WBA Newsroom
Reporters covering issues regarding police and corrections officials are among the honorees of this year’s Openness Awards, or Opees, bestowed by the . Others winners include: a Milwaukee-based citizens group that used public records to help push for improvements in housing; a former city council member who fought to obtain records from a school district; and a county coroner who went the extra mile to provide information on gun deaths — in dramatic contrast to another county coroner, who flatly refused.
The awards, announced today in advance of national (), March 10-16, recognize outstanding efforts to protect the state’s tradition of open government, as well as highlight some threats to it.
This is the 18th consecutive year that Opees have been awarded. Winners are being invited to appear at the in Madison on March 14, part of the Wisconsin Newspaper Association’s annual convention.
“Much good work is being done to obtain and use public information,” said Bill Lueders, council president. “We had a couple of categories in which the judges expressed how hard it was to pick a single winner.”
The Wisconsin Freedom of Information Council, a nonprofit, nonpartisan group that seeks to promote open government, consists of about two dozen members representing media and other public interests. Sponsoring organizations include the Wisconsin Newspaper Association, Wisconsin Broadcasters Association and Wisconsin Associated Press.
The judging committee for this year consisted of Lueders, Wisconsin State Journal executive editor Kelly Lecker, Capital Times editor Mark Treinen, PBS Wisconsin reporter Steven Potter and Jessica Laszewski, news director at WMTV 15 News. All are Council members.
Awards are being given this year in six categories. The winners are:
Public Openness Award (“Popee”): Curt Green
When a Milwaukee Journal Sentinel investigative team set out to on state gun deaths due to suicide, it encountered some resistence. But Green, the coroner for Manitowoc County, grasped the value of this story and set to work what the paper said was “by far the most detailed” gun death data of any county in the state, in the hopes of identifying patterns that could prevent future deaths. “For instance, Green reported if people were having mental health issues prior to a suicide and how recently they had purchased the gun.” It’s great when public officials act with the “public” firmly in mind.
Media Openness Award (“Mopee”): Jacob Resneck
An investigative reporter with Wisconsin Watch, Resneck on how police agencies in Wisconsin are citing Marsy’s Law, the state constitutional amendment meant to protect victims’ rights, to shield the identity of police officers who shot someone, on grounds that the officers are victims of the people they shoot. He also made extensive use of public records to on a police cadet who was fired after reporting that a fellow cadet had sexually assaulted her. And Resneck wrote a for the Council about police video and accountability, including efforts to make requesters pay for the time law enforcement and corrections officials spend blacking out information.
Citizen Openness Award (“Copee”): Common Ground
This Milwaukee-based interfaith advocacy group launched a last year to gather information, much of it from public records, on hazardous conditions inside affordable housing apartments. It then shared this information with tenants and journalists to the Housing Authority of the City of Milwaukee to make improvements. As the Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service , Common Ground “met with tenants, collected stories and presented more than 1,000 cases of residents who say they have experienced assault; endured bedbugs and rats; had to deal with ‘lost’ rent payments; abusive management; mold; and no heat.” Earlier this year, the group about dangerously cold apartments, a “systemic problem” the housing authority has known about for years. Now everybody knows.
Open Records Scoop of the Year (“Scoopee”): Lucas Robinson
This Wisconsin State Journal reporter used public records to expose one aspect of life inside a state prison under lockdown: How some corrections officers have made a bad situation worse. Robinson multiple instances in which the local sheriff’s department sought charges against guards at the state’s Green Bay Correctional facility for offenses including smuggling items into the prison for inmates to neglecting inmates. One inmate died after guards denied him a wheelchair to go to the infirmary, then failed to check on him. Another inmate who tried to kill himself was pepper-sprayed while unconscious, which investigators said was common practice. No guards were charged with crimes. Robinson’s reporting, as well as that of The New York Times and other news media outlets, lawmakers to seek reforms.
Whistleblower of the Year (“Whoopee”): Mark Gierl
It’s not easy for elected officials in small communities to stand up to other local powers that be, but this former Mequon alderperson the Mequon-Thiensville School District for denying his requests for email distribution lists. Gierl, represented by Tom Kamenick of the Wisconsin Transparency Project, won each case at both the trial and appellate court level, firmly establishing that such lists kept by government entities must be released on request. An honorable mention in this category goes to the state prison inmates who to make the public aware of dire situations within the state’s correctional system.
No Friend of Openness (“Nopee”): Bonnie Kindschy Even public officials who aren’t all that great when it comes to open government are rarely as brazen in their contempt for this part of the job as the coroner of Trempealeau County. Alone among the state’s 72 coroners or medical examiners, Kindschy to provide records in response to the Journal Sentinel’s gun death investigation. “This is ridiculous,” she told a reporter, before disconnecting. Even after the threat of a lawsuit prompted the county to release the records, Kindschy remained defiant, saying she would “probably not” provide these records if she received another such request. Arrogant and unaccountable is never a good look.