I have had doubts about a multi-million dollar Innovation Center and Tech Park for Whitewater, Wisconsin. The costs are certain and rising, the benefits uncertain, and the city’s planning shifts from one Big Thing to another, like a series of teenage fads.
Here’s what the Innovation Center is supposed to look like:
Impressive, isn’t it?
Perhaps I should reconsider my opposition. I saw a post at the website BoingBoing that really gave me pause, and made me re-think my doubts about an innovation center. Their post, entitled “Levitating Cat” persuaded me to reconsider.
Here’s a photo of the cat:
All these years in Whitewater, and I have never seen a cat that could levitate. I like cats, and have blogged about them, but I have not once seen a telekinetic feline.
Not once.
I’m stunned. Somewhere on earth, perhaps far from Whitewater, there are cats that can fly with the power of their minds.
In Whitewater, at the groundbreaking for our Innovation Center, nearly a dozen humans needed shovels just to move a little bit of dirt. More concerning: these were supposed to be Whitewater’s super-smart, visionary humans. Even they needed shovels.
Meanwhile, there’s a place somewhere where cats can levitate, and presumably move other objects, too. What if it’s a communist country? These cats could be Reds, from North Korea, perhaps.
North Korea is a brutal, oppressive hell, terrible to its own people, and a threat to its neighbors. It would be far more dangerous if that regime had a force of brainy, but evil, cats.
Whitewater may be facing an unfavorable feline levitation gap.
There is no time to lose – we need a bigger Innovation Center to help teach Whitewater’s cats to fly. If we were prepared to waste spend eleven million on a center before, we should be ready to commit at least twice as much now.
The existing proposal is probably too small. At least the entire first floor would need to be turned over to a litterbox, and there would need to be adequate space for cat toys and scratching posts. We’ll have to double the size from the current proposal, at a minimum.
He who hesitates is lost – time to plan and spend big, really big.
From enduring opinion, one often hears that small towns are places of folksy and humble people. Small-town America is meant to be unpretentious. We should be clear with ourselves: America is meant to be unpretentious, a rejection of the tyranny of status and title so much a part of the Old World.
And yet, and yet… one finds that even in a small town in south Wisconsin, one will sometimes encounter a proud, vain declaration of credentials and accomplishments. The website of my town, Whitewater, Wisconsin, is just such a place. On our town’s website, Whitewater’s city manager proudly lists his experience, academic credentials, and awards. (It seems many officials listed on the municipal website have this sort of bio; the city manager’s is an exemplar.)
Here’s a screenshot from the City of Whitewater website, along with the text below. (Two quick remarks — (1) I have a clear legal right to display the screenshot, and (2) the photo and text are both from the city bio.)
Screenshot:
Text:
Kevin Brunner has served as City Manager since 2004. Previous to joining the City of Whitewater, Kevin served as city administrator for the Wisconsin communities of De Pere, Monona and Saukville. Kevin has also served as Assistant to the Mayor in Appleton and Assistant to the County Administrator for Kenosha County.
In 2007 Kevin was Named Wisconsin City/County Manager of the Year by WCMA, and in 2008 he was recognized by ICMA (International City and County Management Association) for 25 years of service to local government. In addition to his duties as City Manager, Kevin serves on the Wisconsin Alliance of Cities Board of Directors, Walworth County Economic Development Alliance Board as Vice President, Downtown Whitewater Inc. Board of Directors, the Carthage College Advisory Committee and Alumni Council, and Treasurer of the Whitewater University Technology Park Board of Directors.
Kevin graduated Magna Cum Laude from Carthage College and received a Masters in Public Administration from Michigan State University. Kevin also attended the Senior Executive Institute at the University of Virginia.
If a screenshot should be worth a thousand words, then one now knows all about City Manager Brunner one might ever need know. One sees in this only the vanity of a bureaucrat.
It’s common for private websites to list academic credentials, etc.; it’s rare for governing officials to do so. You might want to know where your private doctor went to school. There’s a reason, though, that these displays are rare in public life, especially in small-town America: governance is not a matter of credentials and past accomplishments.
