Bonnie's Answer of the Week

from Bonnie:

Many people have asked about Transparency in Bolingbrook.  They ask why I fought for it, what it was like before and what is it like now.  This is my story...

Last year the Village had a low level of transparency.  Matter of fact, the current officers on the board considered themselves transparent because they listed names, numbers, and addresses on the Village Web site.  One day I launched an investigation into the transparency and found that some of their information was posted incorrectly.  Their bio's were riddled with partial truths, and their email addresses led to general mailboxes.

In a day and age where the Internet is used by most people, I found the lack of information disturbing.  I began the fight for disclosure.  When I stepped up to fight for transparency, I became the "bad guy".  How dare I ask our elected officials to show people what they were doing with their money?  I was badgered at the meetings for asking for transparency and ultimately my families safety was put in jeopardy because they felt I was trying to "expose" the truth.  In reality, I only wanted to be able to quickly and efficiently access documents that all taxpayers and residents are entitled to.  Most of the surrounding communities already offered this service.  So why not Bolingbrook?  What was the reason for the lash out?  I am not sure, but one thing I am certain of, I was not liked by them, but I was loved by the residents...

After a year of pushing, I started to see results.  For example, now you can view the annual budgets, bills, meeting minutes, and financials online from the web site.  (When the web site is working properly).

The one issue I had a hard time with was pushing the FOIA laws to be obeyed.  Soon the new Sunshine laws backed me up and Transparency was pushed into Bolingbrook.  From April 2009 to now, Bolingbrook has come a long was into finding transparency. I commend those who have used their efforts and time to help with the fight.  I also commend those at the Village that agreed that transparency was the right thing to do for the residents, and used their hard work to make it happen.  Fran Miller was placed in charge of the new FOIA laws as the FOIA officer of Bolingbrook and she has worked hard at doing this job.  The duties she took on and the struggles she endured, to get things up to being acceptable to the law, took a lot of hard work and dedication.  For that, the residents need to thank her.  She is worth every penny the Village pays for her salary.

Do I think that the transparency fight is finalized in Bolingbrook?  No, I think we still have some issues to work out.  The vendor financials are hiding some line items for payment (Line "Do not use" is an example), and some bills from vendors are not broken down properly.  I also believe there needs to be some oversight on some of these vendors, as there is a lack of accountability to whom reviews and approves some of these expenses.  (Example, paying for watering of grass that has a sprinkler system installed).  With a Village this size, things slip through, but I will not accuse people of being negligent about it.  It just needs an outside look into accountability to find these hidden issues and resolve them, to save money.  Trustees can approve the bill, but I think that looking at the actual bill can help reduce costs and assist in finding better solutions.

One example I will share was late last year I retrieved a bill from a FOIA request for trees.  The price of the trees in question were over $800 a piece.  Using the name of the tree, size specified on the bill, and labor according to the bill, and our local businesses ALL priced lower for the same product at a retail cost.  The retail costs ranged from $300- $400 per tree and the labor was almost half the amount.  This disturbed me and allowed me to see how out of control the bidding process became with inflation and greed.  This costs the taxpayers in many ways.

I also believe that the transparency surrounding the actual bidding process needs to be exposed because of these issues.  We need to expand our vendor database and allow others to bid, including local businesses.  We cannot always accept bids based on donations to our local politicians, or to favoritism or nepotism.  We need to accept the lowest bid after accepting a minimum number of bids.  When I say minimum, I am not saying minimum number of donators.  I am saying five bids should be accepted from all avenues, which means that advertising the bids properly and notifying vendors that the bid exists can go a long way to trimming our taxes.  We also need to make sure the requirements to place a bid are not jeopardising and eliminating the best bids.

As a Trustee, I can assist with these changes and push for more reform.  The transparency has come a long way, but it is time we took it a step farther and pushed for 100% transparency.  That is one reason I am running for trustee and with my research and abilities, I can offer the time it takes to be the extra eye and look for money savings.