SCOTT WALKER

OFFICE OF THE GOVERNOR P.O. Box 7863

STATE OF WISCONSIN MADISON, WI 53707

March 31, 2011

Attorney Robert Dreps

One East Main Street, Suite 500
P.O. Box 2719
Madison, WI 53701-2719

Anne L. Weismann
Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington
1400 Eye Street, N.W., Suite 450
Washington, D.C. 20005

Dear Attorney Dreps and Ms. Weismann,

In response to your February 23, 2011 open records request, we continue to search Governor's
office records for responsive records. You requested the following:

1) All records of communication between you and/or any other individuals in or on

behalf of your office and any individuals in or on behalf of the Wisconsin Division of
State Patrol, including but not limited to Superintendent Stephen Fitzgerald, regarding
your request to dispatch the Wisconsin State Patrol on Friday, February 18, 2011, to
find Senate Democratic Minority Leader Mark Miller;
2) All records of communications regarding the location, attendance, or retrieval of any
and all members of the Wisconsin State Senate from February 14,2011 to February
23,2011;
3) All records of communications or actions to compel any member of the Wisconsin
State Senate to attend a legislative session from February 14,2011 to February 23,
2011;
4) All records of contacts' and/or communications between you and/or Senate Majority
Leader Scott Fitzgerald from February 14, 2011 to February 23, 2011 regarding your
request to dispatch the Wisconsin State Patrol on Friday, February 18,2011, to find
Senate Democratic Minority Leader Mark Miller; and
5) All records reflecting any communications or discussions within and/or outside the
Wisconsin Office of the Governor regarding whether to send a state trooper, to find
Senate Democratic Minority Leader Mark Miller or any member of the Wisconsin
State Senate from February 14,2011 to February 23, 2011.

We have prepared 206 pages ofrecords to partially fulfill your request. These records are being
provided in electronic format as an attached PDF file as you requested on March 31, 2011.

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In response to part 1 of your request, the Office of the Governor has no responsive records. I
have discussed this very specific request with our Chief of Staff and no member of the
Governor's staff had any contact with the State Patrol in regards to Senator Mark Miller.

In response to parts 2 and 3 of your request, I have found that these requests encompass a broad
array of records because nearly any correspondence about Democratic State Senators after
February 17, 2011 included discussion regarding the senators' location, attendance, retrieval, or
actions to compel their attendance. Records responsive to these parts of your request continue to
be collected from Governor's Office staff,members,

In response to part 4 of your request, the Office of the Governor has no responsive records.

In response to part 5 of your request, a.few ofthe records discuss state trooper. attempts to find
state senators. 'These records were otherwise included in response to parts 2 and 3 of your
request.

I have enclosed an invoice for estimated location costs associated with your request. Normally,
we require prepayment ofthese costs; however, .since we are providing these records in multiple
parts, I am releasing the first part of the records now with the understanding that you will provide
payment ofthe request before we finalize all ofthe l:esponsive records. We will continue to
search the remaining staff members' records for any recbrd~ that respond to your request.
Should our actual location time total less than the estimated 8.5 hours, we will issue a nifuncl to
you upon completion of fulfillment of the request.

All identifiers .~f the. non-public direct email address for the G<;lVer have been redacted
pursuant to the Wis. Stat, § 19.35(1)(a) balancing test. The Govemor the most important
executive position in state government, with nUIAerous and significant officiall'esponsibilities.
Given the existence 'of other publicly available telephone .niimbers and email addresses through
which to contact the Governor's stafr' at the Governor's Office, lhave determined that the public
interest in avoiding potential disruption to the Go~ernor' s ability to carry out his
impOltant official responsibilities without urmecessary in;telwption if his direct email address
became common knowledge outweighs any public interest in disclosure of his direct email
address"
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Furthermore, the public Interest in protecting the privacy of the Govemor's direct email address
is recognized in Wis. Stat. § 19.36(11). Although Wis. Stat. § 19.36(11) on its face applies to the
home email addess~s of individuals holding state public office,' I have determined that the same
underlying public interest applies to the non-public direct email address of the Governor, I
therefore have determined that the public interest in protecting the non-public direct email
addresses of individuals holding state public office outweighs the public interest in disclosure of
those addresses for two reasons: to avoid potential disruption of important official duties and to
protect the privacy of state public officials.

Certain personal contact information, such as, telephone numbers, home addresses, and email
addresses have also been redacted from the records. In applying the balancing test required by
Wis. Stat. § 19.35(1)(a), I determined that the public interest in disclosure of this information is
outweighed by the public interest in privacy on the part of individuals in their home telephone
numbers, personal cell phone numbers, home addresses, and email addresses. Legislative

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 recognition of this public policy is set forth in Wis. Stat. § 19.36(10)(a), prohibiting disclosure of
similar information about public employees in records maintained by their employers.

Additionally, we have redacted all personally identifiable information, including names, from
emails received by the Waste, Fraud, and Abuse Commission email account. The public website
. for those submissions states, "Personally identifiable information collected will not be used for
any other purpose." Therefore, I have determined that the public interest in and expectation of
the complete privacy of the identity of these emailers outweighs the public interest in disclosure.
,,, ,

Also, redacted from the records are the direct phone numbersof government staff. The public's
interest in efficient and effective government outweighs the public's interest in disclosure of this
information, In order to maintain efficient and effective government, Wisconsin departments
and agencies, including the Governor's office, put in place appropriate processes for contacting
staff members. That process, which includes a published central telephone number, is
circumvented by releasing the direct phone numbers of government staff.

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Pursuant to Wis. Stat. § 19.35(4)(b), these determinations, are subject to r~view by ~andamus
under Wis. Stat. § 19.37(1) or upon application to a district attorney or the Attomey General.

Thank you for cpntacting the Office of Governor Scott Walker.

J!1.Y)::::: ;: : : ; ;---
Nate Rist ' .
Assistant Legal Counsel
Office of Governor Scott Walker

115 E. State Capitol

Madison, WI 53702

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