Investigations into ethics complaints against Shawano County elected and appointed officials have ended with no action taken by the county’s ethics and executive committees.
Tom Kautza, county board chairman, told supervisors June 25 the matters were settled, but Supervisor Lowel Hammett refused to let it go.
He asked for a closed session meeting at next month’s board meeting to discuss the ethical issues and more.
“We can first discuss past and current employee matters,” he said. “Second, the notarized statement and complaint already given to the executive committee by Carney Garcia and others. Third, to determine where the missing million dollars is and who lost it.”
Those comments brought out a heated exchange between Hammett and Kautza.
“What million dollars, Lowel?” Kautza asked, his voice rising.
“You’re the one that said it,” Hammett said.
“This is ridiculous,” Kautza said. “I’m not going to get into a big argument here. This is nonsense.”
“So you’re denying it?” Hammett shouted back.
Supervisor Joe Miller seconded Hammett’s motion, which eventually was defeated 19-5.
Voting to hold a closed session discussion were Hammett, Jeremy Gretzinger, Jacob Hartwig, Miller and Lynn Tober-Steinke.
Allan Kuhn, Kathy Luebke and Mike Wizner were absent from the meeting.
“The issue is dead,” Kautza said. “Let’s get back to something serious. That’s what we’re here to do.”
Lack of transparency claimed
The meeting began with resident Carney Garcia questioning the actions of the county board when dealing with ethics complaints.
“I’m here to formally address a matter involving serious ethical misconduct and what appears to be a systemic failure of oversight in Shawano County government,” she said.
Garcia said she initially filed a certified and notarized ethics complaint with Kautza and Jim Davel, administrative coordinator, May 18, 2023.
“Today, that complaint has not been acknowledged, investigated or forwarded to any functioning ethics body,” Garcia said, noting that Hammett, as chairman of the ethics committee, has not been informed of the complaint.
“This raises serious questions about transparency,” Garcia said.
She claimed Davel, Kautza and Larenda Maulson, corporation counsel, were suppressing information related to ethics complaints.
“This is not a procedural oversight,” Garcia said. “It’s a deliberate act of concealment.”
She said the county has failed to maintain a functioning ethics committee for several years in violation of state law.
Garcia closed her comments by telling supervisors if no action was taken in a reasonable time, she would contact state officials.
Kautza denied Garcia’s accusations.
“The ethics committee did receive her complaint, and Lowel recused himself, because he knew the other party the complaint was about,” Kautza said. “They have been holding meetings. In fact, they held their last one the other day, and the result was they decided not to pursue any further action.”
Later in the meeting, Hammett corrected Kautza.
“I did not recuse myself from Miss Garcia’s; I only recused myself from the one issue that we had,” he said, noticing the expression on Kautza’s face. “Is something funny? Explain it to me.”
Stay inside the lines
Kautza reiterated several times during the meeting that the county board has rules to follow, and those rules were followed in dealing with the complaints.
“There’s nothing that came to the ethics committee the hasn’t been answered,” he said. “The process is being followed as it should.”
To bolster Kautza’s case, Andy Phillips, general outside counsel for the Wisconsin Counties Association, gave a 60-minute presentation on the history of Wisconsin counties; the roles of supervisors, hired staff and constitutionally elected officers; the importance of a county board committee structure; and a brief review of the Open Meetings Law.
“The procedures were followed in the past. They always will be. They’ll be followed again in the future,” Kautza said. “We have a set of rules. You follow the procedures. You start going outside the lines, you never know what you’re going to get.”
He said the executive committee reviewed three cases, without saying what those cases were about, and decided no more action would be taken.
He said a 2022 complaint was addressed by outside counsel who recommended no action.
“There’s nothing happening,” he said, alluding to talks of a conspiracy. “There’s no hidden scenario.”
Miller was upset because he’s not on the executive committee and did not attend the closed session when the issues were discussed. Now, even he can’t find out details of the discussion.
Kautza claimed anyone involved in a closed session is prevented by the law from discussing those topics in the open.
“I’m a board supervisor, and I’ve got a right to know,” Miller said. “In other words, if I’m not present at that meeting, I don’t have any right to know what went on in there?”
kpasson@newmedia-wi.com
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