SHAWANO, WI- Shawano County Administration is questioning the process that Shawano County Sheriff Adam Bieber used in his last round of Sheriff Deputy interviews.
At the Executive Committee meeting on Tuesday, Bieber was asked why he had asked members of the public to sit in for the interviews when that was not spelled out in the ordinance.
Bieber said this was the first time he did it, and told County Board Chairman Tom Kautza and Interim County Administrative Coordinator Jim Davel that he has every right to do.
Davel said that there was concern from Human Resources, because the ordinance did not directly mention that the public could be part of the Examining Authority.
“That’s where the question is,” said Kautza. “I know you have the right to pick people on that panel, but just picking people from the public that might know nothing about the job?,” Kautza asked.
“Nobody is trying to tell you who to hire, but our concern is that the intent of the board is being met and that we are not getting into a liability issue. The recommendation is that we clean up the ordinance a little bit,” responded Davel.
Sheriff Bieber defended his actions by saying that being open and transparent is important. Supervisor Jerry Erdman agreed with him.
“Citizen members need to see what the county is doing,” said Erdman. It is good faith effort.”
Bieber said what he is doing has been done other places before.
“I am not trying to reinvent the wheel, this is what sheriff departments and police departments across the nation are doing with all the events that are going on right now.”
Kautza then started questioning who was invited and said he too exception to the choice of inviting community member Richard Kucksdorf.
“One of the names that I was concerned with is the chairman of the Republican Party in the County and we can’t have politics in this.”
Bieber got defensive and told Kautza that he was injecting politics by labeling him as only that.
“He is a retired colonel and a former member of the Sheriff’s Department. Are you just picking that out of his background? If he is Christian, are you going to cite him for that as well? This is micromanagement at its finest.”
Kautza said he was trying to keep the process free of politics.
“Ask any citizen if this is a good idea or not,” said Bieber. “They are going to say it is because it is open and transparent. There is nothing wrong with having citizens in there.”
Bieber explained how he wanted to do the interview process. He said he planned on having two panels. One with members of law enforcement to ask law enforcement questions and one with community members to address issues that would be important to parents and members of the Shawano Community.
Kautza questioned the need and asked why he would have two panels.
“If we are asking a law enforcement type question, would you know the answer to that Tom?”
“It depends on the question, I have a lot of common sense,” Kautza replied. “So don’t the members of the community have common sense Tom,” Bieber asked? “I am not picking people at random. These are people who are respected in our community. I am not going to Walmart and grabbing people.”
Davel told Bieber that by spelling out that two members of the public can be part of the Examining Authority, it would settle the concern with HR and give him what he wanted. Bieber said spelling out the number of people makes the process more difficult.
The Executive Committee decided to suggest that the ordinance gets more spelled out on who can sit in on interviews and be sent out to a legal counsel for writing since the county does not have a full-time Corporation Counsel. The committee agreed to taking a look at the new ordinance next meeting and will decide if they want to pass it on to the entire County Board for approval at a future meeting.
Bieber said the ordinance already allows him to invite who he wants and said by making more stipulations, it complicates the process.
Kautza ended up voting to allow for the public to sit in during the meetings, as long as it is spelled out to avoid conflict. The vote by the Executive Committee was unanimous.
“I want to be a hell of a lot different in Shawano County then they are in Minneapolis,” Kautza closed with. Bieber answered quickly.
“Then I would advise you to let people sit in on interviews then.”
Listen to the exchange of dialog from the meeting discussion.
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