Records show Robin Vos asked for public records changes

Bunch of crooks!




OPEN records FLAP
Records show Robin Vos asked for public records changes

9 hours ago • By Molly Beck | Wisconsin State Journal, Mark Sommerhauser
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Wisconsin Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, R-Rochester, pushed for changes to the records law limiting access to lawmakers' records, new documents show.

Assembly Speaker Robin Vos requested the controversial changes to the state’s open records law that would have significantly diminished the public’s ability to monitor how its government works, records obtained by the State Journal show.

Vos is cited as the “draft requester” for the legislation in a June 29 email from Legislative Reference Bureau attorney Michael Gallagher to the offices of legislative leadership and to staff on the Legislative Council and in the state’s fiscal and reference bureaus.

The email is among about 1,000 pages of documents obtained on Wednesday by the State Journal from the office of Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald, R-Juneau.

It provides the clearest evidence yet of the origin of the records proposal, and shows Vos’ office coordinated the drafting of the ultimate bill language.

Vos, Fitzgerald and Gov. Scott Walker all have acknowledged involvement in drafting the language to change the records law.

The language would have blocked the public from reviewing nearly all records created by state and local lawmakers or their aides, including electronic communications and the drafting files of legislation. It also would have created an exemption to the state’s open records law for materials considered to be part of the “deliberative process” in crafting legislation.

It was added to the 2015-17 state budget as part of a final, catch-all amendment and approved by the Joint Finance Committee on July 2 — hours after it became public. At the time, officials refused to say where the proposals came from.

Read more: http://host.madison.com/news/local/govt-and-politics/records-show-robin-vos-asked-for-public-records-changes/article_4b661265-a84f-593c-9ce3-58ce81e4a79a.html#ixzz3glBWmIx9