Story originally printed in the Vernon Broadcaster or online at www.vernonbroadcaster.com
Published - Wednesday, November 28, 2007
Citizens group probes county board for collusion
A Milwaukee-based citizen rights group is investigating the Vernon County Board of Supervisors for wrongdoing regarding the county's hog facility moratorium vote in August.
Citizens for Responsible Government has filed a number of Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests with the county to determine if there was any "collusion" on the part of supervisors in their handling of the recent confinement animal operation moratorium and siting ordinance.
Citizens for Responsible Government has its roots in recall elections in Milwaukee. The group was formed originally in 2002 around an effort that successfully removed a number county supervisors and executives for their part in a retirement fund scandal.
According to the CRG website, the group also had a hand in leading efforts that successfully removed some state representatives including State Senate Majority Leader Mary Panzer and State Assistant Senate Majority Leader Mary Lazich and a number of school and county officials across the state. The group, led by Milwaukee businessman Chris Kliesmet and former iron worker Orville Seymer, has focused on expanding across the state in the last couple of years adding local chapters, including a La Crosse chapter in September of 2006.
In separate phone interviews, Seymer and Kliesmet said they became involved in investigating Vernon County government when they were contacted by local citizens concerned that some county board members were working behind the scenes on the hog moratorium issue. The two said they often work with local citizens to provide technical assistance on how to ask for information.
"Navigating government can be difficult and many people don't know what to do," Kliesmet said. "We try to provide dispassionate procedural and statutory advice. We only get involved if there is viable group of local constituents, we aren't going to get involved with the business of another county unless there is someone there asking for our help."
One of the first FOIA requests was sent on Oct.1 to supervisor Maynard Cox. Cox has a son who worked for the owners of the proposed the confinement hog production operation, Jeff and Bonnie Parr. Seymer said he then sent another request to all 29 supervisors asking for any correspondence including emails (including deleted) that pertain to the confinement hog facility.
An initial response from Vernon County Corporation Counsel Greg Lunde on Oct. 3 said that Cox does not have access to a county email address and any such records that would exist would be on a personal email account and therefore would not be subject to open records law. Another letter from Seymer includes state statutes and Wisconsin Freedom of Information Council documents stating county supervisor emails are subject to open records even if stored on a personal computer.
A later response by Lunde said the county is coordinating the response for the 29 supervisors and will comply with the request, including personal emails. Lunde said in the letter that the cost for the county to undertake the search would be considerable, since it involves searching hard drives for deleted emails. Those costs would have to be paid before the records would be released. In a later interview, Lunde said that cost is estimated at about $3,500.
Lunde said the county has some records that were easy to compile, but will not move ahead with any additional searches, like those done on computer hard drives, unless that cost is paid.
Seymer said that it is legal for units of government to require payment for such information if it can be shown it is a legitimate expense and not done to intentionally limit access to such records. Seymer gave no indication if CRG or local citizens would be willing to pay for the records or where the money would come from if they did.
Seymer was critical of the handling of county records by county supervisors. In two of the letters, Seymer references a phone conversation between himself and supervisor Ralph Hicks in which he claims Hicks told him he "burns all of his records each week in the burning barrel behind his house." Seymer said in the letter to Lunde and a separate letter to Hicks that such actions are a clear violation of open records law and each supervisor is the custodian of their records pertaining to county business, even if stored at their home. Seymer asks that supervisors be "held accountable" for such actions.
Seymer also questioned that if each supervisor is the custodian of their own records why has "corporation counsel has taken it upon himself to assemble these records?"
Lunde said he has coordinated the effort to assemble the records and has had the assistance of another attorney provided by the county's insurance company.
When asked what specifically CRG or local concerned citizens were looking for in the requests, Seymer said the requests were initially intended to look for "any collusion between county board members and Jeff Parr." But Seymer said the information could lead anywhere.
"Normally what happens is it (the information) leads to more questions," said Seymer. "The county board seemed to ram this through pretty quickly even though the majority of the people did not want this."
Information provided by CRG shows it sent open records requests to the DNR offices in La Crosse and Black River Falls, the Vernon County custodian of records and State Senator Dan Kapanke's (R-La Crosse) office. The request to the DNR offices asks for "Any correspondence to or from Jeff Parr, Parr Farms, Parr's Septic Service or Jeanne Dubord, regarding any hog farms in Vernon County."
Dubord is a neighbor of the Parr's and was an outspoken critic of their hog operation proposal. There is no indication of responses from the DNR offices, but Senator Kapanke's office sent a return letter to CRG stating they had no such records.
Cox said Vernon County is working to comply with all of the CRG’s legal requests.
“As far as I’m concerned they have a right to do this and as a public official I have a responsibility to comply with their requests,” Cox said. “And I did so.”
All stories copyright 2006 Vernon Broadcaster and other attributed sources.