September 19, 2004
District Attorney of Sauk County
Patricia A. Barrett
Sauk County Courthouse
barrett.patricia@mail.da.state.wi.us
Phone: 608.355.3280
FAX: 608.355.3282
Honorable District Attorney,
Pursuant to Wisconsin Statute 19.37 (1)(b) I hereby request that you bring an action for mandamus to ask the court to order the release of public records that I have requested from Tim Stieve, Sauk County Emergency Management, Buildings & Safety Administrator. The documents requested and not released directly relate to the current controversial actions of the Sauk County Communication Infrastructure Committee (CIC) which Mr. Stieve is a direct participant and has custody of the requested public records. As will be explained, due to the direct actions of the CIC and Mr. Stieve, the fact that the requested records were not released will be shown to be in direct violation of the Declaration of Policy of the Public Records and Property statute 19.31 which states that "a representative government is dependent upon an informed electorate...all persons are entitled to the greatest possible information regarding the affairs of government and the official acts of those officers and employees who represent them".
Exhibit A provides some background on why I decided to request the release of public documents from Mr. Stieve, "Just over three weeks ago, on August 20, 2004, I received an email from a neighbor who lives on Jones Road in Spring Green. This email informed me that Sauk County had approached another resident about acquiring a parcel of their land at Jones Road and Thuli Road to build a 250 foot communications tower for use by Sauk County employees. This was the first that anyone in Spring Green had heard about this tower. The editor of the Spring Green Home News had never published a story about this tower. I joined with my neighbors to try to find out more about this tower."
Exhibit B contains a series of written requests for computer data copies of information about the CIC tower project including: August 20 - Email from requester to William Wenzel and Tim Stieve, "I am putting together a web site to organize the residents of Spring Green to change the location of the communication tower in our community. We are not in favor of this tower being seen from the river as it conflicts with the two-decade old goals of the Riverway Board project to restore and preserve our natural environment. I have searched the Sauk County web site for information on this project. All I have found are the minutes of the Communication Infrastructure Committee which have little information. Can you provide me with links to any documents that describe the project itself? I am sure that a project this large must have many documents describing the purpose, financing, engineering etc. Hopefully these documents are or will be made available on the county web site so the public can be more informed about this project that will have such a negative impact on our community. If none of these documents are available online, perhaps copies can be sent to me and I will make them available on our group's web site. Thank you. "
Since I am a software engineer specializing in Internet web development, my role with the group of neighbors who were concerned about the CIC tower proposal in Spring Green was to establish a web site to facilitate communication of information the community. Therefore, I was specifically requesting computer data files. According to Wisconsin Statute 19.36(4) Computer Programs and Data "...the material used as input for a computer program or the material produced as a product of the computer is subject to the right of examination and copying...". So my request for computer files to be emailed to me as attachments was a valid request.
In the August 29 email (Exhibit B) from Mr. Wenzel stated, "Let me know if you are having any trouble getting the documents you need from Tim Stieve or his office." On August 30 I sent a written email request to Mr. Stieve stating "When I say 'documents' I am hoping that they already exist as files. If there are only paper documents that contain information that I request, I guess we can make separate arrangements on how to obtain paper copies of those. I assume that attaching a file to an email would be the easiest way for you to send files to me. If there are links to any documents about the project already available on the web then please let me know where they are so that I will not have to bother asking you to send me any of those. So that we understand each other, I am not asking you to create any documents, I am only interested in documents that already exist."
On August 31 Mr. Stieve replied in an email, "If you could give me some dates and times that you could meet with me here at the office, I will arrange to have all the documents related to this project available and you can review those and determine what you would like to have copies of. Cost of copies are .25 per page." This response by Mr. Stieve arbitrarily proposed introducing a delay to granting my request which is a violation of 19.35 (4)(a) which states "Each authority, upon request for any record, shall, as soon as practicable and without delay, either fill the request or notify the requester of the authority's determination to deny the request in whole or in part and the reason's therefor". Also, Mr. Stieve's request that I travel to Baraboo to obtain computer files is also an arbitrary and capricious delay. As will be shown, Mr. Stieve has never filled my request or denied my request, he continues to delay filling my request. In addition, 19.35 (3)(a) states " An authority may impose a fee upon the requester of a copy of a record which may not exceed the actual, necessary and direct cost of reproduction and transcription of the record". Mr. Steive's attempt to charge $.25 per printed page of computer files is a direct violation of the 19.35(3)(a). There is no cost in reproducing a computer file. There is no cost in sending an email with attached files. 19.35(3)(b) states, "...an authority may impose a fee upon a requester for locating a record, not exceeding the actual, necessary and direct cost of location, if the cost is $50 or more." The documents requested were computer files that were under the direct supervision of Mr. Stieve relating to his duties as Administrator and duties with the CIC. Therefore, the request would not reasonably imply any extended amount of effort to locate the documents.
On August 31 (Exhibit B) I replied to Mr. Stieve, "Are you saying that all documents are on paper only?" because I had explicitly asked for computer files and not paper documents. On September 1 Mr. Stieve replied, "Mark, I am working with our MIS department to post these documents to the web site." Again, this response indicates that Mr. Stieve did not deny my request and did not fill my request, instead he continued to delay filling my request. To this day he has never responded to my original request for computer file copies nor has he informed me of any of the requested documents being posted on the county web site.
