The lack of public transparency in the government’s business is the biggest news story of the year. It seems that we, the voters, can become victims of corruption when our elected officials refuse to allow us access to meetings, records and, quite simply, the truth about what they’re doing when they’re supposed to be doing the people’s business.
This lack of transparency is permeating all levels of government. At the state, we have two troubling accounts of Gov. Scott Walker administrative officials using private emails to conduct state business. This is eerily similar to what landed some of Walker’s top aides at the county in jail. As the Shepherd reported in October, Madison’s 27 News’ Greg Neumann discovered that Walker’s top state aides routinely used private emails to discuss “big policy moments” such as their strategy for the public employee union-busting Act 10 and also conducted discussions with lobbyists. Last week, the Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism reported that then-Administration Secretary Michael Huebsch told Walker administration officials not to use official emails or phones when discussing important information. Instead, Huebsch instructed top officials to use private emails or to print out documents and hand them over personally to another person so that their communications wouldn’t be detected by members of the public, including reporters.
The state Supreme Court has closed its doors as well. The majority decided not to hold oral arguments in the cases involving Walker’s John Doe investigation, a stunning lack of transparency for a branch of government that should be wide open to public scrutiny.
Closer to home, we’re feeling the effect of a deliberately weakened Milwaukee County Board of Supervisors. Instead of conducting a robust public debate on important matters such as the $80 million county taxpayers will pay for the new Bucks arena, Milwaukee County Executive Chris Abele made that agreement behind closed doors and never defended his deal in public or allowed Milwaukeeans to ask him questions about it. Abele has also been given the power to sell off highly prized county land—including the airport, the zoo and the Milwaukee Public Museum—merely by securing the signature of one other person. In addition, Abele supported the creation of an all-appointee Mental Health Board, which has gone so far to silence the public that it had a member of the public arrested at its meeting last week.
The list of offenses could go on and on, but they all have the same theme: The public loses when our elected officials and their appointees conduct their business in secret. Whether it’s merging campaign and official business, using private emails and phones to avoid the scrutiny of the public and reporters, giving sweetheart deals to friends or completely cutting the public out of big policy decisions, the lack of transparency that’s developed in Wisconsin opens the door to corrupt practices and a government run by insiders who don’t give a damn about us.
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