Arlington Heights mayoral candidate wants all village business online

Phillip Walter said if Arlington Heights officials truly want a transparent government, they'd post all village bills and contracts on the village's Web site.

"It would be a tremendous positive for residents to see what their village government is spending their money on," he said. "Trustees already get this information on an (Microsoft) Excel Spreadsheet, so it shouldn't be that difficult."

Village President Arlene Mulder said the idea is worth looking into, but questioned how much it would cost.

"Right now we are in the middle of a very tough budget where we are letting people go," said Mulder, who is running for her fifth term against Walter. "It's easy to bring things up and it's a good idea but I'm not sure it's the right moment."

Earlier this month, the DuPage County auditor put all expenditure reports online, so that visitors to the auditor's Web site can view the expenditures by department, vendor or project. Each report has a search feature and is updated each month.

Walter said he wants "every bill, every week" published on the village's Web site.

DuPage Auditor Bob Grogan was able to do this without additional costs or manpower because the database was already in place. He said it takes about an hour or two each month to bring the reports up do date. In addition, he believes it will cut back on Freedom of Information Act requests and save his office time dealing with those questions.

According to a state watchdog group, DuPage is the first county in the state to offer the feature.

Mulder, 63, is running for her fifth term as village president. Since 2000, Walter has run twice for trustee and lost. However, for the past few years, Walter has been a regular at village board meetings criticizing spending and how open the board is for regular citizens.

The election is April 7.