Holding the office of city manager, one needs no showy recommendation or credentials, only the lawful exercise of authority conferred from one’s fellow citizens.
Not only does this recitation of academic honors and awards (!) add nothing to one’s political authority, it’s shamefully vain and un-American in a public official.
Does Brunner expect particular deference for this? I don’t know; I’ll leave it to others to decide for themselves if that might be so. (I know that there’s a way of rationalizing all this by saying: “Well, it’s to show the quality of the officials Whitewater is able to land.” To which I would reply: “My point exactly, apart from any credentials, and none to the town’s credit.”)
Look around, at Whitewater, Wisconsin. Where does this gentleman think he holds office? This is not Versailles; we are better off that it’s not. Brunner is a public official in a small Wisconsin town. Dignity comes from the office, conferred and held humbly under law, not a showy and vain catalog of the officeholder’s academic credentials, etc.
How many people in this town are poor, illiterate, troubled, or desperate? Too many. They’re residents and citizens, just as much as Brunner. Are they expected to approach him on ‘little cat feet,’ grateful to be in the presence of the learned and accomplished man himself? He does not occupy a private role, but a public office, the authority of which is conferred from citizens as citizens. The accomplishments that matter don’t come from Brunner’s résumé, but from our forefathers, who built a great republic.
Some of the listed accomplishments are too funny — Brunner doesn’t simply tell you where he attended school, but that he graduated magna cum laude. If he had graduated cum laude, would he be less the city manager? If he graduated summa cum laude, would he be more so?
Other cities list biographies for their leading officials, but they usually emphasize public policy goals in the statements, with little or no emphasis on education, etc. Recitations of accomplishments aren’t personal to the official, but policy-oriented.
From Madison, see the bio for Mayor Dave Cieslewicz, ending with, “Born in 1959 and raised in West Allis, Wisconsin, Cieslewicz is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin in Madison. About once a month you can find him playing Sheepshead with friends at the Memorial Union. He lives in the Regent Neighborhood on Madison’s west side with his wife Dianne and their dog Calvin.”
From Milwaukee, see the bio for Mayor Tom Barrett, ending with, “Tom Barrett grew up on Milwaukee’s West side, graduated college and law school from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, was a member of both the Wisconsin State Assembly and State Senate, and was elected to five terms in the U.S. House of Representatives. Barrett and his wife, Kris, live in Milwaukee’s Washington Heights Neighborhood with their four children: Tommy, Annie, Erin and Kate.”
Short, simple, plain: What one hopes for in a public official.
There’s also no humor, warmth, or sense of the light-hearted in the written bios on the City of Whitewater website. It’s all oh-so-serious, dry, and self-important. (Perhaps the photo accompanying the screenshot is meant to be light-hearted; it seems, instead, incongruous and discordant when paired with the text.)
Credit where credit is due: I don’t think I could write a better parody of a city manager’s self-importance than the one on the City of Whitewater website.
The forecast for Whitewater calls for a mostly sunny day, with a high of thirty-four degrees.
I know of no municipal, public meetings scheduled in the City of Whitewater today.
In our schools, there’s a continuing mitten drive at Washington (Elementary) School. At Whitewater High, there’s a student assembly, a cookie cafe, and the Booster Club meets at 7 PM tonight.
One of the supposed advantages of living in Wisconsin is that the small size of communities, and supposed open, forthright character of citizens, will prevent the kind of unfair pressure and influence that officials may exert in huge, crowded cities. Perhaps not.
From Dane County, the Wisconsin State Journal reports on allegations against a prosecutor for using his authority to drop criminal charges to influence a defendant to settle an unrelated civil case.
The state agency that regulates lawyers is investigating whether a Dane County prosecutor improperly offered to drop criminal charges against a town of Oregon man in exchange for settling a civil lawsuit against his neighbors.
