DOT, Justice Department settle records request
Source: Associated Press (WI), Thursday, January 25, 2007
The state Department of Transportation has agreed to pay a $500 forfeiture as part of a settlement for not complying with an open records request for a report comparing the cost of using state workers and contractors. The department agreed to plead guilty to allegations it “arbitrarily and capriciously” denied or delayed its response to a request for the report under the deal with the state Justice Department filed Wednesday. …… Former Attorney General Peg Lautenschlager, a Democrat, sued the department and its secretary, Frank Busalacchi, in June of last year. She alleged agency employees had completed the report (.pdf) in April 2004 and that Tim Hanley, then the president of the State Engineering Association, filed a request for the report in August 2004. But the agency refused to turn it over to the association, a union representing state engineers, until November 2004.