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How close can we get to meltdown GOSH,
there are so many records we can’t find although everything is archived,
library director says (in so many words) By GEOFF DAVIDIAN Editor, ShorewoodVillage.com SHOREWOOD, Wis. (July 3, 2005) – Library Director Beth Carey says she “cannot locate any records”
showing even one library trustee reviewed ShorewoodVillage.com articles or
other material presented for their inspection before the trustees voted to
uphold a denial of a Web link to this site. Responding to a June 22, 2005 demand to inspect
records under the state Public Records Act, Carey also reports she
“cannot locate any records” indicating whether she made arrangements for any
trustee to view the thousands of pages of documents left at the library under
rules established by the Library Board especially for the
ShorewoodVillage.com appeal of the denial of a Web link by the library. Carey also reports she
“cannot locate any records” that established a policy of safeguarding the
documents, which were to be the only method of providing trustees with
written material prior to their June 13 vote. Meanwhile, Carey is
passing her responses to requests for records through the village manager, Chris Swartz, rather than
responding directly. Records produced by
Swartz show library officials continued to subvert an agreement by the
village to use a Shorewood government email system, opting instead to use
private or business addresses. While Ms. Carey repeatedly acknowledged that
she was told by the former village manager, Ed Madere, that the village agreed
to archive all official email, board members – and the Library Board
president himself – continued to chat among themselves outside any official
system for a year. The village’s attorney
agreed to settle a public records case in April 2004, promising Shorewood
would stop destroying email and would archive all official correspondence, as
required by state law. But it was not until
April 2005 that Carey notified the village that library trustees were
requesting email accounts “similar
to the accounts for village trustees.” The previous
month, Carey wrote that a request to inspect the archive was too broad because
there were “thousands” of messages. She did not say that the library did not
archive ALL mail. See
the correspondence. In an April 1, 2005 letter to Village
Attorney Pollen, ShorewoodVillage.com demanded that the Village abide by
the terms of the 2004 settlement and for Pollen to make the archive, if it
exists, public. In the same letter it was pointed out the board of trustees
may dissolve the Library Board or unseat directors for failing to perform. In an April 6, 2005 response addressed
to Village Manager Chris Swartz, Pollen ignored the fact that the library
had failed to establish an email system for officials and that there was not
a complete archive. Instead, Pollen writes that the inquiry to inspect the
archive was “outside the scope of Wisconsin Law because” the archive from the
date of the agreement to establish an archive – a year earlier – was without “a
reasonable limitation as to subject matter or length of time.” That is,
Pollen used the state Public Records Act to explain why the Library should
not have to prove it had established an archive as required by a lawsuit
settlement. Behind the
scenes, Pollen, Swartz and the library director finally responded to the
evidence that they were violating the settlement agreement and Carey
formalized the transition by crafting the April 5 memorandum to the
village. Even so, in a huffy
sounding letter dated June 16, 2005, an arrogant Library Board President Jeff
Hanewall acknowledged he continues to destroy
correspondence he receives from ShorewoodVillage.com that is sent to his
business address or fax, apparently ignorant of or indifferent to records
showing he continued to correspond outside the established official system in
his official capacity after the government-hosted email system was set up in
April. On June 24, correspondence addressed
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