PROJECTS 2005

The Citizen Advocacy Center is a 21st century advocacy organization where citizens, lawyers, students, and all kinds of community volunteers take matters of public concern to the street, to the airwaves, to the electronic networks, and to the courts. We are located in a storefront on the main road in downtown Elmhurst, a half-hour drive or train ride west of Chicago.

The Center trains individuals to use democratic participatory tools with our educational brochures and Democracy Workshops, and we have active Citizen Corps members who monitor and evaluate government at all levels. The Center also offers an Open Forum for civic discourse where citizens are invited to drop-in, learn about our monthly issue of public concern, read books and newspaper clippings about the subject, get on-line, and appear on videotape for cable access or public discussion of community issues.

A core component of our work is to supervise law student interns and coordinate pro bono lawyers year-round, and we typically have six to eight law student interns each summer to help with legal research and litigation. We need interns and volunteers with a desire to investigate citizen reports of what appear to be violations of the law or undemocratic public policies and obstacles to civic participation. If you have a public policy project that involves the law and building civic participation, we would be delighted to hear your suggestions. The Center also invites community volunteers to do anything from basic research, preparing issue packets of information, assisting with filing, and operating video equipment, to letter writing and advocacy work on Center projects.

Volunteering with the Citizen Advocacy Center is an excellent way to learn about how government really works-not just the standard "how a bill becomes a law" routine-and to develop an array of skills that are useful to good citizenship and to the practice of law including: how to make sense of state statutes and local codes, how to document facts, and how to make government and the law work for citizens. Volunteers will also develop skills including: how to make requests for government information, how to conduct interviews, and how to coordinate press and publicly release information. In addition, legal interns are required to make one public presentation or teach one Democracy Workshop.

The attached list presents some Center activities we will begin or complete --hopefully with your help -- in 2005:

TECHNOLOGY AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT

The Center is interested in helping the State Archives and local governments develop requester-friendly policies and guidelines concerning open government and new technologies. For example, what should a public body do to make sure that it is preserving substantive E-mails? If a memo is delivered electronically to all members of the City Council, has that public body had a meeting in violation of the Open Meetings Act? How has technology impacted local government? What have the Illinois Attorney General and the courts decided on these issues? These questions and many more are going to be the continuing subject of public policy discussions, and should be made into a guide for the public.

FOIA SURVEYS

How much do public bodies charge for copies? How many FOIA requests do public bodies receive annually? These are examples of FOIA surveys interns have completed through the years, and this summer, the Center will conduct another open government survey. Summer interns will implement, analyze the results, and distribute a report in a press conference. The Center will also be making a video series on open government issues for both local cable broadcast and distribution to libraries and schools. Summer interns will play an integral role in putting the videos together.

ILLINOIS ELECTION CODE

The Illinois Election Code deprives people of access to the ballot because reasonable people cannot comprehend its provisions without experienced election code legal assistance. Hostile ballot-access provisions need to be removed through legal challenges. The Center wants to suggest citizen-friendly reforms to the Code. Moreover, Illinois is one of the worst states for independent political parties and other citizen electoral rights. We need an enterprising volunteer to study how current laws can be amended to make Illinois accommodate greater electoral choices, such as "none of the above" ballot options, recall, impeachment, and greater initiative and referendum powers. The Center would also like to do an assessment of the regular undercounting of votes. Finally, the Center needs help monitoring the Illinois State Board of Elections to make sure that they are following the laws that provide for public oversight of elections, such as holding public hearings when required by law to do so.

LOCAL GOVERNMENT

Illinois has 6,722 units of government taxing and spending-more than any other state. Pennsylvania is a distant second with 1,574 fewer units. What are all of these boards and commissions and districts and levels of government doing? This is the question for three teams of volunteers: Municipal, Township, and County. The Center plans to produce a comprehensive report on the state of local government, and what citizens get for all of their tax dollars in DuPage County.

Center volunteers will be responsible for studying the following: · Statutory powers of these local governments, jurisdiction, and assessing whether they are properly constituted; · Budgets and potential pitfalls for waste and duplicative services; · Information about government salaries, pensions, and benefits; · How local governing processes can be improved-such as with ethics codes and reformed bidding procedures-so that we may make taxpayer-friendly recommendations where appropriate; · How does the Municipal Telecommunications Act impact community? · DuPage Water Commission 101 - a Consumer Guide

Finally, each team will produce a written report that can be used by citizens to understand the operations of local government and to encourage reforms where warranted. Center volunteers will also be responsible for coordinating press and public participation for the release of this report. Summer interns will also engage in a detailed analysis of local government budget and taxing issues including issues such as the tax structure of each municipality in DuPage County.

