John Foust - JDC
| Jefferson Banner - Opinion John Foust - JDC |
| January 26, 2000
David Olsen Dear Mr. Olsen, On Tuesday, January 18, I sent you a request for an electronic copy of the minutes of the December 21 meeting of the Jefferson Development Corporation. I expect that I will receive any records request "as soon as practicable and without delay" as described by Wis. Stat. ยง 19.35(4)(a). I believe that you are not obeying that requirement. I should be able to request an electronic copy of a document in person and receive it immediately. In the past, you've stated that it only takes a moment for you to copy a file to a disk. Any computer user would know this to be true. On Tuesday, January 18 you received my e-mailed requests for the December 21 minutes of the JDC meeting. On Wednesday, January 19, you took the trouble to visit my office to tell me you'd received my request. Why not bring the requested record with you, or simply call to tell me it's available for me to pick-up in your office? I had previously supplied blank floppies to you for this purpose. You found the time to send a complete packet of the same minutes to City Hall on the same Tuesday as my request. On Friday, January 21, you spent several minutes on the phone with me, then again in person to explain that you didn't have the time to copy this record. All in all, the time consumed by your needless, unsolicited, in-person confirmation of my request and subsequent denials in fulfilling it took far longer than it would to quickly reproduce the record as demanded by law. I regard these delays as intentional. No more than two hours after I was in your office on Friday asking about the delay, you called to say the disk was ready. You refused to leave the disk with your secretary. You demanded that I pick them up immediately. You refused to reveal if anyone would be in your office later in the day. When I arrived, you spent a great deal of time tape-recording the conversation and talking to your tape recorder to describe what you were doing in order to further delay delivery of the record. According to the Wisconsin statutes, these JDC and CIA public records need to be available during normal business hours. I attempted to view these minutes on Thursday, January 20. Your secretary could not show them to me. The intent of this law is not met if basic records like this are unavailable when you are not present in the office. If your secretary is present, I expect her to be able to direct me to these public records if I wish to view the printed versions of minutes and agenda. I expect that my requests for electronic versions of the records will be fulfilled without delay as well, if you are in the office. I did not receive a copy of the agenda for the January 18 meeting of the JDC. On Wednesday, January 19, in my office you claimed to have faxed it on January 5 before you left on an extended vacation. However, I showed you a printed log from my fax machine that showed no faxes were received on that day. It is your obligation to insure that my business, goJefferson.com, is notified in advance of JDC meetings as previously requested in writing and as allowed by statute. Public posting is not sufficient. I have several new records requests. As I understand it, the Jefferson Development Corporation is a member of the Chamber of Commerce. I would like to know the date and amount paid by the JDC to the Chamber for this membership in 1999 and 2000. Second, how many JDC Board members subscribe to the Chamber's health care plan, as a side benefit of this membership? Several times you have charged me ten cents a page for duplication costs for paper record requests. At the most recent meeting of the CIA, it was determined that all equipment in your office belongs to the Chamber of Commerce, not the CIA or JDC. Can you explain how this copying charge reflects the actual and direct cost of duplication, as described by the statutes? If the JDC and CIA do not pay for telephone, computer, copying or other resources owned and paid for by the Chamber, how can you justify charging the public for records? Does the JDC and CIA pass along this charge to the Chamber of Commerce? Next, I would like access to information about the properties and tenants of the City's industrial parks. I would like to know the purchase price, purchase date, name of seller, acreage, location for each property acquired by the City to create the City's business parks. I would like the same details for each occupant of land in the parks: arrival date, purchase price or lease rates, name, property description, etc. I would also like to know where I could inspect the written agreements of each of these arrangements between the City and the residents of the parks. Please supply a copy of this letter to the CIA and JDC Boards. Sincerely,
John J. Foust |