DARLINGTON — Lafayette County has settled a lawsuit seeking records from Memorial Hospital of Lafayette County.  

To settle the case, Lafayette County produced copies of various reports it had illegally withheld and paid attorney fees, court costs, and statutory damages, according to a news release from the Wisconsin Transparency Project. 

The lawsuit was then dismissed, according to court records.

One of the reports Lafayette County initially withheld was a 69-page facility assessment of the MHLC building and equipment prepared by Dunham Associates. 

The county had argued that the report contained “plans or specifications” of state-owned buildings, which are exempt from the state Open Records Law, according to the news release. But MHLC is not state-owned, it is county-owned, and the only county-owned hospital remaining in the state.  

“The state Legislature knows how to use “state” when it means state, and “county” when it means county,” said Tom Kamenick, president and founder of the Transparency Project. “Furthermore, the assessment primarily consisted of evaluations of the conditions and life-expectancies of various portions of the hospital; even if MHLC was state-owned, any ‘plans or specifications’ could have been redacted and the remainder released.”

“All the information withheld and our goal of not sharing is because the information outlines the weaknesses of the current hospital facility, and it was felt by MHLC administration, the county board chair, and our legal that the sharing of this information could put us at a security risk,” said Molly Wiegel, MHLC’s chief operating officer. “The documents outline the areas most at risk and major issues with the current building, which in the wrong hands could be used to harm the organization. Not that the person who requested it had those intentions, but a precedent needed to be set.”

The other report was a preliminary architectural and environmental report.  The county argued that the preliminary report was only a “draft,” and draft documents are exempted from the Open Records Law.  

“But a ‘draft’ is only exempt if it is prepared for its creator’s own personal use,” said Kamenick in the news release. “The draft version of this reported was prepared by a third party, Fehr Graham Engineering, and was not kept by Fehr Graham for its own use, but rather had been shared with the county as part of an ongoing process. Once a draft is shared among different people — or at least different departments — it becomes a public record.” 

“These documents have nothing we are ashamed of; in fact they actually prove our point that we are in need of a replacement facility in great detail,” said Wiegel. “The goal was to not share information that would jeopardize our security from those who wish to do us harm, that is our reasonability to our staff, our patients, and our community.”

The lawsuit was filed last October by Nick Metz, a former Lafayette County Board candidate. Metz declined comment.