convened to discuss how they might cooperate to better promote transparency at all levels of Illinois government.

The all-day conference was designed to encourage advocacy groups to “map out a game plan that will restore Illinois … to a place where we’re a model for good government” instead of a national symbol of corruption, explains David Hiller, president and chief executive of the Robert R. McCormick Foundation, which sponsors the event. The conference is coordinated by two Chicago-area organizations, the Better Government Association and the Citizen Advocacy Center, and features representatives of 20 or so reform groups from across Illinois. (See sidebar for a list).

I am fortunate to be asked to represent Illinois Issues. I agree — with some reluctance — not to attribute specific suggestions or complaints to many of the participants. That raises the question of whether some attendees are being totally transparent themselves, but that’s for readers to decide.

Terry Pastika, executive director of the Citizen Advocacy Center, says later that because attendees were encouraged to “think big with no limitations,” she worried that “people would self-censor themselves if they’re on the record.” After participants define major problems and offer solutions, no matter how impractical, she says, “you can always back your way into what’s reasonable and possible.”

Theresa Amato leads the discussion. She is executive director of Citizen Works, a Washington, D.C., organization created by Ralph Nader to promote citizen involvement, and is founder and board president of the Citizen Advocacy Center. Amato deftly steers the participants through a process to identify problems, outline potential solutions and prioritize issues. What emerge are some new and creative approaches to many of the longstanding roadblocks that prevent Illinoisans from fully knowing how their government functions.

Perhaps the most sweeping proposal — and one that receives the most support — grew out of frustration with the lack of enforcement of the Illinois Freedom of Information Act, along with its multitude of exemptions. The suggestion is to toss it out and start anew with the assumption that every government record is public. The “think big” solution is that all records by public bodies should be placed online within 24 hours of their creation. Pastika later acknowledges that the idea is probably too difficult and fraught with perils to be implemented in exactly that way, but that it helps define a direction for the group to pursue. Online government records will be the subject of various discussions throughout the day.

Before the general discussion, Andy Shaw, a longtime Chicago newsman and now president and CEO of the Better Government Association, had offered that government barriers to transparency are “not necessarily malevolent,” that the “push back” sometimes comes from concerns about the cost of responding to requests or from public employees’ ignorance of the law. The group identifies civic education for officials and citizens as among its top priorities. That might change the “How-dare-you?” response of many public employees when asked to provide information, attendees agree.

Along with education, though, many members espouse that the penalties for violations of the Freedom of Information Act or the Open Meetings Act should be more severe. Several suggest that penalties might also be levied against the individuals who disregard transparency laws, instead of only against the public bodies that employ them.

In the General Assembly, the four caucus leaders hold too much power, one participant asserts, and too often, another adds, votes are taken on major legislation — such as political redistricting and employee pension changes — without adequate discussion. Concern also is voiced that lawmakers have exempted themselves from key provisions of the Freedom of Information Act. Officials at all levels have differing perceptions on what constitutes transparency, the conferees agree.

In the city of Chicago, only the mayor and staff are fully aware of budget issues, one participant complains, and he suggests creation of a city budget agency like those in the state and federal governments. And technology allows officials at all levels to have “shadow meetings” on their laptops before or during public meetings, another grouses.

Many of the participants agree that an independent ethics agency should be established for state government, instead of trying to ferret out corruption under the current system where investigators work for the agencies they scrutinize.

And further campaign finance reform is essential, most believe. Included among the major concerns are that corporations can hide political contributions through super PACs and judges don’t recuse themselves from cases in which one or both of the litigants have contributed to their campaigns. Several participants suggest public financing of judicial campaigns or appointment by merit selection.

“Without public financing,” one says, “the whole idea of corporate influence — power of the purse — is a complete negation of democracy.”

Too often, another reformer observes, advocates define campaign finance problems as “quid pro quo,” where the contributor expects a favor for the donation. Instead, he says, citizens need to be educated that where the campaign money comes from influences public policy by helping to elect officials who are sympathetic to their contributors’ desires.

Journalists used to be watchdogs, several attendees say, but the budgetary upheavals in many newsrooms have left gaps in investigative reporting staffs or have pressured reporters to produce more copy, resulting in fewer in-depth stories. Many reporters don’t even know their rights to information, one man laments.

For hour after hour, the participants offer a flurry of other ideas identifying legal and ethical concerns and offering blue-sky approaches to resolve them. All the while, Amato, the facilitator, tries to keep them focused on the task at hand. Problems are scrawled on large paper sheets and then pasted on the walls and the window that overlooks the Chicago skyline and Lake Michigan until the space resembles an elementary school classroom on parents’ day. Potential solutions are scribbled under the problems, and they are ranked and assigned a possible timeline.

At the end of the day, those in the room decide they want to convene again to continue the discussions, and they ask who should be at the table then who isn’t today. The organizers will compile notes of the day’s activities and send them to the participants.

Afterward, Pastika says: “I think it was outstanding. It was extraordinarily productive.” The session brought together experts in various areas to talk about barriers to government transparency. Significant progress was made toward identifying solutions to common problems by asking participants to think big, she says. And the gathering provided an opportunity for reformers to get to know one another, in hopes that they can combine efforts and expand on the work that they’re already doing.

Pastika says she remains ever-hopeful that the ideas offered up today can gain some traction, echoing the gist of a statement that Hiller made to begin the convention. “It’s a good thing many of us are optimists,” he said, “because if we weren’t, there’s a lot of room for disappointment.”