Wisconsin Child Care And Access To Open Records (Hour 3)

You're listening to Civic Media.

You can tune into any of our live shows on any radio station across the state with the Civic Media app.

Find us in your phone's app store and listen anytime, anywhere.

Local voices statewide impact.

It's Daybreak with Brian and Jamie.

Thank you so much for joining us this morning on the Civic Media Network, a beautiful start to your Thursday if you're listening in Richland Center on WRCE or in La Crosse on WLCX, or even in Wisconsin Rapids on WFHR.

Thank you so much for being here today.

My name is Jamie Martinson.

And good morning.

I'm Brian Noonan.

If you are a public employee in Wisconsin, you're required to maintain records to comply with the state's open records law.

this might surprise you though there is a group that is exempt from that law and it ironically is the people who write the laws uh...

A loophole in the law allows Wisconsin lawmakers to delete public records.

If that sounds a little fishy to you, join the club.

So how did this law come into existence?

Should we be concerned about how it's been used?

And does the new bill brought forth by Democrats have a chance of passing?

Bill Leaders, President at Wisconsin Freedom of Information Council joins us to answer those questions.

Bill, thanks for being here.

We appreciate your time.

To help everybody fully understand this loophole, can you

explain the open records law and the history of this particular exemption?

Sure, back in early 1980s the state updated and passed the current version of the public records or open records law.

Basically our law says that any document in the possession of any state or local

Public agency or official is presumptively open that you it's presumed that you can ask for it and receive it But you can only you only can release and receive Release information that you have and there's a separate statute that deals with records retention rules and that statute Exempts members of the legislature and their staffs from the record retention rules that are in place for

everybody else.

So if you are the street superintendent of Oshkosh and you get a letter about a crack sidewalk, you are obligated to hold on to that record for a statutory period of time, generally seven years.

But if you're a lawmaker and you get an email from a lobbyist saying, you know, you vote this way and I'll get some money to your campaign, you can say, boy, that would look bad if that came out and you can delete it.

Wow.

Wow.

Now, I don't know that it's been used for that, but what it has been used for over the years, particularly in the last decade after it became better known that this exemption existed, is that lawmakers delete correspondence that weighs in on legislation they propose.

So I'll give you an example.

It's about a decade ago, Wisconsin

ended its government accountability board, broke it up from being a nonpartisan agency to being two bipartisan agencies that were subject to staffed with political appointees.

And at the time, some citizens made records requests for the feedback that the lawmakers who proposed this change were receiving.

And it turned out like 95% of the people who wrote them.

And there was quite a few people who wrote them about this.

So that was a bad idea.

We don't want that.

please don't do this, but they did it anyway.

So you can see a situation like that.

It would save them some embarrassment if when you ask for records, they don't have to turn over records that show that they ignored the overwhelming amount of input they received.

They can just say, oh, we didn't keep that record.

We're not required to keep it.

So, Bill, what does this actually mean for, you know, say, regular people, the constituents of our lawmakers who are trying to understand what their elected officials are doing?

Does this get into transparency and trust for a lot of people?

Oh, yeah.

I mean, this is a law that could lead and probably already has led to abuse if not actual corruption, because you can erase

all records that you receive that other government officials would have to provide on request, you can destroy at will.

Now there is a feature of our open records law that once a person requests a record,

you can't destroy it.

I mean, once there's a pending records request, even though you might have been able to destroy it beforehand, you can't destroy it anymore.

So that's a nice feature of our law that when somebody makes a request, if you haven't already thought about getting rid of it, you can't do it now.

Bill, have there been attempts in the past to close this loophole?

Yes, legislative attempts represented, excuse me, Senator.

Chris Larson, a Democrat from Milwaukee, has introduced legislation to end this exemption session after session.

There's a new bill that was just introduced by Representative Clinton Anderson, a Democrat from Beloit, which would accomplish the same thing.

And Senator Larson is aligned with Representative Anderson on the reintroduction of this bill.

We're talking with Bill Leaders this morning.

He is the president at Wisconsin Freedom of Information Council, NFOIC.org, if you want to check them out and get more information.

