ELECTIONS

Second former Scott Walker aide criticizes governor on public records, makes ad for opponent Tony Evers

Patrick Marley

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

MADISON - A second former top aide to Gov. Scott Walker has come out against him, saying the GOP governor’s team told him to meet with payday loan lobbyists and discouraged him from creating documents that could be turned up under the state’s open records law.

Peter Bildsten, the former Financial Institutions secretary, joins ex-Corrections Secretary Ed Wall in excoriating their former boss and cutting digital ads for Walker’s Democratic challenger, state schools Superintendent Tony Evers.

A third former top aide to Walker has also contended he was told not to create documents that would have to be turned over under the public records law.

“I was told to avoid creating electronic records,” Bildsten says in a digital ad debuting Monday. “I thought Scott Walker was different, but he’s just another politician looking out for himself.”

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Bildsten led the Department of Financial Institutions from 2011 to early 2015. When he stepped down, he said he was frustrated because the job had become political and he disagreed with a plan by Walker — dropped soon after Bildsten left — to merge the Department of Financial Institutions with another state agency.

Walker spokeswoman Amy Hasenberg said Bildsten was let go from the administration because he opposed Walker's plans and had "sour grapes" as a result. The administration has been consistent in following the records law, she said.

"The people that work for the Governor know that transparency is a priority and are regularly informed that all records they create will be provided in accordance with law," Hasenberg said by email.

Months after he left office, Bildsten told the Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism that Walker’s first administration secretary, Mike Huebsch, directed him not to send important information by email or over state phones.

Paul Jadin, who was Walker’s first director of the Wisconsin Economic Development Corp., gave a similar account to the investigative journalism center in 2015.

Huebsch denied that at the time, saying he had told cabinet members only that they should be careful when composing emails because they could be taken out of context. In addition, four cabinet secretaries told the Capital Times they had no recollection of being told not to create public records.

In an interview Sunday, Bildsten said Walker's office routinely told secretaries to steer clear of creating electronic records, speak with one another on personal cellphones instead of state devices and present sensitive information in person.

“It was crystal clear and it was crystal clear to every secretary in that cabinet,” Bildsten said.

Walker in 2015 worked with Republican lawmakers on a plan to greatly curtail the records law, but they backed off on the plan after a public outcry. Around the same time, Walker contended he could withhold documents that reflected internal discussions even though that’s not a rationale state law allows for keeping information from the public.

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He later abandoned that stance and issued executive orders aimed at ensuring records are released quickly and at minimal expense in most cases. The Wisconsin Freedom of Information Council this year gave Walker an award for those executive orders.

How the Walker administration handles records has re-emerged as an issue as Walker runs for re-election and his former corrections secretary has begun promoting his book, “Unethical: Life in Scott Walker’s Cabinet and the Dirty Side of Politics” (Little Creek Press).

In his book, Wall writes that he was told to fax information to the governor’s office “to avoid creating a traceable record,” was scolded for sending emails to the governor’s office and was called to the Capitol “countless times” so information could be conveyed in person.

Wall writes that secretaries "had been instructed in some cases to slow down responses (to records requests) or not to respond to the press at all."

When the Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism Center story about public records broke, the administration began making “damage control calls” to get the message out that secretaries had not been told to avoid creating records, according to Wall. Among them was a statement from Wall to that effect, but Wall said recently that he never signed off on the statement attributed to him.

Wall cut his own ad for Evers in June, saying Walker didn't do enough to address problems at the state's juvenile prison and Walker’s team strongly suggested secretaries avoid creating public records.

Wall has had his own controversy over the state's records law. After Wall stepped down as corrections secretary, he took a job with the Department of Justice. GOP Attorney General Brad Schimel fired him from that position after Wall told a Walker aide he should feel free to destroy a document.

Alec Zimmerman, a spokesman for the state Republican Party, disputed the claims about Walker's handling of open records. Zimmerman called Bildsten and Wall "disgruntled ex-employees who have an agenda to push after leaving on bad terms."

In the Bildsten ad, the former banking chief says he was told to meet with special interests that donated to Walker’s campaign.

“I even had to meet with lobbyists from the payday lending industry who were charging people 600% interest,” Bildsten says in the ad.

In the interview, Bildsten said in one instance he declined to set up a meeting with a payday loan lobbyist because he was busy and did not think the lightly regulated industry needed any favors. Fifteen minutes later, he got a call from Walker's office telling him to set up a meeting, he said.

“The payday loan industry has already got a lot of room to operate in the state of Wisconsin and I didn’t think it was appropriate or necessary for my agency to hear more of their requests for further relief," he said.

But Walker's office "made very clear to me you will meet with them and you will hear them out … so I did.”

Bildsten, who is now semi-retired, said he did not remember granting any favors to the industry. He said he supports capping interest rates for payday lenders — an idea loathed by the industry.

Bildsten said he did not recall which Walker aide and which lobbyist were in touch with him, in part because he tried to minimize his contact with the industry as he addressed issues with other financial institutions as the state emerged from the recession.

Early in his tenure, Walker rolled back restrictions on those payday lenders that Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle had put on them. But in 2015, Walker vetoed a state budget provision payday lenders sought that would have let them offer insurance and other services.

In his book, Wall likewise writes that he was told “many times” to meet with private prison operators and service providers. Among them was an executive with a prison supplier who said Walker encouraged him to call Wall after attending a golf outing with Walker while he was making his unsuccessful bid for the GOP nomination for president.

Walker is not a golfer, according to those who know him well. Wall doesn’t name the supplier in his book but said Sunday he believed it was Union Supply Group, a company that provides commissary goods for inmates.

Wall said he has not discussed taking a job with Evers' administration if he wins and does not have a strong desire to return to a political job.

Evers' campaign manager, Maggie Gau, did not say whether Evers would consider hiring Wall or Bildsten, saying he is not focused on potential hiring decisions.