CONSUMER LAW

The Citizen Advocacy Center has been producing educational materials to be used by lawyers to teach about consumer law. Interns/volunteers would research and produce instructional materials on: Automobiles: lemon laws, repairs, buying/leasing, octane ratings; Property: truth in leasing, time shares, financing/mortgages, landlord obligations; Professional Services: insurance, legal services, medical service, banking; Utilities: gas/electricity; At Home Shopping: telemarketing, mail, door-to-door sales, infomercials, unordered merchandise, Internet shopping, home shopping network; Advertising: tobacco, deceptive ads, television; Protecting Yourself in the Marketplace: leaving a paper trail, buyers' rights, canceling contracts, warranties, charitable giving, rain checks; Condo and Homeowner Association rights and regulations; Home Services: lawn care, plumbing, heating/cooling; and Funeral industry practices and regulation.

TAX INCREMENT FINANCING DISTRICTS

Tax increment financing ("TIF") is easy money for municipal redevelopment-but at whose expense? Based on our involvement in previous litigation, our year of monitoring Elmhurst's third TIF project, and calls from a variety of taxpayers against TIFs throughout DuPage County, we have seen how municipalities abuse the state law by improperly designating areas as "blighted" so that they may create a TIF district. TIF redevelopment operates to increase the equalized assessed valuation of property/commercial development in a blighted area, and thus theoretically to generate increased property tax and sales tax revenues for the municipality. The Center would like to do a study of TIFs in DuPage to see how TIFs have actually operated in the County, whether they are producing the much-ballyhooed projections of increase revenues, or whether they are a municipal fund grab that distorts funding sources for schools, parks, and other local taxing districts. The Center needs a volunteer to work with professionals who have volunteered their expertise in tax assessing and municipal finance to investigate the abuse of this law, to assist in the completion of the county-wide study, and to develop guidelines for citizens and elected officials who are questioning the municipal use of TIF districts and their tax liability or benefit. Finally, the Center needs an intern to develop and facilitate a community forum on TIFs to the community.

IMMIGRANT RIGHTS

The Chicago suburbs have an extraordinarily high immigrant population. Many immigrants (both documented and undocumented) do not realize that they have rights regardless of their citizenship status. The Center needs an intern to help organize an education campaign directed at suburban immigrant communities to inform them of their rights under the Bill of Rights, as well as of the legal tools that they can use to be effective community leaders (FOIA, Open Meetings Act, etc.). Interns will organize the community education program, publicity and outreach.

EDUCATIONAL BROCHURES

The Center needs an intern to update its educational brochures on Quick Take/Fast Track Legislation, TIF, Home Rule, DuPage County Government, Government Budgets, the ABC's of DuPage County, and Healthcare. The intern will also present a series of programs on these issues and announce the release of the updated brochures.

SCHOOL FUNDING

The Center has received several calls from individuals concerned with education funding in Illinois. An intern will research the education funding process in Illinois, the money "path," and the role of townships in school funding.

DEMOCRACY WORKSHOPS

At least twice a month the Center hosts a "Brown Bag Lunch" and an "Evening Program" that are open to the community. The Center needs volunteers and interns to choose topics of interest and prepare a workshop for the community. The volunteer or intern is responsible for researching the issue, advertising the program to the community, and facilitating the workshop. Past programs have included gun control, genetic modification of foods, health care reform, the School of the Americas and the World Trade Organization.

CITIZEN TRAINING CORPS

Citizen Training Corps is an ongoing training program that teaches citizens how to build and flex their civic muscles. Citizens learn how to make Freedom of Information Act requests, write letters to the editor, gain access to airwaves, and speak at public meetings and more! Interns are needed to create teaching materials on existing topics as well as new classes such as: how to gain media exposure, how to use cable to promote your message, what are tax increment financing districts, how to place referendums on the ballot and how to use the web to promote democracy on-line.

LITIGATION

The Center has argued several cases in both federal and state courts. In addition to our past litigation, the Center is currently in litigation with DuPage County regarding an Open Meetings Act violation. Interns will assist and observe the litigation proceedings.