From the Appleton Post-Cresent

State officials’ records often go unseen
Most economic interest files never get public scrutiny
By Ben Jones
P-C Madison bureau chief
3/14/05
MADISON — Wisconsin law requires about 2,100 state officials to reveal personal financial information to the public to help ensure that those officials aren’t using their offices for personal financial gain.
But most of these forms never get any public scrutiny.
A review by The Post-Crescent found that nearly 87 percent of statements that officials filed in 2004 went unseen by the public eye. The public requested records for only 284 of the officials.
Open-government advocacy groups say a requirement that the officials be notified about who is seeking their records is having a chilling effect on the public’s scrutiny. A veteran Fox Valley lawmaker says the rule should be cut out of the statute.
“If somebody wants to check out the economic interests of a legislator, but knows that the legislator will be notified, they think twice about it,” said Mike McCabe, executive director of the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign. “They think, ‘Do I really want that legislator to know that I am interested in this, or that I am looking at this?’”
Under the Public Records Law, Wisconsin residents can obtain most other government records without revealing who they are or what they plan to do with the information.
However, anyone seeking to review one of the economic interest statements must provide their name, e-mail address, telephone number, street address and the individual or organization for which they are making the request.
The Ethics Board then forwards that information to the public official whose statement has been requested.
Someone asking for a form who provides false personal information could be fined $5,000 and jailed for a year.
“These are public records,” McCabe said, “and the public should be able to access this information without having those public officials notified.”
Lawmakers get most scrutiny
To measure how many of the financial statements were inspected by the public last year, The P-C used the open-records law to obtain copies of the forms people used to request the information.
The newspaper’s review showed that forms were requested by 59 people, mostly members of the media or people affiliated with a political campaign or party.
More than 70 percent of the forms the public requested were for legislative candidates or sitting lawmakers, and all 132 members of the state Legislature had their requests examined by the public.
Scrutiny for other officials was far less comprehensive.
While 241 circuit court judges filed statements of economic interests, forms for just six were requested by the public. The records for only one of the state's 71 district attorneys was examined and records for just one the state's 16 court of appeals judges was inspected.
No one reviewed records for members of dozens of state commissions, boards and agencies.
Roth Judd, executive director of the Ethics Board, is not surprised that so few of the records see the light of day. He said lawmakers, who are among those subject to the disclosure requirement, expected that the notification rule they passed in the 1970s would discourage the public from looking at the forms.
“The opponents (of the requirement) said, ‘Well, we think this will have a chilling effect,’” Judd said. “The proponents said, ‘Yeah, we do, too.’”
State Sen. Mike Ellis, R-Neenah, said the notification requirement is unnecessary.
“It’s an open record; it should be open,” he said. “Why don’t we change the law, knock out that requirement and let people do what they want with it? It would be the easiest thing in the world.”
But, Steve Baas, a spokesman for Assembly Speaker John Gard, R-Peshtigo, said “openness should be a two-way street.
“If someone wants to know personal information ... they should be willing to allow the people about whom that information is being requested to know,” he said.
Baas said he didn’t think the notification requirement equaled a barrier to access. “I don’t think anyone whose motives are legitimate worries about attaching their name to a request.”
Few states have notification
Wisconsin is one of just five states that notify lawmakers when someone looks at financial disclosure information, according to a 2004 survey by The Center for Public Integrity. Three states, including Michigan, do not require officials to file any such information.
None of the Badger State’s other neighbors notify officials when someone looks at their financial information.
Illinois used to have such a law, but a 2003 reform bill eliminated the notification.
“The General Assembly came to their senses,” said David Morrison, coordinator of the Illinois Campaign for Political Reform. “They realized that was not only not necessary, but had a real damper effect.”
Morrison said the notification was one of a number of ways his state cleaned up its ethics laws.
“No one had to champion this,” he said. “There was sort of a realization that we don’t need this stuff. It’s kind of been a no-brainer.”
In Washington state, the Public Disclosure Commission releases officials’ financial information without notifying the recipient or asking for the requestor’s name, said Doug Ellis, the commission’s public outreach director.
He said the FBI once used the records to gather information about an appointed official’s involvement in an illegal overseas kickback scheme.
“We do have some individual elected officials who feel like it is an invasion of their privacy,” Doug Ellis said. “The public here has said that the right for the public to know this information is more important than having it remain secret and private.”
More information goes online
Leah Rush, director of state projects at the public integrity center, said more states are posting officials’ financial information on the Internet. In 2004, 16 states, including Illinois, posted such information online or made it available in an electronic format.
“Basically, it’s a matter of putting the information at the fingertips of the public so they can draw their own conclusions,” Rush said.
The Ethics Board in Wisconsin posts lobbyist information online that gets considerable public attention. “It might be more like half a million (hits) a month,” Judd said.
The lobbyist information changes frequently, which Judd said likely helps drive that Web traffic. He said his agency also would put financial disclosure information online, if the law allowed. Unlike the board, a member of the public can request the statements and put them online.
“If nobody has anything to hide,” Rush said, “they should have no problem with putting this out.”

Ben Jones can be reached at 608-255-9256 or by e-mail at bjones@postcrescent.com