It’s still early in the tenure of Wisconsin Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen, but the Republican office-holder looks increasingly suspect, and increasingly secretive, in how he has handled a key open records issue.
Van Hollen inherited a suit filed by his predecessor, Peg Lautenschlager, alleging that two Republican legislators, Rep. Scott Gunderson of Waterford and former state Sen. David Zien (Eau Claire), violated the state open records law by keeping secret a draft of a proposed law allowing citizens to carry concealed weapons. The two had shared the draft with members of the National Rifle Association, but argued they needn’t show it to the Department of Justice or mere members of the public.
In essence, Gunderson’s position would mean lobbyists get privileged information on legislation that is not shared with the opposition or average citizens. As Peter Fox, executive director of the Wisconsin Newspaper Association, has put it, “The public is left out. Governing becomes an insider’s game.”
Gunderson was a key supporter of Van Hollen in his primary race against Paul Bucher. On March 1, less than two months after he took office, Van Hollen met with Gunderson to discuss the lawsuit, as Gunderson disclosed to the Racine Journal Times. Critics charged Van Hollen had broken Supreme Court rules that discourage an attorney from meeting with an opposing party unless the party’s lawyer approves this. Eric McLeod, Gunderson’s lawyer, said he didn’t know Gunderson and Van Hollen met.
Later, Van Hollen met with legislative leaders to achieve an out-of-court settlement on this issue but declined to disclose the details to the media. A memo on the deal was then leaked by Senate Majority Leader Judy Robson (D-Beloit): It said all drafts of bills would remain secret until introduced as legislation or there is notice for a public hearing. The deal had bipartisan support. In fact, Democratic leaders recently shared their health care plan with members of AARP some time before the plan went public, which is when it was added to the state budget.
Gov. Jim Doyle, rejecting the legal advice of Van Hollen and bucking the legislature, refused to sign the out-of-court settlement.
Last week, Dane County Judge David Flanagan ruled in favor of the legislators, saying a draft of a bill need not be made public. Lautenschlager said she believes there is a strong basis for appealing the ruling and may try to do so as a private citizen.
And Van Hollen? Last Wednesday, his spokesperson told the media he hadn’t read the decision and therefore couldn’t comment. So has Van Hollen gotten around to reading the decision? “The department declines to discuss the matter,” DOJ official Brian Rieselman told me yesterday. Van Hollen is so secretive, he won’t even disclose how he plans to handle the case. Doesn’t sound too encouraging for those who believe in open government.
And: Are Milwaukee’s Integration Programs Dead?
Last week’s 5-4 U.S. Supreme Court decision striking down school integration programs in Seattle and Louisville, Ky., seems like radical change. In fact, it may have a small impact here.
True, school integration has been a major concern in Wisconsin. Since 1976, the state has annually spent many millions to increase school integration, particularly in the Milwaukee area. But the goal has become ever harder to achieve.
In the Milwaukee Public Schools, integration has become increasingly difficult because so few whites are left: just 14 percent of all MPS students in the 2004-05 school year. Recognizing this reality, MPS began making efforts several years ago to cut back busing within the district. But a state Legislative Fiscal Bureau report shows the costs have actually increased over the last three years.
The problem is there still aren’t enough schools in some North Side neighborhoods, so children have to leave their attendance area to find schools with open seats. Also, some inner city parents prefer their child attend a distant school because they feel a bus trip is safer than walking, or because it provides after-school “day care,” extending the time an overburdened single mother’s child is taken care of by the school system.
In short, some busing is likely to continue for reasons that are not explicitly related to race and were not outlawed by the Supreme Court. At least, that’s my reading. MPS is awaiting legal advice from the city attorney.
The other major program in Milwaukee is Chapter 220, which provides financial incentives for black city pupils to attend suburban schools and allows white suburban students to attend MPS. But that program has also been in decline: Over the last decade the number of participating students plummeted from 5,474 to 3,457.
This program, which cost some $34 million last year, has always been controversial, with some claiming it “creamed” middle-class black students – or those with more activist parents – from the city. But those parents have always supported it.
Given that Chapter 220 explicitly uses race to assign students, it could eventually be a casualty of the Supreme Court decision. But that will depend on the opinion of just one person. Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, who supplied the decisive fifth vote for the majority, did so with the proviso that schools could still combat the problem of segregation by using “race-conscious measures to address the problem in a general way” – for instance, by shifting attendance boundaries to encourage more diversity.
A 220 program that accepted low-income students from the city could be a way of achieving some integration, given that many city blacks are low-income. But it seems unlikely that suburban schools, which have been able to set some guidelines for which black students they accept, would embrace an approach that requires them to accept only low-income students. Chapter 220 could be heading for extinction.
Murphy Gets Taken to the Woodshed:
–I’ve taken a pounding from readers for my suggestion that two charges against Mike McGee (for contempt of court and conspiring to commit bodily harm) might have been a reach. “Would you also criticize charges lodged against two people, say a wife and her boyfriend, for conspiring to commit bodily harm against the wife’s estranged husband, or against two gang members who conspired to maim an opposing gang member simply because neither of those plans succeeded and no violence actually occurred?” attorney Paul Piaskoski wrote. Piaskoski also defends the contempt charge against McGee, noting that “he violated the order of secrecy that attends a John Doe investigation by telling his girl friend and others all about the secret testimony.” I agree with Piaskoski’s first point; I was wrong. I still think the other charge is small beer.
-And last week I suggested it was a conflict of interest for County Supervisor Joe Rice, who runs a company handling public affairs and government relations, to offer his services providing help “working with … county officials on local issues.” His attorney, Robert M. Courtney, informs me Rice “has never represented anyone on matters involving Milwaukee County since becoming a county supervisor.” I have no evidence to the contrary and apologize if I gave that impression. But it does seem Rice needs to update his Web site; it’s not the sort of message you want to convey to the public.
-Finally, in letters you’ll find UW-Milwaukee sociologist William Velez takes issue with my trend piece on how women have completely overtaken men in gaining post-secondary degrees. They were always beating men, he claims. Sheesh, everybody’s a critic.
And don’t miss Ann Christenson’s Dish on Dining