Do most people realize-

It's WF.

WF, I'm sorry, I'm sorry.

Thank you for that correction.

Because that's Google Wisconsin Freedom of Information Council.

Perfect, perfect.

Do most people, Bill, realize that this loophole exists or is this something that's sort of flying under the radar?

Well, there was a story this week.

This is Sunshine Week, a national observance of transparency in open government.

And a lot of media outlets take this opportunity to write a story about some feature or problem with our transparency laws.

And Peter Cameron...

of the Badger Project, wrote a piece that ran under Wisconsin Watch about this particular exemption just raised as an issue.

So more people know about it now, presumably, because of that story.

Overall, I don't think it's very well known that this exemption exists when we first became aware

of it a little bit more in a decade ago, we tried not to call any attention to it for a while, because we knew that most lawmakers didn't realize that they had this ability, and we didn't want to give them any ideas, but sooner or later it became clear that, eventually it became clear that they had caught into it already, and so we could actively criticize the fact that they had this freedom to destroy records.

Is this type of loophole bill unique to Wisconsin?

Is it just a state thing?

Does it exist on the federal level?

Are we seeing this everywhere?

No, I think there are other states that do restrict access to lawmakers' records.

In fact, there's 12 states overall that won't allow any access.

They completely exempt the legislature from all records laws, not

just

correspondence, but everything.

In fact, Congress does that too.

Congress, the U.S.

Senate, they are not required to provide access to the correspondence that they send and receive.

They're categorically exempt from the federal freedom of information.

Act.

And as I said, some states have exemptions for all records.

Some states have exemptions for what's called deliberative process records.

By that, it means whatever goes into the deliberations and the creation of legislation, the back and forth,

should we

say this, should we say this, should we include this, should we not include this, would be exempt from disclosure.

in certain states.

In 2015, the Wisconsin legislature tried to pass an exemption for deliberative process materials for itself and some other government entities, and there was a big backlash at the time, and they had to withdraw that proposal.

It died in the light of overwhelming public scorn.

As I'm sitting here thinking about this and I'm thinking about Your your career as a journalist and all the journalists who are who are trying to do their jobs throughout the state How is this actually affecting them trying to do their jobs and hold lawmakers accountable and get the the actual story sometimes of what's happening?

Well, I think you can get To something substantive in saying that

The lawmakers said that he did not retain any records regarding this issue.

You know, to point out that a lawmaker may have exercised this authority to destroy records is probably more damning than anything the records contain.

So I think reporters should ask for records and if they're not provided and you have reason to believe that they exist and they were not provided because they were destroyed to make

public issue of that.

That's not a best practice approach to governance.

The leaders is our guest.

He's president at Wisconsin Freedom of Information Council WFOIC.org is their website.

Bill, it sounds like if you're going into politics for the right reason, this shouldn't be an issue.

But we've talked about the attempts before in the current bill that is coming to the Senate floor.

Who is opposing this?

on the state level?

Is it just straight partisan?

And what reasons are they giving for pushing back against this change?

You're going to hate this, but I don't know.

I'm not aware specifically of who is registered for or against this newly introduced legislation.

It's probably something that isn't going to get a lot of public positions taking that.

It will just not come up for a vote.

It's very unlikely that this will pass previous incarnations of a bill to end the lawmaker's exemption from the retention laws have failed.

They've not even had hearing.

So I don't think it's going anywhere.

And I don't think there anyone's going to make a big fuss and beat their chest and say, this is why we don't want it to go anywhere.

They're just going to let it quietly die.

Wow.

So what can we do?

Yeah.

Well, like I say, a journalist should continue to make requests for records.

Here's something that we thought, and in fact, we did a column on this, a You're Right to Know column, which on our website is you can request

lawmakers deleted emails.

I mean they don't go away when you hit delete.

They go into a queue where they're retrievable.

You as a reporter or a citizen can make a records request for the emails they deleted and you can see what they're getting rid of.

So that's a way to to short circuit their ability.

Another thing you could do although I don't know that anyone has done this is to make a daily request for all of the emails that they receive and send because once you make that request they can't destroy it anymore.

