The town of Spruce will have to pay legal costs to a Chicago attorney looking into the operation of the Holt Park campground, located on Kelly Lake’s west shore.
The District III Court of Appeals last week overturned a ruling by Oconto County Circuit Judge Jay Conley that the town had provided enough of the town records requested by attorney James Webster, who has a summer residence on Kelly Lake, and that he was not entitled to reimbursement for legal fees incurred in a court filing.
The appeals court ordered Conley to grant Webster access to the town’s financial ledger and to determine how much he should be reimbursed for filing a write of mandamus. Attorneys for Webster and the town will submit recommendations regarding how much to reimburse Webster to Conley before he makes his ruling.
Webster has expressed concerns about the town operating a 48-trailer campground on land the Holt Lumber Company had deeded to town residents in 1923 for use as a park.
Webster compared the campground to a gated community, not a public park. Owners are able to park their trailers year round and permanently landscape the sites, on which the town collects fees.
According to the appeals opinion:
Webster began his records request in June 2011. Town Clerk Barbara Baugnet twice had Webster’s representatives view records at her home. However, Baugnet halted the inspection on the advice of Vance Waggoner, the town’s attorney.
Baugnet and Webster continued to communicate about the records and the cost to provide them until October 2011, when Webster filed a writ of mandamus, asking Conley to order the town to produce the requested records or explain why it would not.
Conley ordered Baugnet to meet with Webster and allow him to review all requested records. Afterward, Webster requested records he said had not been produced, including the general ledger, and the dispute went back to Conley.
While Conley noted that some of the requests were ambiguous and some requested records may not exist, he said Baugnet could not deny the requests after previously not objecting to them.
Conley found that “Baugnet attempted to comply with the requests as best she could. … She acted in good faith. … This was a complex records request.”
Conley called Baugnet’s failure to provide the general ledger “an oversight,” but said she had produced the information in it from other records she provided.
Conley denied Webster’s request for reimbursement of his costs, finding that the mandamus writ was unnecessary because Webster could have received the records had he contacted Waggoner as directed.
The District III Court disagreed.
It found that Conley did issue an order in response to Webster’s mandamus request, which resulted in Baugnet disclosing more records. The appeals court concluded Webster’s mandamus request was at least a cause of the disclosure, and as a result he was owed legal fees.
Webster did all that was required of him by statute, the court said, noting there is no provision in the open records statutes allowing a records custodian to impose additional requirements, such as telling Webster to contact Waggoner.
“There is nothing in the record to suggest Webster would have received prompt disclosures had he contacted the town’s attorney,” the court said in its 12-page opinion. “Indeed, the only reasonable inference is to the contrary. Baugnet had referred Webster’s requests to the town’s attorney, yet there is no evidence that the attorney so much as attempted to contact Webster. … Indeed, it appears Baugnet was acting based on the ill-advice of counsel.”
Waggoner said the town complied with Webster’s request and that Baugnet merely forgot to include the general ledger among the many records Webster sought.
Waggoner said he has not met with the Town Board regarding the court’s decision and whether to appeal.
Calls to Webster and his attorney were not returned before deadline.
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