Kaptain calls for more transparency

Transparency in government: many people have different ideas about how to achieve it or rate it or even define it.

Elgin Councilman and mayoral candidate David Kaptain thinks the city has a transparency problem that must be addressed. Incumbent Ed Schock disagrees.

Kaptain said he started thinking about transparency last summer when he saw the results of an Illinois Policy Institute study that gave Elgin poor ratings in online transparency.

Though Schock said the study came from a biased source and presented the results with factual errors about Elgin, Kaptain said the concept itself still has merit.

“People should have a right to know how government works,” Kaptain said. “They’re paying the bills here. If they want information, we should get it to them.”

Schock said the city is noteworthy in its transparent budget process, has won awards on financial accounting and openness and is compliant with Freedom of Information Act requests.

Yes, Schock admitted there is room for improvement, as there is for every aspect of city government, but overall, he said the city is doing well.

“I think involvement is more important,” Schock said. “We want the public involved in the city policy-making process, not just voting.”

That is why the budget process is conducted openly and the city initiated Community Conversations to welcome residents’ concerns, Schock said.

But Kaptain thinks more can be done.

He suggests assigning each council member to a different city department as a liaison with rotating assignments every two years. He said it would not be a commissioner form of government, but an extra duty for council members in the council-city manager arrangement.

It would help council members learn more about how the city works and alert residents to the most appropriate council contact before the 3-1-1 system is implemented, he said.

“This plays into making government more efficient,” Kaptain said.

Schock said this idea would be a disaster and could not work in the form of government Elgin has now.

“The city council members and the mayor are policy makers,” Schock said. “It is not our job to administer the departments on a day-to-day basis or take citizen complaints. ... That’s why we have paid professional staff that manage each of our departments.”