If you asked most Park Ridge residents who the mayor was, would they answer “Dave Schmidt”? 

Maybe. 

But if you asked those same residents who their alderman was, we suspect even many of those who got Schmidt right might not know the answer.  Heck, based on purely anecdotal evidence, a lot of them would be hard pressed to tell you what ward they lived in, much less who represents that ward on the City Council.

No matter how you look at it, that’s pretty pathetic.  And that explains a lot about why City government – and its local counterparts at the School Districts and the Park District – have not functioned as well as they could have, and as well as they should have, for the past 15-20 years, especially in delivering services cost-effectively.

But even those who might be able to name both the mayor and their alderman would be hard-pressed to tell you much more about those two elected officials, such as their occupations and similar background information.  That’s because the City’s website doesn’t disclose a whole lot of information about those elected officials.

The “City Council” page of the City’s website doesn’t reveal much more than their names, some basic contact information, and the general nature of their occupations.  So Mayor Schmidt is described as a “Law Partner Owner” rather than as a partner in the 17-attorney Loop law firm of Chittenden, Murday & Novotny, with a practice concentrated in the areas of ERISA and insurance coverage litigation.  And Ald. Rich DiPietro (2nd) is identified as a “Business Owner (graphics arts specialist company)” instead of as the owner of Loop-based CrossTech Communications, Inc.

Ald. Joe Sweeney (1st) is simply described as “Retired,” with no inkling of when he retired or what he did before retirement – as compared to Ald. Jim Smith (3rd), who at least is identified as a “Retired Computer Consultant.”

Sure, interested constituents could try to Google their way to more information.  But without some basic information about the subject official, that could be an onerous task.  Besides, why should they have to?  Why shouldn’t the City post a resume (or curriculum vitae for you Latinists) on the City’s website for each of those officials that contains a variety of useful information, including not only their employment backgrounds but also their educational backgrounds, organization memberships, etc.?

Not only would such information provide the voters/taxpayers with a better sense of who these elected officials are, it would also aid them in obtaining additional information about the officials through Google and other databases.

But information posted about our elected officials is voluminous compared to what the City publishes about the folks who fill its committees, commissions and task forces.  As can be seen from that list, all the public is told about them is their names, their term expirations and, on the rarest of occasions, their occupations (e.g., the Electrical Commission’s Ken Boyce is a “Professional Engineer”). 

Frankly, that’s unacceptable.

These people are charged by the City Council with a variety of duties, responsibilities and authority.  In the case of the Planning & Zoning Commission and the Zoning Board of Appeals, those bodies actually have plenary authority over certain matters that cannot be reviewed and over-ridden by the Council.  That’s real power, yet what does the public know about them?

Next to nothing.

Because they are appointees, the public does not get the kind of information about them that it tends to get from the newspapers and the campaign literature of the people who run for elective office.  For that reason, one could even argue that the public deserves to have more information about these appointees on the City’s website than is disclosed about their elected counterparts. 

Fortunately, each of those appointees submits a fairly detailed application form when seeking their appointments.  The publication of just those forms alone would go a long way toward identifying the members of those committees, commissions and task forces, their backgrounds and their qualifications – while causing a minimum amount of work for City staff in charge of the website.  Just scan the applications and link the resulting pdf to the appointee’s name.

Transparency demands that kind of information.  And it’s well past time City Hall provided it.

And also well past time the same was provided by both school districts and the Park District.

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