I intend to further demonstrate that the actions by Mr. Stieve constitute a deliberate attempt to delay response to my request and to charge excessive fees as part of official duties regarding the Spring Green tower project that is the subject of public concern in Spring Green. The CIC committee has proposed purchasing a parcel of land near Thuli and Jones Road for the purpose of erecting a 250 foot tower with flashing and beacon lights. This tower is near the banks of the Wisconsin River which is protected by the Lower Wisconsin State Riverway Act. The tower and its lights would be clearly visible from the river, which is a violation of the intent of the Riverway protection act which limits structures visible from the river. Exhibit C is a letter from the executive director of the LWSRB to the William Wenzel that states in part, "The LWSRB finds that the proposed construction of a 250-foot tower (with strobe light and red beacon light) at the Thuli Road site would have an adverse impact on the scenic beauty and natural character of the Riverway. The LWSRB recommends that alternatives to the Thuli Road site be considered."
The CIC committee met at the Spring Green Fire Department on September 1, 2004. At this meeting a dozen or so residents expressed concern for the tower and its impact on the river and the community. Mr. Stieve gave a slide presentation in which he argued that the tower could not be located anywhere other than the proposed Thuli Road location. Exhibit E is a copy of the notes taken by myself as I attended the meeting. As part of this presentation Mr. Stieve stated that the picture on the Move The Tower web site maintained by myself inaccurately depicted the appearance of the tower. He displayed this photo, Exhibit F, with a projector to the people at the meeting. He then stated that Phil Raab (county Communications Technician), a member of the "dive team", an employee of Ramaker & Associates, and Mr. Stieve spent three hours on the river taking pictures in order to show that our web site picture was "inaccurate". Mr. Stieve showed his picture (Exhibit G) with a tower drawn in by the Ramaker consultant at a cost of $600.
That night after the CIC meeting on September 1 at 10:09 PM I sent an email (Exhibit H) to Tim Stieve stating, "I would very much like it if you would send me the picture you showed at the meeting today." Early the very next morning at 7:07 AM Mr. Stieve replied, "I have attached both the actual photo at the regular distance and the photo that is zoomed in." His email had the photo I requested attached to his email. I believe this clearly demonstrates that Mr. Stieve was deliberately and immediately filling requests for documents that supported his position in regards to the Spring Green tower project while deliberately delaying all other requests for information that might have value to citizens who were opposed to his position.
There is more evidence that Mr. Stieve is engaged in a pattern of behavior to delay release of information that might benefit a public response to his actions related to the CIC. On September 8 the trustees of the Village of Spring Green unanimously signed and sent a letter (Exhibit I) to the CIC stating, "We, the Trustees of the Village of Trustees of the Village of Spring Green, express our willingness to work with the Sauk County Emergency Management Agency, the Sauk County Board of Supervisors, the Sauk County Communications Infrastructure Committee,...Lower Wisconsin State Riverway Board, and local citizens to achieve improved emergency communications...without losing sight of the importance of the maintaining the scenic protections outlined in the Lower Wisconsin State Riverway Law."
On September 14, Mark Cupp of the LWSRB responded affirmatively (Exhibit J) to the request to meet with the CIC to discuss a new location for the tower. On September 15, the CIC, which normally meets the first Wednesday of each month, posted a public notice and agenda (Exhibit K) for a scheduled Special Meeting of the CIC which included on their agenda the authorizing of the purchase of the Thuli Road tower site. The CIC did not respond to the Village of Spring Green's letter asking for a meeting to discuss the issue.
I again point to 19.31 Declaration of policy "a representative government is dependent upon an informed electorate...all persons are entitled to the greatest possible information regarding the affairs of government and the official acts of those officers and employees who represent them...The denial of public access generally considered contrary to the public interest...". I believe these actions and others demonstrate wanton acts and omissions, and wanton misconduct by Mr. Stieve and represents an egregious attempt to prevent the public from obtaining necessary information to present an informed alternative point of view to his official position regarding the Spring Green tower location controversy.
Article 1 Declaration of Rights of the Wisconsin State Constitution states, "All people are born equally free and independent, and have certain inherent rights; among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness; to secure these rights, governments are instituted, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed." The consent of the governed cannot be obtained when the public is not allowed to be informed. I hope you will take this complaint seriously and act in a timely manner to bring an action for mandamus in court. I believe it is warranted to also seek the punitive damages as allowed in 19.37(3) "If the court finds that an authority or legal custodian under s 19.33 has arbitrarily and capriciously denied or delayed response to a request or charged excessive fees, the court may award punitive damages to the requester."
As these actions by Mr. Stieve have interfered with the public's ability to represent their views in this matter and that in conjunctions with the actions of the CIC to ignore requests by other governing bodies to discuss this matter, and the CIC's attempt to make decisive moves such as purchasing land for the tower without having any formal meetings to discuss the issue, I ask you as part of your court action to immediately request a court injunction to prevent the September 21 CIC Special Meeting from acting on the Spring Green land purchase until this matter is resolved.
I also will be filing a complaint with the Sauk County Corporation Counsel alleging a violation by Mr. Stieve of Chapter 36 Sauk County Code of Ethics.
I believe I have more information to support a further investigation of acts of misconduct and obstruction regarding this issue and will make myself available to present this to you at your convenience. Thanks you.
Respectfully,
Mark Culverhouse
E7488 Troy Village Road
Spring Green WI 53588
608 588-3956
Mark.Culverhouse@Highway60.com
Exhibits (with Internet URLs of copies):
