Mahoney/Blaska Collusion on Immigration?

October 1, 2010 7:56 am

Blaska gives Mahoney politics and strategy advice on the immigration issue and Mahoney asks for support when it goes to committees. That’s about all I was able to tell as the 4 week long quest for information ends in a fizzle/incompetency. I guess Mahoney likes Blaska better than me. 🙂 Are you surprised?

HOW IT ALL STARTED
Blaska seemed to have information no one else had about the immigration status of some of the kids who had an incident outside West High School. I was curious how he was privy to the information. And how often it happened. Here’s a post on those details.

OPEN RECORDS REQUEST RUN AROUND
When you want information and encounter resistance, the next step is an open records request. So, I did. Or tried. Got a big run around about how I was even supposed to do it.

FOUR WEEKS LATER, THE BOGUS INFO
I finally got a letter in the mail, dated 9/23 telling me I had by $9.45 to get the information mailed to me, or for $7.75 I could pick it up. Yesterday I went and picked it up . . . here’s what I got. (Pages might be out of order)

I didn’t find out much, in fact, the information was kind of flawed, so I sent this email, to which I am waiting for a reply. I was kind of annoyed after all this delay and then to get bogus info.

I spreadsheet that was attached to one of the emails was copied twice, and both times, it only contained information from 2007. I find it quite offensive that you would email this information for free to Blogger Blaska, and yet charge me for it, twice and then the information is incomplete. Can you just email me the spreadsheet as you did for him? Or charge me if you have to, but please explain why this information was freely given to Blogger Blaska, but not to Blogger Brenda.

Thanks.

Brenda

p.s. I have enclosed the email that refers to the spreadsheet and the portion of the spreadsheet I received.

I think the double standard and the fact that I had to pay for information (in some cases more than once) and then the fact that information is not complete is insulting. I don’t think the office is that incompetent, do you?

Here are my requests I sent . . . but which I had trouble sending.

Request one:

from Brenda Konkel
to mahoney
date Fri, Sep 10, 2010 at 7:18 AM
subject Open Records Request

Please send me all emails between you and David Blaska regarding “illegals”, immigration status of individuals, ICE and gang members in the past year.

Thank you.
Brenda Konkel

Response:

from Mahoney, David
to Brenda Konkel
date Fri, Sep 10, 2010 at 7:32 AM
subject RE: Open Records Request

There is a formal process to request open records, please contact the Sheriff’s Office records division at 284-6827 or visit our website for updated information on the process. Thank you.

Request two:

Brenda Konkel
to mahoney@co.dane.wi.us
date Fri, Sep 10, 2010 at 7:39 AM
subject 2nd Open Records Request

Please send me any emails in the past year where you release immigration statuts or ICE information about individuals in the community to people that do not work in law enforcement or for Dane County, including inquiries from the media.

Thank you
Brenda Konkel

I was kind of surprised that there are no other requests for information from members of the community or the media in the last year via email to the sheriff. The on-line request I did included the following information, both in the same request:

Sheriff Mahoney directed me to the website in response to my open records requests:

1st request:
Please send me all emails between you and David Blaska regarding “illegals”, immigration status of individuals, ICE and gang members in the past year.

2nd request:
Please send me any emails in the past year where you release immigration status or ICE information about individuals in the community to people that do not work in law enforcement or for Dane County, including inquiries from the media.

Thank you

OTHER INFO RECEIVED
– Here’s the emails where Blaska gives Mahoney media advice for the State Journal.
– Here’s where Mahoney enjoys the Vikki McKenna show.
– This seems completely irrelevant and non-responsive to my request.
– Here’s the questions Blaska had on the data
– Here’s the heads up on the article he was writing

Not much interesting, but I’m beginning to wonder if that was the response to both requests and what else is wrong with the info I received as they seemed to do a sloppy job in providing the information.

KUDOS TO THE CITY
At the city, if you ask for information, more often than not, they will email you the information without charge. That is much appreciated. If they do give it to you on paper and charge you for it, they are making your life difficult, probably on purpose because they are annoyed by your request.

4 COMMENTS

Jesse Russell October 1, 2010 8:34 am At 8:34 AM

The run around you received regarding the open records requests is ridiculous, but I don’t see anything in the emails between Mahoney/Blaska that suggest collusion. What I do see is Blaska clamoring for attention and saying “look what I did, aren’t you proud of me?” Mahoney responds professionally and with few words.

The questions Blaska had on the data are reasonable for someone writing an article. He only seems to be trying to clarify information so he gets it right.

Finally, yeah, the heads up on what he is writing is completely unprofessional and in journalistic terms unethical, but that’s why Blaska is a blogger and not a journalist.
Brenda Konkel October 1, 2010 2:47 pm At 2:47 PM

The reason I asked for the information was to find out if there was collusion. It’s a question. And I’m not sure I know if there is based on the info I got.

I agree Mahoney seemed mostly professional, and Blaska’s questions were reasonable. That’s why I said not much interesting. Unethical as a journalist, is interesting. And the political advice was mildly interesting, in that they seemed to work together on that political level.

Mostly, the results so far are just garbage. I’d like to see the rest of the info and get it without paying for it if they gave it to another blogger.
Jason Joyce October 4, 2010 11:10 am At 11:10 AM

Collusion means to secretly work together to deceive or defraud. How is what happened here different from you standing at a bar and encouraging an alderperson to make a particular phone call, other than in this case we have email from a public official’s official account, which is maybe the least secret way of communicating in 2010?

There might be plenty for you not to like here, but it’s overly dramatic, not to mention inaccurate, to suggest collusion.
Brenda Konkel October 4, 2010 4:19 pm At 4:19 PM

Well, there are two curious things that the emails revealed.

1) The spreadsheet has information that the Sheriff told the Immigration committee was not available and they couldn’t get it because it would take too much time to gather it.

2) I was surprised by the political/media advice that Blaska gave to Mahoney, it was clearly political advice.

3) I’m still amazed that they want to charge me to give me the same information that Mahoney simply emailed to Blaska.

4) Overly dramatic? Poor choice of words? Maybe. I asked if there was collusion, because that is why I wanted the emails, to see if there was collusion. I didn’t think so based on the answers, others might come to other conclusions. But it was the question I was wondering about. Seems odd that Blaska can just email to find out if someone is “illegal” and Mahoney promptly answers. He’s seems to have access others do not.