Glenn Grothman: violating the open meetings law?

Glenn is quiet for a while, and then a flurry of news, like late spring snow squalls.

My Google alerts found this in the Lakeland Times: Slamming shut the doors of government

According to Richard Mial of the La Crosse Tribune, several years ago Republican Sens. Glenn Grothman of West Bend and Alberta Darling of River Hills held invitation-only public hearings on a proposed constitutional amendment to limit spending by school districts and local governments.

That's right, invitation-only public hearings.

The abuse of manipulation of the public hearings process, both by state agencies and lawmakers, is well known by Madison insiders; in fact, for more controversial items, or bills lawmakers want to fly under the radar, public notice is often made at the last minute, and sometimes held at odd times - like a Friday afternoon - to minimize public participation.

If we have a meeting on campus to discuss styrofoam cup purchases, we follow the open meeting guidelines to the letter. What's going on in Madison?

Here's the earlier piece:

Wisconsin State Journal
Thursday, April 6, 2006
RICHARD MIAL

Wisconsin's open meetings law is based on the idea that "a representative government of the American type is dependent upon an informed electorate."

But don't tell that to two prominent Republican state senators. They seem to think that it's better when the public isn't involved.

Republican Sens. Glenn Grothman of West Bend and Alberta Darling of River Hills held two invitation-only public hearings on a proposed constitutional amendment to limit spending by school districts and local governments.

Normally, such meetings are designed to get input from all citizens, but Grothman and Darling limited a March 29 meeting at the Germantown Village Hall to local government leaders only. An earlier session March 13 in Brown Deer was limited to only school officials. And Darling met privately last Friday with members of a parent-teacher group and the Milwaukee Jewish Council. Both meetings were held in the Milwaukee area.

While Darling said that it was not the organizers' intent to exclude anyone, the fact that members of the public were not informed about the earlier hearings shows there was, in fact, an attempt to exclude ordinary people.

Grothman even said the March 29 hearing was better than one to which the public would have been invited.

"To be honest," he told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, "we learned a lot more from the invitation-only meeting."

Constituents are such a nuisance.

hiho
Mp