This post originally appeared at https://www.bootsandsabers.com/2023/11/27/tony-evers-denies-lawful-open-records-disclosures-with-secret-email/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=tony-evers-denies-lawful-open-records-disclosures-with-secret-email
Tony Evers has a secret state email account appropriating the name of a dead baseball legend, but he doesn’t think the public has a right to know about it.
Gov. Tony Evers has been communicating with state workers about public business using a secret government email account in the name of a deceased Milwaukee Braves baseball legend, and over 17,000 emails sent to and from the account exist, Wisconsin Right Now has exclusively documented.
But the governor’s office thinks the public has no right to know the account’s name and won’t provide most of the emails. We verified Evers is using the account, first through a source who saw communications between Evers and a state worker, and then through the open records request. The response provided other details that verified it, even though the address was blacked out.
We can reveal: Gov. Evers writes various state workers and cabinet secretaries using the account “warren.spahn@wisconsin.gov,” a state email account in the name of the Braves’ legend.
The state Department of Administration explained it was blacking out the email account name, writing of the redactions, “The Governor’s non-public official direct email address. Making this email address available would significantly hinder the Governor’s ability to communicate and work efficiently. There is minimal harm to the public interest, given that there are numerous public means to communicate with the Office of the Governor.”
There are two transgressions here. First, the governor is using a secret email account to conduct public business. This practice intentionally makes it more difficult for people to find them when conducting open records requests. You can’t ask for something you don’t know about.
The greater transgression is that even after WRN discovered the email, the DOA is still refusing to disclose the emails in response to a lawful open records request. Wisconsin’s government is required by law to provide any information for the asking. It is a cornerstone of transparency that promotes good government. There are few – very few – reasons that the government is allowed to redact requested information. “Evers doesn’t want to because it might embarrass him” is not a lawful reason to deny an open records request.
Evers has a history of thwarting the public’s legal responsibility and right to see what his office is doing. What is he hiding?