BLOCKED, BURIED & BOUGHT OUT: Superior’s FOIA Firewall Is Real, and It’s Bullsh*t

Welcome to Superior—Where Transparency Gets a SWAT Team

If North Korea ran a midwestern city, it’d look a lot like Superior, Wisconsin—except with less K-pop and more redacted PDFs.

Let’s break it down. Citizens using JustFOIA, the ironically named platform meant to file Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests, started getting their IP addresses blocked. Not flagged. Not filtered. BLOCKED. That’s like asking for your hospital records and being told your blood type is “classified.”

And just to be clear, this ain’t a software glitch. It’s intentional filtering humming along to the theme from Mission: Implausible.

Wisconsin Law Says “Stay Anonymous,” But Superior Says “Check This Box or Else”

State law gives you the right to file public records requests without providing your name or reason. But in Superior, checking “anonymous” on your request is basically treated like ordering the secret menu at a mob-owned diner. Suspicion follows. Retribution soon after.

The law protects you from retaliation. The city? Not so much.

Try to file a FOIA digging into something messy—like, say, why a solar array was built without a battery bank in Superior for $365k—and boom, the requester gets a surprise fire inspection two hours later. Coincidence? About as believable as diet cheese curds.

Mayor Paine’s Private Easement, Public Land, and a Whole Lotta WTF

Let’s not forget the Paine-in-the-ass land deal that almost handed over 2,400 acres of publicly owned land—your land—to fix a family easement issue. That’s right: Mayor Jim “Trade Ya” Paine tried brokering a backroom swap of city property to resolve his families legal headache. You can’t make this up. It’s like trading your neighbor’s house to settle a parking ticket. And the kicker? This all happened without proper public notice and behind closed doors in meetings with the DNR and the ever-present Shifty Scherf, conveniently not posted as required. 

It was FOIA that dug up the emails laying out the whole under-the-table 6 year hustle. Without access to those records, we’d all still be thinking this deal was just a zoning myth passed around at dive bars. Instead, it’s documented proof that your land is just poker chips at Mayor Jim’s backroom table.

FOIA Roulette: Redacted Files, Blank Pages, and Data Breadcrumbs

If you’re brave (or dumb) enough to break through Superior’s FOIA firewall, you might receive a lovely gift basket from Chief of Staff Rebecca “Shifty” Scherf:

• PDFs with embedded data that can ID who requested them

• Responses packed with blank pages

• Delay tactics for months

The only thing transparent in this city is Scherf’s contempt for the public’s right to know.

Mayor Jim’s Biggest Secret? The Biggest Percentage Raises in the City

While the rest of us are deciding whether to pay rent or buy groceries, Mayor Jim Paine and his sidekick Scherf were busy getting payroll raises.

FOIA exposed it. Without it? You’d assume Jim just upgraded to that leather chair because his back hurts from carrying all that “visionary” leadership.

And let’s be real: If transparency was a pay grade, these two would be minimum wage at best.

Mayor Kim Jong Jim’s “You Must Testify” Rule for Cops

Here’s where it gets full Orwell.

After years of cops whose credibility was so trashed they couldn’t testify in court, Mayor Paine, and the City Clowncil issued an employment rule in 2021 requiring new police hires to be able to gasp testify.

Let that sink in. You’re telling me they knew they had officers who couldn’t take the stand? In a city that knew this was a problem in 2021, and still did nothing again when false charges were finally exposed against citizens in 2024?

FOIA didn’t just uncover the issue. It dragged it into daylight, kicking and screaming.

This isn’t policy. It’s negligence duct-taped to tax payer liability.

The Solar Array With No Batteries !?! & Seasonal Depression ?!?

Superiors Mayor Paine and the Clown Council spent your money installing a solar array on a fire station… without a battery bank ($365k). In a city where the sun plays hide and seek from October to May and seasonal depression is an annual tradition.

It’s like buying a treadmill and throwing away the motor.

And you know how we found out? Yup. FOIA.

Charlie Berens and the $100K Clown Fund

Remember when Wisconsin comedian Charlie Berens was nearly booked to market Superior?

Well, surprise! It wasn’t the Tourism Commission. The FOIA emails showed it was Shifty pushing the Berens debacle, trying to push $100k of taxpayer cash on a “Please Like Us” marketing campaign. 

FOIA exposed that too. Without it, the TDC, and Graskey would still be getting blamed for something they were barely involved in. 

You Paid for It, You Deserve to See It

The lesson here? FOIA isn’t a favor—it’s a right.

Every shady email. Every absurd raise. Every PDF booby-trapped with blank pages. It’s all yours. Paid for with your tax dollars and held hostage by people who treat the public like an inconvenience.

You don’t owe the city your identity. You don’t owe them an excuse. You don’t have to check a box or accept their intimidation.

Because they’re not protecting your privacy—they’re protecting themselves from your questions.

Mic Drop: Redacted Lies, Inflated Egos & Your Damn Right to Know

Here’s the bottom line, people: Superior isn’t hiding mistakes. It’s hiding intentions—and doing it with the finesse of a kid smearing frosting over a stolen cupcake.

When JustFOIA blocks IPs, and Sherf booby-traps public record requests, and retaliate against folks for simply asking, “Hey, why is the mayor playing Monopoly with public land?”—you’re not running a city. You’re running a cover-up. With taxpayer money. While playing dumb in high-resolution.

Mayor Jim “Delete My Browser History” Paine and his ride-or-die Rebecca “Shifty” Scherf aren’t just gatekeeping information—they’re acting like they own it. And City Council? Half of them are too busy checking their reelection odds or carrying Jim’s emotional baggage to notice the body count of public trust.

This ain’t about left or right. It’s about right and wrong.
And FOIA? That’s the pry bar between us and their political Jenga tower of lies.

So next time they redact a sentence or block your IP, remember: they’re not protecting “confidentiality.”

They’re protecting themselves from you learning what they really think of the people who pay their salaries.

Spoiler: It’s not flattering.
And now, thanks to FOIA, neither are the facts.