Our Views: Rock County Board needs to be open about filling seats gazettextra.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from gazettextra.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Bill Lueders, president of the Wisconsin Freedom of Information Council, said the bill Evers vetoed was the Legislature attempting to change the law after getting caught breaking it.
A spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu declined to comment.
Christa Westerberg, vice president of the Wisconsin Freedom of Information Council and a lawyer who specializes in open government issues, said at best the bill is ambiguous as to whether it simply codifies existing statutory exemptions to disclosure. At worst it creates (or will be interpreted as creating) a broad new exception to disclosure for any records relating to human resources matters in the Legislature, Westerberg said in a memo to council members in June.
By Scott Bauer, Associated Press
Jul 8, 2021 | 5:58 PM
MADISON, Wis. (AP) Gov. Tony Evers on Thursday vetoed a bipartisan bill designed to help save two shuttered paper mills and another measure criticized by open records advocates to create a human resources office for the Legislature, saying it would shield documents from public release.
Evers signed bills to eliminate the need for a barbering or cosmetology license to practice natural hair braiding; allow designated local officials to shoot beaver and muskrats within 50 feet of a public road and allow 15 year-olds to obtain an instructional driving permit, six months earlier than is currently allowed.
Legislators wanted to keep harassment complaints secret. Gov. Tony Evers wisely vetoed a bill that would have done that. Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
This bill should never have gotten to the governor’s desk.
State lawmakers wanted to create an exception for themselves that likely would have made it harder for the public to see records about colleagues accused of, or disciplined for, harassment.
The measure would have formally created a human resources office for the state Legislature but also kept disciplinary records and complaints against lawmakers confidential. The proposal had passed both houses of the Legislature with little dissent.
The bill passed the state Senate last week even as a Dane County Judge ruled that Assembly leaders violated the open records law by withholding a sexual harassment complaint against a Democratic lawmaker. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and other news outlets sued to get the records.
Evers vetoes bill keeping legislator discipline records confidential stevenspointjournal.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from stevenspointjournal.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.