Lee Pulaski, lpulaski@shawanoleader.com
Shawano County officials are trying to figure out how employee pay information was published along with minutes of a meeting on the county’s website.
The Administrative Committee minutes for its May 12 meeting contained six pages with employee names, positions, current pay and proposed pay. The information is part of a wage study conducted by Carlson Dettmann Consulting, LLC, but was supposed to remain confidential until the study received committee approval.
Although the County Board approved the minutes for the Administrative Committee and other committees that met in May, the minutes on the website had not been approved prior to the County Board meeting on Wednesday.
As of Thursday afternoon, the salary information had been removed from the website, with only the unofficial minutes remaining.
Several county supervisors were furious that the information was made public prematurely and said Wednesday they want to know who is responsible.
“We did not want it out, but (County Clerk) Rosemary (Rueckert) said that for some reason it’s on the website,” said County Board Chairman Jerry Erdmann, who sits on the Administrative Committee. “I wasn’t aware of this until tonight.”
The information had been on the site for at least a week. Supervisor Rick Giese said he received a call on May 22 while he was in Minneapolis for a family event.
“I had somebody grumbling at me about something I didn’t know about,” Giese said. “I always thought the flow chart was the taxpayers, us and on the way down. Who the heck put this online?”
Administrative Coordinator Tom Madsen claimed he did not know who specifically put the information into the public minutes but said he would accept full responsibility.
“It probably came from my department, but I can’t say that for sure, either,” Madsen said.
Carlson Dettmann was hired by the County Board in December 2013 to look at consolidating job positions and conduct a wage study to see if what the county paid its employees was in line with other Wisconsin counties and municipalities.
If the County Board approves the recommendations in the wage study, it will cost about $240,000 in 2015 to implement. Pay would be frozen for about 7 percent of the county’s 294 employees, while the other 93 percent could get anywhere from 8 cents to $5.24 more per hour, depending on what the Administrative Committee approves.
Employees will be able to appeal the Carlson Dettmann recommendations. The committee is still determining how the appeal process will work.