The posted records notice every Wisconsin authority must display (and most small offices never made)
Wis. Stat. 19.34 requires every authority to adopt and prominently display a public records notice: the custodian, access hours, request methods, and costs. What goes in it, the 48-hour rule for offices without regular hours, and a checklist for building yours.
- The duty
- Every authority must adopt, prominently display, and make available for inspection and copying at its offices a notice describing its organization, the times and places for access, the legal custodian, the methods for requesting records and obtaining copies, and the costs (Wis. Stat. 19.34(1))
- Public office positions
- The notice must also separately identify each position of the authority that constitutes a local public office or a state public office (19.34(1))
- Offices with regular hours
- Access to records must be permitted at all times during those office hours, unless otherwise specifically authorized by law (19.34(2)(a))
- Offices without regular hours
- Either access on at least 48 hours’ written or oral notice, or a standing window of at least 2 consecutive hours per week, for which 24 hours’ advance notice may be required; the chosen rule must be stated in the posted notice (19.34(2)(b), (c))
- Time computation
- Saturdays, Sundays, and legal holidays are excluded when computing any time period in the public records law, hours or days alike (19.345)
The one-page posting Wisconsin law actually requires
Buried between the custodian rules and the access provisions of Wisconsin’s Public Records Law sits a duty that is easy to state and, in small offices, widely unmet. Wis. Stat. 19.34(1) requires each authority to adopt, prominently display and make available for inspection and copying at its offices, for the guidance of the public, a notice covering:
- a description of its organization;
- the established times and places at which the public may obtain information and access to records;
- the legal custodian under 19.33 from whom access is obtained;
- the methods whereby the public may obtain information and access, make requests for records, or obtain copies; and
- the costs of doing so.
The same subsection adds one more element that surprises people: the notice must separately identify each position of the authority that constitutes a local public office or a state public office. And it writes in one exception: the duty does not apply to members of the legislature or to members of any local governmental body. The village posts a notice; the individual trustees on its board do not each post their own.
Why it matters: this notice is the office’s public records front door. It is where a requester learns who to ask, when the records room is open, and what a copy costs; because the statute requires “the costs thereof,” it is also where the fee schedule lives. An office that has never adopted one is not merely missing a poster. It has skipped the one document 19.34 says every authority must have. The Wisconsin Department of Justice practices what it requires: DOJ’s own public records notice, naming its records custodian, its office hours, its per-page copy rates, and its prepayment threshold, is reproduced as Appendix A of its Public Records Law Compliance Guide (June 2025), and it is a useful working example of what a finished notice looks like.
The custodian your notice must name
The notice points to a person, and 19.33 decides who that person is. An elective official is the legal custodian of their own records and the records of their office, though they may designate a staff employee to act as custodian (19.33(1)). A committee of elective officials falls to its chairperson, or the chairperson’s designee (19.33(2), (3)). Every other authority must designate in writing one or more positions occupied by an officer or employee as its legal custodian; in the absence of a designation, the highest ranking officer and the chief administrative officer, if any, hold the role by default (19.33(4)).
Two details in 19.33(4) get missed. The custodian must be vested with full legal power to render decisions and carry out the authority’s duties under the records law, and the authority must provide the custodian’s name and a description of their duties to all employees entrusted with records. A custodian of records kept in a publicly owned or leased building must also have one or more deputies designated to act in their absence (19.33(6)). The designation should be a real document in your minutes, not an assumption; the default rule exists precisely because many offices never wrote one.
Access hours: the rule that governs a clerk working from home
Subsection (2) is where 19.34 stops being paperwork and starts being operational. An authority that maintains regular office hours at the location where its records are kept must permit access at all times during those office hours, unless otherwise specifically authorized by law (19.34(2)(a)). No appointment gate, no records-only window narrower than the posted hours.
An authority without regular office hours at the records location, which describes a large share of Wisconsin town halls where the clerk works from a home office, gets a statutory choice (19.34(2)(b)):
- permit access upon at least 48 hours’ written or oral notice of intent to inspect or copy a record; or
- establish a standing period of at least 2 consecutive hours per week during which access is permitted, in which case the authority may require 24 hours’ advance written or oral notice.
Whichever rule the authority picks, 19.34(2)(c) requires it to state the notice requirement in the posted notice itself. And the arithmetic is friendlier than it looks: under 19.345, Saturdays, Sundays, and legal holidays are excluded when computing any time period in the records law, whether expressed in hours or days, so a 48-hour clock never runs over a weekend. One more practical relief valve: if a record is occasionally taken somewhere other than where records are regularly kept, and it can be inspected at the regular location on one business day’s notice, access need not be provided at the occasional location (19.34(2)(d)).
