DOT attorney: Doyle appointees sought to delay study release
(Published Friday, February 2, 2007 11:47:47 PM CST)
A d v e r t i s e m e n t
Associated Press
MADISON, Wis. - A state Department of Transportation attorney says two appointees of Gov. Jim Doyle told him to delay the release of a politically damaging 2004 report.
Jim Thiel testified Thursday he had been told to not release the report until after he got a copy of a Department of Administration rebuttal that questioned the DOT's finding that state engineers cost 18 percent less than consultants.
Doyle pledged during the 2002 governor's race to trim 10,000 employees from state payrolls and has argued that contractors could do some work more cheaply than state employees.
Thiel said the order came from Randy Romanski, a top aide to Transportation Secretary Frank Busalacchi, and he said Employment Relations Director Karen Timberlake also described the strategy to him.
Thiel testified that he had never seen such an approach to releasing records in his 31 years as chief counsel.
But Doyle spokesman Matt Canter told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel on Thursday that the governor's office played no role in delaying the release of the DOT report.
The reports were released in November 2004. Thiel was removed as chief counsel and became a staff attorney in December 2004, shortly after he released another document that showed the DOT delayed for months the release of the report on state employee costs.
Thiel testified during a hearing before the Wisconsin Employment Relations Commission in which he is asking the commission to find that the DOT abused its discretion. He is asking that the DOT pay his attorney fees and give him his old job back when it comes open.
The commission does not have the authority immediately to put Thiel back in the post. It is now held by Robert Jambois, a former Kenosha County district attorney who served on Doyle's 2002 campaign committee.
Lester Pines, who is representing the DOT in the case, said Thiel was not demoted but simply transferred to another job, which is within Busalacchi's purview.
The DOT agreed last week to pay a $500 forfeiture as part of a settlement for not complying with an open records request for the report comparing the cost of using state workers and contractors.
Pines said Thiel's removal did not stem from his release of the report, and Busalacchi had contemplated replacing Thiel as early as 2003.
David J. Prucha, director of human resources for the University of Wisconsin Extension, testified Thursday that Thiel could have trouble finding another job because he is "faced with a resume that shows a backward step."
But, under questioning from Pines, Prucha said he could not list any other jobs Thiel had been denied.