So every morning at eight o'clock, you're automatically sending out a record request to the head of the, you know, finance committee or whatnot for all of the records, all of the emails sent and received that day.

How is this connecting to some of the bigger concerns about things like, about influence?

You know, you think of lobbyists, you think about the special interests, and going back to the public's right to know.

Yeah, well one of the ways that I have used records request with regard to legislation is to get the temperature of response.

Like there was a bill that tightened drunk driving laws and I went and I saw the enormous amount of

public response to that proposal most in favor of tightening our laws and people told heartbreaking stories of how drunk drivers had killed people that they knew and loved and wounded people they knew and loved added a dimension to the story you know to see the real people respond to a legislative proposal that was going to change the terrain in terms of how drunk driving is treated.

Bill we've got about a minute and a half left in your experience

Are most legislators pretty responsive to a records request or most offices or how long does it usually take for a journalist to get things or the public to get things that they've requested?

It depends.

I mean, a voluminous request may take a while.

A simple request may be answered very, very soon.

I think by and large, most public officials in Wisconsin and even most legislators are mindful of their responsibility to provide records on request.

There are records that they still do provide on a routine basis.

There's nothing that stops them from providing all of the records that people request.

There's nothing that requires them to delete records that they don't

don't want seen.

So yeah, by and large, I think there's a good deal of support among lawmakers and other public officials for the idea of transparency.

It's one of the tools they have to build trust with the people that they represent.

I know very, very quickly, can you, well, I guess, never mind.

Parker's giving me the wrap-up music.

I was gonna talk about some other exemptions, but Parker's keeping me on task here.

We're gonna have to bring you back at some point to talk about some of the other things that legislatures can do in these exemptions.

Bill Leaders is our guest this morning.

He is the president at Wisconsin Freedom of Information Council.

Thank you so much for joining us today, Bill.

Very informative stuff.

It is 8.19 right now.

Thank you.

You are listening to Daybreak.

My name is Jamie Martin.

And

I'm Brian Noon and this is the Civic Media

Network.

Thank you so much for joining us this morning.

We always appreciate it.

It is 822 right now.

A gorgeous start to the day and some much warmer temperatures coming our way over the next couple of days from a generational snowstorm to 70 over the weekend.

Brian, it's like mother nature has whiplash.

It's going to be lovely.

And then it goes back down to 40.

And then, well, hopefully we're going out like a lamb.

We got another.

just over a week of March and then once you get into April and you start thinking about Easter and opening day and it's all right

now it's

getting to the time where we can we can unclench a little bit knowing that spring will

come someday.

It's harder in the Midwest.

It's harder in the upper Midwest, but we eventually get there.

And just think, folks, one day you're going to wake up and it's going to be 90 and you're going to be like, where the hell did spring go?

Well, it turns out it's that puddle in your front yard because that was spring.

And then you're going to complain that it's too hot and somebody's going to come up and slap you.

We're just never happy.

No, nobody's happy.

Everybody's got something to complain about, especially if you're bedding.

Yesterday we talked about online bedding.

it into law here there's going to be more online betting.

Well a journalist reported on the update when the bombing started in Iran.

So at times of his real reporter then said online gamblers pressured him to change his story about an Iranian missile strike so that they could win a payout.

This is how bad the world is getting.

When journalists are being threatened

over a bet.

So the message appeared in English on Emmanuel Fabian's phone, quote, you have 90 minutes left to update the lie, said a WhatsApp message reviewed by the Washington Post.

If you do this, you'll solve in a minute the most serious problem you have caused yourself in your life.

You won't remember me anymore in a week.

Wow.

Yeah, because

it's

Man, well listen Jamie.

I'm not I'm not casting aspersions.

Your sons are big into

they are

one of them is big and online gambling

He is maybe he loses

a bet and he gets he crosses a line.

Well, I don't know if he's placing this kind of money because These were I hope not anyway because mom and dad are still paying for rent So if he's got this kind of money, we have to have a serious serious discussion But this reporter is 28 years old and he works for the times of Israel and he didn't know his

brief report had triggered inner sort of dispute over bets on the prediction market, which Polly market is where we're talking on whether an Iranian missile would strike Israel on March 10th.

