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Collective bargaining bill sparks open records suit (UPDATE)

By: Caley Clinton, [email protected]//June 29, 2011//

Collective bargaining bill sparks open records suit (UPDATE)

By: Caley Clinton, [email protected]//June 29, 2011//

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Dane County District Attorney Ismael Ozanne talks to justices of the Wisconsin Supreme Court on June 6 in Madison. Michigan-based Education Action Group Foundation Inc. is suing Ozanne for open records requests costs during the DA’s attempt to block publication of Gov. Scott Walker’s collective bargaining law. (AP Photo by John Hart /Wisconsin State Journal)

A Michigan education group is suing Dane County’s district attorney to recoup legal costs it incurred while pursuing an open records request tied to Wisconsin’s new collective bargaining law.

Education Action Group Foundation Inc., Muskegon, Mich., twice requested all of Ismael Ozanne’s county emails pertaining to Gov. Scott Walker or the budget-repair bill, said Steve Gunn, the nonprofit group’s communications director. He said EAG wanted to find out how much county time Ozanne spent on a lawsuit to prevent the publication of the collective bargaining law.

“In our opinion,” Gunn said, “he should have been doing what he is paid to do: prosecuting criminals in Dane County.”

Although Ozanne provided the requested records, they arrived “late in the game,” Gunn said, after EAG had hired attorney Paul Bucher early in the process.

Ozanne said Wednesday there was a “miscommunication” in relaying to the group that his office was getting the requested materials. He said he thought a written acknowledgement of the request and of the intention to fulfill it had gone out to Bucher.

But when it was discovered that was not the case, Ozanne said, he tried to rectify that with a phone call to Bucher. The phone call was made the afternoon of June 10, when Bucher filed the lawsuit against Ozanne, the DA said.

EAG filed its initial written request for Ozanne’s emails April 7, said Kyle Olson, the group’s founder and CEO, and gave the DA’s office 30 days to respond. When the group did not hear from Ozanne, it sent another letter May 10, giving the DA 10 more days before the group considered legal action.

Ozanne filed a lawsuit in March to block publication of the collective bargaining bill shortly after Walker signed it into law. The Democratic DA alleged Republican lawmakers didn’t give proper public notice in February before a committee met on the controversial plan that bars most public employees from collective bargaining.

Ozanne said his office went “above and beyond” to juggle its civil and criminal caseload and the collective bargaining case, which the DA was “statutorily authorized” to look into as an open meetings concern.

“I don’t think you can say we dropped the ball in other criminal or civil prosecutions,” he said. “We haven’t been derelict in any of our duties.”

Gunn said Bucher, the group’s attorney, will give EAG a final tally of legal costs at a hearing on the case scheduled for 9 a.m. Thursday in Dane County.

If Ozanne had promptly fulfilled the request, Gunn said, the group would not have spent as much on an attorney.

But Ozanne said his office did the best it could.

“We are, as every DA office in state, understaffed, and don’t have the ability to just have people cull through all the email accounts in the office that may be affected. That takes time,” Ozanne said. “We do as best as we can with all the things we have on our plate, and we’ve tried to satisfy any and all open records requests.”

EAG sought similar email information from former Dane County Executive Kathleen Falk, who also filed a lawsuit to block the collective bargaining bill’s publication, Gunn said. That request was filled in a timely fashion, but the group has yet to review the materials, he said.

Ozanne said the emails EAG requested are available in his office, but to his knowledge, have yet to be picked up.

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