Local Government. Access, Transparency and Accountability

We will focus on stories of citizens that fought or advocated for something with their local government and won. We will discuss what the issues were, what challenges they faced, how they did it and what happened along the way. The conversations will include citizen activists, community organizers, government watchdog groups and everyday citizens that decided to take on their local government, whether it was City Hall, their Library Board, School Board or Park District. Local government is where citizen's voices can have the biggest impact on improving the community or fighting a new development. A little about me, I served as an elected official for 11 years, having served on a municipal board, school board and a college board. Along the way, I have always been a citizen advocate, before running for office, I attended meetings, spoke out on issues facing my communities, and spoke to community groups about issues that were important to me, advocating for what I felt was right.