In a letter late last year, the Office of Lawyer Regulation said it was investigating a complaint by John Dohm against Dane County Assistant District Attorney Paul Humphrey. Dohm alleges that Humphrey improperly took Dohm’s neighbors’ side in the lawsuit, turning their legal dispute over water on their properties into two criminal cases.
The first case, a single charge of disorderly conduct that took three days to try, was dismissed in March when a jury acquitted Dohm after deliberating for less than an hour. The second case, alleging bail jumping, was dismissed a month later.
The prosecution file for the two cases grew to more than 700 pages, and Dohm, owner of several businesses including Start Renting magazine, said he spent $48,000 defending himself.
“What I experienced with Paul Humphrey should not be experienced by any other citizens of our county,” said Dohm, 55. “His abuse of power, his intimidating tactics and his willingness to throw the weight of the district attorney’s office behind an unrelated case is unconscionable.”
Is this the first time prosecutor Humphrey has been accused of misconduct? No, not at all — it’s the third:
Dohm’s complaint is at least the third allegation of misconduct investigated by the lawyer-regulation agency against Humphrey, who has been an assistant district attorney in Dane County for two decades. Humphrey’s controversial and aggressive tactics were the subject of a four-day Wisconsin State Journal series in 2007.
The Wisconsin Supreme Court is considering possible discipline against Humphrey in a vehicular homicide case in which he was found to have withheld evidence from a defense attorney and lied to a judge. The defendant in that case also was acquitted.
In rural Whitewater, Wisconsin, and across the state, one hears politicians, officials, and bureaucrats insist that they are public servants, community treasures, and tribunes of the people. They may describe themselves as they wish; the description neither alters their character nor convinces any save the gullible.
If there were a way to transform human nature and disposition so easily, we’d make saints of ordinary men simply by calling them councilmen or Congressmen.
The people most likely to believe in that magical transformation are the officeholders themselves. The rest of us have no reason to adopt that foolish view.
The forecast for today is for a mostly sunny day, with a high of twenty-six degrees.
There’s a meeting of a local park committee, the Indian Mounds Park Committee, scheduled for 5 PM tonight at the municipal building.
There’s a fifth grade band concert scheduled for Lakeview School today at 2 PM and again at 7 PM. At Washington School today, there’s a P.A.T.T. meeting at 6:30 PM. Lincoln SChool will have a PTO meeting from 3:15 – 4:15 PM.
A day like today — a calendar like today — is what people often imagine — and for which they hope — from small town America.
Here are the five “Strategies of Yesteryear that Won’t Work Today”:
1. More federal aid
2. More government debt
3. More taxes
4. More delaying tactics
5. Incremental, stopgap measures
Government’s spending and meddling in Whitewater, in Wisconsin, and in America has never been more discredited than it has been recently. Flacking and floundering is no way to face the new century.
The sound principles of “individual liberty, free markets, and peace” are everywhere around us vindicated and confirmed. What was only a year ago proclaimed dead is not merely alive but our best hope for a prosperous future.
Showy schemes and dubious city projects are nothing as against the American tradition of liberty, open government, and free enterprise. In that old, but eternally new and revolutionary tradition, the best days of our small city, and our great country, are ahead of us.
(Hat tip for the link: Commentary‘s Contentions blog.)
When it takes years for a homeowner to learn of a problem, one can expect that when she does, she will be both frustrated and suspicious for the delay.
Quick notes: I have no personal connection to anyone in these stories, and I have no expertise in the kind of environmental contamination described here, in this instance from benzene, a known carcinogen.
The homeowner believes both drinking water and ground contamination are risks in the neighborhood; the City of Whitewater contends that the drinking water tests safe, and the State of Wisconsin contends that there is no risk from ground contamination. (An official from the City of Whitewater points toward ground contamination, not city water, as the potential problem: “It’s not the drinking water that’s the issue, it’s the groundwater,” said Dean Fisher, director of public works.”)
