Wisconsin Senate clerk refuses to release detailed legal bills
By The Associated Press
01.12.02
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MADISON, Wis. — Attorneys representing Assembly caucus workers under investigation for alleged illegal campaign activities have met with clients, reviewed media reports and interviewed people, costing taxpayers more than $200,000, records reviewed by the Associated Press show.
The state also paid attorneys for Senate caucus workers involved in the investigation more than $95,000, billing records show.
However, Senate Chief Clerk Don Schneider refused to release documents detailing what services attorneys are getting reimbursed for with taxpayer money.
Schneider said that's because the employees are involved in prosecutors' investigations that keep witnesses' identities and testimony confidential.
The attorneys' activities were blacked out from the Senate bills because that information could reveal staffers' names, Schneider said.
Jay Heck, executive director of the government watchdog group Common Cause, said taxpayers have a right to know where their money is going.
"Are they including dry-cleaning in this? Are they including taking clients out to dinner?" Heck asked. "There's no ability for the people of this state to see where this endless stream of money is going."
The legal bills Schneider released show only dollar amounts, dates and hours billed.
Although Schneider said he could not confirm whether the Senate's bills cover attorney activities similar to those shown on the Assembly bills, they don't include the costs Heck suggested.
"The authorization I have clearly wouldn't pertain to those sorts of issues," Schneider said.
District attorneys in Dane and Milwaukee counties began investigating after the Wisconsin State Journal reported last spring that legislative caucus employees were illegally doing campaign work on state time. The caucuses were created in the 1960s — one for each party in each house — to do research for lawmakers.
Assembly Chief Clerk John Scocos authorized $202,054 in legal bill reimbursements for the Assembly. Schneider approved $95,923 for the Senate, according to records obtained by the AP.
The Senate capped the legal bill payments at $10,000 per employee. The Assembly did not. Common Cause filed a lawsuit last month asking a Dane County judge to declare the payments illegal.
Schneider said billing details related to those investigations are exempt from the state's Open Records Law. The law presumes all government records are public, with some exceptions, and outlines procedures for their release.
When Schneider was told the Assembly released legal bills detailing attorneys' activities, he said he still believed that information would reveal staffers or legislators in the investigation.
"It may collectively tell something that is required to be confidential," he said.
Schneider said he based his decision on court decisions and state laws governing open records and investigations like the ones the district attorneys are conducting.
Justice Department spokesman Randy Romanski said the information omitted from the billing records would be presumed open. Romanski also said records custodians can weigh public interest against a person's privacy in deciding whether information should be released to the public.
Scocos said he relied on the advice of legislative attorneys who said only the employees' names were exempt from being released under the Open Records Law. He decided to release bills showing attorneys' activities.
Schneider also deleted names from the Senate legal bills, except for those who were granted immunity from prosecution in Dane County District Attorney Brian Blanchard's investigation.
A recent opinion from a state Justice Department attorney said the names of employees getting their bills paid with taxpayer money should be public.
Three newspapers — The Capital Times, Wisconsin State Journal and Milwaukee Journal Sentinel — have sued the clerks, asking a judge to order them to identify lawmakers and legislative employees getting their legal bills paid by taxpayers.
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