City Council members’ activity during meetings is being questioned after a closer look into their electronic communications during meetings.

After the Wisconsin State Journal obtained an open records request regarding the matter, it found the inclination of council members to use a variety of communication tools during meetings was very high. 

According to Ald. Scott Resnick, District 8, there is no law pertaining to the use of such messages. Regardless, City Council members are not allowed to delete messages.

“The primary law that could apply would be the open meetings law,” City Attorney Michael May said. “And that would depend on there being a quorum of the membership of the council in a discussion that was not noticed by the public.”

This particular law said material brought up in City Council meetings needs to be made public 24 hours in advance except under certain circumstances, according to Ald. Lisa Subeck, Disrict 1. Notice is typically given to the public further in advance than a day ahead of council meetings.

If the public had been notified of the meeting and members were communicating electronically during the session, it is unclear how the court would rule, May said.

Ald. Mike Verveer, District 4, said he is against council members electronically communicating about current meetings at hand.

“If it does not violate the letter of the open meetings law, it violates the spirit of the open meetings law,” Verveer said.

However, Verveer said the law is outdated due to today’s technology.

The main concern is not to violate the open meetings law and for the City Council to be as open to the public as possible, May said.

After receiving a year’s worth of messages, the  Wisconsin State Journal was unable to find any violations, Subeck said, leading her to believe there “probably isn’t a problem.”

City Council members, according to Subeck, not only receive training pertaining to the open meetings law but are also very conscientious to follow the measure.

“I’m not sure text messages are any different from conversations in this context,” Subeck said. “You can create a quorum that violates the open meetings law with enough people [having] conversations with each other – called a walking quorum.”

A walking quorum is defined as council members having city-related conversations with one another in small groups, Subeck said.

Resnick also said he is not a proponent of City Council members sending text messages to other alders during meetings or using social media.

“I do believe that as a duty of an alder, we’re here to work towards our constituency and also pay attention during meetings,” Resnick said.

Verveer said he also seldom brings a laptop to the meetings.

Resnick said he avoids text messaging in general during the meetings, especially to individuals who may have anything to do with the current meeting agenda.

“I can certainly speak for myself, but I think I can say pretty safely for my colleagues as well that overall people are very conscientious and very aware of quorums,” Subeck said.