Wisconsin Sunbeam

It seems that the Madison 911 Center screwed up after receiving a call from a recent murder victim. The 911 Center has been refusing to respond to requests for more information:

Over the past two and a half weeks, the 911 Center has refused requests for basic information about the calls. This week, Joe Norwick, director of the Dane County 911 Center since July, declined further opportunities to comment after being provided with a written summary of parts of this story.

In an email, Norwick said he was basing his refusal on a request from the Madison Police Department to withhold all information “pertaining to this matter” because release would “seriously impair” the murder investigation.

Madison police officials vigorously dispute this. While declining to call the 911 Center’s action a cover-up, they suggested that Norwick is improperly using the department as an excuse not to own up to his agency’s mistakes.

Despite all that (or maybe because of all that) it sounds to me like this calls for a FOIA.

H/T to Badger Blogger.

UPDATE: I just hit sent on this request. It made more sense to me to request internal communications about Brittany Zimmermann’s call than to ask for the call itself, as the Isthmus article above shows that they have already hit a wall using that angle. Let’s see if I get anything useful back!

I was very pleased to sit down at the computer this morning and read about Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen’s recent opinion on open records from the DMV. I wrote about this a long time ago, and I’m awfully glad to see this matter receiving the attention that it deserves.

See

Attorney general: Police can release DMV information

and

Motor records can be disclosed.

UPDATE: FOI FYI, the Freedom of Information Committee’s blog, has picked up this story.

The most recent article in the Wisconsin Freedom of Information Council’s (WISFOIC) Right to Know Series (which I love — archives here) brings up the interesting point that modern day communications have left Wisconsin’s open record statutes in the dust. As I’ve talked about before, text messaging is already a contentious point between some Madison policy makers, and those are only the tip of the iceberg. As Roger Allen puts it:

[W]hat obligations does a records custodian have to preserve metadata, computer systems logs (used by information technology folks on daily basis to assess systems functions), voicemail, instant messaging, text messaging, or chat room discussions?

Beyond those, what about internet search histories (that bane of sexual misfits everywhere), lists of websites visited by public employees while on the job and the time spent on those websites, or any other form of interacting with the wider world that we may not even have thought of yet?

I’m pretty positive that there are records in each one of these categories that the public would be interested to see — and deserves to know about. Luckily for us, the City of Madison has been working to review and update it’s openness ordinance for the past three (!) years. That work has culminated in a newly proposed ordinance called Legislative File No. 09158. Take a look and tell me what you think of the proposal.

Josh over at Blog Waukesha is starting a great new project: “Project Identify Waste” on his blog. I’m pretty pleased that he chose open records as the first tool he’ll be using to identify waste. If all goes as it should, I think access to Waukesha’s public records will be the only tool necessary to source out excessive city spending. My suspicion, however, is that while public records will hold all of the information that he is seeking, actually gaining access to them may require such additional tools as lawsuits or the outing of city staff that are stingy with providing proper access.

Good luck Josh!

Taking that first step toward making an honest woman of myself.

Kicking some ass in Rat City.

Finding a house to buy.

Visiting someone dear to me in a place I wish they weren’t.

So, stuff has been happening to me, but things have been happening on the Wisconsin open records front too. I’ll get back to making fun of the legislature’s stance on transparency tomorrow!

This isn’t really an open records story, but I love it, so here you go:

Wis. Man in Standoff Over Unpaid Taxes.

I know I’ve wanted to take that kind of stand once or twice before… IMHO, leave the dude alone. I doubt he is much of a drain on public funds considering his “strong anti-government attitudes”, and I would hate to see someone get hurt or end up in jail over $5,647. (Or any amount, but you know what I mean.)

Over and over again we are run up against the wall of bureaucrats making it difficult to obtain copies of public records. As the Journal Sentinel put it: Just follow the law. And the law in Wisconsin is pretty dang clear:

In recognition of the fact that a representative government is dependent upon an informed electorate, it is declared to be the public policy of this state that all persons are entitled to the greatest possible information regarding the affairs of government and the official acts of those officers and employees who represent them. Further, providing persons with such information is declared to be an essential function of a representative government and an integral part of the routine duties of officers and employees whose responsibility it is to provide such information. To that end, ss. 19.32 to 19.37 shall be construed in every instance with a presumption of complete public access, consistent with the conduct of governmental business. The denial of public access generally is contrary to the public interest, and only in an exceptional case may access be denied.

Well, maybe “clear” is an overstatement of the readability of the language, but once you parse it out, the meaning is obvious. I like the Wisconsin Statute Summary (plain English version) available at WikiFOIA for quick reference.

If you haven’t noticed, last week was Sunshine Week. To celebrate (somewhat belatedly), here is a wrap up of some of the press Sunshine Week got here in Wisconsin.

Keeping the light of openness on government is important from the Vernon County Broadcaster. Yes indeedy.

Daily Register wins open government award from the Portage Daily Register. Congratulations!

Open records yours, for price from the Wausau Daily Herald, with a fun quote from Merrill city clerk Bill Heideman: “I figure, ‘Hey this is the public. They pay taxes. Let’s give them this stuff’”.

And my favorite story about open records recently in Wisconsin: Gov. Doyle’s office not enamored with Freedom of Information from Fox River Politics. Looks like Jo Egelhoff is participating in the Sunshine Blogger Project for the state of Wisconsin. Cool! I’ll be following this one with great interest.

Looks like the cops in Whitewater have some serious time on their hands…

Witch-Hunting a Blogger in Whitewater, Wisconsin.

Things have been going on the open records realm in Wisconsin lately, but I’ve been waylaid by illness and have not posted as much as I would like. Here’s a picture of what I look like today. Well, if I was a unicorn. A bunch of my friends are sick too, must be the Plague.

Anyway, here are some Open Records links:

Mississippi Gets an “F” in Transparency from Reason’s Hit and Run blog. The writer is not surprised by Mississippi’s grade.

Hoboken 411 covers Beth Mason’s crusade for transparency in her area: Unanswered OPRA Questions.

On Monday, Dakota Voice writer Gordon Ganos published a really nice essay on A couple of questions about privacy and secrecy in government. Good stuff.