Following the Aug. 9 police shooting of Michael Brown, an unarmed teenager in Ferguson, Missouri, citizens and the public demanded to know the involved officer’s name. The Ferguson Police Department stirred national attention, and some outrage, by waiting six days to reveal it: Officer Darren Wilson. Wisconsin has Ferguson beat. On April 30, 2014, a […]
Category: Opinion
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Posted inOpinion
Your Right to Know: Walker, Burke weigh in on openness
According to Walker, it’s up to the political parties to open their caucuses, which they could do without a change in state law. He’s right on that point, and we’re still waiting.
Posted inOpinion
Your Right to Know: Disciplined workers should be named
Whether the workers are line workers or top management, the same rules should apply. And even minor work rule violations can have a serious impact on morale, especially if there is a pattern of abuse.
Posted inOpinion
Your Right to Know: AG rivals all back more openness
All four candidates said the state’s online court records website is an important source of public information and should continue pretty much as is.
Posted inOpinion
Your Right to Know: Lawmakers should retain, release records
Lawmakers must provide any documents they possess in response to an open records request. But they don’t need to provide documents they don’t have, and nothing compels them to keep documents.
Posted inOpinion
Your Right to Know: AG’s office could do more on openness
Should 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 cheaper and less complicated way: Citizens can ask the state attorney general or county district attorney to sue a government authority, and any person can seek advice from the attorney general.
Posted inOpinion
Your Right to Know: Walker must answer questions on emails
Apparently, many of the hundreds of open records requests being made of Walker’s county office were going to the Walker campaign for review. Clearly, these were all public records and the campaign should have had no involvement whatsoever in their review or release.
Posted inOpinion
Your Right to Know: OpenBook offers partial peek at state spending
In January, the state of Wisconsin launched a new websitewith 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. Records […]
Posted inOpinion
Your Right to Know: Lawmaker contacts shouldn’t be secret
There is a broader issue: the public has a right to know who is saying what to elected officials.
Posted inOpinion
Your Right to Know: Don’t shield donor employer info
Grothman’s bill would raise the threshold for when donors to state and local campaigns must disclose their occupations and eliminate the requirement that the donor’s principal place of employment be disclosed.
Posted inOpinion
Your Right to Know: Vukmir wrong on records law
State Sen. Leah Vukmir is making a novel legal argument to dodge a public records request — one that could neuter Wisconsin’s Open Records Law.
Posted inOpinion
Your Right to Know: Pull back veil on budget tweakers
Doesn’t the public have a right to know who came up with these ideas? This would let voters hold their elected officials accountable at the ballot box and look for potential conflicts.