Governor Evers needs to release emails

Wisconsin’s open records laws are quite clear. Government documents are presumed to be a matter of public record, except under very specific circumstances. That is why it is troubling that Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers is not being very transparent when it comes to an open records request concerning his emails. A Green Bay television station issued an open records request for one month of emails for Governor Evers. That was denied. The station then narrowed the request to one week’s worth of emails, and finally one day’s worth of emails. All those requests were denied. Evers office is insisting that record requests will only be granted if they contain a specific subject. But all emails over an entire period of time will not be released. That violates the spirit, if not the letter of the law. And the argument doesn’t hold water. For example, if a journalist wants to find out how many emails the Governor gets, or who they are coming from, you would need to see the entire body of emails. Rejecting these requests is contrary to the notion of public access. And as Governor, Evers is setting an example of how state agencies should handle requests for public records, and so far, he isn’t setting a very good example.