Three Dane County Democratic lawmakers want to charge a free market think tank more than $7,500 to comply with open record requests for correspondence regarding one legislative initiative.
In a letter to several state lawmakers, dated March 24th, The MacIver Institute requested:
“Copies of all correspondence you have received or sent, (including, but not limited to, letters, emails, voice mails, records of phone calls, and logs of in-person meetings) regarding the subject of changes to Wisconsin’s collective bargaining laws for public employees. This request covers such correspondence received or sent between January 1, 2011 and March 23, 2011.”
In an email response dated March 30, Representative Rep. Mark Pocan (D-WI) (D-Madison) personally alleged it would take two staffers, working full time, two weeks to comply with the request.
“A quick review of our office files pertaining to collective bargaining laws for public employees, 2011 SSSB 11, 2011 SSAB 11, and 2011 Wis. Act 10 indicates that there are over 8,000 documents that would meet this search criteria,” Pocan wrote. “Our office anticipates that copying costs for this request will be a minimum of $1,500 and that fulfilling this request will require approximately 80 hours of staff time, which if pro rated for staff salaries, would cost approximately $2,600.
Mike Murray, a member of Representative Joe Parisi (D-Madison) staff offered a similar response via email one day earlier.
“A cursory review of our office files pertaining to collective bargaining laws for public employees, 2011 SSSB 11, 2011 SSAB 11, and 2011 Wis. Act 10 indicates that there are, at a minimum, 8,000 documents that would meet this search criteria,” Murray wrote on March 29. “Our office anticipates that copying costs for this request will be a minimum of $1,500 and that fulfilling this request will require approximately 60 hours of staff time, which if pro rated for staff salaries, would cost approximately $1,750.”
While more vague, Senator Erpenbach’s staff did not quote such exorbitant fees for access to this public information.
“It will indeed cost in excess of $50,” said Julie Landrie of the Erpenbach (D-Middleton) office, who on March 28 was the first to respond to the MacIver request. “I’m making that estimation based on the fact I just fulfilled a request that had half of the content and half of the days and it was $378 to locate and an additional $20 to copy.”
Other public officials, including several state lawmakers to whom MacIver sent similar requests have yet to respond to the inquiries.
State law allows public officials to charge “the actual, necessary and direct cost” of locating records, requested under the state’s open records law. However, Brett Healy, President of the MacIver Institute, doubts locating the records would be so labor intensive.
“In this electronic age that we live in, all it would take is a simple query within their email program for the dates in question and the public information we have requested would be ready,” said Healy. “This is not sensitive information but general constituent correspondence sent to public officials on one of the most publicly-debated issues in recent memory.”
Healy insists that if the lawmakers chose to be more accomodating, meeting this request would not be expensive.
“We would be happy to take our jump drive over to the Capitol so the electronic mail could be copied to it, no wasted paper copies, no wasted tax dollars on unnecessary staff work,” said Healy. “It is ridiculous to think that it would take 80 hours to compile less than 12 weeks of mostly electronic records regarding one piece of legislation. It is unfortunate that some public officials will go to great lengths in order to avoid handing over public records.”
Healy said his organization has made dozens of open records requests to legislators and officials from both parties in recent months and has never been met with such hefty cost estimates.
“I am puzzled as to how some of these officials know how many records are covered by this request, yet they contend it would take 60-80 hours of staff time to find and compile them,” Healy said. “By any reasonable standard, this just doesn’t pass the smell test.”
Healy said he has not made a final determination whether or not to narrow the request for information in order to lower the costs, drop the requests or pay the fees.
“The public deserves to know who was talking to whom and what was being discussed during this unprecedented debate and subsequent legal wrangling over the budget repair bill,” said Healy. “At this point, if we can raise the funds, I’m inclined to press on for access to this information.”
The MacIver News Service is a project of the MacIver Institute.
Full text of the requests sent to Senator Erpenbach and Represntatives Parisi and Pocan, made by MacIver Institute’s dommunications director, Brian Fraley:
This letter is to request the following records, under the state’s Open Records Law (19.31-39, Wisconsin Statutes):
Copies of all correspondence you have received or sent, (including, but not limited to, letters, emails, voice mails, records of phone calls, and logs of in-person meetings) regarding the subject of changes to Wisconsin’s collective bargaining laws for public employees. This request covers such correspondence received or sent between January 1, 2011 and March 23, 2011.
Included in this request are communications specifically pertaining to 2011 SSSB11, 2011 SSAB11, and 2011 Wis. Act 10 as well as the issue generally.
Please be aware that the Open Records law defines “record” to include information that is maintained on paper as well as electronically, such as data files and unprinted emails. Wis. Stat. 19.32(2).
Please also be aware that the Open Records law “shall be construed in every instance with the presumption of complete public access consistent with the conduct of governmental business. The denial of access generally is contrary to the public interest and only in exceptional cases can access be denied.” If you deny my request, the law requires you to do so in writing and state what part of the law you believe entitles you to deny my request. Wis. Stat. 19.35(4)(a).
The Open Records law states that you may charge for “the actual, necessary and direct cost” of locating records, if this exceeds $50, and for photocopies. The Wisconsin Department of Justice advises that copying fees under the Open Records law should be “around 15 cents per page and that anything in excess of 25 cents may be suspect.” Please advise me before processing this request if the total cost will exceed $50. Where the documents are available electronically, they can be sent to the following address: bfraley@maciverinstitute.com.
As you know, the law requires you to respond to this request “as soon as practicable and without delay.”
If you are not the records custodian for this information, please forward this request to the appropriate person. Also, please let me know if I can clarify or refine this request.

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