Millions of dollars were potentially riding on his blog post.

And we're not just talking a few million.

We're talking about over $500 million that was traded on one prediction market when the U.S.

would actually make the first strike.

And on just one day, Brian, February 27th, tens of millions of dollars were moving and there were

reports of large targeted bets right before the strikes happened.

Now here's the part that should really make us start wondering about who these people are that are betting and what kind of money went into these decisions.

Because some accounts made over a million dollars by correctly betting on the timing of the strikes.

Several of those accounts were newly created and only betting on this one event.

And we've heard reports about

Certain first sons making a lot of money right before you know on this this bed and some other bets and other people as well So somebody had yeah seems like somebody had a little inside info.

Yeah, did

not appreciate Fabian Reporting something that they viewed as erroneous.

There are two things that scare me in this story one

First of all, the amount of money that was placed on the first strike.

Does that say anything about the type of money and people involved in these types of decisions or who are hoping for these types of decisions?

And two, does it scare anybody else that we are controlling these types of decisions based on the betting and prop bet markets?

I mean, that frightens me a little bit that this information is just so readily available out there.

that we are able to actually make this type of money on prop bets.

Well, I don't think the the public info, the information is not out there to the public.

This is, this is insider trading basically.

Yeah.

Nobody, because listen, we weren't even supposed to know that there was going to be a bombing at all.

So to start this line of betting, you have to have some sort of information that an attack is imminent.

Then

If you're putting down that kind of money, you have a tip as to when this is gonna happen.

What scares me the most is that a journalist's information is so easy to

access.

Yes,

that too.

And that we have gotten to the point in this world, because this is, PolyMarket's not available in the U.S.

So anybody in the U.S.

that made money had connections with somebody out of this country to make their bets on PolyMarket.

But that we live in a country where or world where That kind of thing yeah can happen where we can Use that old mob kind of

mentally

you're gonna make a change or something bad's gonna happen The whole thing is from top to bottom is rotten

it speaks to the billionaire class that we have in this country and the amount of power that they have and continue to accumulate more and more in different avenues and venues, though, right?

Because, you know, when we used to talk about this billionaire class, we used to talk about the tech industry and we used to talk about the Bezos of the world.

Well, now they've even surpassed, they're their own enigmas as far as

money.

And now we have these people who are out there able to

make these threats and place these billions of dollars worth of bets on actual events that are happening in the country that are affecting just casual everyday people.

I think that's frightening.

I find that absolutely frightening and I am glad that Fabian, the young reporter, is okay as well.

Well, and he finally went and he did report it to the police and because he said he did it in the hopes that anyone who's ever thinking about threatening a journalist will maybe think twice.

This is not the first though.

This is not the first controversy with this kind of thing.

If you remember back in January, somebody placed a $400,000 betting on the Oster of Maduro in Venezuela.

Um, and they canceled that bet because they were like, well, you can't, we're not betting on death and things like that.

So

it's, it's insane.

It is insane.

Uh, you know what else is insane?

Trying to pay for childcare here in Wisconsin.

So we're going to talk to Sarah Shaw, the deputy research director for Wisconsin policy forum about that coming up after

this.

Wisconsin Wakes Up Here.

Back to Daybreak with Brian and Jamie.

Thank you so much for joining us this morning on the Civic Media Network.

It is 8.35 right now.

My name is Jamie Martinson.

And good morning.

I'm Brian Noonan.

If you are a working parent, you know that the cost and availability of childcare here in Wisconsin is at the top of your list of concerns.

Funding is the

been debated in the state legislature.

No real answers have emerged, but a new report from the Wisconsin Policy Forum shows that state funding for childcare, quote, remains relatively untapped and quote.

What options does Wisconsin have to fund the necessary and struggling industry?

Sarah Shaw, Deputy Research Director at the Wisconsin Policy Forum joins us now to break down the study and share some possible solutions.

Sarah, thanks for being here this morning.

We appreciate your time.

At this point, funding for childcare in Wisconsin comes primarily from federal dollars, not state and local funds.

