Public Should See Pesticide Survey - Wisconsin State Journal

[Guest guest]

PUBLIC SHOULD SEE PESTICIDE SURVEY - JUSTICE DEPARTMENT URGES RELEASE OF

DETAILS DESPITE CONFIDENTIALITY PROMISE

Wisconsin State Journal

8-19-98

The state Department of Justice has recommended that the Department

of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection release specific information

about a recent survey of pesticide use in schools that the agency

has so far refused to divulge.

The survey showed that nearly 90 percent of the 900 public and

private schools that responded use pesticides in and around their

buildings but only 15 percent have a pesticide-use policy.

While the agriculture department released a summary of the results,

officials refused to release the specific responses of individual

schools. Agency officials said they were justified in keeping the

information secret because they promised the schools confidentiality

if they responded, an arrangement they argued is permitted under the

state's open record laws.

A number of organizations, including Wisconsin's Environmental

Decade and the Wisconsin State Journal, filed requests for the withheld

information under open record laws. Refusal of those requests prompted the

Environmental Decade to seek action from the Department of Justice.

This week, Alan Lee, an assistant attorney general, sent a letter

to the agriculture department in which he said that, although a pledge

of confidentiality is sometimes used to obtain information, such a

pledge was not necessary in this case, at least for the public schools.

``Their records of pesticide use, payments to pest control companies,

contracts with those companies, etc., would otherwise be available

to a requester under Wisconsin's public records law,'' Lee's letter

said. ``The Department, therefore, could have obtained those records

without a pledge of confidentiality by the simple expedient of making

a request.''

Also, Lee wrote, ``the type of information sought concerning pesticide

use on school property is certainly the sort of information which

the public should have the right to know. Strong public policy

considerations

favor disclosure under the public records balancing test.''

Despite the recommendation, it appears the department will continue

to withhold the specific school responses.

``We intend to honor our pledge of confidentiality,'' said spokeswoman

Sandy Chalmers. ``We thought we were on firm ground with the pledge

of confidentiality. That's not unusual with a survey.''

Copyright © 1998 Madison Newspapers, Inc.