There’s an environmental issue here that matters most, surely, to the homeowner and neighbors nearby. There’s another problem, however: Reassurance – even if wholly sound – from the city or state is harder to provide in any situation where notice of a possible problem is delayed.
No one should be surprised that a homeowner is upset if notice of problem takes years to arrive.
From the Daily Union:
Does Whitewater have lingering health and property value issues due to soil contamination from a gas station that closed more than a decade ago?
At least one city resident believes so, although the state Department of Natural Resources says the matter is closed.
Kathy Channing and her family live on South Clark Street, a few blocks away from the former Five Points One Stop gas station at 503 S. Janesville St. The One Stop went out of business in the late 1990s after owner Stan Meyer became ill. The gas pumps were removed in July 1998 and the gas tanks were removed 18 months later, in January 2000.
Channing’s gravest concern is about the level of benzene, a chemical used in gasoline that is a known carcinogen, or at least the vapors from any potential benzene remnants.
She said the first time she heard of contamination at the site was in a letter dated March 16, 2009, from Meyer’s wife, Elizabeth.
“The letter was dated March 16, but we did not receive it until April 17, by certified mail,” Channing recalled. “That was the first I heard about it. The letter says that I had 30 days to ask any questions, but I did not get it until 31 days after the date on the letter.”
The letter read that groundwater contamination that appeared to have originated on the Five Points One Stop property had “migrated’ onto Channings’ nearby.
“The level of benzene contamination in the groundwater on your property is above the state groundwater enforcement standards (“ES”) found in chapter NR 140, Wis. Adm. Code,” the letter stated. “However, the environmental consultants who have investigated this contamination have informed me that this groundwater contaminant plume is stable and in the process receding and will naturally degrade over time.”
From the Janesville Gazette:
The Channings learned in spring that leaking fuel tanks at the former Five Points One Stop gas station at 503 S. Janesville St. had contaminated groundwater in their neighborhood. The couple was informed the problem was going away and the state needed to close the case.
They were upset that no one had told them the groundwater was contaminated with an unsafe amount of benzene, a carcinogen, for the 10 years since the gas station closed.
Even in a small town like ours, and a Midwestern state like ours, where there’s supposed to be open and accountable government, notice of a problem may take years. It’s the kind of delay that one imagines only happens in crowded cities like Los Angeles or Chicago.
It happens here, in tiny Whitewater, and a smaller state like Wisconsin, too.
For all the self-congratulatory rhetoric one often hears from public officials in these parts about excellent customer service and efficiency, our community has some of the same delays and inefficiencies of much larger places.
I’d guess that if this happened near an official’s house, he’d be just as concerned, and twice as outspoken. The putative reassurance that you have nothing to worry about is easier to offer than to receive, and intervening years only increase that difficulty.
It will be a chilly day, in the mid-twenties, with a chance of flurries. I doubt that ‘chilly,’ is an official, National Weather Service term, but a little change can’t hurt.
In the city today, there will be a meeting of Whitewater’s Planning Commission at 6 PM at the municipal building.
In our schools, the District Administrator, Suzanne Zentner, will hold a monthly public listening session at the school district’s central office, 419 South Elizabeth Street. There will be an English-language session from 5:00-5:45 p.m., and a Spanish-language session from 5:45-6:30 p.m.
In late December, I posted a video of a Washington, D.C. police officer who unholstered his gun in a confrontation with snowball throwers. See, “Don’t Bring a Gun to a Snowball Fight.
There’s an update to the story, from Reason‘s Radley Balko, entitled, “The D.C. Snow Job.”
Here’s the situation that snowy day, as Balko describes it:
As a blizzard dumped more than a foot of snow on Washington, D.C. last month, a group of youngish, well-wired hipsters gathered in the city’s gentrifying U-Street corridor for a mass snowball fight. The idea originated and gained momentum on the social networking site Twitter. That’s significant, because by the time it was all over, the Snowball Fight Heard ‘Round the World became an apt demonstration of how social networking, easy access to publishing software, and the all-around democratization of technology is blowing open the filtered, narrowly-bored traditional channels of information, helping make both government and traditional media more accountable.