Your study found that Wisconsin does have options to help with that funding.

Can you share some of those and explain why if we do have the potential to secure that funding through the state why it hasn't happened yet?

Well, anytime we're talking about more funding, the question is where is that money coming from or what's not getting funded instead?

And so part of what we're seeing around the country and in Wisconsin is this growing consensus that childcare is something worth public money, but figuring out why and how too many people and how to fund it has been a different issue.

So part of what this study was about was just seeing how have other states tackled this and how have other local places tackled it with one of our

being in Wisconsin, local communities can't take this matter into their own hands the way that they can in other states.

So right now, Sarah, families feel like childcare is obviously already too expensive.

Providers say they're barely staying open.

So if we can't do it on the local side, as you're saying, what is the biggest breakdown happening in our current system?

Some of it is just tied to historically what has been the case.

Anytime there's new investments, there has to be a coalition behind it and an understanding that there's a pressing need there.

And this study wasn't about necessarily saying that that need exists,

although we

have looked in previous studies to say the economics here are just really difficult for everyone involved.

So this was more about, well, if Wisconsin does want to take a step in that direction, what could it do?

And I'll say the state actually did take a step in this direction in the latest budget.

It's the first time we have a fully state-funded program for childcare called the Get Kids Ready initiative.

It's got $65 million behind it to give money to childcare providers for their four-year-olds to help them get ready for kindergarten.

So there's some tiptoeing here.

We'll see whether that investment is sustained and whether or not there's appetite for further investment.

Sir, you mentioned that local municipalities can't really do anything.

What are the differences and the limitations that local governments have that the state would not?

On the local side in Wisconsin specifically, you have a number of limitations like no ability to put in place an income tax.

only a handful of municipalities can impose a sales tax.

And on the county side, there is an option of raising a general sales tax, but it's capped at a pretty low level.

That's been a policy decision on the part of state lawmakers and state policymakers in Wisconsin.

It has

pros and cons.

One of the forum's more recent findings is that the tax burden in Wisconsin is the lowest on state history records that we know of.

So there have been some tax policy pros for those who are interested in that line of thinking.

And then elsewhere in other states, the tax policy is different that can add to the tax burden, but also has the benefit of raising money for local priorities, whether that be childcare or otherwise.

We're talking with Sarah Shaw this morning.

She is the deputy research director at Wisconsin Policy Forum, WisconsinPolicyForum.org, if you want to check out some of their work.

Now, school districts, as we talk about the local levels, school districts seem to be one of the local options that some of these communities may have.

But you also mentioned that expanding programs like 4K could in turn hurt private childcare providers.

So how do we begin to balance some of that?

Yeah, that was a surprising thing to me coming from the K-12 sector primarily and dipping my toes into early childhood.

We think, well, school districts can just serve more kids, right?

And the answer is yes to a certain degree, although that's also sometimes a challenge.

But what happens if we expand, for example, a K-4 program for four-year-olds into kindergarten?

Those four-year-olds, if they're being served by

private childcare providers need less care in the sense of fewer adults per kid than say an infant.

So this morning right before the show, I was packing up my almost year old to go to childcare and he's in a room where there's going to be one adult for every four kids, which is appropriate for that size of a child.

I don't want him in a room that has a ton of babies and just one adult.

As the kids get older, it's okay to have more kids with fewer adults.

And so for the childcare provider side, those four-year-olds or older kids generally help them keep costs down because they don't have to spend as much money on staff.

If those four-year-olds are now all going over to a school district, for example, they're left with the higher price tag of care that infants bring.

And so it makes it harder for an already stretched industry to be able to make their bottom line.

We know this industry is stretched not only here in Wisconsin, but across the country.

So as we look at Wisconsin, how do we compare with our use of the federal funding for childcare with other states?

So this is a place where Wisconsin has really prioritized investments in childcare.

There are big pots of money that come from the federal government.

to the states that states can use at their discretion.

There's one that's entirely for child care.

So in that sense, Wisconsin is like any other state in having its child care development block grant that it can use for child care.

But then there's another one called temporary assistance for needy families.

It's specifically for our most vulnerable families.

There's a range of things that states can use it on.

