Following the publication of an article by Les Golden of Oak Park, Illinois, in the peer-reviewed, UK-based The Mathematical Scientist, the Intergovernmental Council of West Suburban Cook County announced that it will convene a plenary session to discuss implementing some of the suggested means for streamlining local government.   The communities involved include Oak Park, Illinois, River Forest, Illinois,   Forest Park, Illinois,   Riverside, Illinois,   Elmwood Park, Illinois,   and Brookfield, Illinois.

The study, entitled “The Optimal Allocation of Resources Among Competing Units of Government,” was made by scientist Les Golden, Ph.D, of the Center for Computational Astrophysics in Oak Park.

Although the article is highly technical in nature, the article provided a strong motivation for the Council to convene.  The technique of the linear programming model, which determines the optimal means of allocating finite resources among competing entities, has been applied to a wide variety of business, communication, engineering, and scientific problems.   Although its applicability to problems of public policy is recognized, it has been underutilized despite its great promise in aiding the setting of budgets, decision making, and promoting intergovernmental cooperation. 

Golden showed how it can be used not only to allocate finite resources but also to increase government efficiency, provide a documented, transparent objectivity, and improve government accountability while retaining the ability to incorporate different philosophies of government.  The paper details a formalism in which the governments set priorities set for each proposed project and request units of each project for which resources are requested.   An index is calculated which quantifies the level of optimization as a guide to the participating community.

Oak Park, Illinois and to a lesser extent River Forest, Illinois are among the most highly taxed communities in Illinois.  Oak Park leaders greeted the publication of the article as a possible means of providing tax relief, without which they fear additional businesses will continue to leave the community.  Most recently, the popular La Majada restaurant, an anchor of the fledgling arts colony in Oak Park, went into foreclosure.  That closely followed the closing of Papa Spiros Restaurant, the popular anchor restaurant for the struggling downtown area.  Oak Park has been slow to come out of the 2008-induced recession, largely because of its burdensome property taxes.  Les Golden of Oak Park, an animal welfare and environmental as well as tax reform activist who received the distinguished leadership award from the Taxpayers United of Illinois in 1991 and who has run for office using the name Les “Cut the Taxes” Golden, has been a critic of these tax policies, which he stated was one motivation for preparing the study whose techniques will be reviewed by the Intergovernmental Council.