PD Statement re: Wisconsin State Journal article
Wisconsin State Journal article:
City Council members warned about illegal meetings
Our full statement:
As a local, independent political party devoted to improving our local government by making it open, easier to understand, and accessible for all residents of Dane County, Progressive Dane understands the importance of Open Meetings Laws and rigorously follows them. In fact, our platforms--on city, county, and school board issues--each include points on open and democratic government.
In his recent memo, it is unclear if Attorney May is referring to Progressive Dane. It’s well known that members of Progressive Dane have been meeting with local elected officials prior to city and county meetings for over 20 years. These meetings allow our members to share their knowledge and perspectives, develop policy proposals, and discuss issues important to our communities.
We are very careful to not discuss meeting agenda items where a super-majority vote is required, or where there is a negative quorum of any committees that will be taking up the matter. Elected officials leave the meeting, if there is a possibility of a negative quorum for any matter discussed.
For years, we have not been able to meet with more than one of our school board members because of negative quorum issues with a small elected body. We are planning a school board forum to discuss Progressive Dane’s education platform. That meeting will be publicly noticed, in accordance with Open Meetings Laws.
We appreciate that there is new attention to transparency and accountability in local government. We hope this signifies a shift in attention to clean government issues that we have been raising for years, including separation of powers, open meetings, open records, public input and accessibility, unequal access to the political process, ethics, and lobbyist registration and reporting.
Progressive Dane Steering Committee Members
Diane Farsetta
Martha Kemble
Brenda Konkel
Annie Kraus
Heidi Mayree Wegleitner