Court Of Appeals Reverses Waukesha Stadium Open Records Request

WAUKESHA, WI— The Wisconsin Court of Appeals reversed a 2018 decision in Waukesha County Circuit Court involving a denial of an open records request to the Friends of Frame Park. The City of Waukesha could be on the hook to reimburse the group for attorney fees which accumulated throughout the court process.

At issue was whether the court would consider assessing what amount of the group's lawyers fees and court costs are recoverable.

Friends of Frame Park formed in 2017 because its members—Waukesha citizens, property owners, and taxpayers— were interested in the city’s plan to build and operate a baseball stadium in Frame Park in the City of Waukesha.

One concern of Friends of Frame Park was that the city might contract with private entities, Big Top and Northwoods League Baseball (Northwoods League), to run the stadium and its baseball team. Big Top owned several baseball teams and operated another stadium in Wisconsin; the Northwoods League owned the league in which these teams played, according to court documents.

The group was curious as to how taxpayer funds would be used and to what extent Big Top would profit from the project.

On October 9, 2017, the group submitted a public records request to Kevin Lahner, the city administrator, asking for copies of lease agreements between Big Top Baseball and or Northwoods League Baseball and the City of Waukesha. Two weeks later, the city attorney responded by letter, denying the request stating the contract was presently in "draft form."

In December 2017, Friends filed a suit for the draft lease then two days later the draft lease was released to them.

The city attorney’s email explained that the document was “being released now because there is no longer any need to protect the City’s negotiating and bargaining position," court documents said.

The group decided to continue with the litigation. Friends filed additional requests on December 8, 2017, and on January 25, February 2, and March 6, 2018. The group also filed an amended complaint including some of these requests and addressing the impact of the city’s December 20 disclosure of the draft contract, according to the lawsuit.

The amended complaint said that “[t]he City’s subsequent production of the withheld records that it represented as responsive to the October 9th request does not eliminate the violation at issue, which was the improper withholding of records based on the assertion of an invalid or inadequate exception and justification, or otherwise.”

The group asked the court to decide if the city’s actions to withhold records in "the face of the valid October 9, 2017 request" was in violation of the Open Records law. They also sought litigation costs and attorney fees, the court documents said.

The city filed for summary judgment claiming the action "was moot" because the city had turned over all documents as requested and shouldn't be liable for the group's legal fees.

The court found in 2018 that the city released the draft contract not because of the lawsuit but because there were no longer any “competitive or bargaining reasons” for nondisclosure. For that reason, the court denied attorney fees and dismissed the action.

Friends filed an appeal in 2019. On Sept. 16, the Wisconsin Court of Appeals said in its decision, "We hold that the City’s reliance on the “competitive or bargaining reasons” exception was unwarranted and led to an unreasonable delay in the record’s release."

Plans for a $12 million, 2,500-seat ballpark for Mindiola Park struck out in 2019 due to lack of support for a funding source.