Wisconsin Freedom of Information Council names “Opee” winners

Wisconsin’s Republican attorney general and a key GOP lawmaker are among the recipients, good and bad, of the 2015-16 Openness Awards, or Opees, bestowed annually by the Wisconsin Freedom of Information Council.

The awards, announced in advance of national Sunshine Week (sunshineweek.org), March 13-19, recognize extraordinary achievement in the cause of open government. It is the tenth consecutive year that the awards have been given.

“In 2015, we saw shocking attacks on the state’s traditions of open government,” said Bill Lueders, council president. “And while we are pleased to be able to recognize a few heroes, it is profoundly dismaying that we had so many zeroes to consider in rating assaults on transparency.”

Besides a cowardly attempt by lawmakers to gut the state’s open records law in early July, lawmakers acted to reduce transparency in campaign finance reports and Gov. Scott Walker’s administration embraced extra-legal interpretations of statutory language to justify shutting down records access.

“If not for the loud and clear opposition of Wisconsin residents from across the political spectrum, we would have lost much more ground than we did,” said Lueders, noting the changes forced by public reaction to the July proposals and to a new, immediately abused change in the definition of “transitory records.”

The Wisconsin Freedom of Information Council is a nonpartisan group that seeks to promote open government. It consists of about two dozen members representing media and other public interests. Sponsoring organizations include the Wisconsin Newspaper Association, Wisconsin Broadcasters Association, Wisconsin Associated Press, Wisconsin News Photographers and the Madison Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists.

The winners will be invited to receive their awards at the sixth annual Wisconsin Watchdog Awards Dinner in Madison on Wednesday, April 20. The event is presented jointly by the Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism, Wisconsin Freedom of Information Council and the Madison Pro Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists.

Awards are being given this year to institutions and individuals in six categories. The winners are:

Political Openness Award (“Popee”): Brad Schimel. Wisconsin’s Republican attorney general offered strong public opposition to the Legislature’s attack on the open records law, and helped affirm the value of open government at a summit he organized. Schimel’s new Office of Open Government has also led by example in setting out to improve its response time to records requests. The Council doesn’t agree with the AG on everything, but is pleased with how seriously he takes his statutory role to interpret and enforce the state’s openness laws.

Media Openness Award (“Mopee”): George Stanley and the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

When state lawmakers launched their sneak attack on the state’s open records law, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and its editor clicked into high gear, including a front-page editorial that helped force legislative leaders to back down, followed by aggressive reporting to uncover who was responsible for this proposal. Stanley and his staff, including editorial page editor David Haynes and associate editor Ernst-Ulrich Franzen, remained strong advocates for open government throughout the year, beating back other threats.

Citizen Openness Award (“Copee”): Sheila Plotkin. This McFarland resident undertook a huge open records project. She has battled with lawmakers who voted to dismantle the Government Accountability Board and hike political spending while decreasing transparency in a new campaign finance law to release the input they received from citizens on these issues. The results—showing that lawmakers disregarded the overwhelming weight of this input—are posted online, at we-the-irrelevant.org.

Open Records Scoop of the Year: (“Scoopee”): Greg Neumann, WKOW-TV. This was a banner year for stories based on records, including the Wisconsin State Journal’s reporting on bad state economic development loans, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel’s uncovering of abuse allegations at a juvenile prison, and the Center for Media and Democracy’s discovery of changes to the “Wisconsin Idea.” But top honors go to this Madison television station for exposing how Walker administration officials and other used personal email accounts to conduct official business, contrary to public assurances.

Whistleblower of the Year (“Whoopee”): Molly Regan. This former state employee quit her job when her concerns about questionable practices at the Wisconsin Economic Development Corp. were not, she believed, taken seriously. And she did not stay quiet about it, talking to The Progressive magazine and providing critical information that formed the basis for the Wisconsin State Journal’s story on how top state officials had pushed for a failed $500,000 loan to a struggling Milwaukee construction company, spurring new safeguards on how agency dollars are spent.

No Friend of Openness (“Nopee”): Robin Vos. Plenty of people deserve blame over the mid-summer attack on open records. Gov. Walker’s staff helped with the drafting and all 12 Republican members of the Joint Finance Committee voted for the changes after strenuous objections were raised by committee Democrats. But Assembly Speaker Vos was the main architect and subsequently sought a bill to exempt the Legislature from the records law. Vos also authored a bill amendment to end the longstanding requirement that significant donors to political campaigns reveal where they work, bringing darkness where once there was light. He was the worst of the worst in an abnormally bad year.

NOTE: This press release was submitted to Urban Milwaukee and was not written by an Urban Milwaukee writer. While it is believed to be reliable, Urban Milwaukee does not guarantee its accuracy or completeness.