Wisconsin Ethics Commission Public Records Notice
The bipartisan Ethics Commission started operations on June 30, 2016, assuming responsibility for administering campaign finance, lobbying, and ethics laws in Wisconsin from the former Government Accountability Board. The mission of the Ethics Commission is to enhance representative democracy by furthering Wisconsin’s tradition of clean and open government through the administration of Wisconsin’s campaign finance, lobbying, and ethics laws, and through the dissemination of information to the public. All members of the Ethics Commission and the Commission Administrator are state public officials holding state public office.
The Ethics Commission has designated a Custodian of Public Records for the Commission in order to meet its obligations under state public records laws. Members of the public may obtain access to the Commission’s public records, or obtain copies of these records, by making a request of the Commission’s Custodian of Public Records during the Commission’s office hours of Monday through Friday, 7:45 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Such requests should be made to:
David Buerger
Staff Counsel
Wisconsin Ethics Commission
P.O. Box 7125
Madison, WI 53707-7125
The law permits the Commission to impose fees for certain "actual, necessary, and direct" costs associated with responding to public records requests. The Commission may bill requestors $0.15 for each photocopied page provided and $0.07 per page for physical content scanned and converted into an electronic format. The Commission may charge for staff time and other actual costs to copy records from one electronic format to another electronic format and/or physical media. If physical media is required, the Commission may charge $0.14 per CD or DVD to requesters. The actual cost of postage, courier, or delivery services may be charged. There will be an additional charge for specialized documents, and for retrieving records and files from the State Records Center. The cost of locating responsive records may be charged if it is $50.00 or more and will be calculated as hourly pay rate (including fringe benefits) of the person locating records (not to exceed $30 per hour) multiplied by actual time expended to locate records. No fee will be imposed for requests where the total amount due is less than $25.00. Requests which total $25.00 or more may require prepayment. Requesters appearing in person may be asked to make their own copies, or the Commission may make copies for requesters at its discretion. All requests will be processed as soon as practicable and without delay.