Transparency
What should government transparency look like?
If residents in Kenosha wanted to stay up to date with what is happening in city government and policies that are being considered that directly affect them, they would need to monitor the Kenosha dot org website, find the schedules meetings, read through each meeting agenda, try to understand what the agenda points were and what each meant, maybe search some terms from the agenda online, read attached pdfs for the agenda. To stay informed, each resident would be required to do this each week, indefinitely… and it’s a lot.
There has to be a better way to keep residents briefed on the details without requiring them to understand all the terminology as well as spending several hours reading every single document. It’s inefficient and seems unnecessary.
In 2024, the city of Kenosha signed an NDA (non disclosure agreement) that kept plans to build a data center here in the city a secret. Land was annexed from Paris, WI and the land was rezoned. It seems like many people didn’t know about the plans until November 2025 when it was reported in the news. This data center stands to negatively impact our environment, increase our utility bills, and threaten our health… so why wasn’t more information shared with the public earlier? Whether the omission was intentional or accidental, investing in more transparency in governmental operations can ensure that people are able to stay informed so they can provide timely feedback on the policies that will impact them.
In addition, the city and the common council should not be allowed to sign NDA’s with corporations which effectively prevent them from sharing vital information about projects with their citizens. Elected officials are representatives of the constituents they serve, and NDA’s are a barrier to effectively fulfilling the obligation.
Government transparency IS NOT private citizens scouring city officials’ emails to see what was talked about before and during a non-disclosure agreement with a private, trillion-dollar company, but here we are.
My Public Records Request
On May 26, 2026, I submitted a public records request for the following information:
1.) All email communications (including attached documents) that contain one or more of the following terms:
“data center”-“Navix Engineering”- “Microsoft”- “Fairwater”-“NDA”- “Non Disclosure agreement”- “Non-Disclosure Agreement”
2.) Between members of the city plan commission (which included common council members and private citizens), Mayor John Antaramian (old mayor), Mayor David Bogdala (new mayor), Brian Wilke (Development Coordinator), Tim Casey (Director of City Development), and Richard Schroeder (Deputy Director of City Development).
I was told by the city attorney that members of the city plan commission who are not members of the common council are not subject to the search because they do not have city emails.
3.) Any and all NDA’s signed by any city official with Microsoft.
On June 22, 2026, almost one month after I submitted my request, Microsoft sent a letter to the city of Kenosha, cancelling the NDA.
On July 16, 2026, I submitted another request, similar to the first, for emails of John Morrissey (Kenosha City Administrator).
