Attorney General Advises Elections Board To Keep Ongoing Investigations Private

Wisconsin Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen said the state’s elections board should keep information about any ongoing investigations private, including from auditors conducting a thorough review of the agency.

Van Hollen released the opinion at the request of Government Accountability Board Director Kevin Kennedy, who said he wanted clear guidance on how to proceed with an ongoing comprehensive audit that was approved by lawmakers last year as part of the state budget.

Kennedy said that when state lawmakers created the Government Accountability Board in 2007, they made a conscious decision to keep information about ongoing investigations secret.

“That was the direction they had and they backed it up by saying that if there’s a violation of that by the board or the staff, they’re subject to criminal penalties,” said Kennedy.

Back in 2007, Kennedy actually advised the Legislature to make the Government Accountability Board more open to the public. He said he’d have no problem with the Legislature changing the way the board operates now.

“If the Legislature wants to change that, we’d be happy to cooperate with that, but we have been zealous in making sure that we follow what the Legislature told us to do as far as not releasing that information inappropriately,” Kennedy said.

It’s hard to say whether lawmakers would take that step given that the audit is not yet complete and the Legislature is out of session. Nevertheless, members of both parties expressed some shock at the attorney general’s opinion.

Sen. Mary Lazich (R-New Berlin), who pushed for the audit of the Government Accountability Board, said Van Hollen’s opinion suggested the board was “unaccountable” to the people. Assembly Minority Leader Peter Barca said he was deeply troubled by the opinion and that he’d work with lawmakers from both parties to give the Legislative Audit Bureau access to all state records.