DeKALB – DeKalb County was one of only seven northern Illinois county governments to receive a passing grade in transparency from the Illinois Policy Institute, but it is far from the model of open government institute officials would like to see.

The conservative think tank performed two online government transparency audits during the spring for each of the 26 northern Illinois counties. Only DeKalb, Cook, DuPage, Kane, Lake, Will and Rock Island counties received a grade better than “F.”

Although the county passed, it was given a D- after scoring 60.9 points out of a possible 100, making it the least transparent government out of those that passed. Each government was judged on 10 different
categories, including the accessibility of budget information, tax rates, employees’ salaries and benefits, and Freedom of Information Act forms.