Chicago, Cook County agencies receive a D-minus for transparency

The idea of holding public meetings is so government business is conducted out in the open for everyone to see.

But are public meetings really open?

It turns out that nearly 150 Chicago and Cook County government agencies averaged a dismal “D-” rating for accessibility to the public, and some of those agencies might be violating state transparency laws, an analysis by City Bureau found.

Only four agencies received an “A” rating. The Chicago Board of Elections Commissioners was the only agency to receive a perfect score.

About 85% of public agencies graded received a “C” or below.

The “Open Gov Report Card” graded government agencies on 11 categories to determine how open their meetings were to the public.

City Bureau, a nonprofit civic journalism lab based in Woodlawn, used over a year’s worth of data collected from its Documenters — a program that hires people to attend local government meetings — and its City Scrapers project that puts public meeting information in a central database.

Of the 11 grading categories, six were related to the Illinois Open Meetings Act — a state law requiring public agencies keep its meetings open to the public.

The other five categories were “best practices for government transparency” set by City Bureau based on its research such as whether the agency posted all required information online; how public comments are conducted during a meeting; and how accommodating is the scheduling of meetings.

“Democracy at its best is an active sport, and right now, civic processes are leaving a lot of Chicagoans on the bench,” said Pat Sier, web developer for City Bureau. “We hope this report card can start a conversation on how government agencies can better support the public and also how the public can get involved in their government in between elections.”

One of the worst agencies at City Hall was the Committee of Environmental Protection and Energy. The committee received an “F” grade because it failed to post all required notes, meetings weren’t recorded or livestreamed, public comment was restricted to meeting agendas and meeting schedules weren’t flexible.

Ald. George Cardenas (12th), the committee chairman, agreed improvement is needed.

“I think sometimes a report card doesn’t tell the whole story,” Cardenas said. “Yeah in a perfect world we would love to have more time, schedule meetings at the right time and take more copious notes.”

“We would love to record entire meetings or livestream it, but where am I going to store it? Is there a server I can use?”

Cardenas said his committee is often bound by red tape and he doesn’t even schedule committee meetings. His office hired someone at the end of September, he said, who’s primary responsibility will be helping make the committee more transparent for the public.

“The report, I will say, is harshly correct though,” Cardenas said.

The nonprofit will discuss its findings Thursday during its final Public Newsroom of the year, a series of free workshops and weekly discussions held to build relationships with communities across the city.

The event will be held at 6 p.m. at DePaul University’s Loop campus, 14 E. Jackson Blvd., room 1128.

Manny Ramos is a corps member in Report for America, a not-for-profit journalism program that aims to bolster Sun-Times coverage of issues affecting Chicago’s South and West sides.