And Wisconsin has really prioritized using it on child care.

So we're in the top 10 of states that are tagging those dollars for use in child care.

So it's

It's not that the state is not investing in childcare.

It's just a question of where is that investment coming from and how does it match up to the total need?

There's been a lot of talk about the state surplus and potentially using that for some for some much needed things to help families throughout the state.

The money isn't unlimited though.

And so what would be some of the trade-offs if Wisconsin would decide to spend some of that surplus money on things like childcare?

Well, anytime you're putting money in one place, you're not putting it someplace else.

Sure.

Excuse me.

So, property tax relief, for example, has been a big topic.

State funding for K-12 school districts has been a big topic.

One thing that can be appealing on the childcare side is that this is both a family need and a workforce need.

That being able to put money into childcare alleviates some strain on workforce as well.

And so the idea of potentially using positive fund balance that the state has to seed, for example, trust funds or set-aside funds, we saw this in in Etiquette and Montana where they had general fund surpluses.

They put it into basically an endowment the same way you might invest your own money and use drawdowns from that to make a long-term investment in child care.

That's not necessarily the right call for Wisconsin.

Policymakers are going to have to weigh out all of these different possibilities against each other.

But it was really interesting to see these two states saying, hey, this is a long-term need for us, so we're going to make a long-term investment.

Sarah Shaw is the deputy research director at Wisconsin Policy Forum.

We're talking about the new report that just came out, talking about...

funding for child care here in Wisconsin.

WisconsinPolicyForm.org is the website.

You can read the whole thing there.

Sarah, so based on the findings of the study and based on what you've been hearing, what are the first steps that Wisconsin should take to tap in some of this untapped ability to fund?

First, it's a question of whether Wisconsin wants to and that

decisions starts with public, making their voice known to the people who are elected to represent them and the officials who are doing the work in Madison and elsewhere to make decisions.

If there is a broad base of support and a real pressing need for something to change here, the public's ability to advocate that is the starting point.

And then it goes into policymakers' hands to determine how and why and

short term or long term.

Also note it's whizpolicyforum.org.

We

dropped the

constant part of it.

So if people do want to take a look at specific ideas on what to be advocating for, there's a whole range of options there, some of which we've already talked about and a few other ideas that we grabbed from other states as well.

Thank you for that clarification.

We'll make sure we say that correctly from here on out.

If we don't do anything in the state based on your analysis and your research, Sarah, and we can't come to some bipartisan agreement on childcare, what does the landscape look like in, say, five years?

Are there going to be more closures?

Are we talking about even higher prices than we're seeing now?

It's a tough question and that the magic eight ball is is not totally clear here or anywhere But we have been hearing from providers that that's the choice they're facing that either they Raise their prices further so that they can pay their people and keep people in in place in their in their jobs Or they shutter those are the margins that they're working on now.

We'll see if that prediction from the providers indeed does come true

The Department of Children and Families has a website up where you can track closures over time to see how many providers we still have in the state and how many slots are available.

But it sure seems clear that we are in a very fragile place right now, and there might be a lot of pieces to pick up.

Absolutely.

Sarah Shaw is our guest this morning.

She is joining us from the Wisconsin Policy Forum.

She's the deputy research director.

Please go check out this great report.

And so I get this right, wispolicyforum.org.

Did I get it right this time, Sarah?

You

got

it.

Awesome.

Thank you so much for being here this morning.

We really do appreciate it.

This is some really great information.

Brian, I think what this really comes down to right now is obviously it's going to need the bipartisan support.

in order to move this forward, which, you know, here's the thing, both parties agree something needs to be done.

So I guess in Wisconsin politics, that's step one, because we don't always even...

We

don't always get that Wisconsin politics.

So that is step one, which I can acknowledge and appreciate.

So now it's time to actually do something about it.

But I think Sarah said something interesting.

It's also about the workforce.

And I think that's what we also have to look at, because one of the things that I always go back

to when I look at childcare and the expense is we still aren't paying people a living minimum wage in this state.

And I think that also plays into it not only for the families but also for the childcare providers themselves.

