who is also a full-time Lieutenant for the City of Waterford Police Department, violated the Wisconsin Open Records Law by not providing records to his personal (John.1968Nelson@gmail.com) email account and the (jnelson@waterfordpd.com) email account. The Mayor denied having records as part of a request from Franklin Community News (FCN) when in fact he knowingly had the records.As Franklin Community News reported on March 27, 2024, formal allegations have been made against Franklin Mayor John Nelson that he worked in a conspiracy with Steve Taylor, County Supervisor/ROC Foundation Executive Director, and Mike Zimmerman, CEO of ROC Ventures to silence the 1st Amendment Rights along with conspiracy to interfere with the employment of a Franklin Resident and Publisher of FCN News, Dr. Richard Busalacchi.
Busalacchi has tried unsuccessfully multiple times to file formal charges of harassment and stalking against these individuals with the Franklin Police Department and Greendale Police Department and request an investigation. It was indicated by Franklin PD that they would not investigate, orders from the Chief and Greendale would not investigate as it was not in their jurisdiction.
Busalacchi has claimed the following against John Nelson as part of an
investigation by the City of Franklins Insurance Carrier:
Participated in a conspiracy with Steve Taylor and Mike Zimmerman to silence his 1st Amendment Rights.
Participated in a conspiracy with Steve Taylor and Mike Zimmerman to interfere with his employment.
Provided false information to a Franklin Police Officer to weaponize the police department against Busalacchi.
Participated in a conspiracy with Taylor, Zimmerman, Supervisor Kathleen Vincent/School Board member for the Village of Greendale, and to harass Busalacchi under the WI Statute 947.013
Worked in a conspiracy to stalk Busalacchi with Taylor, Zimerman, and Vincent, under the WI Statute 940.32
On behalf of Franklin Community News (FCN), Busalacchi sent an open records request to the City of Franklin, City Clerk on March 5, 2024, requesting the following open records:
I am requesting the following open records from April 2023 to March 1, 2024 from both Ms. Hersh and Mr. Nelson's personal email accounts.Any emails containing or Taylor, or Zimmerman or Busalacchi or MATC or Milwaukee Area Technical College.
On March 14, 2024, at 2:33pm the City Clerk sent an email with an attachment to FCN. The attachment was an email from Kelly Hersh indicating that if there were any emails Jim (IT Director) would find them in the query.
Just about an hour later the same day at 3:07pm John Nelson sends an email indicating that:
City domain only, I have no other communication.
Thank you,John
At 3:13pm Busalacchi sent the following response to Nelson:
Not true sir. I’m in possession of emails to your Gmail account that meet my request. Would you like to check one more time. Personal email accounts are subject to open records under ss 19.31.
RegardsRich
At 3:13 the Franklin City Clerk sent the following to Busalacchi:
Mr. Busalacchi, I will forward you email to Mrs. Hersh and Mayor Nelson again.
What Nelson was unaware of was that Franklin Community News already had a previous open records request that was provided which included two emails, one from his personal email account and another from his public work email, that met the requested criteria:
Email 1 - Director of Administration Hersh replying to an October 6, 2023 email of Michelle Eichmann and she Cc: John.1968Nelson@gmail.com which is Nelson's personnel email account. The email contained the search criteria "Steve Taylor" and "Mike Zimmerman".
Email 2 - On December 28, 2023, John Nelson replied to Mike Zimmerman and Cc: jnelson@waterfordpd.com his public employment email. This email contained the search criteria "Mike Zimmerman".
In both cases, Nelson lied and had in his personal email and public work email, responsive records that were requested by FCN that he did not provide per the state's open records law.
In a discussion with the Franklin City Clerk, the city can do a search for requested records that are on the Franklin.gov domain. If the records are requested from personal email accounts or text messages from personal phone accounts, the city makes the request to the specific individual and it is reliant upon the government official complying with the law and returning the responsive records to the City Clerk.
Wisconsin State Statue 19.31 which governs WI Open Records Law states:
In recognition of the fact that a representative government is dependent upon an informed electorate, it is declared to be the public policy of this state that all persons are entitled to the greatest possible information regarding the affairs of government and the official acts of those officers and employees who represent them. Further, providing persons with such information is declared to be an essential function of a representative government and an integral part of the routine duties of officers and employees whose responsibility it is to provide such information. To that end, ss. 19.32 to 19.37 shall be construed in every instance with a presumption of complete public access, consistent with the conduct of governmental business. The denial of public access generally is contrary to the public interest, and only in an exceptional case may access be denied.
Wisconsin State Statue 19.32(2) Defines a "Record" as:
The 2019 Wisconsin Public Records Law Compliance Guide (Page 3) indicates:
Email sent or received on an authority’s computer system is a record.
This includes personal email sent by officers or employees of the authority.
Email conducting government business sent or received on the personal email account of an authority’s officer or employee also constitutes a record.
Wisconsin State Statue(s) 19.37 (3)(4) Defines "Enforcement" and "Penalties" as:
Franklin Community News has been made aware that the Mayor has now requested the City Clerk to inform him of all open record requests. State statutes do not give the Mayor any authority or jurisdiction over open records. The State statutes specifically indicate that the City Clerk is the custodian of all records. It appears the Mayor is continuing to try to influence 1st Amendment Rights and the State Open Records Law.
Franklin Community News has submitted the following open record requests as a result of the dishonesty of John Nelson.
To the City of Franklin:
Any email to or from the following accounts from April 2023 to March 26, 2024. The City Clerk has indicated there are roughly 40,000 emails. FCN suggests that the City provide them free, as this will be the largest open records request ever fulfilled (according to the City Clerk), in exchange for Nelson lying about not having emails to his personnel accounts.
John Nelson Email Accounts
concernedcitizensofmke@proton.
stevetaylor4franklin@yahoo.com
steve.taylor@countryfinancial.
To the Village of Waterford Police Department:
kathleen.vincent@milwaukeecountywi.gov
Supervisor Steve Taylor Emails
Steve.Taylor@milwaukeecountywi.gov
concernedcitizensofmke@proton.me
stevetaylor4franklin@yahoo.com
steve.taylor@countryfinancial.com
Mayor John Nelson's Emails
jnelson@franklinwi.gov
ljterrell@msn.com
Grant Johnson Emails
dgrantw.johnson12@earthlink.net
grant.johnson@johnsondirect.com
EDITORIAL
Elections have consequences. As a result of conveying to the community the corruption and dirty politics of Franklin, the individuals have decided to go personally after me and my family over many months to silence me and make me go away instead of speaking out on the truth that Franklin residents have a right and deserve to know.
When you cast your vote on April 2, 2024, PLEASE remember to vote for individuals not only on what they say, but their actions, and who they choose to associate with. You are STRONGLY encouraged to vote for KAT FISH WRITE IN Milwaukee County Supervisor 17th District, Patti Logsdon for Milwaukee County Supervisor and John Brennen for Municipal Judge. They ARE NOT part of the Circle of Corruption where Franklin is bought and paid for by Nelson, Taylor, and Zimmerman.
FOR THE GREATER GOOD
OF
FRANKLIN AND OUR COMMUNITIES
PLEASE MAKE YOUR VOTE COUNT ON APRIL 2.
Let's end the corruption and dirty strong-arm politics!
