David Olsen
Executive Director, JDC
305 South Main Street
Jefferson, WI 53549

Dear Mr. Olsen,

I received your letter of October 6. I do not know how I can be more clear. On September 8, I requested the minutes and agendas of the Jefferson Development Corporation, from 1994 forward. You have insofar denied that request. You have only provided the August 1999 minutes, which I received today.

I am not privy to the details of your conversation with the District Attorney. I have seen nothing from him that suggests that any JDC records should be withheld from public scrutiny. If you can supply some sort of written explanation of his opinion on this question of records, please do.

As I understand it, the JDC has scheduled and discussed questions of open meetings and open records at the majority of its meetings in the past year. On that basis, adding it to the next agenda is entirely "normal." I would prefer that this discussion be held in public before the JDC Board. The JDC, not I, needs to answer the demands of Wisconsin's open records law requirements.

This issue is absolutely central to the notion that the JDC is subject to the State law. If I understand your position correctly, you're saying that these minutes are not available to the public now, and that anyone who asks to study them needs to meet with JDC members (outside public scrutiny) to discuss how the JDC can respond to their request.

This clearly violates Wis. Stat. sec. 19.35(1)(i), which states "… No request under pars. (a) and (b) to (f) may be refused because the person making the request is unwilling to be identified or to state the purpose of the request." I need not explain my purpose or even reveal my identity to request records.

You said you wish to protect "safeguarding confidentiality as allowed by the open meetings statutes." However, you have said nothing to describe exactly what you seek to protect, and how you plan to protect it. You haven't stated the test that will be used to redact information post facto from minutes that were once published openly to JDC members. You haven't described who will be rescinding that information. You haven't solved the larger problem of how the JDC will make these records accessible to the public on a daily basis, as required by law.

In my letter of October 4, I describe my suggested definition. I'd like you or the JDC to suggest a definition, too. No, I don't think it would be fair to the public interest to remove every possible reference from past minutes that might possibily have been conducted in closed session in the past, especially when the pre-1994 records have been available to the public in toto without any apparent risk to confidentiality.

Sincerely,

John J. Foust
235 South Main Street
Jefferson, WI 53549