Author: WisFOIC

In Wisconsin, the law gives the public maximum access to government records and decision-making meetings.  People have the right to know, for example, whom local police have arrested and why. However, when students in two classes at the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh requested daily arrest lists for area city and county police departments, they didn’t get […]

Wisconsin “sunshine” laws are brightening the halls of government in Wisconsin this spring, and a string of recent victories for the public’s right to know deserves celebration. These recent cases also should serve to warn local and state officials to not flout open government laws in the first place: Public meetings: In Milton in southern Wisconsin, […]

Q. What do Florida lawmakers know that Wisconsin legislators don’t? A. That sharing information with the public doesn’t impede good government. The current lack of openness is lawmaking is a significant matter for our state. If Wisconsin legislators – and Gov. Jim Doyle – truly are serious about reducing partisanship and restoring public confidence in […]

Wondering what your local school board plans to do next Monday night? Just check the agenda. After all, the law says government officials have to tell  you what they intend to do at their meetings. Not so fast. The meeting notice includes a closed-door session with this cryptic reference: “Contemplated closed session for consideration and/or […]

Public records are just that — public. They should not be hidden or blocked by red tape or intimidation. They should be easy to access, view and learn from. Wisconsin’s Web site for circuit court records is a great example of government respect for the public’s right to know. The popular site, wcca.wicourts.gov, lists just […]

The Wisconsin Freedom of Information Council distributed questions to candidates for the office of Wisconsin Attorney General, which has a particular statutory role regarding the enforcement and interpretation of Wisconsin’s open records and open meetings laws. The council is a nonpartisan, nonprofit group that focuses on issues affecting public access to meetings and records. Sponsoring […]

Have you ever read news of a development project and wondered, “Now, when did that get approved?” Or have you been surprised to see the quiet field near your home become a new construction site? Don’t chastise yourself for being a bad citizen, or assume you’ve simply missed the project’s publicity. Your government may have […]

Wisconsin’s open meetings law is based on the idea that “a representative government of the American type is dependent upon an informed electorate.” But don’t tell that to two prominent Republican state senators. They seem to think that it’s better when the public isn’t involved. Republican Sens. Glenn Grothman of West Bend and Alberta Darling […]

About five years ago, Wisconsin State Journal reporter Dee Hall  wrote to the heads of the four partisan caucus offices then in operation in Wisconsin asking to see all the photos and graphics they had produced the previous year. Hall was acting on a tip that the taxpayer-funded offices, established to provide legislators with extra […]

Government officials have always wanted to shoot the messenger.  Now they’re taking aim at “leakers.” Elected leaders in La Crosse and Brookfield have passed ordinances to punish city workers or officials who reveal information from closed meetings. City council members want to use the local laws to decide – subjectively and after the fact – […]

Let’s set aside the question of whether Wisconsin should have a “concealed carry” for handguns, and instead turn to the issue of whether permit carriers’ identities should be kept secret. On Nov. 2, a joint public hearing on the concealed carry bill will be held by the Assembly Criminal Justice and Homeland Security and the […]

Freedom of information, like all of our freedoms, demands our watchfulness if the rights of the public are to be preserved. Public records and open meetings are a cornerstone of clean and open government. The ability of citizens to monitor and participate in government depends on it. Unfortunately, sometimes we have to fight for this […]

It was apparent in early 2004 to anyone attending the monthly meetings of the Ozaukee County Board that supervisors were quite familiar with Internet technology, thank you. It was obvious because they routinely discussed county business via e-mail prior to county board meetings. Supervisors would refer to their online conversations during public debate. Some would […]

As identified by the Wisconsin Freedom of Information Council 1. High costs. The Open Records Law states that custodians may charge only the the “actual, necessary and direct cost” of reproducing records, and in some cases (when more than $50) of locating records. Yet media and other requesters are sometimes asked to pay exorbitant amounts […]

Former newspaper editor Peter Fox recalls the “sick feeling” he got when he discovered his newspaper had been misled by Racine County officials who were withholding a much-anticipated report on problems at the county jail. It was 1987, and rumors abounded that a report commissioned by the county’s corporation counsel examining overcrowding and dangers at […]

The State of Wisconsin Elections Board enters into a $13 million contract with Accenture to create a statewide voter registration system. Certain lawmakers and pundits go wild, accusing Accenture of incompetence and threatening a legal challenge to the Elections Board’s action. Do these critics have a point? How did the Board settle on Accenture? The […]

Imagine you hear through the grapevine that your town’s board has been meeting with its lawyer and some political allies about a land deal. You might be affected, so you ask about the talks, and they respond: None of your business. Or you want to check out the zoning documents that your county board used […]

On Oct. 7, the Wisconsin Court of Appeals sided with The Janesville Gazette in the court’s first-ever application of the recent “Woznicki” amendments to the state’s Open Records Law. Those amendments, enacted in August 2003, were intended to define and limit the procedural rights created by the Wisconsin Supreme Court for record subjects in Woznicki […]