Today is a sad day for Democracy in Wisconsin.
Judge Mark Mangerson's ruling in support of a foreign mining company will only lead to further corruption in Wisconsin government. He upheld a mining Local Agreement that was negotiated in a series of illegal meetings between the former Nashville Town Board and Mining company representatives. Even after the former Town Board has plead guilty to numerous violations of the Open Meeting Law, Mangerson ruled that the agreement negotiated in those meetings was still valid. The lawyer that represented Nashville Township was eventually paid hundreds of thousands of dollars by the mining company. There was a substantial amount of legal expenses billed to the Township for investigations of anti-mining citizens and local tribes.