I am pasting the enforcement provision here but it is also down below Enforcement of the Wisconsin Open Meetings Law is the responsibility of the attorney general or the district attorney of any county in which a violation may occur.33 Penalties range from $25 to $300 for each violation, and actions taken during a meeting held in violation of the law may be voidable.34 A private party may enforce the law, but only after filing a complaint with the local district attorney and only if the district attorney declines to act after 20 days.35
Wisconsin News Reporters' Legal Handbook
4 - Issues of Access: Privilege, Open Records, Open Meetings, Rights of Privacy, and Defamation
The Journalist's Privilege
Journalists in Wisconsin enjoy a strong qualified privilege against testifying in both civil and criminal proceedings. This court-recognized privilege, based on the state and federal constitutions, applies to information gathered from both confidential and nonconfidential sources.
Source of the journalist's privilege. Wisconsin courts have found a journalist's privilege in both the Wisconsin Constitution and the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Specifically, state courts have read a qualified journalist's privilege into article I, section 3 of the Wisconsin Constitution: "no laws shall be passed to restrain or abridge the liberty of speech or of the press."1 Wisconsin courts also have relied on the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution as the source of the journalist's privilege.2
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Open Meetings
The Wisconsin open meetings law permits reporters to attend and report on all meetings of governmental bodies, unless a specific statutory exemption permits the government body to close the meeting to the public. Every meeting of a governmental body must be preceded by a public notice.
Scope of the open meetings law. The law applies only to meetings of governmental bodies. "Governmental body" includes any state or local agency, board, commission, committee, council, department, or public body corporate and politic created by constitution, statute, ordinance, rule, or order, a governmental or quasi-governmental corporation, or a formally constituted subunit of any of these.24 "Meeting" means the convening of members of a governmental body to exercise the responsibilities, authority, powers, or duties delegated to or vested in the body.25 If one-half or more of the members of a governmental body are present, the meeting is presumed to be for exercising the responsibilities, authority, power, or duties delegated to or vested in the body.26 The term "meeting," however, does not include any social or chance gathering or conference that is not intended to avoid the law.27 A telephone conference or email discussion among the relevant number of members may be a meeting subject to the open meetings law.
Enforcement of the Wisconsin Open Meetings Law is the responsibility of the attorney general or the district attorney of any county in which a violation may occur.
Unless there is a specific statutory provision to the contrary, a secret ballot may not be used to make any decisions or to determine any election, except the election of the officers of the public body.28 The motions and roll call votes of each meeting must be recorded, preserved, and open to public inspection consistent with the open records statute - even if the meeting at which the vote was taken was properly closed.29
A reporter may record, film, or photograph a meeting held in open session as long as it does not interfere with the conduct of the meeting or the rights of the participants.30
Procedure to close a meeting. A governmental body may close its meeting to the public only upon a motion made and passed in public by a majority vote of the body.31 In connection with that vote, the chief presiding officer must announce to those present the nature of the business to be considered in closed session and the specific exemption relied on for the closed session.32 Closed sessions may be held for any of the specific purposes listed in Wis. Stat. section 19.85:
1) to deliberate after any judicial or quasi-judicial trial or hearing;
2) to consider certain specified personnel matters;
3) to consider specific applications of probation or parole;
4) to consider a strategy for crime detection or prevention;
5) to deliberate or negotiate the purchase of public properties, the investing of public funds, or to conduct other specified public business whenever competitive or bargaining reasons require a closed session;
6) to deliberate unemployment insurance or worker's compensation;
7) to deliberate the location of a burial site if discussing the location in public would likely result in disturbance of the burial site;
8) to consider financial, medical, social, or personal histories or disciplinary data of specific persons which, if discussed in public, would be likely to have a substantial adverse effect upon the reputation of any such person;
9) to confer with legal counsel for a governmental body that is rendering oral or written advice concerning strategy with respect to litigation;
10) to consider requests for confidential written advice from the State Ethics Board or from any local government ethics board;
11) to consider any and all matters related to acts by businesses which, if discussed in public, could adversely affect the business, its employees, or former employees; and,
12) to consider financial information relating to the support of certain nonprofit corporations.
Enforcement. Enforcement of the Wisconsin Open Meetings Law is the responsibility of the attorney general or the district attorney of any county in which a violation may occur.33 Penalties range from $25 to $300 for each violation, and actions taken during a meeting held in violation of the law may be voidable.34 A private party may enforce the law, but only after filing a complaint with the local district attorney and only if the district attorney declines to act after 20 days.35
Access to Courtrooms
The public has a right to attend court proceedings in Wisconsin. The presumption of openness includes access for reporters and their cameras in the courtroom. Access to juvenile court proceedings and records, however, is limited.
Access to courtrooms. The public's right to attend court proceedings in Wisconsin is protected by the state and federal constitutions and a Wisconsin statute. Wis. Stat. section 757.14 states:
"The sittings of every court shall be public and every citizen may freely attend the same, except if otherwise expressly provided by law on the examination of persons charged with crime; provided, that when in any court a cause of a scandalous or obscene nature is on trial the presiding judge or justice may exclude from the room where the court is sitting all minors not necessarily present as parties or witnesses."
A court may exercise its discretion to close a proceeding in only the rarest of circumstances, and its decision must be based on compelling reasons.36 The court must conclude that failure to close the hearing would jeopardize the very nature of the proceeding and that "the quest for justice will be better served by secrecy than by public disclosure."37 Moreover, the court must hold a public hearing and state its reasons before it can close a court proceeding.
Cameras in the courtroom. Chapter 61 of the Wisconsin Supreme Court Rules governs the use of still and video photography in Wisconsin courtrooms. (Please see the discussion in Chapter 2.)
There is a lot more here if you want to read it -
http://www.wisbar.org/AM/Template.cfm?Section=Wisconsin_News_Reporters_Legal_Handbook&Template=/CM/ContentDisplay.cfm&ContentID=47139For the entire manual - see
http://www.wisbar.org/AM/Template.cfm?Section=Wisconsin_News_Reporters_Legal_Handbook&Template=/CM/ContentDisplay.cfm&ContentID=46941
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