What is happening in Madison?
The open meetings case continues in front of Dane County Circuit Court Judge Maryann Sumi, as attorney’s for the county, the Attorney’ General office, Secretary of State Doug LaFollette, Rep. Peter Barca (D-Kenosha) and Sen. Mark Miller (D-Monona) argue whether the Joint Conference Committee violated notice rules and open access to the Senate Parlor.
Judge Sumi has already issues a temporary restraining order to LaFollette, blocking him from publishing Wisconsin Act 10, which eliminates most collective bargaining rights for public employees. She has also declared the publication of the act by the Legislative Reference Bureau on March 25 is not effective for the enforcement of the law.
Both the governor and the Department of Administration have now said they will abide by the judge’s TRO and not enforce the provision of the act, which include employee contributions to their pensions and health care premiums and the elimination of automatic union due deductions.
The majority of the focus this morning has been on the open meetings provision which covers proper notice of a governmental meeting. The opening meetings law requires a minimum 24-hour notice of all governmental meetings and a 2- hour notice if there is “good cause.” However, “good cause” is not defined in the statutes.
However, that calendar is not automatically updated throughout the day, so he called the technology department to request the notice be posted immediately.
The staffer who obtained the signatures, said she made copies of the notice and posted one on the bulletin boards outside the Senate and Assembly chambers and on a special bulletin board located outside the Senate vestibule. She also faxed a copy of the notice to Dick Wheeler, the publisher of The Wheeler Report, and a prominent Capitol building journalist.
Both staffers said the published time of the notice was approximately 4:18 p.m., one hour and 22 minutes before the 6 p.m. meeting.
Robert Marchant, the Senate Chief Clerk, spent the most time on the stand discussing the rules of the Senate and the Joint Committee. He said the rules regarding notice of meetings is covered under Senate rule 93, Assembly rule 93 and Joint Committee rule 3.
Marchant, who is also an attorney, said he was familiar with the state’s open meeting laws and agreed there is nothing specifically in Joint Committee rule 3 that directs how much notice must be given for meetings.
“Notice depends on whether is is a special, extraordinary or regular session of the Senate,” Marchant said in response to how much notice must be given for Senate or Joint committee meetings. He added that because the Senate and Joint rules are silent on the issue, he often looks to the custom, usage and former practices of the body.
The DA reminded Marchant that the open meetings law is clear that if there is no legislative rule that conflicts, or overrides the opening meetings laws, there should be the 24-hour notice.
But Marchant held that because the Senate was in special session, Rule 93 applied and the notice was properly given by simply posting the item on the bulletin board.
The DA pressed Marchant for a reason why it was neccessary to hold the meeting without 24 hour notice. But Marchant said he knew of no reason and that he was following the direction of Sen. Fitzgerald.
Marchant also testified that there was a meeting on March 7, two days before the infamous joint conference committee. The meeting was attended by Marchant, both Fitzgeralds, Sen. Mike Ellis (R-Neenah), the Assembly Chief Clerk and a representative from Governor Scott Walker’s office.
The meeting was held at the Legislative Fiscal Bureau offices and the idea of severing the collective bargaining items from Walker’s budget repair bill so it could be voted on by the Senate without the 3/5 quorum.
Marchant said the meeting was called by Sen. Fitzgerald and that the discussion focused on how they could move the bill forward,. He was not sure if they were discussing options that would allow for a Senate vote without the 14 Democratic senators present.
Following Marchant’s testimony, the DA called the Senate Sergeant-at-Arms, who controls the security for the chamber. He testified that he was notified of the Joint Committee meeting around 3:30 p.m. He said he called for troopers to man the doors of the Senate Chamber and screen the public who would enter for the meetings.
He added that the Senate chamber, which included a public gallery, could have accommodated approximately 96 people and the Assembly chamber could hold up to 150 people.
However the meeting was held in the Senate Parlor, which after taking into account space needed for staffers and the press, only left room for 20 members of the public. He said the Senate and Assembly regularly hold committee meetings in larger rooms, that those rooms were available and he wasn’t told why the committee meeting was being hastily arranged.
Before the lunch recess, the DA called Capitol Police Officer Daniel Blackdeer. He was in charge of the police forces on March 9. He said the Capitol typically has all eight ground floor entrances open to the public and are without metal detectors or guards. That began to change on Feb. 13 when the protests began. By March 9, access to the building was restricted to only two entrances for the public (two additional entrances were being used for handicapped persons) and each had a metal detector and armed guards.
“The day was slow and we had allowed about 1,300 people into the Capitol,” Blackdeer testified. “At 4 p.m I received a call from Capitol Police Chief Tubbs and he told me to not release (let in) anymore people. At 4:45 p.m. we met with the Senate and Assembly Sergeant-at-Arms and learned they were pulling the collective bargaining piece out of the bill and meeting in the parlor.”
He said state troopers and officers were requested to be in the Parlor, the Senate Gallery and Chamber, in front of the Senate doors an to secure a staircase to allow the Senators to leave following the session.
“I closed one of the (Capitol) entrances to reallocate resources to accommodate that request. We left the King Street entrance open.”
He described the growing crowd of people approaching the Capitol from State Street and the eventual breech of the King Street entrance by the crowd. Blackdeer said as someone left the Capitol, another person pushed into the building and that allowed a flow of people into the Capitol. UW Police were called to help control the crowd.
The court resumed testimony at 1:30 and I’ll have more for you later.
