Waterford PD Produces Open Records Proving Nelson was Not Truthful and uses Waterford PD email for Franklin Business

After indicating no such records exist, the Town of Waterford Police Department released 94 responsive open records pertaining to Franklin Mayor, John Nelson, who is also a Full-time Lieutenant for the Waterford Police Department.

What information do the responsive records provided by the Waterford Police Department illustrate:

1. Mayor Nelson of Franklin is using his Waterford Police Government email address for Franklin Public Business.
2. Mayor Nelson is Cc: many of his Franklin emails to the Waterford Police Government email.
3. Mayor Nelson and his Mayoral election campaign committee of County Supervisor Steve Taylor, Mike Zimmerman Rock CEO, and former Franklin Alderwoman Kristin Wilhelm appeared to be completing final edits on Nelson's campaign literature, and Nelson cc: email to his Waterfordpd email account.
4. It appeared that on more than one occasion Alderwoman Eichmann would send Franklin business to the mayor's Waterford Police email.
5. Many of the emails contained Nelson's personal email address john.1968Nelson@gmail.com, proving that the Mayor indeed had emails to his personal email address and was untruthful in his response that he did not.
6. Franklin Director of Administration Kelly Hersh appeared to use Nelson Waterford's email address on multiple occasions to conduct City of Franklin Business.
7. Nelson was corresponding with the Milwaukee County Republican Party as candidate Nelson as part of his election campaign using his Waterfordpd email.

One would question if the use of another government account, separate from the Franklin.gov email account is an appropriate use of a government (non-Franklin) email account.

FCN previously reported on April 3, 2024, that Neilson 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 and was untruthful in his response.  FCN had the records in its possession from a different request, the same records the Mayor denied having in his personal accounts in his official response.

Franklin Community News (FCN), 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.

Regards

Rich

At 3:13 the Franklin City Clerk sent the following to Busalacchi:

Mr. Busalacchi, I will forward your 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".

A records request was sent to the Town of Waterford Police Department that specifically requested any emails to or from jnelson@waterfordpd.com from February 1, 2023, until March 18, 2024, that contain any of the following, Busalacchi, Taylor, Zimmerman, ROC, ROC Ventures, ROC Foundation, Franklin, MATC, Milwaukee Area Technical College. The request was sent to Lieutenant William Jeschke to be completed. 

On April 4, 2024, FCN received an email from Acting Chief Lieutenant Jeschke indicating “no record of any of these requested items was located”.

FNC replied “I would like to politely ask that the search for the responsive records be conducted again. I have two records in my possession that meet the criteria below and were sent to the waterfordpd.com email. If there are two records I am sure there are more. If you could conduct the search again it would be appreciated. If it would be helpful for me to come to the station, I would be more than happy to show you the records I have. I am seeking the requested records as soon as possible.”

FCN already had in its possession a record that met 6 of the search criteria presented for responsive records. So it's impossible that the search for responsive records was null. I called the Town of Waterford City Clerk and asked for her assistance to intervene which she agreed to do. The perception now is that since Nelson is a Lieutenant in the Waterford Police Department and so is the Acting Chief Jeschke, was Jeschke covering up for Nelson and purposefully denying access to open records under WI Statute 19.35 to cover for Nelson?

Jeschke indicated the search was conducted by their IT director.  It seems almost impossible that an IT professional would conduct a search for records and one record containing 6 of the criteria is not pulled up as part of the query.  We know for sure there are at least two records and are willing to bet there are many more responsive records at jnelson@waterfordpd.com.

Jeschke is a Lieutenant who is Acting Chief and Nelson is a Lieutenant.  Is it possible that Jeschke was covering for Nelson?

On April 18, 2024, Acting Chief, Lieutenant Jeschle sent the following:

"I apologize for the delay.  I have attached the lmessage I received from our IT email vendor.  As you can see, there was an issue with the search function or our email system, which has now been resolved and your request has now been fulfilled." 

• 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:

      “Record" means any material on which written, drawn, printed, spoken, visual, or electromagnetic information or electronically generated or stored data is recorded or preserved, regardless of physical form or characteristics, that has been created or is being kept by an authority. “Record" includes, but is not limited to, handwritten, typed, or printed pages, maps, charts, photographs, films, recordings, tapes, optical discs, and any other medium on which electronically generated or stored data is recorded or preserved. “Record" does not include drafts, notes, preliminary computations, and like materials prepared for the originator's personal use or prepared by the originator in the name of a person for whom the originator is working; materials that are purely the personal property of the custodian and have no relation to his or her office; materials to which access is limited by copyright, patent, or bequest; and published materials in the possession of an authority other than a public library that are available for sale, or that are available for inspection at a public library.

  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:

  (3)  Punitive damages. If a court finds that an authority or legal custodian under s. 19.33 has arbitrarily and capriciously denied or delayed response to a request or charged excessive fees, the court may award punitive damages to the requester.
  (4)  Penalty. Any authority or legal custodian under s. 19.33 who arbitrarily and capriciously denies or delays response to a request or charges excessive fees may be required to forfeit not more than $1,000. Forfeitures under this section shall be enforced by action on behalf of the state by the attorney general or by the district attorney of any county where a violation occurs. In actions brought by the attorney general, the court shall award any forfeiture recovered together with reasonable costs to the state; and in actions brought by the district attorney, the court shall award any forfeiture recovered together with reasonable costs to the county.

Your City of Franklin Government is bought and paid for by Nelson, Taylor, and Zimmerman.