For the 19th consecutive year, the Wisconsin Freedom of Information Council is bestowing its annual Openness in Government Awards, or Opees, meant to recognize outstanding efforts to protect the state’s tradition of open government, as well as highlight impediments. 

The awards are being announced in advance of national Sunshine Week (sunshineweek.org), March 16-22, and will be presented at the Wisconsin Openness Awards Dinner in Madison on March 6, as part of the Wisconsin Newspaper Association’s annual convention.

Awards are being given in six categories.

The winners are:

Public Openness Advocate (Popee): Milwaukee Police Sensitive Crimes Division and Open Records Division

When Jessica McBride’s UW-Milwaukee journalism class launched a full-semester project to delve into unsolved missing persons cases, she was impressed by the cooperation she received from Milwaukee police, especially Capt. Erin Mejia and Sgt. Jason Kotarak. “They provided the full, unredacted missing person files for each case submitted by the students in just a few weeks,” McBride wrote in her nomination. Credit goes also to the students, who produced an impressive collection of stories, “Missing in Milwaukee.”

Citizen Openness Advocate (Copee): American Oversight

After a yearslong fight, this liberal advocacy group pried records from the probe into Wisconsin’s 2020 election conducted by former state Supreme Court Justice Michael Gableman, as well as recovery of its legal costs. And Gableman’s disregard for the state’s transparency laws was flagged in several of the 10 counts of alleged misconduct filed against him by the Office of Lawyer Regulation. The probe cost taxpayers nearly $2.5 million and turned up no evidence of wrongdoing other than that committed by Gableman himself. 

Media Openness Advocate (Mopee): Wisconsin Examiner

This nonpartisan, nonprofit news site, represented by attorney Tom Kamenick of the Wisconsin Transparency Project, this year settled two important lawsuits. The first was against the city of Black River Falls for seeking to charge reporter Henry Redman thousands of dollars for a third party to retrieve records regarding the disappearance of an Indigenous man. The second was against the city of Wauwatosa for its long delays in handling records requests from reporter Isiah Holmes. Both cases settled with $5,000 payments, with Black River Falls saying its records system was changed to avoid these huge charges.

Open Records Scoop of the Year (Scoopee): TMJ4 for ‘Ghosted‘

When this Milwaukee television station asked the Milwaukee County District Attorney’s Office for its “Brady list” of law enforcement officers who have had issues that impact their credibility as witnesses, it was denied a complete copy. But it hired attorney Brendan Healey and pressed for more information, which was reported in a series called “Ghosted.” It’s the first of a series of reports on the serious accountability and transparency concerns the station found. This reporting is ongoing, in partnership with Wisconsin Watch and the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

Whistleblower of the Year (Whoopee): Todd Heath

This operator of a business that audits telecommunications bills has endured 17 years of litigation over his federal whistleblower claim that Wisconsin Bell overcharged schools and libraries millions of dollars for internet access and other services. In February, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled unanimously in Heath’s favor, which will allow his claim to proceed (yes, it’s not over yet). The case could reinforce federal programs that make broadband more accessible and affirm accountability and taxpayer protections in whistleblower cases.

No Friend of Openness (NOPEE): Satya Rhodes-Conway

At a press conference the day after the deadly Dec. 16 shooting at Abundant Life Christian School, Madison’s mayor ripped the press for asking too many questions. “It is absolutely none of y’all’s business who was harmed in this incident,” Rhodes-Conway admonished. “Please have some human decency and respect” for the victims and their families. “Don’t feed off their pain.” Her comments were deeply unfair to the reporters, who were hurting too. Bashing the press for political gain is contrary to the cause of openness. Enough already.

Your Right to Know is a monthly column distributed by the Wisconsin Freedom of Information Council (wisfoic.org), a group dedicated to open government. Bill Lueders is the council’s president.

Your Right to Know: Opee Awards highlight highs and lows is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.