Proposed Wisconsin Bill Could Discourage Government Agencies From Delaying Release of Public Records

Tuesday, July 8th, 2025 -- 11:00 AM

(Sarah Lehr, Wisconsin Public Radio) A Wisconsin bill could discourage government agencies from delaying the release of public records.

According to Sarah Lehr with the Wisconsin Public Radio, sponsors say their aim is to encourage transparency by making it easier for groups to win back legal fees after suing over government records.

“Open records requests can lead to the discovery of waste, fraud and abuse,” said bill author state Sen. Van Wanggaard, R-Racine, during a Senate hearing this spring. “Unfortunately, some governments and government officials try to run out the clock on open records requests.”

The proposal, which was approved by Wisconsin’s Senate in May, comes in response to a state Supreme Court ruling, In late 2017, a citizens group called Friends of Frame Park sued Waukesha after the city partially denied a request for documents related to plans for a semi-professional baseball team.

The city ended up providing a draft agreement that it previously withheld after the lawsuit was filed but before a judge ruled on the release of records in the case.

With certain exceptions, Wisconsin’s public records law requires government agencies to produce documents as “soon as practicable and without delay.” Those records could include everything from financial documents to emails.

But Max Lenz, an attorney for the Wisconsin Newspapers Association, said through the Friends of Frame Park decision, the Wisconsin Supreme Court “unintentionally created a disincentive” for officials to promptly release records.

Lenz said that decision “flipped the presumption of openness” that’s supposed to be laid in Wisconsin’s public record law, by making it more costly for journalists and concerned citizens to go after public documents.

“The court’s decision has created a perverse incentive through which custodians and authorities can withhold records and effectively dare the public to sue, knowing they can then disclose the records without penalty,” Lenz told lawmakers on June 25.

Pending legislation, however, aims to undo the effect of that Wisconsin Supreme Court decision by making it easier for records requesters to win back their legal costs.

The bill, which advanced to an Assembly hearing in late June, states that legal fees must be awarded to a records requester if a court determines the filing of a lawsuit is a “substantial factor” in motivating an agency to release records.

The bill is co-authored by state Rep. Todd Novak, a Dodgeville Republican who formerly worked as a local newspaper editor for the Dodgeville Chronicle.

So far, no groups have registered against the bill, which is backed by the Wisconsin Newspapers Association and the Wisconsin Broadcasters Association.

It’s also supported by groups across the ideological spectrum, including the liberal American Civil Liberties Union of Wisconsin and the conservative Wisconsin Institute of Law and Liberty.

A similar bill cleared Wisconsin’s Senate last Session, but never got an Assembly vote.

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