Better Government Association

Yeah, it's been a while.

Well, I'm on the board of the Better Government Association, which does investigative reporting and brings cases about Freedom of Information Act and Open Meetings Act, um, which I think are really important.

And I just recorded a podcast, and I can't tell you the results, but I had filed a FOIA request, and I was unable to...

Well, I filed it in connection with writing my memoir.

The purge later revealed in a 2012 audit by IllinoisPolicy.org.

According to reports by the Better Government Association, Chris pushes ordinances that will eventually increase his salary sevenfold.

He appoints his ex-con father, Ken, to the Lions Zoning Appeals Board and only stops selling Getty Insurance to Lions bars when there's media scrutiny.

And then he goes after the police department.

The flowers that the village sent were over-the-top beautiful, including having a village seal on them.

I was very touched when she passed at his actions.

While Getty may have used village resources to celebrate the life of his father's former nemesis, he's also alleged by the Better Government Association to have used his position to negotiate a number of shady deals, including one involving the purchase of his current home in Lyons.

In 2015, Getty-backed school board members get control of School Board District 103, the largest employer in town with 360 workers, including his personal hires and a budget of $31 million annually.

Yeah

... all of these organizations are mostly nonprofits, and whether it is, uh, the Better Government Association did some reporting in Illinois about the use of punishment devices, ProPublica did this reporting.

Support those organizations that do this reporting so that we will know what's going on, so that we can take action against it.

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Also at the table to help make sense of the week's news is David Greising, president of the Better Government Association.

All right.

Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson is expected to formally present his budget to the city council in mid-October, and as budget talks heat up, we're seeing pushback from alders.

Better luck next time, Cubs.

We'll leave it there, folks.

Our thanks to WBEZ senior education reporter Sarah Karp and David Greising of the Better Government Association.

Have a great weekend, folks.

There are, for people who are interested in learning more about FOIAs, different groups around Chicago provide tutorials and workshops and things like that.

I know the Better Government Association has done this in the past.

The Chicago Headline Club every year has a FOIA Fest event.

i mean it's literally a fest a festival about learning how to write and submit and think about foias so i would encourage people to just go online and and search for some of that and there are a lot of resources around so it's supposed to be pretty user friendly and my biggest advice is don't get intimidated give it a shot And, you know, if you don't get what you're looking for, if they stall, then you can seek out some of these other resources I mentioned for a little bit of help.

Sylvia Ewing.

Yet again, another speaker, great civic leader, David Greissing, great partner to the City Club and head of the BGA.

Jim Kirk, clearly it's a media, you know, we're talking media today.

Jim Kirk is here from Cranes.

We're talking with Grace Houck and Andrew Adams with the Illinois Answers Project.

That is the sort of independent journalism arm of the Better Government Association.

We're going to continue this conversation.

If you want to join us, 800-222-9455 is the number, 800-222-9455.