Wisconsin Freedom of Information Council
A representative government is dependent on an informed electorate
As part of doing business, government agencies often maintain contact lists or distribution lists. These days those are typically email addresses, but they also can contain physical addresses or even phone numbers. Your state legislator probably has a list of email addresses to send newsletters. Your local governmental units might have multiple lists for different […]
Continue ReadingHow much does it cost to copy one piece of paper? If you ask records custodians in Wisconsin, many will tell you 25 cents. At least that’s what they charge. Is that number accurate? Commercial printers charge half that for small jobs, and bulk printing jobs can get as low as two cents per page. […]
Continue ReadingLet’s say you request records from a public official under the state’s Open Records Law. Let’s say the official, though legally obligated to provide them, does not. Let’s say the records are not provided until after you hire a lawyer and file a lawsuit, at considerable expense. Have you won the case? Should you be […]
Continue ReadingImagine that a developer has been lobbying your local town board to approve a controversial development. You file a record request asking for all emails between that developer and the board’s three members. None of them have official government email accounts, so they search their personal emails. Two members each turn over more than 15 […]
Continue ReadingWisconsin’s tradition of government transparency rests on the state’s open records and open meetings laws. They declare that nearly every government document is open to public inspection, and nearly every meeting of groups formed to do governmental work must be open to the public. Unfortunately, those laws are woefully underenforced. District attorneys and the state’s […]
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