A major flaw in Wisconsin's Open Meetings Law is that the state legislature's closed, partisan caucuses are exempt from it. This means that the Democrats and Republicans get to work over the fine (and not so fine) parts of legislation completely out of the public view. The closed partisan caucuses are the main reason why the proposed C-Span style WisconsinEye television network, if it ever gets off the ground, will be mostly pointless. When I ran for State Assembly in 2004 one of my major campaign planks was that if elected I would hold a Citizens' Caucus on the steps of the Capitol each time the Republicrats went into closed caucus.
Last night during Oshkosh Common Council citizen statements, I urged the Council to adopt a resolution similar to one passed by the Waukesah County Board of Supervisors in 2004. The Supervisors voted 26-9 on a resolution to "Support legislation that would require the state legislature to be subject ot the same Open Meetings laws and regulations which local governments in Wisconsin must abide by under current law." The Winnebago County Board of Supervisors should pass the same resolution.
Don Huebscher, editor of the Eau Claire Leader Telegram, argued in an opinion column that "Wisconsin legislators ought to hold themselves to the same standard of openness required of local elected bodies. The only losers would be those with something to hide from the rest of us, and the party leaders whose influence would diminish under a truly open system."
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