July 8, 2009

Questions about city council member's email use

Look for news in the near future about a City Council member's email usage.

Everyone's buttoned up at the moment, but there's reportedly evidence of people outside of city government logging into a council member's email account. We've heard rumors of this for months and filed this records request in June:
Pursuant to the state open records law, Wis. Stat. Ann. sec. 19.31 to 19.37, I write to request access to and a copy of the IP addresses used to log into all 15 aldermanic email accounts from Jan. 1, 2008 to June 4, 2009. If your agency does not maintain these public records, please let me know who does and include the proper custodian’s name and address.
Since filing the request, we've worked with Assistant City Attorney Nicole Loop but have yet to receive the records.

On Wednesday, Paul Ancona, head of the city's email system, declined comment on the investigation into the IP addresses and referred us to City Attorney Rob Weber.

We left a message for Weber on Wednesday, but have yet to get a response.

22 comments:

  1. They are probably too busy on the phone call Gary Becker screaming at him right now saying we don't know you... since you are Becker's new house interviewing him

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  2. huh?? is this a news item?

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  3. What the hell is going on at City Hall?

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  4. The Racine Post is out interviewing Gary Becker at his new house (see jtirregulars.com) for original story, witnesses have stated that they have seen government officials over there. I don't know if its true but there is alot of "rumors" going around about who in city government Becker associates with, has kissed and made up with and who never stopped talking to him in the first place. Should be interesting, Racine Post ROCKS

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  5. Its a news item when concerned citizens with kids go to the media and say what the heck is going on, why is gary becker allowed to walk around like nothing is wrong, there are parents of teenage daughters in that neighborhood quite angry and upset (rightfully so too)

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  6. Why doesn't the alderman just change his/her password?

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  7. He doesn't change his password because he is allowing the people to access the account.

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  8. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

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  9. racineuncovered7/09/2009 11:34 AM

    living in this town, yep everyone needs meds, Post will post their whole story about this, my concern is who is still associating with whom on a government level. If you are an elected official you need to pick and choose your friends closely.

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  10. Sounds like paranoia here. All the aldermen have laptops and there are wireless networks everywhere. Not everyone sits home using the same network everyday.

    IP changing/hiding software is extremely common these days too, not just to hide IPs but for security against a lot of other potential problems.

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  11. This story sounds odd. If there is a problem with an alderman the mayor or attorney's office should just ask him or her to stop. Have they done that? Or are they trying to secretly nail this alderman? If so, why?

    Or isn't this being led by the city at all but rather a disgruntled former city employee trying to dig up dirt and burn people he didn't like?

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  12. Anon 12:45 - It goes deeper than just sharing emails, but you're right: the big question here is did the council member do anything wrong?

    That probably depends on who they were sharing with and what they were (potentially) sharing.

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  13. "All the aldermen have laptops and there are wireless networks everywhere."

    Yep. Which pretty much makes this FOI requests pointless.

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  14. "Or isn't this being led by the city at all but rather a disgruntled former city employee trying to dig up dirt and burn people he didn't like?"


    BINGO

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  15. Dustin - any luck getting the email messages that Becker sent/received without having to take out a loan to cover the cost?

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  16. Yep, I take back what I said about the POST. Maybe they are attempting to get down to the bottom of THINGS. People would like to try to minimize the associations here but it will not work. Mayor Dickert lead everyone to believe that he and Gary Becker were not in the same camp but that is not the truth. If Ald. Jeff Coe is hanging out with Mayor Dickert and Mayor Becker, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to fgure this thing out. The lines of communication are still open and the lovely people sit back and say "what is wrong with that"? There's alot wrong with it, what a bunch of morons that are sitting and making decisions that affect the tax payers of Racine. ?? How do you give someone that does not meet the specfied qualifications a (6) year contract and tell them to fill the blank? How do you strap the city to a possible 600,000 dollar committment? Do we really know that the city will be satified with Friedel. Helding you are a joke!! Wisneski you are a joke!! Maack you are a idiot!!! Sandy Wiedner, a Gary Becker clone. I believe it is time for a JOHN DOE!!!!

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  17. Lots of missing information, folks. racineuncovered/Beth, give it up girlfriend. To be effective, you must choose your words and know when to speak. You must also know when not to speak. Are you related to Ruppert Murdoch?

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  18. racineuncovered/Beth, aka racineres = Sarah Palin. Some people don't know when to go away and stay away.

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  19. Why would someone allow another person to access their email, rather than just forward them any emails of interest?

    The IP addresses used to access the account doesn't tell you much - I frequently check email using a friend's wireless network, or a public wireless network, when I am away from the office. It doesn't prove who accessed it, just what network it was accessed from.

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  20. They have really cool software out there, I know because I bought it. Didn't cost much, approx $20. You can change not only your IP address, but you can choose the state and even the country of the IP you want to use. Right now I am in Canada even though I am sitting in Racine.

    I set mine to randomly change IPs every few minutes, and it searches for whatever available server it can find. Looks like I am in Germany now!

    I'm not a big expert on computers or IPs or any of that, but in these days of IP software and wireless networks, I think every aldermen could have countless IP addresses.

    IP changed again, now I am in Philadelphia LOL!

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  21. I use the IP changing software too and like it. I am posting out of Seattle Washington but really I'm in Racine county. I don't like to switch to foreign countries because it seems like the connection gets really slow that way, but I guess if you are having to pass your info across the ocean it would be a little slower.

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