The December 19 snowball fight took an ugly turn when snowballers pelted a red Hummer making its way through the snow-packed intersection of 14th and U Streets in Northwest Washington, a part of the city with some historical turbulence, including the 1968 riots. The driver, D.C. police Detective Mike Baylor, emerged from his vehicle in plain clothes, and without identifying himself as a police officer confronted the snowballers. Baylor unholstered his gun, bringing more derision and insults to an already heated confrontation (including the chant “don’t bring a gun to a snowball fight”).
Snowballers and observers quickly began calling 911 about a man waving a gun at the intersection. That brought uniformed cops to the scene, one of whom had also (understandably, at that point) drawn his weapon. Baylor detained one person, attorney Daniel Schramm, whom the detective falsely accused of hitting him with a snowball.
Within hours, video of the altercation popped up all over the Internet (including from Reason.tv’s Dan Hayes, who was on the scene). By the morning of December 20, anyone with an Internet connection could see from multiple angles shot by multiple video cameras and cell phones that not only did Det. Baylor wave his gun, he also admitted it. Baylor is now under investigation. He’s been stripped of his badge and gun, and may lose his job.
Yet, Balko observes that there’s something even more interesting – how officials in the District of Columbia tried to conceal and deny Baylor’s conduct and how traditional media swallowed a reflexive, ‘we did nothing wrong’ posture.
First, Balko on the official response, one of easily-refuted lies:
Despite the fact that video and photographic evidence of Det. Baylor drawing his gun were already widely available on the web, MPDC Assistant Chief Pete Newsham initially issued a series of what can only be called bold-faced lies. Newsham first told the Washington City Paper, “There was no police pulling guns on snowball people.” In fact, there were two.
The Washington Post then reported:
Assistant Chief Pete Newsham, who leads the department’s investigative services bureau, said it appears the patrol officer acted appropriately, and the worst the detective might have done is use inappropriate language in dealing with the snowball fighters…
At some point, Newsham said, the detective approached the group of snowball fighters and had “some kind of interaction” with them. He said the detective holstered a cellphone, and someone from the crowd called to report a man with a gun.
“He was armed but never pulls his weapon,” Newsham said of the detective. “I think what probably happens is somebody probably saw his gun and called the police.”….
Newsham’s rush to clear Baylor’s name came before the slightest bit of investigation. Newsham also quickly deferred to Baylor’s stellar reputation and years of service, distinguishing the noble public servant from the unruly yahoos making accusations against him. That would be fine if Newsham was Baylor’s attorney. But he isn’t. He’s in charge of the MPDC unit responsible for investigating officer misconduct. And here he was disseminating clear and provable lies.
Forget the gun-waving Baylor. This is the real scandal. You’d be awfully naive to think the only time Newsham has publicly lied to defend a MPDC officer accused of misconduct was coincidentally the one time the officer’s accusers were tech-savvy hipsters armed with cell phones and video cameras. D.C. Police Chief Kathy Lanier’s investigation into the incident ought to go well beyond Baylor. From where did the false information Newsham perpetuated originate? Why was Newsham, whose position is that of a trusted liason between the department and the public, so quick to use bad information to defend a fellow officer? Shouldn’t this incident call his judgment into question in other cases? Is he still fit for the job?
Then, on how newspapers swallowed easily-disproved lies:
Don’t count on the traditional media to look into any of this. As the City Paper’s Erik Wemple reported last month, the excerpted post above, the one where Washington Post reporters Matt Zapotosky and Martin Weil uncritically regurgitate Newsham’s nonsense, came not only in the face of overwhelming video evidence to the contrary, but in spite of the fact that one of the paper’s own staffers was actually at the snowball fight and told the paper that, without question, Baylor had pulled his gun….
You may have seen the original already; if you’ve not, it’s well worth watching.
The forecast calls for blowing snow, with a high of about nineteen degrees: a typical Wisconsin day in January.
