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Madison — Dane County District Attorney Ismael Ozanne filed a civil complaint Wednesday alleging legislative leaders violated the state's open meetings law last week when a special committee adopted a bill curbing collective bargaining for most public workers.

The civil action focused on a March 9 meeting of a special legislative committee that was key to getting the measure on collective bargaining through the Legislature and signed by Gov. Scott Walker. Ozanne is asking a Dane County Circuit Court to void the new law because of the committee action. He also wants the four Republicans on the committee fined $300 each for knowingly violating the state's open meetings law.

In the short term, Ozanne is seeking to enjoin Secretary of State Doug La Follette from publishing the law, which would put it into effect. La Follette has said, unless ordered otherwise, he will publish it March 25, and it will become law the next day.

Ozanne's complaint said the case cannot be resolved by then because lawmakers are exempt from civil process during the legislative session.

A hearing is scheduled for Thursday before Dane County Circuit Judge Maryann Sumi.

The same judge has a case filed by Dane County Executive Kathleen Falk and others attempting to block the new law because of the alleged open meetings violation and because, they argue, the Senate did not have sufficient members present for the vote. Hearings are set in that case for Thursday and Friday.

Republicans created the conference committee late March 9, and the committee convened for a few minutes less than two hours later. The four Republicans on the committee voted for it as the lone Democrat at the meeting, Minority Leader Peter Barca (D-Kenosha), screamed at them to halt the meeting because he believed it violated the open meetings law.

The Republicans on the committee were Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald of Juneau, Senate President Mike Ellis of Neenah, Assembly Speaker Jeff Fitzgerald of Horicon and Assembly Majority Leader Scott Suder of Abbotsford. The Republicans said they cleared the move with the Senate chief clerk and nonpartisan legislative attorneys.

The Senate adopted the measure immediately afterward, and the Assembly approved it Thursday. The Republican governor signed the bill Friday - and faced the lawsuit from Falk within hours.

Republicans said they had followed the open meetings law.

"We are supremely confident that we followed the law perfectly," said Andrew Welhouse, a spokesman for the Senate majority leader.

The bill, which spawned massive protests that drew international attention, was stalled for three weeks because Senate Democrats left the state.

The state constitution requires 20 of 33 senators to be present to vote on bills with appropriations, and Republicans hold just 19 seats. After three weeks, Republicans created the conference committee so they could remove the appropriations and pass the bill with a simple majority. Falk's lawsuit, however, contends at least 20 senators needed to be present because of fiscal items that remained in the bill.

The district attorney said the meeting violated the open meetings law because public notice of most meetings is supposed to be given 24 hours in advance. Public officials can meet with two hours' notice in emergencies, but Ozanne said lawmakers did not meet that standard.

Senate Chief Clerk Rob Marchant said last week that lawmakers gave two hours' notice of the meeting but did not have to because Senate rules do not require public notice for meetings when the Legislature is in special session, and those rules trump the open meetings law because the Legislature was in special session.

But Ozanne said in his complaint that a different set of legislative rules applies - one that governs the two houses jointly - because the conference committee consisted of lawmakers from the Assembly and Senate. Those joint rules do not include any requirements on meeting notices, and so the requirements of the open meetings law apply, he said.

Protesters have been a steady presence at the Capitol for weeks to combat the bill, but there were relatively few during much of March 9, in part because of tight restrictions on getting in and out of the building. But as word spread about plans for the conference committee and Senate to act on the bill, thousands of people descended on the Capitol and occupied it all night.

The limited access to the Capitol, and holding the meeting in the tiny Senate parlor, were contrary to the state's open meetings law, Ozanne said in his complaint. Another lawsuit, by labor groups, is continuing over limited access to the Capitol.

Ozanne filed the court case after receiving separate complaints from Barca, Falk, Madison Mayor Dave Cieslewicz and Marty Beil, the executive director of the Wisconsin State Employees Union.

Building Commission

Ozanne's court filing came the same day Sen. Fred Risser (D-Madison) and Rep. Mark Pocan (D-Madison) boycotted a meeting of the Building Commission because they said it violated the open meetings law. The administration shut the doors and stopped allowing the general public into the meeting once all 50 or so seats were taken.

"It's not a public meeting if you don't let the public in," Pocan said in an interview outside the meeting room.

Risser, who has served on the commission for long stretches over the past 40 years, said he had never seen the doors to the room shut during a meeting. He said that he'd seen more people packed into the room and that past meetings had been moved when there was a heavy turnout.

But in a news conference later in the day, Walker said the meeting was "100% open" as it always is. "We can't put more people in than there is space to stand and sit around in," he said.

During the interview with Pocan at the start of the meeting, there were two people who were not being allowed in by law enforcement: Al Fish, vice chancellor for facilities at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and Frank Hoadley, who handles bonding for the state Department of Administration. After about half an hour, several people left the meeting, and Fish was allowed in.

Risser and Pocan said others who arrived later were also barred from entering the meeting. Demonstrators were not among those attempting to enter the meeting when it started.

Fish said he had been attending commission meetings for about 20 years and could not recall being denied admittance before.

The commission, which is chaired by Walker, voted to recommend Walker's capital budget to the Legislature. The commission added funding for a school of nursing at UW-Madison and a Health and Human Performance building at UW-River Falls.

Open records case

Also Wednesday, Walker's office settled an open records lawsuit brought by two media outlets.

The Associated Press and the Madison weekly newspaper Isthmus filed the lawsuit March 4 seeking e-mails sent to Walker by the public weighing in on his union bargaining legislation.

On Wednesday, Isthmus posted a story to its website saying that under the settlement Walker did not acknowledge any fault but agreed to produce the records and pay attorney's fees and costs of around $7,000. Walker spokesman Cullen Werwie confirmed those details.

As the fight over collective bargaining continues, lawmakers prepare to debate the state budget. But public hearings on the budget probably will be held in venues outside the Capitol, said Rep. Robin Vos (R-Rochester), co-chairman of the Joint Finance Committee.

Vos said he wanted to hear from people outside of Dane County. The meetings also won't be held at the Kohl Center in Madison or the Bradley Center in Milwaukee, he said.

Scott Fitzgerald said last week he was considering those large sports venues because he expected crowds.

"We will not be having it in a place with a scoreboard unless it's a high school gym," Vos said.

Lawmakers often hold a budget hearing in the Capitol, as well as around the state. But they did not hold any in the Capitol in the last two rounds of budget deliberations, in 2007 and 2009. Hearings were held in communities just a short drive from Madison, however.

Jason Stein and Amy Hetzner of the Journal Sentinel staff contributed to this report.