Wisconsin Freedom of Information Council
A representative government is dependent on an informed electorate
Your Right to Know is a monthly column distributed by the Wisconsin Freedom of Information Council (www.wisfoic.org), a nonprofit group dedicated to open government.
In early April, in a case brought by the conservative MacIver Institute against state Sen. Jon Erpenbach, D-Middleton, the Wisconsin Court of Appeals declared that communications from citizens to lawmakers are, as one judge put it, “subject to the open records law, without redaction.” But the court also recognized that legislators have the power to […]
Continue ReadingShould enforcement of Wisconsin’s open records and open meetings laws depend on individual citizens having to file often costly and protracted lawsuits? That is one option prescribed under these laws, and those who prevail in such cases can recover attorney’s fees. But the laws also contain provisions intended to help people resolve disputes in a […]
Continue ReadingAs part of national Sunshine Week (sunshineweek.org), March 16-22, members of the Madison student and professional chapters of the Society of Professional Journalists fanned out across the capital city, handing out fortune cookies. We dropped a handful in the offices of the elected officials, from Madison School Board to Gov. Scott Walker, as well as […]
Continue ReadingThis last year has seen almost constant threats to the state’s openness laws. We’ve had local law enforcement agencies suppressing drivers license information, a state senator claiming immunity from civil suits to evade the open records law, and attempts to deny public access to records of circuit court cases and university research. All of these […]
Continue ReadingLike many other people in Wisconsin, I spent some time recently digging into the 27,000 pages of emails released from the John Doe probe into alleged illegal activities by the staff of then-Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker. I was somewhat surprised to find my name appear. In June of 2010, amid the hotly contested race […]
Continue ReadingIn January, the state of Wisconsin launched a new website with a searchable database that lets the public see what state government spends on goods, services and other operating costs. OpenBook Wisconsin — openbook.wi.gov — debuted with more than 25 million records for expenses including real estate transactions, building projects, maintenance, office supplies, and rents. […]
Continue ReadingEach election year in Wisconsin, about one-third of the local government offices on the ballot will be filled by newcomers — driven to office by a reformer’s zeal or a desire to serve their friends and neighbors. And some of them will know little about the laws that govern the conduct of local government. That’s […]
Continue ReadingSandy Whisler was surprised to see her name appear on the Wisconsin State Journal’s editorial page — not in a letter to the editor, which she sometimes writes, but in a Nov. 20 editorial. Whisler, a retired educator in Lake Mills, had emailed four state legislators urging them to hold hearings on proposed bills to […]
Continue ReadingState Sen. Glenn Grothman, R-West Bend, would like to change the way Wisconsin records campaign donations. He’s introduced a bill to raise the threshold for when donors to state and local campaigns must disclose their occupations from its current level of more than $100 to more than $500. The bill would also eliminate the requirement […]
Continue ReadingState Sen. Leah Vukmir, R-Wauwatosa, is making a novel legal argument to dodge a public records request. It’s one that, carried to its logical extreme, could neuter Wisconsin’s Open Records Law. Vukmir is claiming legislative immunity from a June lawsuit filed by the liberal Center for Media and Democracy, which has alleged that she failed […]
Continue ReadingState Rep. John Nygren and Sen. Alberta Darling might be the masterminds behind plans to legalize bounty hunters in Wisconsin, boot an investigative journalism center from the UW-Madison campus and add a credit for private school tuition to the state’s tax code. After all, the Republican co-chairs of the Legislature’s Joint Finance Committee are the […]
Continue ReadingOn July 30, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported on newly released emails between Scott Walker’s campaign staff and county aides in 2010, back when the future governor was Milwaukee county executive. One email was from Cindy Archer, then a top county aide, to Walker and his campaign staff, advising that “we may be responding too […]
Continue ReadingThe University of Wisconsin-Madison has requested that the state Legislature grant it an exemption from Wisconsin’s Open Records Law. The proposed legislation, if passed, would limit public access to university records and diminish independent scrutiny of the state’s flagship university. In pursuit of this exemption, UW-Madison officials have circulated proposed language, initially to a list […]
Continue ReadingBack in 1990, when Milwaukee launched the nation’s first publicly funded voucher program, participating schools could enroll no more than 49 percent voucher students. These schools were considered private, because the majority of their students paid private tuition. Fast-forward to 2013. Now, more than half of Milwaukee’s 110 voucher schools have at least 95 percent […]
Continue ReadingBob Dreps, a veteran media law attorney, says law enforcement agencies across Wisconsin are “overreacting” to an Illinois federal court ruling by purging the names of drivers from public records. Police in Wisconsin have begun withholding the names of drivers in police reports in response to a 2012 case involving the village of Palatine, Ill. […]
Continue ReadingJournalists and others often have cause to complain about the difficulties of prying public information from public officials. But sometimes there are reasons for optimism. Wisconsin has one of the nation’s best systems for accessing court records, through Wisconsin Circuit Court Access. The system has saved county clerks of court countless hours providing this information. […]
Continue ReadingMarch 10-16 is national Sunshine Week, meant to call attention to the cause of open government. For the seventh year in a row, the Wisconsin Freedom of Information Council is taking this opportunity to bestow its annual Openness Awards, or Opees. The council, which works to protect public access to meetings and records, is giving […]
Continue ReadingA ruling last year by the Wisconsin Supreme Court involving the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel became the focus of attention Feb. 27, when a state Assembly committee held a public hearing on a bill, AB 26, that would drastically increase the cost of obtaining public records. The bill, if approved, would let custodians of public records […]
Continue ReadingLet’s start with a stipulation: Not all of the inappropriate behavior that takes place in the Wisconsin state Legislature is committed by lawmakers. Some spectators, especially in the last two years, have also shown poor manners and bad form. People who shout “Liar!” from the gallery as the governor gives a State of the State […]
Continue ReadingStung by controversy last year over its allegedly light treatment of an environmental rule breaker, the state Department of Natural Resources is rewriting its enforcement procedures. Unfortunately, a draft of its plan calls for making the process less transparent. When dealing with polluters, the DNR’s policy is to apply progressively stricter actions until violations are […]
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