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Archive of Hanewall articles

Village blocks inspection of  Hanewall firm's proposal

SHOREWOOD. Wis. (July 14, 2006) -- An assistant to Village Manager Chris Swartz blocked inspection of six proposals to study Shorewood's aging police and public works buildings although they had been requested under the state public records act, were gathered as a response to the request to inspect them and fall under the statute's authority. The documents included the repudiated, overpriced proposal by Engberg Anderson, the firm that employs Trustee Jeff Hanewall-Pepper. To read some of the email Hanewall-Pepper writes from work that has nothing to do with his employment, click here.

Preliminary research suggests that village board ignored resumes, backgrounds of applicants before overwhelming appointing the least qualified candidate to fill Guy Johnson's unexpired term

Poll: What is the likelihood?

Is it more likely that Jeff Hanewall intentionally violated the state public records law, or that less than two dozen Moslems took cell-phone orders from a sickly Saudi in a cave in Afghanistan and evaded the most sophisticated military machine ever?
It is more likely Hanewall intentionally broke the law
 It is more likely that the cave men are more sophisticated than the US military

 

Hanewall, Hickey ignore request for Anderson selection records

    SHOREWOOD, Wis. (July 14, 2006) -- Shorewood trustees Jeff Hanewall and Margaret W. Hickey are well past the statutory deadline for responding to requests to inspect their records relating to how Dawn Anderson, a woman with fewer skills than connections, was handed the village board seat that opened when Guy Johnson ascended to village president. By law, public officials must respond to requests. Village Manager Chris Swartz has been acting as front man for the scofflaws, attempting to buffer them from the law by maintaining that he is gathering the materials to "facilitate" production.
    Essentially all information in the hands of the agencies and officers is subject to inspection. Section 19.21 of the Open Records law describes the reach of a public official's custody of public records as follows:

Each and every officer of the state, or of any . . . municipality or district, is the legal custodian of and shall safely keep and preserve all property and things . . . which are in the lawful possession or control of the officer . . . or to the possession or control of which the officer . . . may be lawfully entitled, as such officer[].

    Wis. Stat. § 19.21(1). An officer's custody of records is not limited to records the officer is required by law to maintain, but extends to all records the officer actually maintains in his official capacity. Hathaway v. Green Bay Joint School District No. 1, 116 Wis. 2d 388, 393-94, 342 N.W.2d 682, 685 (1984). The records subject to inspection and copying under the law are defined as follows:

"Record" means any material on which written, drawn, printed, spoken, visual or electromagnetic information is recorded or preserved, . . . , which has been created or is being kept by an authority.

Despite agreeing to set up a server so all communication could be monitored,

Hanewall reverts to private channels
to conduct Shorewood's public business

Hanewall is biggest abuser, using his employer's email for official design, library and village board correspondence

Download Hanewall's emails that haven't been destroyed yet

Black eye for Engberg Anderson

Despite Ellen Eckman's awkward, loyal attempt to spend more than necessary . . .

Board Monday nixes hapless Hanewall's costly firm as consultant

Hapless Judge hubby Hanewall admits role in putting employer's unsuccessful, costly bid before village officials, but he then votes for Engberg Anderson firm's competitor

No sooner does the attorney general blast officials who destroy records than  

Hanewall refuses to turn over records
from village, library or design boards

    "Attorney General Peg Lautenschlager said that allowing lawmakers to destroy records could hamper future investigations. She called the exemption from the records retention law a "tragic" example of lawmakers setting loose standards for themselves.
    "It seems essential that as there is increased special-interest access to government . . . the requirements of openness, particularly of records, be universal," said Lautenschlager, a Democrat." More from the Journal Sentinel

We ask for AG's opinion whether the open records laws apply

Trustee claims village archived correspondence he sent, received at work

By GEOFF DAVIDIAN
Editor, JeffHanewall.com

SHOREWOOD, Wis. (May 12, 2006) Trustee Jeff Hanewall uses his work email for official correspondence, but refuses to turn over copies of the public records. Hanewall claimed in an email message all correspondence is on village servers.

But under Hanewall's stewardship, the Library Board refused to archive email until last year, despite a law suit settlement obliging the village to retain copies of all correspondence. A request to Village Manager Chris Swartz seeks clarification from the village attorney and attorney general's public integrity section whether state law applies to Mr. Hanewall, who lied to voters to trick them into electing him as an independent candidate.