The week ends with no municipal, public meetings scheduled today for Whitewater.
In our schools, it’s spirit day at Washington (Elementary) School, and at Whitewater Middle School.
I don’t know how many vagrants we have in Whitewater, but there was a time when Wisconsin knew how to deal with people who were just walking around, doing nothing, all day long. It was a long time ago, though, and in the century since we’ve created all sorts of management jobs for people of this disposition. The Wisconsin Historical Society recounts how we once handled these matters, and how even then, vagrants were an ornery lot:
1910 – Vagrant Snow Shovelers Strike for Pay
On this date 228 vagrants were brought in to shovel snow at the Chicago & Northwestern rail yard in Janesville. Shortly thereafter, they went on strike for 25 cents an hour and better food. Two days later, they went on strike again, asking for 30 cents an hour. [Source: Janesville Gazette]
Whitewater-Area League of Women Voters’ January 2010 Newsletter is now available, and the latest issue includes a calendar of upcoming LWV events. A copy of the newsletter [2/6/10– latest issue] is available as a link on my blogroll, and through a document service called Scribd. Scribd offers its own link to the document, with the ability to view, print, and share documents, including viewing in a full-screen mode.
Updated: 2/6/10 — updated to Google Documents Viewer for a cleaner format.
Here is a sampling of upcoming events mentioned in the January newsletter:
Date: January 9th (Saturday)
Event: LWV Board Meeting
Where: Public Library, 10:00 AM
Date: January 21st (Thursday)
Event: Whitewater Area LWV Public Program, 2010 Census.
Where: Municipal Building,Council Chambers, 7:00 PM
“Professor Jolly Emrey from the Department of Political Science at the University of Wisconsin— Whitewater talking about why the census is important. Her title is “The Politics of the Census and Its Political Implications for Redistricting.” The talk is scheduled for Thursday evening the 21st of Jan. at 7:00 PM in the Council Chambers at City Hall. Professor Emrey is an alumna of Cal State—Los Angeles and she received her doctorate in Political doctorate in Political Science in 2002 from Emory University.”
2009-2010 Contemporary Issues Lecture Series
The College of Letters and Sciences at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater is once again offering the Contemporary Issues Lecture Series. All lectures will be in the Young Auditorium at 7 p.m. and are free and open to the public. Contact Susan Johnson (johnsons@uww.edu or 472-4766) for further information.
Monday, February 15th 2010 — “Naked Trends: What Can Basic Economics Tell Us About the Future”– Charles Wheelan
“Charles Wheelan, a faculty member at the Harris School of Public Policy at the University of Chicago and a former Midwest correspondent for The Economist, writes Yahoo!‘s popular “Naked Economics” column. Prior to joining the faculty at the University of Chicago, Wheelan was Director of Policy and Communications for Chicago Metropolis 2020, a business-backed civic group promoting healthy regional growth in the Chicago area. He has written for the Chicago Tribune, the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal and other publications. His 2003 book, Naked Economics: Undressing the Dismal Science, seeks to make economics accessible, comprehensible and appealing.”
It’s a snowy day in Whitewater, with several inches forecast, and a likely high in the mid-twenties. I am sure that any snowball throwing within the city limits of our fair city will be done appropriately, and in a positive, community-approved manner. While outside, please make sure that any snowmen you might build are the right height and weight, deviating from proper standards by 2.7% or, one hopes, an even smaller amount. An exceptional community could, and should, expect no less.
I don’t see any municipal, public meetings scheduled for today, so you can go about the private activities of work and play that support the city’s tax levy, with no additional interference.
It took until the beginning of the 20th century, but on this date in 1901, Wisconsin’s first native-born governor was inaugurated. The Wisconsin Historical Society has the details:
1901 – Robert Marion La Follette Inaugurated as Governor
On this date Robert M. La Follette was inaugurated as governor after winning the November 6, 1900 election. La Follette was born in Dane County in 1855. A Wisconsin Law School graduate and three-term member of congress, La Follette was renowned for his oratorical style. He was the first Wisconsin-born individual to serve as governor. [Source: Dictionary of Wisconsin History]
A tenured surgeon walks into an operating room with a pair of chopsticks. Someone notices that the surgeon is carrying two wooden sticks instead of a scalpel. The surgeon replies, “Now that we’re having this discussion, I’ll address it.”
