Category: Your Right To Know

As a local government reporter, I watch a lot of public meetings — from city councils and county boards, to criminal intake hearings and public listening sessions, to basically everything in-between. It has not been a walk in the park. Many meetings have cut-out mid-livestream, with those in the meeting carrying on anyway, essentially operating […]

Last January, a person involved in local emergency management asked the Office of Open Government, part of the state Justice Department, whether emergency preparedness coalitions run by the Wisconsin Department of Health Services (DHS) are subject to the state’s open meetings and open records laws. The answer to this question, it turns out, is yes. […]

In late October, the Wisconsin Department of Corrections finally disclosed the number of COVID-19 deaths among people incarcerated in state prisons. That’s good news. But it’s troubling that this disclosure, which revealed that at least five state inmates have died, came only after months of delaying, obfuscating and covering up. And the DOC is still […]

Here are some questions for parents to ponder: Do you care if your kids get COVID-19? Do you want to be able to stay informed about coronavirus cases in your community? Should officials responsible for public health and education be held accountable for how they respond (or fail to respond) to the pandemic? If you […]

The COVID-19 pandemic has taught us that many of our jobs can be done digitally and remotely. We’ve found that we can process reports, post documents online and share files with ease from our home workplaces. In some cases, providing access to information is actually easier than it was before. The same thing could — […]

In a scene from the movie “A Few Good Men,” the character played by Tom Cruise spars with Jack Nicholson’s Colonel Jessup over a hazing that killed a soldier. Cruise demands, “I want the truth!,” to which Nicholson famously responds, “You can’t handle the truth!” Wisconsin citizens are getting the “You can’t handle the truth” […]

Recently, the National Freedom of Information Coalition and the Brechner Center for Freedom of Information issued a statement calling for greater transparency and accountability from law enforcement. They were joined by more than 50 groups, including the Wisconsin Freedom of Information Council, Wisconsin Newspaper Association, and the Wisconsin Transparency Project. “Trust is a key element […]

In March, as Wisconsin enacted Safer at Home, state and local governments scrambled to build new ways to govern from remote locations while still complying with our open meeting laws. Even in the age of COVID-19, we still have the right to watch public bodies in action. In a positive step for government transparency, people […]

Donald Trump says it’s just not fair. The president, through his campaign, is suing television station WJFW-TV in Rhinelander for airing a political ad that allegedly defamed him. “The advertisement was the product of an intentional and malicious effort to manufacture a false statement through the use of digital technology,” the lawsuit filed on April […]

Believe it or not, this has been a relatively quiet time on the open government front. In my role with the Wisconsin Freedom of Information Council, I often field calls from reporters and citizens regarding the problems they are experiencing getting access to public meetings and records. In recent weeks, those calls are down, way […]

Every year brings forth new heroes and villains with regard to Wisconsin’s somewhat tattered tradition of open government. This year, it seems, we have had more heroes. In fact, in two categories for its annual Openness in Government Awards, or Opees, the Wisconsin Freedom of Information Council was unable to settle on only a single […]

During the hectic legislative session in February, one thing got lost: the public’s ability to participate fully in the process. That’s because the public wasn’t given adequate notice of some public hearings. Take Feb. 13. Two Assembly hearings that day were held at 11:01 a.m. and 12:01 p.m. For both these hearings, the Wisconsin Democracy […]

As founder of We the Irrelevant, a website that tracks how well (or poorly) the actions of legislators match up with what the public has asked them to do, I have sent multiple open records requests to Wisconsin legislators on a variety of controversial initiatives. Each time, I’ve asked them for related citizen correspondence. I […]

Just shy of two years ago, this column explored the heightened importance of open government when public health is at risk. Multiple examples showed the government was not sharing timely information with the public, or even other branches of government, on issues such as clean drinking water and chronic wasting disease. Some progress may be […]

You can walk into City Hall asking to see records without ever having to give your name. You can mail or email an open records request to any public entity without giving any indication of who you are. You don’t even need to submit a written request. You can make the request orally and still […]

Wisconsin’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 […]

Early in his administration, Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers was asked to produce a letter he’d gotten from departing Gov. Scott Walker, during the transition. He initially refused, claiming it was a “purely personal” communication outside of the reach of the state’s open records law. When the Associated Press asked me for comment, in my role […]

In May, as the state Legislature’s Republican-controlled budget committee considered a plan to spend far less on education than what Democrat Gov. Tony Evers proposed, Sheila Plotkin started filing public records requests. Plotkin asked nearly every member of the Joint Finance Committee for correspondence they had received from Wisconsin residents about education funding. All of […]

As Justice Shirley Abrahamson ends her tenure on the Wisconsin Supreme Court, after 43 years and more than 1,300 authored opinions, she leaves a rich legacy of legal scholarship, importantly including her support for government transparency. While on the court, Abrahamson faithfully applied the presumption in favor of public access in the open records and […]

Wisconsin’s open records law applies to all records requests, big or small. But under former Attorney General Brad Schimel, the Wisconsin Department of Justice implemented a restrictive policy that limited access based on the number of potentially responsive emails. After being sued by the Center for Media and Democracy (CMD), the Justice Department rescinded its […]