{"id":7325,"date":"2023-11-27T13:05:48","date_gmt":"2023-11-27T14:05:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/?p=7325"},"modified":"2023-11-27T14:13:17","modified_gmt":"2023-11-27T14:13:17","slug":"tony-evers-denies-lawful-open-records-disclosures-with-secret-email","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/?p=7325","title":{"rendered":"Tony Evers Denies Lawful Open Records Disclosures with Secret Email"},"content":{"rendered":"

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<\/a><\/p>\n

From Wisconsin Right Now<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

Tony Evers has a secret state email account appropriating the name of a dead baseball legend, but he doesn\u2019t think the public has a right to know about it.
<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

But the governor\u2019s office thinks the public has no right to know the account\u2019s name and won\u2019t 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.<\/p>\n

We can reveal: Gov. Evers writes various state workers and cabinet secretaries using the account \u201cwarren.spahn@wisconsin.gov,<\/strong>\u201d a\u00a0state<\/strong>\u00a0email account in the name of the Braves\u2019 legend.<\/p>\n

The state Department of Administration explained it was blacking out the email account name, writing of the redactions, \u201cThe Governor\u2019s non-public official direct email address. Making this email address available would significantly hinder the Governor\u2019s 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.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

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\u2019t ask for something you don\u2019t know about.<\/p>\n

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\u2019s 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 \u2013 very few \u2013 reasons that the government is allowed to redact requested information. \u201cEvers doesn\u2019t want to because it might embarrass him\u201d is not a lawful reason to deny an open records request.<\/p>\n

Evers has a history of thwarting the public\u2019s legal responsibility and right to see what his office is doing. What is he hiding?<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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 From Wisconsin Right Now Tony Evers has a secret…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":385,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7325","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-boots-sabers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7325","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7325"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7325\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7326,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7325\/revisions\/7326"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/385"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7325"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7325"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7325"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}