State employee tries to sic IRS on education reform group
A new controversy related to the Madison protests has emerged. This one involves the taxpayer-funded email account of American Federation of Teachers-Wisconsin leader and Department of Workforce Development employee William Franks.
For reasons explained below, the Education Action Group submitted an open records request for communications from Frank’s taxpayer-funded email account that contained specific, strike-related key words.
Upon receipt of the records, EAG discovered that a state attorney allowed Franks to fill the open records request himself. That means he might have been free to turn over the entries he cared to include and delete other entries. Not only that, but the state attorney told Franks that “if you have personal email that contains those specified words in the request, please send copies of those to me, so we can discuss this further.” That sounds like one bureaucrat helping another skirt the law and avoid a potentially embarrassing situation.
EAG believes that allowing state employees to decide if and how to honor a public request for their records undermines the intent of the Open Records law. In essence, the accused is being asked to provide evidence for the prosecution, but only on a voluntary basis.
Is this what constitutes honest and open government in the state of Wisconsin?
Now for the reasons the request was filed in the first place.
Franks has been particularly vocal in his advocacy for a public employee strike. At one point, Franks was quoted in a national magazine as saying that Wisconsin’s labor unions needed to bring the state government to a grinding halt.
Here is the full quote:
”You’ve got to make hay when sun shines, and we soon will be paying the price for not making hay. We blinked. It was a lost opportunity. We had to shut this motherfucker down.”
Franks went on to explain that with 100,000 organized labor supporters marching in the streets of Madison in February, some direct action – possibly even a general strike – should have been called for.
“You can’t put 100,000 people in jail,” Franks said. “When you have those numbers, the math is all of a sudden on your side.”
Given Franks’ high-profile involvement in the protests, as well as the fact that his taxpayer-funded email address was listed on the AFT-Wisconsin website (where he is a steward), EAG submitted an open records request for Franks’ communications involving the words “strike,” “Maddow,” “Madison,” “Walker” and “AFT.”
We wondered how much of his taxpayer-funded work time was being spent sending and receiving union-related messages. That’s not what he’s paid to do on state time.
All the communications can be found here.
Not content with being given the privilege of filling the open records request himself, Franks passed EAG’s initial open records request – obtained from the department attorney – around to several of his union-activist friends.
That prompted AFT-Wisconsin “chief steward” Anthony Reeves to pen a threatening letter to Congresswoman Tammy Baldwin, demanding she “refer this matter to the Internal Revenue Service.”
Franks, Reeves and their union friends don’t like the fact that citizens can request the communications of government employees under the Open Records law, and they want the IRS to harass Education Action Group.
This is what happens when you question bureaucrats’ communications. They can choose what to release and try to sic the IRS on you.
EAG will not be intimidated from continuing to expose how public schools and their unions continue to spend taxpayer dollars.
-###-