What would you think, if you heard that conversation? You might think that a surgeon should be aware of the instruments he uses, and would require no reminding from others. Any surgeon, of course, but especially one with a long tenure in that profession.
Whitewater sits, mostly, in Walworth County, where a similar story – about law, not medicine, about sealed warrants, not scalpels – recently made the pages of the Janesville Gazette and Walworth County Gazette:
ELKHORN – In some Wisconsin counties, sealed court documents hold back details from search warrants for a limited time while investigations are ongoing.
In Walworth County, seals have no time limit, and some records could disappear from the public eye altogether.
Motions to seal search warrants in Walworth County ask that all documents and their existence be kept under wraps. The seal acts as a seal on itself, as if the search never happened, leading some warrants to be kept away from public scrutiny.
The procedure gives law enforcement the power to search homes virtually undetected. The paper trail disappears, and interested parties are unable to find out the basis for the execution of a search warrant or how it was conducted.
Worse still, Walworth County’s long-tenured district attorney, Phil Koss, acknowledges in the story that
It has happened before, District Attorney Phil Koss said.
“The problem may come when the matter is sealed, and then we never get it filed, there’s no referral from law enforcement or for whatever reason the investigation doesn’t pan out,” Koss said.
“With really no active mechanism to tickle them, have them brought up again so that people remember to unseal them, they get filed with the clerk, the clerk is not going to unseal them, and the judge is not going to think about them until we ask him to.”
The reasons to have a limited and definite time for a seal are clear, as the story ably sets out:
Bill Lueders is the president of the non-profit Wisconsin Freedom of Information Council and news editor at Isthmus, a weekly newspaper in Madison. When documents are sealed, he said, the custodian of records should still provide as much information as possible without compromising the contained information.
“It’s important that we do not have secret courts in this country, that everything that happens in the court of law is public,” Lueders said. “The courts have tremendous amounts of power to make decisions that affect people’s lives, and it’s appropriate that there be a maximum amount of transparency.”
The goal is to protect the public’s interest to promote open and accountable courts, he said.
“The fact is that police and prosecutors occasionally do things that they shouldn’t,” Lueders said. “And for that and among other reasons, a high level of transparency is in everybody’s interest.”
Bob Dreps, an attorney at Madison-based Godfrey and Kahn law firm, said Wisconsin law is unclear, and there is no standard practice when it comes to sealing search warrants. It’s not spelled out in statutes, so each county does it differently, he said.
“The expectation is that search warrants, after they are returned, will be sealed only for good cause and only while that good cause exists,” said Dreps, who regularly represents media companies in court. “So if a prosecutor persuades a judge to seal a subpoena, it should be for a defined period of time.” ….
In Dane and Rock counties, court officials put out summaries of executed search warrants, including information about the ones sealed and how long the seal will remain.
Why should we have fewer safeguards on the power of government in Walworth County than in Rock or Dane counties? There is no principled reason at all.
How very odd, though that “Locally, Koss said changing the language on applications for seals is a start that would come from Koss’ office …” and yet D.A. Koss declares that “It’s never come up before,” Koss said. “Now that we’re having this discussion, we’ll address it.”
Oh my – the Walworth County District Attorney’s office initiates these requests, but it takes a newspaper to bring the matter to the attention of the lawyers in that office? They didn’t otherwise think about the nature of their own requests?
These gentlemen in high Walworth County positions expect deference and praise for their work, but depart time and again from the better standards of Wisconsin and America.
One sees in this story what a solid story, from a serious newspaper, looks like. If other newspapers and so-called news sites had troubled themselves these many years to do the same, we might not find ourselves so ill-governed.
