I'm a pretty lucky guy when it comes to winning awards for my journalistic work. And I'm happy to say I recently won another. The Suburban Newspapers of America, a national organization of community newspapers, just announced their 2009 contest winners. I won an honorable mention prize for Best In-depth Reporting.

The award was for my Jan. 9, 2009 piece that broke a fairly big news story in Oak Park, Ill. Basically, a friend of the village's finance director was given a six-month contract, not to exceed $75,000. I discovered that the contractor worked for the village for more than a year and collected $305,000. The real problem, however, is that if the village ever spends more than $25,000, its village board must approve it. They were never told.

My story, and follow-up articles, prompted an investigation into the matter that eventually led to new procedures for how the village spends money and increased the participation of the village board into financial matters.

One of the main reasons I got into journalism nearly 10 years ago was to play watchdog. It's always a good feeling when my work triggers positive change. Even better than winning an award for it.

Here's something one of the Oak Park council members said during a special meeting to discuss the consultant issue, which was prompted by my article:

“I think too often elected officials shy away from investigative reporting. What I learned from that report in the Oak Leaves was new information, and that is why I’m deeply disturbed and, in fact, sharing the outrage from some of the people I heard from just today and over the weekend about that article.”