City of Rolling Meadows earns Sunshine Award with perfect online transparency score

Rolling Meadows provides its residents access to vital government information through the city’s “transparency portal".

The Illinois Policy Institute awarded the city of Rolling Meadows the Institute’s Sunshine Award for online transparency on Oct. 30. Based on the Institute’s 10-Point Transparency Checklist, Rolling Meadows earned a score of 100 percent for its website transparency.

Through its “transparency portal,” Rolling Meadows has provided easy access to vital public information such as administrative officials’ contact information, financial reports and minutes from meetings of the Plan Commission. Rolling Meadows’ webpage has links to all of the categories of information set forth in the 10-Point Transparency Checklist.

Transparency is vital for open and accountable government and for citizens to ensure that corruption does not go unnoticed in their communities. The Institute created the Local Government Transparency Project to advance these goals. Governing entities are graded based on access to information on the 10-Point Transparency Checklist, such as tax rates, budget information, officials’ contact information and public-meeting schedules.

Of nearly 7,000 local government entities in Illinois, only 74 have earned the Sunshine Award, and only nine, including Rolling Meadows, have received perfect scores.

To learn more about how to make local government entities, such as school districts and county and municipal governments, more transparent and accountable, please contact Mindy Ruckman at mruckman@illinoispolicy.org.