Vilas County DA Karl Hayes earns ‘Opees’ award for public openness

Vilas County’s district attorney was recently honored for his role in bringing about an end to a public records dispute between the Lakeland Times and the Presque Isle Town Board.

In honor of last week’s Sunshine Week, the Wisconsin Freedom of Information Council has announced its 2025-26 Openness in Government Awards, or “Opees.”

Now in its 20th year of recognizing outstanding efforts to protect the state’s tradition of open government, Vilas County District Attorney Karl Hayes was named as this year’s Public Openness Advocate. The award comes in response to his work with officials in the town of Presque Isle to comply with an open records request made by the Lakeland Times that went unanswered for almost a year.

The request involved municipal information that was on a computer regarding a town board election. Hayes became involved in the records dispute after Gregg Walker, publisher of the Lakeland Times, made a complaint to law enforcement that the records request was not being met in a timely manner.
Although Walker followed the proper channels in requesting the records, the town did not turn them over.

Once involved, Hayes said he preferred not to get the courts involved, and instead had conversations with the record-holder.

He set a deadline of Jan. 30 of this year for the records to be turned over, and Presque Isle Chair Al Eschenbauch was able to provide the records on Jan. 27 to the Lakeland Times — three days before the deadline. They had originally been requested Feb. 4, 2025, nearly a full year prior.

“I’m always happy when reasonable people can solve the problem in a reasonable way, and that’s what happened,” Hayes said.

Hayes does not believe the noncompliance of the open records request was intentional, saying he got “no sense of ill-intent or ill-will” during his conversations with the record-holder.

“You’re not talking about career politicians — these are civic-minded individuals trying to help their community,” he said. “We just needed to sit down and talk it out and get it done.”

Bill Lueders, president of the Wisconsin Freedom of Information Council, said district attorneys in Wisconsin are statutorily empowered to enforce the state’s open records and open meetings laws, but in practice rarely do so.

“Early this year, Hayes showed how it can be done, warning officials in the town of Presque Isle that they needed to comply with a nearly year-old request from the Lakeland Times newspaper for records regarding the town’s computers. His intervention succeeded, and the records were released. Other DAs might look for occasions where they can turn the lever in favor of openness,” Lueders said.

Hayes was invited to be recognized at a public event in Madison on March 19 but was unable to attend.

“I’m grateful and happy to be able to assist,” he said of the experience.
Hayes has served as Vilas County DA since 2021.