The state Court of Appeals ruled Thursday that the Wisconsin Counties Association is not an “authority” subject to the state’s open records law.
The decision affirms a Dane County circuit judge’s decision to dismiss a lawsuit by the Wisconsin Professional Police Association to obtain records from the WCA.
The plaintiff is a non-profit labor organization for law enforcment officers. The WCA is also an unicorporated non-profit association.
If the Wisconsin Professional Police Association prevails, the lawsuit would make available a whole set of records that have never been seen by the public. The police union is seeking audits, financial records and a host of other data from the counties association.
The union sought WCA audits, financial records and other data as part of its fight againsst counties’ efforts to reclassify their jailers as general employees rather than protective service employees – a move that has the effect of greatly limiting their collective bargaining powers.
The WPPA argued that the WCA fit the definition of “authority” under state law as a “quasi-governmental corporation.” It said the circuit court read the statute too narrowly when it decided the WCA could not fit the definition because it is not incorporated.
In its short opinion by Judge JoAnne Kloppenburg, the District IV court finds simple grounding for its decision.
“In sum, the Police Association does not persuade us that its dictionary definition of ‘corporation’ or the Beaver Dam court’s application of the totality of circumstances test to a corporation, help it overcome the fact that in this case the Counties Association is not a corporation under Wisconsin law.”
In the Beaver Dam case, the Wisconsin Supreme Court found that the Beaver Dam Area Development Corporation was subject to the open records law.