From: Leonhardt, Ronald
Sent: Friday, September 04, 2009 8:25 AM
To: Intergovernmental
Cc: Wood, Brenda; Owczarski, Jim
Subject: RE: SB-276 Relating to: requiring governmental bodies of school
districts and certain political subdivisions to post meeting notices and
minutes on their Web sites.



-----Original Message-----
From: Intergovernmental
Sent: Thursday, September 03, 2009 1:34 PM
To: Leonhardt, Ronald
Cc: Wood, Brenda
Subject: SB-276 Relating to: requiring governmental bodies of school districts and certain political subdivisions to post meeting notices and minutes on their Web sites.

  
http://www.legis.state.wi.us/2009/data/SB-276.pdf

SB-276 was recently introduced.


Please review the proposed legislation for its impact on the City of Milwaukee and respond below by email ('Reply to All') as soon as possible.

Please include the following information:


Is this germane to the City of Milwaukee?  Yes.


Recommended position:  Oppose, as drafted.


Specific reason for this position:  Permitting towns to substitute Internet posting for one of their three obligatory posting locations is a good one and should be extended to cities and villages.  Requiring that minutes of all "governmental bodies" be posted to the internet would create a significant, unfunded burden on various agencies of the City of Milwaukee.  While all the agendas and minutes of the Common Council, its standing committees, and a handful of other bodies staffed by the office of the Common Council - City Clerk are already out on the web, there are dozens of other, smaller bodies that do not do so at present.  The largest group of these are the Business Improvement Districts (BIDs) (of which there are now over three dozen), none of whom do this at present or necessarily have the capacity to do so.  There are also internal bodies, created for particular purposes by public officials including the Mayor, which meet for short periods of time.  They often struggle to meet the minimum requirements of posting notice, much less preparing and posting minutes to the Internet.

In smaller municipalities throughout the state, the office of the City Clerk is a "clearinghouse" of sorts for handling such matters.  Often, the Clerk's office provides staff to these bodies.  This is not the case in the City of Milwaukee and there is no requirement at present that any of the bodies to which I refer provide the office of the Clerk their minutes.  As a result, there is no present way for it to undertake this responsibility on behalf of these other agencies.


Estimated fiscal cost or revenue:  Uncertain, but it would vary depending on the method of complying with this bill chosen by the Common Council.  It probably would not require the hiring of new staff, but it would certainly impose a substantial new burden on existing staff, both within and without City government.  Many BID boards, for example, are staffed by private sector individuals.


The information you provide will be helpful to the Judiciary and Legislation Committee in formulating the City's position.

Thank you.