Are public records becoming less public? Extensive use of a private email system set up to avoid legally required archiving of documents

San Diego isn't the only place where the public's business is done in secrecy.

"The second release, a bombshell, demonstrated the extensive use of a private email system set up to avoid legally required archiving of documents as well as the extensive coordination between Walkers campaign staff and his official, taxpayer paid, County Executive staff. Intolerance and racism were also revealed in email exchanges."

See all posts re public records.

Milwaukee Co. John Doe Documents Unsealed From Secrecy - UPDATE
Puddytat
Daily Kos
May 21, 2014

The lamps are probably going to be burning into the night around Scott Walker tonight.

Documents in the first John Doe Probe, covering Walkers tenure as Milwaukee County Executives, were removed from secrecy today by the Judge overseeing the original John Doe. In the first investigation, 6 of Scott Walkers associates were indicted and found guilty mostly of felonies.

The judge who oversaw a 33-month secret John Doe investigation on Wednesday granted a Milwaukee Journal Sentinel request that he order prosecutors to return to Milwaukee County thousands of public records seized during the investigation.

The ruling means the records would then be subject to the state's Open Records Law, and it would be up to Milwaukee County Executive Chris Abele whether they would be released to the public.

We have only seen a small portion of the documents from prior releases. One release, involving documents in a negligence case brought by the parents of a teenaged boy killed when a chunk of concrete fell from a County parking structure, revealed that Walker, his staff, and his campaign focused on keeping the story out of the press and limit Walkers exposure just before the Gubernatorial election. They succeeded in their efforts with coverage limited to the "accident" and not on Walkers diversion of building maintenance funds to pet projects.

The second release, a bombshell, demonstrated the extensive use of a private email system set up to avoid legally required archiving of documents as well as the extensive coordination between Walkers campaign staff and his official, taxpayer paid, County Executive staff. Intolerance and racism were also revealed in email exchanges.

Who knows what will be revealed when ALL of the documents are released. I can only imagine.

Since most of the communications were generated on private laptops and on a private email system running on a secret router, they were not available for Open Records Requests. Those documents will tell us what was REALLY going on in that office.

Stay tuned.

UPDATE:

I'm going to update instead of doing a new diary because this is still on the Rec List and in public view.

Today, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel editorialized that current Milwaukee County Executive Chris Abele should release all the documents.

Nettesheim has settled firmly on the side of the public's right to know. Abele has said he's on the same side: He told the Editorial Board a few weeks ago that in a letter to Nettesheim, he had essentially asked the judge, "Whatever you can release, please release," and Abele signed a County Board resolution supporting the release of the documents. Now Abele can prove his support by actually releasing the documents.

So, it looks to JS that Abele wants to release the documents based on his past statements. They're adding a little more push to ensure it happens.