City of Marshfield. MWC file photo.
MARSHFIELD, WI (WSAU-WDLB) — Home addresses for elected officials will no longer be available on a local city website.
The home addresses of Marshfield aldermen will no longer appear on the city’s website or in other publications. With Alderman Pete Hendler absent, the Common Council voted 5-4 last night in favor of removing them from those sources.
Alderman Ed Wagner was one of those Council members voting against the move. “I have people pull up to my house and knock on the door. They need to know that you’re part of the community too. And they need to know that we’re one of them, that we are representing them. And I feel that removing the address from the directory would be a bad thing.”
City Attorney Harold Wolfgram told the Council that displaying addresses of aldermen on the city’s website or any municipal publication is discretionary–but that information must be released upon request. “But if somebody called and asked for an address for an alderman or woman, then there would be an obligation to disclose that.
“And it really has to do with the statutory requirements that for you to be in office, you have a residency requirement. So the address becomes relevant to the public.”
City Administrator Steve Barg said some cities provide the home addresses of their Council members, and some do not. “I did a random survey of 10 cities and villages around us. Six of them do have the addresses of the elected officials on their websites, four of them don’t.
“In our area most closely, Wausau, Plover, and Weston do. Stevens Point and Wisconsin Rapids do not.”
Aldermen Mike Feirer, Nick Poeschel and Quentin Rosandich joined Wagner in voting “no”. Alders Ken Bargender, Tom Witzel, Adam Fischer, Rebecca Spiros, and Tom Buttke, approved the change.
The issue of having home addresses on the website was raised to City Administrator Steve Barg by Alder Rebecca Spiros. But the idea of removing addresses had been discussed by two other Council members before as well. Alders had concerns about safety and privacy with their home addresses being readily available to the public.
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