Yesterday i blogged about illegal County Board meetings. Today, Madison School Board.Also, the result of an open records request and public comments. Again, illegal meetings?
WHAT DOES THE LAW SAY?
Part of this will be familiar if you read the post about the County Board illegal meetings.
Message from the Office of Open Government – as a reminder of why this is important.
“It is imperative that we recognize that transparency is the cornerstone of democracy and that citizens cannot hold elected officials accountable in a representative government unless government is performed in the open.”
and
“Wisconsin’s open government laws promote democracy by ensuring that all state, regional and local governments conduct their business with transparency. Wisconsin citizens have a right to know how their government is spending their tax dollars and exercising the powers granted by the people.”
Open Meetings Law
In recognition of the fact that a representative government of the American type is dependent upon an informed electorate, it is declared to be the policy of this state that the public is entitled to the fullest and most complete information regarding the affairs of government as is compatible with the conduct of governmental business. Wis. Stat. § 19.81(1).
“all meetings of all state and local governmental bodies shall be publicly held in places reasonably accessible to members of the public and shall be open to all citizens at all times unless otherwise expressly provided by law.” Wis. Stat. § 19.81(2).
What is a “governmental body”?
[A] state or local agency, board, commission, council, department or public body corporate and politic created by constitution, statute, ordinance, rule or order; a governmental or quasi-governmental corporation except for the Bradley Center sports and entertainment corporation; a local exposition district under subch. II of ch. 229; a long-term care district under s. 46.2895; or a formally constituted subunit of any of the foregoing, but excludes any such body or committee or subunit of such body which is formed for or meeting for the purpose of collective bargaining under subch. I, IV, V, or VI of ch. 111. Wis. Stat. § 19.82(1).
State and local bodies created by “rule or order” are also included in the definition. The term “rule or order” has been liberally construed to include any directive, formal or informal, creating a body and assigning it duties. 78 Op. Att’y Gen. 67, 68–69 (1989). This includes directives from governmental bodies, presiding officers of governmental bodies, or certain governmental officials, such as county executives, mayors, or heads of a state or local agency, department, or division. See 78 Op. Att’y Gen. 67.
So what are government bodies required to do?
The two most basic requirements of the open meetings law are that a governmental body:
(1) give advance public notice of each of its meetings, and
(2) conduct all of its business in open session, unless an exemption to the open session requirement applies. Wis. Stat. § 19.83.
OPEN RECORDS REQUEST
I sent this request on October 15th.
Please consider this an open records request and provide any and all electronic or written communications sent in the past three months through board or private electronic communication tools and in writing regarding the resolution on F-35s that appeared under the president’s report on Monday, September 23rd’s school board agenda. Specifically, I am requesting emails between members of the school board and any of the following:
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Other school board members
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MMSD staff, including legal counsel
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Any state, city or county elected officials
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Persons urging support of the F-35s and/or against a resolution opposing F-35s, including lobbyists and organizational emails. Particularly Zach Brandon or other staff or representatives of the Chamber of Commerce, any members or representatives of Together Truax, Badger Air Community Council, Labor Unions, Madison College, UW, Airport Commission, Greater Madison Convention and Visitors Bureau, Downtown Madison Inc or Air Force.
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ANSWER TO OPEN RECORDS REQUEST
Getting an answer
On October 30th I got a lovely email explaining that they were working on the request, but due to it passing through several hands to get to the person preparing the answer and the fact that the General Counsel Matt Bell was no longer in his position it would be a bit longer.
On November 15th, a month later, I got an answer. An 892 page pdf. F35ResponsiveRecords
What did I find?
This is what I was looking for.
Subject: [board] F-35
From: Gloria Reyes <greyes@madison.k12.wi.us>
Date: 9/13/2019, 6:27 AM
To: board@madison.k12.wi.us
Hello All, I have assigned Cris and Savion to be lead on this issue. They are inquiring on how this may impact our students at the nearby schools and if the board should have a voice on this issue.
https://madison.com/wsj/news/local/govt-and-politics/what-happens-if-truax-field-doesn-t-get-the- f/article_e917baf6-e10b-5936-9ab3-d59ac30ca714.html
Thanks
Sent from my iPhone
There are many other interesting things in the open records request, but it seems that this one was clearly what the Attorney General says is covered: The term “rule or order” has been liberally construed to include any directive, formal or informal, creating a body and assigning it duties. 78 Op. Att’y Gen. 67, 68–69 (1989). In this case Gloria put in writing that she was assigning 2 people specific duties.
A SECOND CLEAR OPEN MEETINGS VIOLATION
During the Superintendent search the Cap Times reports the following on December 24th:
The district had hoped to announce the names of the finalists Monday, according to an email from School Board president Gloria Reyes over the weekend. But that announcement was delayed until Thursday, district spokesman Tim LeMonds wrote in an email Monday afternoon.
“Due to MMSD being fortunate enough to have an extremely strong pool of highly qualified candidates, the MMSD board faces a very difficult decision on what candidates to move forward to the next stage in the process,” LeMonds wrote. “As a result, the board decided it was in their best interest to add additional time for candidate review, and has set a new decision deadline for this Thursday, after the holiday break.”
Hmmm, there were no meetings publicly announced between Monday and Thursday, how was this decision made?
There wasn’t even a legal notice at all last week, no notices for Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday. So seriously, how was the decision made? Looks like another open records request is in order.
OK, WHAT DO YOU WANT TO HAVE HAPPEN KONKEL?
At. least. try.
The school board is so messed up when it comes to transparency I don’t know where to begin.
I’d really like to see them receive some training in open meetings laws and openly discuss the challenges and solutions to have a small board where open meetings violations become more challenging.
I’m hoping the new superintendent has a greater sense of urgency towards and prioritizes transparency and following open meetings laws.
I’m hoping the new general council for the school board gives the school board better advice on open meetings laws.
I’m hoping the new media person is also on board for ensuring that the school board is not just managing the media, but open and transparent.
I’d like to see a commitment by board members to change practices and policies to increase transparency.
I’d like to see practices and unwritten policies put into writing.
But mostly, I just want them to be educated and supported by staff in being more transparent so the public can better understand where all our taxes are going and why and who we should vote for in future elections.
