State Sen. Karen McConnaughay is given credit by Better Government Association writer Madeleine Doubek for helping “drive” ethics reform this session. McConauhay said, ““I’m hopeful there was enough demonstration by rank-and-file members that there is momentum. This is just the beginning of … Continue reading
Category Archives: Better Government Association
Here it is: McHenry County Residents Should Be Allowed To Dissolve Their Townships A bill in the Illinois legislature would allow McHenry County residents to dissolve their townships. Government consolidation is a key priority for the BGA and the bill … Continue reading
Following up on a simple support statement for Rep. David McSweeney’s bill to allow abolition of township governments in McHenry County by referendum, the Better Government Association has issued the following letter sent to the McHenry County Board last week: … Continue reading
Way back in the 1970’s I introduced a bill that would have allowed the Freedom of Information Act to apply to non-profit organizations that received the majority of their funding from tax money. The Daily Herald thought it was a … Continue reading
Complaints have been made by some in the political arena that eliminating the elected official who runs the McHenry County Recorder of Deeds office is a bad idea, because McHenry County is too large a county for a merger with … Continue reading
Andy Shaw of the Better Government Association bragged that Jack Franks’ bill that would allow the McHenry County Board to do what the DuPage County Board had done with regard to governmental consolidation deserved “a shout out.” I remember Franks’ … Continue reading
In Monday’s Chicago Sun-Times Better Government Association President Andy Shaw continues his campaign to convince the to pass a tax on retirement income in Illinois. When a similar pitch was made on the BGA website, I left the following comment: … Continue reading
BGA President Andy Shaw writes in the Chicago Sun-Times Monday of suggestions made by former Cook County Commissioner (now Congressman) Mike Quigley on saving Cook County government money. One that sounds a lot like something McHenry County Board member Mike … Continue reading
There’s a remarkable sentence in BGA Executive Director Andy Shaw’s column in the Chicago Sun-Times: “And yet this week, in a ‘lame duck’ session that included 35 exiting lawmakers who theoretically could have cast one final ‘though’ vote without fear … Continue reading
An email arrived from the Better Government Association’s Andy Shaw. It announces the unveiling of its data base of state and local governmental pensions. “We’ve updated the BGA Payroll Database of 500,000 government workers with 2012 numbers and, for the first time, … Continue reading
The following BGA piece, first published in the Chicago Sun-Times on June 1st, is reprinted with permission of the Better Government Association. Local Government Has Obesity Problem Public agencies need a crash diet, with unnecessary units of government eliminated and … Continue reading
The Better Government Association includes a short article on McHenry County Board member Bob Bless in its half page report in the Chicago Sun-Times today. You can find the story on the BGA web site here. Reprinted with permission, it’s … Continue reading
When I figured out that the Better Government Association was only searching for information about Gary Gauger from the McHenry County Sheriff’s Department, I wondered if that meant searches for similarly situated past inmates was occurring. Without doing an exhaustive … Continue reading
When McHenry County Blog published “Better Government Association Looks at Sheriff’s Department,” the article was based on an incomplete answer obtained from the Sheriff’s Department as a result of a Freedom of Information request. As mentioned in the article, “The … Continue reading
It’s not only Tribune investigative reporter Joe Mahr who is asking for detailed information from the McHenry County Sheriff’s Department. So is the BGA, in the person of policy intern Samuel Cuomo. On December 29th he sent the following Freedom … Continue reading
After reprising the indictment of McHenry County State’s Attorney Lou Bianchi and Metra, which the Better Government Association says has been “long the domain of McHenry County Republicans,” in an article today. “The State Police (has) launch(ed) an investigation into … Continue reading
Read the press release as it was sent: MAHON NOTES 911 TAPE SHOWS NYGREN STANCE ON PUBLIC INFORMATION Candidate for McHenry County Sheriff Mike Mahon Friday said that incumbent Sheriff Keith Nygren’s initial refusal to release the 911 tapes surrounding … Continue reading