Build your notice: a working checklist
Everything 19.34(1) requires fits on one page. A notice that holds up:
- Name the legal custodian, by position and name, with contact information, matching a written 19.33 designation.
- State your hours rule. Regular office hours if you have them; otherwise the 48-hour notice rule or your weekly 2-consecutive-hour window, stated in the notice as 19.34(2)(c) requires.
- List how to submit a request: in person, by mail, by phone, by email. Remember what the law says about form: a request is sufficient if it reasonably describes the records, may be made orally, and cannot be refused because the requester declines to give a name or a purpose (19.35(1)(h), (i)). Offer a form if it helps your office; do not require one.
- Publish the costs. Copies at the actual, necessary and direct cost of reproduction (19.35(3)(a)), a location charge only when the cost of locating the records is $50 or more (19.35(3)(c)), and prepayment only when the total exceeds $5 (19.35(3)(f)). The full fee rules are in our guide to Wisconsin public records fees.
- Identify public office positions: each position of the authority that constitutes a local or state public office, listed separately (19.34(1)).
- Post it prominently at the office, keep copies available for inspection and copying there, and put the same notice on the website where a requester will actually find it.
Then keep it true. A notice that names a custodian who retired two elections ago fails at the one thing it exists to do. Pair it with a response process that moves; Wisconsin has no fixed statutory response deadline, and what “as soon as practicable and without delay” means in practice is covered in our guide to Wisconsin response times.
Dekree runs this workflow for Michigan local governments today: the public-facing records page generated with the custodian, hours, and fee schedule always current. We are bringing the platform to Wisconsin next. To bring Dekree to your office, email contact@dekree.ai with the subject line Wisconsin and we will add your office to the Wisconsin rollout list.
The whole duty, in one paragraph
Adopt a one-page notice, display it prominently at your offices, and keep copies available for inspection and copying (19.34(1)). In it, describe your organization, name the 19.33 legal custodian, state when and where records can be accessed, explain how to request records and copies, publish the costs, and separately identify your local and state public office positions. If your office has regular hours, records are available throughout them (19.34(2)(a)); if it does not, commit in the notice to the 48-hour rule or a weekly 2-hour window (19.34(2)(b), (c)), and count those hours skipping weekends and holidays (19.345). Do that once, review it when people or fees change, and the front door of your records practice is in order. More on the Wisconsin rules Dekree tracks at our Wisconsin page.
Common questions
Our town office has no regular hours. What are we required to do?
Wis. Stat. 19.34(2)(b) gives an authority without regular office hours at the location where its records are kept two options: permit access to its records upon at least 48 hours’ written or oral notice of intent to inspect or copy a record, or establish a period of at least 2 consecutive hours per week during which access is permitted. If you choose the weekly window, you may require 24 hours’ advance written or oral notice. Whichever option you choose, 19.34(2)(c) requires you to state the notice requirement in your posted records notice. And note the time math: under 19.345, Saturdays, Sundays, and legal holidays are excluded when computing any time period in the public records law, so 48 hours never runs across a weekend.
Do we have to accept email requests?
The statute does not prescribe a channel; it prescribes almost nothing about form at all. Under Wis. Stat. 19.35(1)(h), a request is sufficient if it reasonably describes the record or the information requested, and it may be made orally. Under 19.35(1)(i), a request may not be refused because the requester declines to be identified or to state a purpose, and may not be refused because it arrived by mail (except where prepayment is required under 19.35(3)(f)). The Wisconsin DOJ compliance guide states it plainly: requests do not have to be in writing. So an emailed request that reasonably describes the records is a sufficient request, and the safe practice is to accept requests however they arrive. You can offer a form for convenience, but a request does not fail for skipping it.
Who is our legal custodian if we never designated one in writing?
Under Wis. Stat. 19.33(1), an elective official is the legal custodian of their own records and the records of their office, though they may designate a staff employee to act in that role. A committee of elective officials falls to its chairperson, or the chairperson’s designee (19.33(2), (3)). For every other authority, 19.33(4) requires a written designation of one or more positions as legal custodian; in the absence of a designation, the authority’s highest ranking officer and its chief administrative officer, if any, are the legal custodians by default. The custodian must be vested with full legal power to render decisions and carry out the authority’s duties under the law, and the authority must provide the custodian’s name and a description of their duties to all employees entrusted with records.
Does every individual board member need to post their own notice?
No. Wis. Stat. 19.34(1) states that the posting duty does not apply to members of the legislature or to members of any local governmental body. The authority itself adopts and displays the notice; the individual supervisors, trustees, and commissioners who sit on its board do not each need one of their own.
This article is educational information for Wisconsin authorities and governmental bodies, current as of the publication date. It is not legal advice, and statutes and court decisions change. Confirm specifics with your municipal attorney. Statute text: docs.legis.wisconsin.gov.