The president of the Wisconsin Freedom of Information Council says the city of Fond du Lac’s bill for an open records request on the Lakeside Park controversy is “abusive.” Christine Brennan was told her request for email correspondence regarding Lakeside Park would cost nearly $7,000. Freedom of Information Council president Bill Lueders says what drove the cost of the request into the stratosphere was the cost of locating records. Lueders says often the high costs results in many requesters walking away without receiving the records to which they are entitled. In this case, Brennan paid $1,000 for the records she received. City manager Joe Moore says the estimate was based on an incredibly broad request for all the emails transacted between a large number of people over a very long period time. Moore says the city gave Brennan an estimate that it would take 28 days to complete her request. “We have a pretty accurate way of estimating what that workload is so that wasn’t just pulled out of thin air,” Moore told WFDL news. “Our point was we thought she could help us by refining her request.” Given everything that’s happened Lueders says he thinks the city should waive the open records costs and give Brennen the records that she has requested. “Just recognize there’s been some discovery of bad faith in seeking secrecy in the origin and presentation of this project and they (city) should act to waive all fees for locating records.” Lueders says if a government office must spend $7,000 of staff time to locate records, perhaps it needs a better filing system.
