The clerk for Cook County Circuit Court is one of the most widely used offices. And one of the most scandal-plagued. Clerk Mariyana Spyropoulos is working to reverse that reputation by championing transparency and accountability. It’s a welcome change for an office that does crucial work: maintaining and preserving all court records and files, recording court proceedings and rulings, and collecting and disbursing court fines and fees.
Under former Clerks Dorothy Brown and Iris Martinez, the Office of the Clerk of the Circuit Court of Cook County faced various ethics scandals. These ranged from patronage, pay-to-play allegations and defrauding by employees of the federal Paycheck Protection Program. The office desperately needed to win over public sentiment by improving trust and transparency.
Spyropoulos took office in December and — without prompting from good-government advocates or scathing editorials — began to do what she promised. In March, her office launched a first-of-its-kind data dashboard, providing a view into the court’s inner workings, which is usually futile because the judicial branch is exempt from the Freedom of Information Act. Creating this dashboard was an enormous undertaking, but there are still elements lacking before it can be a go-to source for researchers, journalists and policy advocates. The Better Government Association hopes to see more data points added: when and how cases close, how long eviction cases take to go through the court system, how most felony cases resolve, how language services are used, jury composition and how many people self-represent.
Making her office stand out even more from other parts of the judicial branch in Illinois, Spyropoulos has revitalized the system for responding to public requests for information with an online records center. It can be used for court data, archived files and media requests. To manage this access and further promote transparency, she created the position of public access director. Although this is a big step forward, judicial FOIA would be even better. While campaigning, Spyropoulos said she would support adding the judicial branch to FOIA, and we look forward to working with her to push state Rep. Curtis Tarver’s bill across the finish line.
She recently told BGA Policy that she continues “to believe that the judicial branch, including the clerk’s office, should move toward greater transparency. Expanding public access to information is key to strengthening confidence in our courts and in the public’s interest.”
We know this will be a challenge. BGA Policy heads the Court Transparency Coalition, a group of good-government advocates and legal scholars who have been leading the charge in Springfield to include the judiciary in the Freedom of Information Act. Progress has been slow due to increased opposition by the courts and the lack of political will by legislators.
Much of the work of transparency and accountability is done by ensuring the public and experts can see how government runs. That’s why the clerk’s office designated an ethics officer, initiated an internal audit of office finances and updated the ethics code. Due to the past ambiguity of the Office of Inspector General in the clerk’s office and lack of documentation supporting past roles, Spyropoulos appointed an internal inspector general and is creating a policy that will support this role. It would be even better to codify these changes into law to outlast her tenure. Cook County residents deserve it.
In addition to these improvements, she launched a customer service survey and expanded language services to ensure all residents of Cook County have easy access to the clerk’s office.
Transparency is an essential part of governing that allows our democracy to function. But creating an open and accountable government is work that is never truly done. Spyropoulos has made concrete changes and shows us what is possible when a public official chooses to prioritize transparency and accountability. Her work so far can be used as a model for other elected officials.
We can’t wait to see what she does next.
Bryan Zarou is vice president of policy at the Better Government Association.
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