Wisconsin public records and open meetings, in plain English.
Plain-language guides to the Public Records Law (Wis. Stat. 19.31 to 19.39), the Open Meetings Law (19.81 to 19.98), and municipal records retention, with statute citations on every claim and the DOJ compliance guidance your office actually gets held to. Written the same way we write for the Michigan clerks we serve every week.
The guides
What counts as a meeting under the Open Meetings Law
Purpose plus numbers. Why fewer than half the members can be a meeting, how walking quorums and reply-all email cross the line, and why two-member committees count.
Response letter templates for every Wisconsin records outcome
Records ready, partial grant, denial, no records, and clarification letters, each with the 19.35 requirement it satisfies and the exact review-rights sentence a denial needs.
Wisconsin has no records deadline. Here is the number DOJ holds you to.
The statute says "as soon as practicable and without delay." The DOJ benchmark says 10 working days for a simple request. What that means for your office, with citations.
The 24-hour meeting notice rule, and the 2-hour floor
Twenty-four hours before every meeting, Sundays and holidays excluded from the count, and a 2-hour emergency floor that requires documented good cause.
Open meetings violations come out of your own pocket in Wisconsin
$25 to $300 per violation, assessed personally against each member who attends, and the law bars the municipality from reimbursing it. How members protect themselves.
The Open Meetings Law’s record rule never says "minutes."
Motions and roll-call votes, recorded and preserved, in open and closed session alike. The real minutes duty lives in the clerk statutes. Both halves explained.
Closed sessions in Wisconsin: the procedure that keeps you legal
Convene in open session first, a recorded vote, the specific exemption announced out loud, and the 12-hour rule before you can reconvene. The full procedure.
What can a Wisconsin authority charge for records?
Actual, necessary and direct cost only. Location fees only at $50 or more, prepayment only over $5, and no charge for redaction time. The full fee rules.
Wisconsin has no exemption list. It has the balancing test.
Courts read only the reasons written in your denial letter. How the balancing test works, and how to write a denial that survives review.
Wisconsin records retention: the 7-year default and the schedule most towns never adopted
The WMRS only applies if your municipality formally adopted it. Without that, the statutory floor is 7 years. Plus the 60-day Historical Society notice, explained.
How long do we keep meeting recordings in Wisconsin? 90 days after approval.
A recording made to prepare minutes may be destroyed no sooner than 90 days after the minutes are approved and published. Quoted from the statute.
The posted records notice every Wisconsin authority must display
Section 19.34 requires a prominently displayed notice naming your custodian, hours, and fees. Most small offices have never made one. The checklist.
The Wisconsin Clerk’s Retention Cheat Sheet
The retention rules Wisconsin municipal clerks look up most (minutes, recordings, ordinances, records requests, election records, invoices, licenses) on two printable pages. Each rule is quoted from the statute or official schedule, with where to look it up. Pin it by your desk.
We model public access law at the statute level. Wisconsin is on the map.
Dekree builds compliance software for local government: records requests, meeting notices, minutes, and records retention, modeled directly on the statutes that create the obligations. Michigan public bodies run on Dekree today, and our Indiana library went live this summer. We have mapped Wisconsin the same way: the Public Records Law, the Open Meetings Law, and the retention schedules approved by the Public Records Board.
These guides are educational. They cite the Wisconsin Statutes and the Department of Justice's official compliance guides, and every claim is reviewed against the primary sources before publishing.
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Official Wisconsin sources we cite
Wisconsin Statutes
The Public Records Law (19.31 to 19.39), Open Meetings Law (19.81 to 19.98), and retention statute (19.21), from the Legislature.
DOJ Office of Open Government
The official Public Records Law and Open Meetings Law compliance guides, updated in 2025, that Wisconsin offices are held to.
Public Records Board
The adoptable general records schedules for Wisconsin municipalities, counties, and school districts.