By Ray Barrington
News-Chronicle
A Brown County supervisor is accusing County Executive Carol Kelso of her own version of "regime building."
Sup. Mary Marquardt, who represents part of Bellevue on the board, blasted Kelso for appointments earlier this month to a task force looking at the Brown County Mental Health Center, citing at least two of them as donors to Kelso's 1998 campaign for the state Assembly.
Kelso, for her part, said she was angered by the charges.
"If two of those people gave me campaign dollars - well, I think that's a strange way to reward friends by saying we want to take your time and expertise for free," Kelso said. "I think that's an insult to people willing to become involved in government today."
She added that one member, John Hickey, had contributed to the campaign of her opponent for executive, Len Teresinski. Hickey, a former treasurer at Fort Howard Paper Co., and Tom Koehler, head of Aurora Health Care's northern region, are listed as donors to her 1998 campaign.
The 16-member task force is looking at the operations of the center from finances to staffing and contracts.
Marquardt said she was passing along concerns from a constituent to the media. "I think there's a pattern of a little regime being set up," she said. "This plan has been in the works for more than a year. I know Kelso made phone calls supporting Ken Simons for board chairman."
Marquardt also complained about the appointment of John Jacques as corporation counsel - the county's lawyer - saying he had not applied for the position.
And she was angry at Simons' appointment of John Gower to fill the board vacancy created when Jim Schmitt was elected mayor of Green Bay.
"We knew as soon as Schmitt announced his candidacy that (Gower) was going to be appointed," Marquardt said. "We were effectively gagged that evening from presenting people more qualified and representative of the district."
Simons denounced Marquardt's denunciation.
"John Gower had the most credentials, and if she don't like him, that's tough," Simons said.
As for the task force, "I wouldn't know a soul on the task force if they came up to me on the street; that's all Carol's selections," he said. "They just don't like Carol. It's personal, very personal. It's unsubstantiated, unfounded and it disappoints me if you think it's newsworthy."
Kelso defended her choices, many of them with medical backgrounds.
"The fact that I've asked citizens to help us use their expertise on a difficult and controversial issue would point in the opposite direction; I think it's open government, grass-roots," Kelso said.
"The task force has worked very hard on the issue and came out with a lot of information. Frankly, not all the previous information the supervisors had was accurate: the psychiatric center was not making money; we had out-of-county residents, the county subsidy of this out of levy dollars. (Marquardt) should be glad to have as full an array of information as possible."
Kelso announced earlier this month that 46 percent of the MHC psychiatric clients are from outside the county and pay $50 less for their stays than it costs the county to handle them.
The 12-member task force includes nine people, including Koehler, with health-care ties: Karl Appleton, chief financial officer at St. Vincent Hospital; the Rev. John and Carole Machek, chaplain at Bellin Hospital and nurse educator for the Aging Resource Center of Brown County, respectively; John Delwiche, a mental-health advocate; Helen Desotelle, Santa Maria Nursing Home; Chris Koehler, Tom Koehler's wife, a nurse; Donna Zunker, owner-administrator of Grancare Nursing Center; and retired doctor S.K. Tibbetts.
Others are chairman Hank Wallace, a retired educator; Dave Edlebeck, a civil engineer; John Bloor, president of Curative Rehabilitation; and Pat Hickey, active with Aspiro, the former Brown County Association for Retarded Citizens.
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