Kleefisch said the conflict over barring the public stole the limelight from the issue of tax cuts, so she invited reporters to two subsequent meetings last month in Eau Claire and Superior. Any future sessions will also be open, she said.

“The story of tax reform kind of got lost in the minutiae of when the reporters were in or not in,” Kleefisch said. “If you’ve got cameras and reporters with notebooks lining the edges of the room, that amounts to public speaking, and that can make some folks nervous.”

Kleefisch didn’t intend for video her staff shot at the Beloit meeting to be released to the public. But the State Journal requested the footage under the state Open Records Law. Kleefisch said she doesn’t think the video is a public record, but she released it anyway to avoid further distractions.

The two other meetings were not recorded, because videos would generate more records requests, and again draw attention to the way Kleefisch was gathering recommendations for changes in tax policy, rather than to the policy itself, said Casey Himebauch, who was her chief of staff until Jan. 1, when he moved to a job with the Walker campaign.