Wisconsin: Release the emails from the John Doe investigation
http://www.jsonline.com/news/opinion/release-the-emails-from-the-john-doe-investigation-2294lov-197665821.html
The people who set up a secret email system in Scott Walker's Milwaukee County executive office are getting away with at least one of their goals. Because of a secrecy order covering the material in the John Doe investigation of some of Walker's aides, the public still doesn't know what was in hundreds and perhaps thousands of emails exchanged by government workers doing the public's business.
The secret emails relate to public issues such as the O'Donnell Park parking structure tragedy, patient abuse incidents at the county's Mental Health Complex, a contract involving the Reuss Federal Plaza and Operation Freedom, an annual event to honor veterans and their families. The public deserves to know what is in the emails, and if it weren't for the fact that the John Doe probe was a secret investigation, the public probably would know by now.
Walker and Milwaukee County District Attorney John Chisholm have spoken in the past of their support for open and transparent government. So have other officials. Here's a chance to show that support: Ask that those emails be released. It's a simple thing: They involved county business, and so they belong to the public.
One of the findings of the nearly three-year John Doe investigation - which resulted in charges against six individuals - was that key members of Walker's 2010 gubernatorial campaign heavily influenced members of Walker's county staff. Five members of the so-called Campaign Group spoke by phone every day at 8 a.m. to keep the county executive's office in sync with the image the campaign was pushing as Walker ran against Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett.
I'm shocked the Urinal/Sentinel allowed this opinion to be published.