Well, and it's just it's so expensive while while we were talking to Sarah, Tiffany texted in from River Falls and you can always jump into 855-755-CIVIC-855-755-248-42.

She said, our two kids in full-time daycare is 19% of our two income household.

Our mortgage is 12%.

So you're paying more for your children to go to daycare than you are for your home.

And I get it, you know,

It costs money to run these centers.

It costs money to hire employees.

And if you're, you know, whatever it costs, the employee payroll is a huge chunk of it.

And that's why a lot of these providers are leaving because they can't make a good wage as working in a daycare center.

And as Sarah mentioned, the margins for the center providers are really slim.

Yeah.

So it's just the more places close, the more expensive it's going to get for the places that are open.

The harder it's going to be to find room in those remaining centers because, well, supply and demand, folks.

And it's pretty simple.

But finding out how we're going to use this money is more complicated.

It was good to hear, though, that Wisconsin is within

the

top.

top states for this kind of thing, that we're using the money the best we can.

Yes, absolutely.

And one more time, wispolicyforum.org, if you are somebody who wants to go check out that report and more of their work.

It is 848 right now.

You are listening to Daybreak.

My name is Jamie Martenson.

I'm Brian Noon, and opening day for the Brewers is coming.

How are you going to get there?

You're listening to Civic Media.

Find the latest news, information, and archives of all your favorite shows on the Civic Media website,

civicmedia.us.

It's 8.52 right now.

Thank you so much for joining us this morning.

A beautiful morning in the area.

We're looking at so much warmer temperatures as the next few days go on, which gets us excited for the spring.

And of course, very, very excited for opening day baseball, Brian.

Yes.

Hey, was that Trace Atkins Parker?

It was.

Ooh.

All

right.

I was like, man.

Nicely

done.

That

song is not about

baseball, but it pretends it's about baseball.

Yeah, listen, all we needed it was to sound like it was about baseball.

That was fantastic.

We could pretend with the best of them.

We're good.

We're

not doing a deep

dive into Trace Adkins today.

That's for one of the fine country stations you can listen to on the Civic Media app.

That's right.

Across company time.

And remember to get that app because here in about seven minutes, you're going to have another chance to qualify in the multi-state text-to-win contest with

another keyword drops for the hour.

So look at us doing all the tie-ins this morning.

Oh my goodness, the suits are gonna love us.

I don't, that doesn't matter one way or another.

Anyway, hey, it is two weeks,

two

weeks, less than two weeks from opening day.

The Brewers are, they're not worried about, well they're worried about the lineup, they're worried about the starting rotation, they're worried about all the baseball on-field stuff, but their biggest headache may just be

people getting to the ballpark because of of all the construction and they're saying right now the Brewers are saying before you even try to get there for opening day when the Brewers take on my beloved White Sox Leave extra time.

Yeah,

don't cut it short.

Don't be one of the well I'll get there right where the Star Spangled

Banner begins and I'll be

able to stroll right in

Don't

do that.

Don't do that because I don't know if you know if you haven't been that direction yet, but Interstate 94 is undergoing major construction.

It's about a three and a half mile stretch.

It includes some long-term lane and ramp closures near Amfam field.

Another lane closure will start on, has already started.

So now we're down to like what, maybe one or two lanes in

the

vicinity.

So it's going to make things tricky.

The B-26 season so quickly approaches because that is our impetus into spring.

We know that it's coming at that point.

The Wisconsin Department of Transportation and the Brewers have announced new tools to help all of us navigate major construction near the stadium.

That's

nice of them.

Yeah, well, we can appreciate any help that we can get because if you've driven through that area, it's not fun.

So the Brewers Business Operations President, Rick Schlesinger, said that they're committed

to doing their part to make sure the fan experience is arriving and leaving the ballpark.

And it's convenient and it's efficient and obviously it's safe.

Now, you mentioned it Brian, your beloved white socks will be in town on March 26th.

First pitch is set for 1-10 in the afternoon.

And of course fans are gonna see a little relief next week as well when it comes to getting in and out of AMFAM because I-94 West of the stadium will open back up to three lanes through the entire summer.

