Democrats will try to stop surreptitious Assembly decisions
10:57 AM 1/08/02
Phil Brinkman State government reporter
Democrats Tuesday took aim at a state Assembly policy they say has allowed that house's Republican leadership to secretly tap unlimited amounts of taxpayer dollars for outside attorneys.
The policy, adopted last January, allows the Assembly Organization Committee to approve routine matters by a paper ballot sent to members' offices without actually meeting. Previously, only emergency measures could be approved by committees outside of a formal meeting.
Although such votes are public record, few people know about them because they are not advertised like meetings are.
"Secret decision-making flies in the face of Wisconsin's tradition of open government," Assembly Minority Leader Spencer Black, D-Madison, said.
Black said Democrats will seek to repeal the rule when the Legislature reconvenes this month.
In September, the Republican-dominated Assembly Organization Committee used a paper ballot to unanimously approve hiring private lawyers to represent employees of the now defunct legislative caucuses in an ongoing investigation into allegations of illegal campaigning and destruction of public records.
In the Senate, where the use of paper ballots is a long-standing tradition, the Senate Organization Committee approved a similar measure. Neither committee required the approval of their respective houses.
Black, who is a member of the Assembly committee, voted to pay the legal bills, which in the Assembly have climbed to at least $169,000. Assembly Speaker Scott Jensen, R-Waukesha, has also charged about $89,000 in private legal bills to negotiate a settlement closing the caucus offices.
But after howls of protest from constituents, the state attorney general and media organizations, Black said he regrets the committee didn't first hold hearings on the matter. He said he now might support limits on the caucus legal fees.
Using paper ballots, the organization committee in recent months also quietly approved:
-Paying up to $985,000 to the law firm Michael Best & Friedrich to help redraw political boundaries after the last census.
-Hiring lawyers to represent Assembly Chief Clerk John Scocos in a newspaper lawsuit seeking to make public the content of the caucus legal bills.
-Adopting 120 pages in new work rules for Assembly staffers, governing everything from personal appearance to possible conflicts of interest.
Jensen was out of the office and unavailable for comment, according to his spokesman, Steve Baas. Baas said the Organization Committee uses paper ballots for efficiency.
"It's very difficult to get all the members of leadership together on the same day," Baas said.
Indeed, the committee rarely operates otherwise: Baas said it last met in January 1999. Although a policy allowing paper ballots wasn't adopted until last January, Baas said it had been an informal custom for the committee to operate that way before then.