Small town journalist denied open meeting requests

By Anna Speaker

When Sally Miller left her job in the city for a quiet job at a small Wisconsin weekly newspaper, she didn’t expect such uproar.
The small town of Galesville, population 1,400, didn’t expect it either.

Miller moved to Galesville, a small town near La Crosse, and brought with her a tenacious personality and the thunderous experience of working as a journalist for dailies and weeklies all over the United States, also owning two papers in the Chicago area.

Over her years in the newspaper industry, she learned to handle open records violations and frequently dealt with government bodies that refused her requests.

“Government corruption and mishandling of government powers is allowed to exist and thrive when it goes unreported and unchallenged,” Miller said. “Open meeting and record laws ensure that, while corruption certainly still does exist, it's pretty tough to keep it hidden and secret.”

But when she arrived at the Galesville Republican in Trempealeau County, handling refusals became routine and often unenforceable in a small town setting.

Miller started as a trial freelance reporter for the weekly Galesville Republican, with a circulation of 2,000, in December 2007.

Within her first week on the job, she attended a Gale-Ettrick-Trempealeau (GET) school board meeting in which the board discussed a controversial contract of an architect who was working on a new middle school building. When the debate on finances began to erupt, the acting GET School Board President Harold Olson regained control of the situation in the same way that the small Wisconsin school district often did: the quiet way.

“Suddenly, the school board president shut down conversation and said ‘we’ll discuss all of this in closed session at the finance committee meeting next month,’” Miller said. “Immediately I knew, you can’t go into closed session for this, and even if you go into closed session for a legitimate reason, you can’t discuss this because there’s not a legitimate reason.”

Miller was new to town and didn’t know the nuances of the state’s open meetings law. Still, she had a hunch that the board broke the law and consulted the Wisconsin Newspaper Association’s open meetings hotline. When they verified the violation, Miller called Superintendent Craig Gerlach and challenged the closed-meeting decision.

For the next few weeks, the paper and the school board argued over the legality of discussing the matter in a closed meeting. Miller said that she openly informed the board of the consequences.

“I said, ‘you better call your attorney because if you go into closed session, I will stand up and challenge it right there,’” Miller said. “‘I will tell you that you can’t do it and anybody that goes into closed session will then be in violation of open meetings laws.’”

It was New Year’s Weekend, and Miller, then fully employed by the paper, let several board members know that she planned to write a story exploiting the violations. Shortly after, Miller said that Gerlach revised the agenda to discuss the contract in open session.

Gerlach, who became superintendent of the Monona Grove School District in April, said he can no longer speak for the GET School District, but said he encourages open lines of communication between the public and the school board.

“There are laws that determine to what extent we provide information, and we provide information to the public on a regular basis,” Gerlach said.

Miller had gotten her taste of open records violations during the first several weeks on the job, but her persistence in defying the GET School Board continued for months. During her time at the Republican, Miller claimed that the GET School District fabricated meeting minutes, held board meetings without inviting all of the members, and approved motions in unofficial meetings.

Gerlach said that as far as he knew, all requests had been fulfilled during his time with the GET School District.

Yet Miller said that the board repeatedly went into closed session while other committees throughout the county failed to comply with open meetings laws.

Within a month of working for the Galesville Republican, Miller sent out a formal request to every government body in the county asking for notice whenever any of the county officials met to discuss business.

Some smaller bodies in the county have been diligent in complying with Miller’s requests, although others continue to meet without sending the newspaper notices of their meetings.

Repeated complaints to District Attorney Jeri Marsolek and calls to the State Attorney General’s Office offer little progress.

Miller said the State Attorney General told her to consult with the District Attorney while the District Attorney claimed they had “real crimes” to pursue. The government’s failure to enforce the law, Miller said, has been the biggest obstacle for the Galesville Republican.

“All of the elected officials know. They know that we are going to complain and we are going to file complaints, and they know that nothing is going to get done,” Miller said. “They know there’s no penalty attached, they know they can violate the law blatantly.”

Miller feels that she has run out of options. The paper could legally hire a lawyer, but Miller said that a small paper like the Republican can’t carry the financial commitment.

“We shouldn’t have to pay a lawyer. We shouldn’t have to pay out of our pocket as a paper to do what the District Attorney and the State Attorney General’s office gets paid to do which is enforce the law,” Miller said.

The size of Trempealeau County intensifies the problem. With a population of about 28,000, elected town officials are often neighbors and friends. Miller said that people seldom stand up to violations because they aren’t willing to jeopardize their relationships with those who attend their church or play football with their children.

While the issues remain untouched by the District Attorney, Miller said she suffers from attempted intimidation from board members. She said that at a meeting in April, Olson allegedly yelled at Miller in a meeting, questioning her relationship with her boss. Miller said that as Olson was leaving the meeting, he leaned in and told her, “You’d better watch yourself.”

Olson did not return several phone calls seeking comment, yet wrote a note to the current school board president asking her to tell Miller to explain to the FOIC that he would not be returning the calls.

Miller also said that board members sometimes laugh at her when she threatens to file a complaint, urging her to file two complaints to see what happens.

While some question Miller’s methods, Gerlach didn’t seem to show distaste for Miller’s bold journalistic style, nor did he see an issue with the way the board generally conducted itself.
“I wouldn’t say [Miller} was inappropriate, nor would I say the board was inappropriate,” Gerlach said.

He acknowledged, however, that there needs to be a standard of conduct in meetings.

“I think that the media as well as all public need to act appropriately and communicate in a civil manner. I think that’s common professional respect.”

Olson resigned as school board president in June. The new president Tanya Gendreau has worked hard to clean up the board’s image. She has ordered that meeting minutes be taken at every meeting and posted on-line, and that the board members read a pamphlet and attend a training session on open meetings laws.

“I’m trying very hard. I myself believe in open meeting laws,” Gendreau said. “I think everything should be out for everyone to see.”

While the GET School Board cleans up its act, Miller said other offices in Trempealeau County continue to fly under the nose of the justice system, hindering the right to public documents.

The Galesville Republican’s Web site still refers to Galesville as “a garden of Eden in the Midwest,” but when it comes to freedom of information laws, it seems that this county has seen a few bad apples.