Lawsuit over Green Bay City Hall surveillance to move from Council Chambers to county courtroom
GREEN BAY - A lawsuit against the city and its mayor will move to a courtroom Thursday morning, after a committee of City Council members spent more than three hours Wednesday discussing the issue – and their frustration with the mayor for approving installation of the equipment.
City Council members on the Parks Committee voted 4-0 to approve a resolution to remove all "recording devices" installed in City Hall at the direction of Mayor Eric Genrich. The four committee members, and City Council member Brian Johnson, said they will urge the full City Council to adopt a policy Tuesday to prohibit making audio recordings of citizen conversations inside City Hall.
"No elected officials should ever have the access" to recorded conversations of constituents or employees without their knowledge that recording is taking place, Council President Jesse Brunette told the committee Wednesday night.
On Thursday, the case is scheduled to move to the courtroom of Brown County Circuit Court Judge Marc Hammer for arguments seeking a temporary restraining order that would require the city to disable audio-recording devices at City Hall, prohibit them being reinstalled and to destroy all audio recordings.
The plaintiffs — the Wisconsin State Senate, state Sen. Andre Jacque of De Pere, former Green Bay City Council member Anthony Theisen and "Jane Doe" — also seek fines, unspecified punitive damages, interest and attorney's fees. The plaintiffs say the recordings violate people's constitutional rights.
The committee Wednesday heard from a number of people who objected to the idea that they could be recorded while conversing outside the Council Chambers on the building's second floor, or outside the city clerk's office on the ground floor.
"I don't think citizens trust the government," Lynn Austin of Morrow Street told council members. "We have a right to talk with other citizens and not have officials (listen in). ... There are things going on in this city that are really foul."
"Make sure our privacy is guaranteed," she added.
Email Doug Schneider at Dschneid@gannett.com, call him at (920) 265-2070 and follow him on Twitter @PGDougSchneider.
This article originally appeared on Green Bay Press-Gazette: Lawsuit over Green Bay City Hall recorders to move to County Court
