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The state Public Records Board has cracked open the door to hearing from the public about its secretive decision last summer to limit access to public records. So please let the board hear from you — let it know that it needs to rescind its action to limit access to text messages, emails, Facebook posts and other electronic communications by public employees.

The board is accepting written comments before midnight Wednesday to: PublicRecordsBoardComments@Wisconsin.gov.

You also can attend the board's public hearing at 1:30 p.m. Monday at the Risser Justice Center, 17 W. Main St., Madison.

As you did last July when the state Legislature's Joint Finance Committee moved in secret to gut the state's open records law on the night before a long holiday weekend, you can let state officials obsessed with conducting their business in private know that drawing the curtains on open government is unacceptable.

Let them know there will be consequences in this election year for those who try to curb access to government. Send an email, call your legislator or attend the meeting if you can. But let your voice be heard.

At issue this time is a policy revision made in August by the previously obscure Public Records Board, which oversees the preservation and handling of government records. Quietly, with no public notice or reporting, the board changed the definition of "transitory records" — those deemed to have only temporary significance.

Make no mistake, the board's action will be used by people in power to limit access to text messages, emails, Facebook posts and other electronic communication by public employees. It also encourages them to conduct the public's business in the shadows through such tools. When government employees conduct the public's business and spend the taxpayers' dollars electronically, citizens have an interest in those communications and a right to see them.

That point was made crystal clear just one day after the board's quiet decision to redefine transitory records. Gov. Scott Walker's administration hid behind the board's action, saying it didn't have text messages requested by the Wisconsin State Journal and adding that officials didn't have to retain such messages.

The newspaper had sought text messages linked to a $500,000 loan by the Wisconsin Economic Development Corp. to Building Committee Inc., which was promoted by top administration appointees. WEDC officials later strove to get federal taxpayer dollars to help the struggling Milwaukee-based company even though the loan to BCI went sour within months and the owner of the firm, a Walker donor named William Minahan, had provided false information to the state.

Those text messages about a pet corporate welfare project belonged to the public just as surely as written notes from the administration would have belonged to the public. Walker's administration demonstrated in this instance, as it has time and again, that it has little regard for open government while claiming that it follows the law. It has done so multiple times in the past year under the state's current system of one-party rule, with help and often leadership from powerful lawmakers — most notably Assembly Speaker Robin Vos (R-Rochester).

After the board's action came to light, open records attorneys and advocates accused the Public Records Board of violating the state's open meetings law with its notice for the August meeting, which did not specifically mention the transitory records issue, and also with its minutes, which failed to provide details of the board's action or of any vote. They also raised questions about whether the board had overstepped its authority and stepped into the Legislature's territory by attempting to redefine public records.

The Wisconsin Freedom of Information Council filed a complaint Dec. 14 with the Dane County district attorney against the state board, alleging open meetings law violations.

Matthew Blessing, chairman of the board, said the August vote was aimed at clarifying existing policies for handling transitory records. "I thus do not believe that the minor clarifying language ... was substantive enough to warrant inclusion in the August 24 agenda," Blessing said in an email to the Journal Sentinel.

But, of course, what the board did has proved to be substantive already. Its change — which the public knew nothing about but which the administration was somehow keenly aware of — was used instantly as an excuse to hide records about an effort to send good taxpayer dollars after bad. Word to the wise: When state officials say they want to "clarify" open records laws, the public should be wary. What that meant in July is that they wanted to curb the public's ability to know what their elected officials were doing with their money.

Don't let them continue to hide that information from you.

After the outcry and the FOIC complaint, Blessing scheduled next week's meeting to revisit the change, which the board must immediately rescind.

Let the Public Records Board know where you stand on open government. The leadership in Madison was forced to backtrack last July only because citizens across Wisconsin — Republicans, Democrats and independents — demanded that they leave our open records law alone. This is a subject we can all agree on and can all act on. Send an email by midnight Wednesday or go to Madison next week. Let the board know that it has a responsibility to keep public records public.

And tell it to stop working behind the scenes to give politicians excuses that they can hide behind.

To contact Wisconsin's top officials and legislators, go to jsonline.com/stateofficials

How to send comments

to the Public Records Board

■Written comments can be sent to the board before midnight Wednesday by emailing PublicRecordsBoardComments@Wisconsin.gov.

■Comment at the board's hearing at 1:30 p.m. Monday at the Risser Justice Center, 17 W. Main St., Madison. (Comments will be limited to one minute for each speaker).

How to contact

members of the Public Records Board

Board chair

Matthew Blessing, designee of the director of Wisconsin Historical Society

(608) 264-6480; matthew.blessing@Wisconsinhistory.org

Board members

Paul Ferguson, designee of attorney general

(608) 264-9464; fergusonpm@doj.state.wi.us

Bryan Naab, designee of state auditor

(608) 259-9807; bryan.naab@legis.wisconsin.gov

Melissa Schmidt, designee of the legislative council director

(608) 266-2298; melissa.schmidt@legis.wisconsin.gov

Sandra Broady-Rudd, designee of the governor

(608) 429-2368; sandra.e.broady-rudd@wellsfargo.com

Carl Buesing, local government designee of the governor

920-457-8400; bues513@sbcglobal.net

Peter Sorce, other member designee of the governor

(262) 253-0561; ps9444@aol.com