A group chat among Madison alders using the secure messaging app Signal is legal, as long as no Common Council business is discussed, City Attorney Mike Haas said. But a freedom of information advocate said it still raises questions because the app’s disappearing messages function makes it impossible to know whether Alders used it to discuss proposals before the council.
One Signal group chat brought to Madison365’s attention has been active since April 2025, started by former alder MGR Govindaranjan following that spring election. It currently has eight members, but has previously had as many as 12. Various members have set the “disappearing messages” function to automatically delete messages at varying intervals from eight hours to one week, according to screen shots obtained by Madison365.
Why Signal raises questions
Signal is regarded as one of the most secure messaging apps, as it employs end-to-end encryption and does not store messages or user data on a central server. That means once messages are received and deleted, they’re gone forever and can’t be retrieved or released, even under a court order.
That raises an open records question for Bill Lueders, president of the Wisconsin Freedom of Information Council.
“My question is, why are they using Signal Chat?” Lueders said. “It seems to me the only distinction or advantage is that it allows them to communicate secretly without people being able to have a record of their communication, which to me sounds like they’re trying to break the law.”
The use of any messaging app – even email – also raises questions regarding open meetings law, which prohibits discussion of official business among a quorum of members (in Madison, that means 14) without public notice. In fact, the City of Madison posts public notices of social functions where 14 or more Alders might be in attendance.
In his onboarding presentation for new alders, Haas notes that it’s also prohibited to gather enough members to potentially form a negative quorum – that is, enough potential votes to block any proposal. In some cases, that could be as few as five; 12 would always constitute a negative quorum.
In 2020, then-City Attorney Michael May wrote in a formal opinion that any meeting of five or more alders should be given public notice.
But neither open records law nor the open meetings law, nor the relevant city of Madison ordinances, would be applicable to purely personal conversations.
Every Alder who responded to questions from Madison365 said the Signal group chat in question was only used for personal communications. Some said Signal was used in other instances for communication regarding City business, but that they saved such messages to comply with open records law.
Council Friends 2025
Screen shots provided to Madison365 indicate that Govindaranjan started the group, called “Council Friends 2025,” on April 15, 2025, two weeks after the April 1 spring election and the day the new council was sworn in. Messages were initially set to disappear after eight hours; District 1 Alder John Duncan, who has since left the council and the chat group, disabled disappearing messages.
“Good idea to have disappearing messages off, I think,” Govindarajan wrote in the group. “Main reminder for this group: no city business can be discussed here.” He then announced that the group would have a “friends hangout/election-celebration” at the Paradise bar in Madison the following Saturday.
According to the screenshots, then-newly-elected alder Carmella Glenn, who is now vice president of the Council, reactivated the disappearing messages function and set it to delete messages after eight hours on April 21.
Glenn told Madison365 that she didn’t recall activating that setting.
“I apologize. I was not thinking about open records,” she said. “I didn’t even know enough about open records. It was my first day.”
No screenshots reviewed by Madison365 indicate that anyone disabled the disappearing messages function in the nearly 18 months since. In fact, several members adjusted the timing of automatic message deletion.
Screen shots indicate that Govindarajan left the group after the spring 2026 election, in which he did not run for re-election, and Duncan left the group in July, when he resigned his seat because he was moving out of the city. Govindaranjan made District 10 Alder Yanette Figueroa Cole the group’s administrator. Both she and Council President Sabrina Madison left the group on July 24, two days after Madison police shot and killed Corey Ruiz. Neither answered a question from Madison365 asking why they left the group. Figueroa Cole made Alder Julia Matthews administrator of the group when she left.
As of September 28, eight members remained in the group: Glenn, Matthews, and Alders Derek Fields, Dina Nina Martinez-Rutherford, John Guequirre, Regina Vidaver, Sean O’Brien and Will Ochowicz.
Madison365 sent a number of questions to all the current members of the group; those who responded said they only used the group for personal purposes such as scheduling social gatherings and sharing news or announcements.
“I use Signal as an easy way to share news and for social planning in a more secure platform than texting,” Vidaver wrote in an email to Madison365. “I do not remember any Council business being conducted in the Signal group.”
“The chat referenced (in Madison365’s questions) was not used for the purpose of conducting official communications and therefore does not fall within the retention requirement outlined in” Madison ordinances, Figueroa Cole wrote.
“The chat was created originally as a post-election for current and newly elected alders who had met before the election,” Ochowicz wrote. “No city business was discussed in the chat, it was mainly to notify of events like parties or barbeques, or to share notifications from Voces De Fronteras on ICE sightings.”
“Shortly after I joined the Council in January 2024, one or more alders shared that the Signal app had been used for some time for non-city business, that is, social interactions,” Guequirre wrote. “I had not used the app previously, but saw no objection to the platform for the described purpose … Typical chats have involved (1) where to meet socially, (2) event recommendations, (3) reading recommendations, (4) other social interactions. Two of the longest chats I can remember involved vacation photos and recipes … I hesitate to say Council and Committee business has never been discussed because it takes a little time to absorb all of the nuances of the open meetings and open records laws. When business ends up in a post, veteran alders are quick to ‘coach’ the novices.”
No alders who responded to Madison365 acknowledged being members of other Signal groups; screenshots from a different group administered by Martinez-Rutherford indicate she shut it down after receiving questions from Madison365. That group had 11 members, four of whom are no longer members of the council, and a former alder who was a member said the group was not active and she wasn’t even aware the group existed until she got a notification that the group had been closed.
Guequirre and Glenn both gave examples of council business being discussed via Signal outside the group chat.
Guequirre said he received a Signal message from Vidaver about cosponsorship of a resolution; knowing that constituted City business, he saved the message, he said.
Glenn provided screen shots to Madison365 showing messages from Figueroa Cole containing background information on funding for a men’s homeless shelter. Figueroa Cole had the messages set to delete after one day; Glenn took a screen shot for records retention purposes.
Glenn said after receiving an open records request in August, she started to realize the potential problems of using Signal, especially among so many members.
“I want it to stop,” she said.
What the law says
Madison General Ordinance says city officials, which includes city employees as well as elected alders, “shall refrain” from communicating via text message or instant messaging “for official communications purposes or for matters that would result in a public record if another format such as email or written communications were employed, unless the employee or official preserves a copy of such communications.”
Haas said that means personal communications via text or instant message are allowed, as personal communications do not constitute public records, and that it’s also permissible to discuss official business if those messages are saved.
The same is true on the open meetings question: it’s permissible for more than five alders to gather or have a conversation, as long as they don’t discuss city business.
But due to the nature of Signal, the media and the community are left to take officials at their word that they’re not using it to discuss city business. Other forms of communication are generally preserved, and even if alders exclude communications they deem as personal from open records requests, a court could adjudicate otherwise and compel such records be released.
“Rightly or wrongly, the state’s open meetings law seeks to ensure that the deliberative process plays out in public, that people aren’t going around cutting backdoor deals and reaching decisions outside of the public forum where they meet as a body,” said Lueders of the Freedom of Information Council. “They’re supposed to hash out their government business in a public setting. Those deliberations are supposed to be taking place in a public venue and not behind closed doors and not behind closed apps.”
