Kadner: Citizen watchdog training by BGA at St. Xavier

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Updated: March 18, 2012 8:15AM

This is a column about free stuff.

Not only is this “stuff” free, it’s the sort of “stuff” you can use to make the lives of politicians and corrupt government bureaucrats miserable.

On Thursday, the Better Government Association will co-sponsor a Citizen Watchdog Training session from 7 to 9 p.m. at St. Xavier University’s Warde Academic Center, 3700 W. 103rd St., Chicago.

A lawyer with the Illinois attorney general’s office will tell participants what government meetings have to be open to the public, when such meetings may legally take place behind closed doors and how average folks can make sure their elected officials are obeying the Illinois Open Meetings Act.

Free advice from a government lawyer. You don’t get that sort of opportunity every day.

But wait! There’s more. You not only get access to a government attorney, a lawyer from the Kirkland & Ellis firm will explain how to obtain secret government documents by using the Illinois Freedom of Information Act.

All right, that’s sort of a lie. The documents aren’t secret. In fact, they’re supposed to be available to anyone who wants to see them, but government leaders often
don’t want you to see “their” documents.

That’s why there’s a law that makes you file special paperwork to see the documents that will tell you how the government spends your tax money. If you don’t know the secret words, you can’t get access to the documents.

Getting a meeting with a lawyer from Kirkland & Ellis, a prestigious law firm that has worked on investigations into corruption with the BGA, is almost like getting a secret decoder ring.

Finally, the BGA, a nonprofit government watchdog committed to ferreting out corruption and government waste, will have some of its investigative reporters on hand.

Barbara Macholz, civic engagement coordinator for the BGA (that almost sounds like she plans weddings), said the reporters not only will provide useful tips on how to use the freedom of information and open meetings laws but will follow up on every tip provided by audience members about government corruption and waste.

So if you ever wanted your own team of reporters to probe into some sweetheart deal between a politician and a contractor, or find out why the elected official down the street is paying half the property tax bill you do, this is your chance.

Under BGA president and chief executive Andy Shaw, the former Chicago TV political reporter, the BGA not only has stepped up its investigations into corruption but launched a citizen watchdog program aimed at educating the masses.

“Taxpayers are frustrated by corruption but intimidated by the system and don’t know what recourse to take to achieve the better government we all deserve,” Shaw said.

“Our citizen watchdog training gives citizens the tools they need to get engaged and the confidence to ask the right questions. When citizens learn to keep an eye on government, government will do a better job serving the people.”

For too many years, government bodies simply ignored FOI law requests or delayed responding to them for so long that the documents became irrelevant by the time they reached the public.

That ticks me off because public officials are our employees. In addition, as I mentioned earlier, these are public documents paid for by the taxpayers.

As for government meetings that are supposed to be open to the public under the law, well, elected bodies do their work behind closed doors far too often.

It happens in Washington, D.C., Springfield, Chicago and in almost every suburb I have covered as a reporter.

Although elected officials may hold public meetings, if you attend you will likely discover you can’t tell what they’re talking about.

They refer to agenda items that have no clear meaning, vote to pay bills without explaining what they are for and publish meeting minutes that don’t tell you what was really discussed at a previous meeting.

They get away with this nonsense because few citizens know what the laws are or how to make sure they are properly enforced.

Seats at the BGA watchdog training workshop are limited. To reserve one, contact Barb Macholz at bmacholz@bettergov.org or call (312) 821-9025.

The workshop is co-sponsored by St. Xavier’s Center for the Study of Fraud and Corruption. The college actually offers an MBA on the subject, and its professors teach at the Chicago Police Academy and Chicago Bar Association.

This is great free stuff. An army of citizen watchdogs is needed to keep tabs on public corruption in Illinois.