Category: Your Right To Know

The 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 […]

Back 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 […]

Bob 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. […]

Journalists 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. […]

March 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 […]

A 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 […]

Let’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 […]

Stung 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 […]

Recently the City of Burlington made some changes to its website, adding a feature it calls a “performance dashboard.” The online tool gives city residents a better look – much of it in real time – about what their government is doing. As the site explains, “Users can review monthly and yearly revenue, expenditures, per […]

Wisconsin’s Open Records Law asserts the public’s right to the “greatest possible information regarding the affairs of government and the official acts of those officers and employees who represent them.” But the law’s reach has been tested in recent years by electronic communications that are easily sent — and just as easily deleted — from […]

Wisconsin, it’s said, had the nation’s first state law mandating public access to government records. It was passed in 1849, a year after Wisconsin entered the union. The law has undergone two subsequent reworkings, the last in 1981. But in truth, it never stops changing. Amendments are passed, practices change, and court rulings redefine the […]

Wisconsin state legislators are routinely deleting emails concerning their involvement with the controversial American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), exploiting a loophole that exempts the Legislature from records retention rules that apply to all other state and local government officials. For more than a year, we at the Center for Media and Democracy, a nonpartisan watchdog […]

I don’t know what it’s like to wear handcuffs, or to be threatened with arrest. I hope I never do. But that could happen, because carrying a camera puts a target on one’s back these days. Photography and videography, for news gathering or fun, are garnering lots of attention from police and other public officials. […]

Last month, the Wisconsin Supreme Court powerfully affirmed the state’s tradition of open and transparent government. In a unanimous ruling, the court affirmed the statutory limits the Legislature placed on public records fees and rejected the argument that requesters can be required to pay “each and every cost incurred by an authority.” The dispute between […]

Advocates of open government often quiz candidates for public office on their level of support for official transparency. The candidates, when asked, always tout their commitment. That doesn’t mean they always deliver. Both Republican Gov. Scott Walker and his Democratic challenger, Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett, have fielded many requests for public records. Indeed, since becoming […]

Wherever they may be on the political spectrum, most Wisconsinites would likely agree that the last year has been a lively one for open government issues in our state. Access issues — including Capitol access, records requests to university professors, arrests of photojournalists, and secret redistricting, to name a few — have regularly made the […]

For decades, a one-man toll booth operated at either the Martin Luther King Boulevard or West Washington Avenue entrances to Wisconsin’s Capitol. “Hey, what do you know?” Dick Wheeler, the dean of the Capitol press corps, would ask anyone entering or leaving. Wheeler, left hand holding his pipe, asked the question to the powerful and […]

It’s time once again for proponents of open government and the free flow of information to celebrate Sunshine Week. But this year, we’ll be doing it under a cloud. The March 11-17 commemoration is sponsored by the American Society of News Editors, the Society of Professional Journalists and other groups. It occurs annually during the […]

As part of national Sunshine Week, March 11-17, the Wisconsin Freedom of Information Council is bestowing its annual “Opee” Awards for openness in government. And Wisconsin state lawmakers have been tapped for both kinds of awards — good as well as bad. Six Opees are being given to eight individuals for 2011-12. The winners get […]

When members of the Columbia County Board committee that handles employment issues voted to go into closed session on Jan. 4, a reporter from the Daily Register newspaper in Portage and a local representative of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) objected. The two critics pointed out that under the controversial […]