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I-TeamYou Paid For It: More Surfing on My DimeCity of Milwaukee Records IncompleteBy Aaron Diamant
A big I-Team investigation exposed Waukesha County officials wasting time online on your dime. We weren't picking on Waukesha County. When we asked for elected leaders' internet logs, we got them.
"That's, it think, the most important thing that people can and should expect and that's open and honest government," said County Executive Daniel Vrakas.
And despite the unflattering picture they painted, when the I-Team asked to see those online logs, the county gave them up -- all of them.
A different story with the City of Milwaukee. Negotiations only got us partial internet histories for the Aldermen's city-owned computers. The records seemed thin -- no personal email, shopping, or travel planning. The records only showed surfing to online news and government websites.
Turns out, the city witheld all records of the Aldermen's websufing that wasn't work-related. The City Attorney feels those records are private and protected by state law, even though it happened on taxpayer-time inside City Hall.
Taxpayers we spoke to, like Joey Leal, don't like it.
"I think that we should be able to have a look at that, sure, certainly," Leal said.
And the craziest part is, the city won't even tell us how much information got held back.
"The worst thing in the world is to not give you what you need, because then people suspect the worst," explained Waukesha County Board Chair Jim Dwyer.
But bad or not, the City of Milwaukee says you don't get to know.
We tried, but no one in the City Attorney's office or any of the Aldermen we contacted would agree to an on camera interview.
We asked other governments for their records, too. The City of Kenosha and Kenosha County flat-out ignored us. While attorney's for Milwaukee county say they're still working on our request. We'll see what happens.
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