Town of Waukesha sinks into secrecy [View all]

[hue]

http://www.jsonline.com/news/waukesha/town-of-waukesha-sinks-into-secrecy-1g4i6bu-143278786.html

Town of Waukesha - In a community where voter dissatisfaction swept out the old guard in a 2010 recall election, the new Waukesha Town Board has been governing this town of 9,000 with a large measure of secrecy.

In December, the board conducted 26 hours of meetings behind closed doors, away from the public eye. It met for 50 minutes in public on its usual meeting night.

In January, there were nearly 30 hours of closed-door meetings but just a single publicly attended, two-hour informational meeting on contesting an attempt by the Town of Brookfield to incorporate as a village, swallowing up some Town of Waukesha territory.

In February, 10 hours of closed meetings stacked up against 98 minutes open to the public.

Many of the closed-door meetings - 28 in 2011 and already 13 in the first 11 weeks of 2012 - have focused on multiple lawsuits tended by several $150- to $415-per-hour attorneys. Their fees boosted last year's legal bills to about $190,000, more than twice the budget and three times the $64,500 spent in 2010.