By Trey Foerster

Last night, March 4, Mark McCoy attempted to record the Village of Iola Police Committee meeting and was told by the chair of the meeting that he couldn’t, that it’s only allowed for record keeping, and only the press or clerk/secretary can do that.

The chair seems to be under the impression that recordings can’t be distributed to the public by those in attendance who record a public meeting.

According to my Wisconsin Newspaper Association pamphlet on the matter at hand: “19.90. Use of equipment in open session. Whenever a governmental body holds a meeting in open session, the body shall make a reasonable effort to accommodate any person desiring to record, film, or photograph the meeting. This section does not permit recording, filming or photographing such a meeting in a manner that interferes with the conduct of the meeting or the rights of the participants.”

From my perspective of the video posted to Facebook, McCoy was seated and didn’t interfere with the conduct of the meeting (see photo).

The law uses the word “shall” and the chair of the meeting with the village president present didn’t, in my opinion, make any “reasonable effort” to accommodate him. If the chair didn’t like where McCoy was seated, then the chair should have said where he could sit to record the meeting. There was no effort to find accommodation that I saw in the video.

As to not being able to share the video recording taken by a citizen at the meeting, that assertion is blatantly false. It is taken at an open and public meeting.

In fact, the agenda is preceded with this: “OPEN MEETING STATEMENT: This meeting and all other meetings of the Iola Village Board are open to the public.”

A government body has the option to go into closed session for a limited number of purposes and if that body wanted to discuss or hear sensitive information, it could have gone into closed session if that was allowed under the agenda for the meeting. The agenda for this meeting made no such agenda item.

The main agenda item was: “Present investigative findings from February 5, 2025 Police Committee Meeting and subsequent submitted accusations against the Iola Police Department and Officers.” (NOTE: Those minutes are posted on this site.)

Surely, this subject matter – accusations of abuse of police authority – is of utmost importance to the taxpayers, businesses, and residents of the Village of Iola. To shut down public dissemination of the information presented at the meeting by a citizen’s cellphone video recording flies in the face of this state’s Sunshine laws.

I hope that the Village of Iola recognizes the error in interpretation of the Open Meeting Laws 19.90 and in the future, makes “reasonable accommodation” for citizens who want to record.

I also hope that citizens are cognizant that they must not interfere with the conduct of the meeting or other people’s rights. This means you are polite, don’t obstruct or interrupt the meeting proceedings, and are a reasonable, impartial observer/recorder. If you want to make a statement, there is an agenda item for public presentation, and that’s your time to say something. Otherwise, you are silent unless recognized by the chair of the meeting to say something.