Twenty-one-year-old Ian Matthews has restored hundreds of shoes, from Jordans to Yeezys to Chuck Taylors.

Matthews has been working as a modern-day cobbler for just over three years. “I learned how to clean my own shoes really well and figured I could do that for my friends and charge them a little bit,” he says. He got his start by doing cleanings, reverse sole yellowings and paint jobs. “It took off from there,” he says.

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Photo credit: Paulius Musteikis/Madison Magazine

Wisconsin’s open records law begins with a declaration: “In recognition of the fact that a representative government is dependent upon an informed electorate, it is declared to be the public policy of this state that all persons are entitled to the greatest possible information regarding the affairs of government and the official acts of those officers and employees who represent them.”

That’s pretty unequivocal. When government officials at the state and local level create a record — any record — under this law, the public has a right to see it. We are allowed to obtain, inspect and even scrutinize these records.

And that’s exactly what you should do when you want information.

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