YOUR RECORDS, THEIR RULES: PUBLIC ACCESS TO RECORDS HELPS FERRET OUT CORRUPTION

PEORIA, Ill. -- Public documents revealed that George Ryan's campaign for governor raised more than $500,000 between 1994 and 1997 from hundreds of vehicle dealers he regulated as secretary of state.

Public records also were at the heart of a 1997 investigation that showed lawmakers being showered with $1.3 million in gifts from lobbyists ranging from prime seats to the Chicago Bulls to lavish parties, large and small. Lawmakers eventually banned most lobbyist gifts.

When you want to know how much your neighbor paid for their house, need a copy of a divorce decree or simply are interested in how much the town's mayor is being paid, it is the state's laws governing access to public records that help you do so.

Reporters use the same laws to determine how much the state is spending to fix potholes, how lawmakers are distributing special scholarships among their constituents, or what a sheriff is recording on his expense account.

Here are some recent stories that used public records to help document questionable activity by public officials:

-- Records obtained from state universities indicated that politicians were giving significant numbers of legislative scholarships to their relatives, allies, state workers and others who lived outside their districts, in violation of state law.

Following the disclosure by The (Champaign) News-Gazette in 1996, the General Assembly voted to make names of future scholarship recipients public.

-- When the directors of failed Illinois savings and loan institutions were sued by the federal government, the (Peoria) Journal Star obtained records showing then-U.S. Rep. Henry Hyde helped make key decisions while a board member for Clyde Federal Savings and Loan in the early 1980s.

Records showed Hyde backed and supported various investments that went sour prior to Clyde's failure. Hyde has said he relied on the best financial advice available at the time.

-- In Sangamon County, The (Springfield) State Journal-Register reported that court documents in 1997 revealed that a communication error between judges and the state prison system allowed serious offenders to escape more severe punishment for their misdeeds, despite a state law mandating extra punishment.

Records also revealed judges routinely gave convicted criminals free time before jail, which some convicts used to skip out on their sentences.