There’s much to consider about Wisconsin’s Public Records Law, before and after the Wisconsin Supreme Court’s decision in Schill v. Wisconsin Rapids School District . Attorney General Van Hollen — who has been fair in analyzing Wisconsin’s Public Records Law (Wis. Stat. 19.31-19.39) and Open Meetings Law (Wis. Stat. 19.81-19.98) — offered a memorandum on the PRL after Schill.
See, Van Hollen memo clarifies release of e-mail under open records.
For any Wisconsin city, not merely my own, here are quick points to consider about the compliance with the Public Records Law:
1. Does every official have and use a public email address as a contact address?
2. If not, why not? If there has been a rationale for the use of a private email address as a primary contact, what is that rationale? How sound is it? (Hint: It won’t be sound, as any rationale will be contrary to the public interest, and shabbily contrived.)
3. When there’s an open records request submitted to a municipality, who sees the actual request? Is it only those who act as custodians to collect records, or do those who likely have the sought-after records in their respective offices see the actual request?
4. Do officials in a department tell employees what they should submit, or do employees see the actual request, and its scope, when going through their records? Put another way: are employees — to whom the law applies — allowed to think for themselves, or are they told only what they are to provide?
5. Do employees know that records include more (much more) than emails?
6. Does a city seem to submit some records, but with gaps that suggest other records might have been withheld? (If withheld, does the custodian even know?)
7. Do any records received seem to include transparently self-serving emails by officials to each other, in which they exonerate themselves of having any records to collect? (Example: “Hey, X, so I guess despite all our diligent efforts, we have no records to send?” “Yes, Y, that’s right! There’s no way to get any more information!”)
8. Do records take a long time to arrive, as was the case with a request to a nearby Wisconsin county official from an area newspaper?
9. Do officials suddenly find obvious records they first denied they had when someone presses yet again? (“Oh, yes, it was sitting here all the time…”)
There’s much more to write about all this, but I wanted to mention Van Hollen’s memo today, upon its release.