Evers administration scraps website tracking how state officials respond to requests for public information

MADISON - Gov. Tony Evers has removed a website created by his predecessor to show Wisconsin residents whether state officials are promptly responding to requests for public information.  

The website was created by former Gov. Scott Walker in 2016 in the wake of a widely unpopular and failed attempt by Walker and GOP leaders to keep private almost all records related to lawmakers' work. 

Walker received an award from the Wisconsin Freedom of Information Council for the creation of the website and other measures he implemented that were included in a pair of executive orders aimed at speeding up state officials' responses to requests for public records.

The move to take down the site is one of a number of findings in a review of how Evers handled public records requests by the conservative legal group Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty, which has challenged Evers in court for years.  

The group concluded Evers is backing off of Walker's executive orders.

Melissa Baldauff, spokeswoman for Evers, said officials at state agencies are no longer required to maintain the website created by Walker because Evers wants a new way to present the information to the public. 

She said Evers officials are evaluating how to better present accurate information about public records in an efficient manner.

"The dashboards used by the prior administration did not provide consistent information across agencies. Specifically, agencies used different means to calculate the same metrics," she said in a statement. "Further, the dashboards required significant staff time and resources to implement and maintain. Staff time and limited resources are better spent on responding to actual records requests."

Bill Lueders, president of the Wisconsin Freedom of Information Council and advocate for government transparency, said Evers should maintain the web portal and follow Walker's executive orders.  

"It has not been my experience that the Evers administration is markedly (less) responsive to records requests than the Walker administration, but it's good that WILL is keeping the governor on his toes," Lueders said. "Given the contempt for openness displayed by some members of the Legislature, it is (vitally) important that the executive branch be a paragon of transparency."

The now-defunct website tracked each agency's number of public records requests and how long it took state officials to respond to them, including the percentage of responses that were provided within one business day. 

The site also showed how many new state employees were trained to handle records requests and how many departing state employees were told about record retention policies.  

In their review, WILL made the same request for records to 11 state agencies on July 8. Nine of the 11 responded by Aug. 27. The Department of Transportation and Department of Children and Families did not provide responses, according to the review.

C.J. Szafir, executive vice president of WILL, said the Evers administration's approach to public records is "dangerous because open government is not just an ideal but a critical tool for the public in a democracy to hold their elected officials and public employees accountable."

Baldauff said the governor's office has fulfilled 93% of the requests for records received between Jan. 7 and Sept. 6 and responds more quickly than Walker's office did.

"The Evers Administration strictly follows the Wisconsin Public Records Law and the guidance provided by the Wisconsin Department of Justice’s Public Records Law Compliance Guide, not executive orders issued by prior administrations," she said.

Contact Molly Beck at molly.beck@jrn.com. Follow her on Twitter at @MollyBeck.