The Better Government Association–the only Illinois non-profit holding power to account through investigative and ...

The Chicago City Council passed a “snap” curfew ordinance on June 18 that allows the superintendent to impose short-notice curfews. Two days later, Mayor Brandon Johnson issued the first veto in 19 ...

A series of new lobbying priorities announced by Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson at a press conference last week included tweaks to revenues the city currently receives from the state government, but ...

Although the SAFE-T Act mandates the Administrative Office of the Illinois Courts collect electronic monitoring data and publish reports and analysis based on that data, the AOIC has not yet begun ...

In a memo sent Friday to the Chicago City Council’s ethics committee, city Inspector General Deborah Witzburg laid out a series of what her office characterizes as obstructions by the city’s law ...

Our Policy Agenda: The Better Government Association policy team researches, drafts, supports and advocates for legislation that improves transparency, efficiency, equity and accountability in ...

The city treasurer is one of three elected city-wide officials, along with the mayor and the clerk. The treasurer manages the city’s bank accounts, as well as its pension and investment funds. The ...

The Department of Streets and Sanitation budget stayed relatively flat during both of Rahm Emanuel’s terms, following a roughly 270-position staffing reduction in his first budget. Appropriations ...

The Chicago Police Department is the city’s largest department both in headcount and in overall funds appropriated, with nearly three times the positions budgeted as the next-largest Chicago Fire ...

A 2022 BGA Policy investigation found that the department in its first three years of budgets did not reduce public safety costs, with non-personnel cost increases outweighing the savings from reduced ...

The Board of Ethics administers Chicago’s Governmental Ethics and Campaign Financing Ordinances. It is one of the city’s smallest departments, with a small staff assisting an appointed board. Overall ...

The Civilian Office of Police Accountability is the city’s investigatory body for several broad categories of police misconduct, including excessive force, death in custody, domestic violence and ...