MADISON – Journalists and members of the public face a new open meetings hurdle this year as some local government bodies decline to follow the statewide mask mandate during their meetings, the Wisconsin State Journal reported this week. Residents are risking their health just to see what their government officials are up to — a burden one expert said likely violates the state’s open meetings law.
Village boards in Gays Mills, Ontario, Soldiers Grove and Wilton are among those cited in the State Journal report as not following the mandate. According to the story, neither the League of Wisconsin Municipalities nor the Wisconsin Towns Association has issued advice to its members on the “legal gray area” of how to apply the state’s open meetings law to the issue of masks.
Wisconsin Freedom of Information Council President Bill Lueders told the newspaper that government bodies holding meetings that do not adhere to the mask mandate or provide an alternative to in-person attendance were “absolutely breaking the open meetings law.” He added that no person should have to risk their health to attend.
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Karen Parker, a reporter for the (Ontario) County Line, told the State Journal she and board member Jamie DeWitt contracted COVID-19 a week after a Sept. 14 village board meeting at which Parker was one of only two people wearing a mask. Parker was later hospitalized for four days due to the virus.
Charley Preusser, editor of the Crawford County Independent & The Kickapoo Scout in Gays Mills, reported in October that he asked the village board to require people at meetings to wear masks. Preusser’s request was rejected by Gays Mills Village President Harry Heisz, citing a Crawford County Sheriff’s Department indication that it would not enforce the statewide mask mandate.
Paul Ferguson, head of the Department of Justice’s Office of Open Government, told the State Journal he was not aware of any complaints from the public or journalists about a lack of masks impeding access to public meetings.