That's like a celebration waiting to happen if you've been through that area lately.

Yes.

Well, and everybody's trying to help.

You can get all different information on road closures and all of that.

You can get it through the MLB Ballpark app, which if you don't have, you should get that one too, but not until you get the Civic Media app.

And then also, you can go to 511wi.gov.

That'll give you all the traffic information too.

So technology could be your friend.

Yes, it could be.

If you're normally against it, this could be the one time when you will absolutely appreciate it, or if it's like ours has been today and not very friendly, you have multiple sources this way.

I mean, you've got WisDOT, you've got the MLB Ballpark app, you've got 511wi.gov, you've got multiple ways to help you through the technology.

We had one source, it failed us, here we are.

So the Brewers are also bolstering their

post-game traffic mitigation efforts.

They're actually funding three additional Milwaukee County Sheriff's squads throughout this entire season.

They're going to have some onsite tow service for all home games to clear lanes of accidents or even stalled cars.

So obviously they know this is going to be a problem.

They're doing their best to make sure that you will have a great experience.

But if you are going to partake in a game at Ampham Field that I would recommend you do because it's always a fun experience.

Who doesn't love to roll out the barrel and who doesn't love.

a good sausage race, come on.

Even if you're just there for those things because you're not a huge baseball fan, guaranteeing you'll have a good time, just saying.

And I have found, and I'm glad they added this last part about bolstering the post-game traffic issues because getting in, you always expect there to be some traffic.

And if you've been there before, you know which lot you're in and you can

follow the

signs.

I don't care if it's Ampham Field, I don't care if it's Summerfest, wherever it is.

Leaving is always the worst.

It's

always horrible.

That's why people leave a concert before the encore, Brian, is that he can get to their car again.

Well, those people are... Yes, well, that doesn't make any sense, but I get it.

Now, here's something else really fun.

If you are, you know, maybe going to head to AMFAM this year, there's going to be a new fan space.

It's called UW Credit Union Plaza, and it's going to be opening at the field in June.

It'll be located just outside the stadium near that pedestrian bridge.

So fans can hang out even before they go inside.

It's free.

It's open to the public on game days.

So it's going to be much more of an accessible experience for families coming to the ballpark as well.

And it's really designed to make sure that everybody has a full day experience, not just a few hours in the stands.

There'll be a beer garden.

There's going to be a performance stage for live music.

Oh, it's going to be like a whole

thing.

You know to make it a full game day experience

in Wisconsin,

there had to be beer.

And food

trucks.

So there will be a

beer garden, like you said.

Full trucks, I love it.

If there's a brat involved and a beer involved, I mean, hello, who needs to go inside the ballpark?

Well, you should, but who would really need to at that point?

You could just hang out outside.

It is built, though, with families in mind.

So if you're bringing the kiddos, there's gonna be a playground, there's gonna be a mini golf course, there's gonna be a state-shaped mini golf hole and a cow-themed play area, and this is really just a push for the stadium to make a year-round destination.

Reminds me a little bit of what Green Bay

with Titletown.

So, you know, but yeah, people go for the experience, so you might as well build it up where you can, I guess, but sounds fun.

It's

nice if you don't want a tailgate.

You can go here with the kids.

They can play like Jamie said, and you can wander around and have a good time.

I am, though, a big proponent of the tailgating.

Oh, tailgating is the best.

I love that

Anne Pham has that.

That's the one thing that the Brewers and the White Sox have in common, a really strong tailgate culture before the games.

Although I heard cow-themed play area, I'm in.

It is 8.59 right now.

You are listening to Daybreak.

Thank you so much for joining us today.

My name is Jamie Martinson.

And I'm Brian Noonan.

Thanks for listening.

Have a wonderful day.

We will talk to you again tomorrow with more fun and frivolity on a Friday right here on The Civic Media.

The national news cycle never stops, but it can be hard to find news about your local community.

Civic Media is dedicated to providing quality local and state news coverage across Wisconsin.

With the Civic Media app, you can get notifications about local stories that matter to you and your community.

Find the free Civic Media app in your phone's app store and choose notifications from the menu to tell us what kind of news you want to hear about.