Collins: Bugging story not personal attack He compares it to past differences between board members, counsel By Ray Barrington News-Chronicle Brown County Sup. Patrick Collins wants to know if the Brown County Sheriff's Department could have handled a security issue in the county executive's office instead of API Services Inc., which was paid $3,000 for its services. The answer is: maybe, maybe not. "I want to ask the Sheriff's Department: Do you handle security matters, and if you do, could you have counseled Carol Kelso in the proper way to dispose of notes, trying to make sure you turn off the computers when you leave, locking doors, that sort of thing?" Collins said. "I feel the Sheriff's Department could have saved $3,000 by giving her the same common-sense information. "For all I know, the private firm came in and put bugs into the office. And we never got a written report from the company. For $3,000 we should get something in writing." John Gossage of the Sheriff's Department said the department would provide whatever assistance it could, but might not be able to handle some of the more technical aspects of a sweep. "It's a moot issue because we were never asked in the first place," Gossage said. "We could have done a general or generic search looking for anything suspicious. If it came to technology or very technical things, obviously we'd leave that to the experts. I'm not aware of anyone who has certification or information on our staff who'd be able to do that." Collins has added the issue to the board's Public Safety Committee meeting Wednesday. Collins said Monday he wasn't trying to "destroy" County Executive Kelso by bringing up the bill for a security study of the executive's Northern Building office. In fact, he said he didn't plan to make the story public at all until he had more information. However, his Open Records Law request for more information ended up in the hands of Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reporters, who contacted him. "And I still haven't got a reply" to the request, Collins said. "After I got the information, was I supposed to just sit on it? Well, I did sit on it to verify it, but I was called." The bill was listed as "services rendered" from the county corporation counsel's office, with no listing of being for the executive's office or the reason for the bill. Kelso said she asked for the security check, ranging from checking for wiretaps to checking door locks, after information from a personnel-matter discussion leaked out. When asked about the story after it came out, Kelso called it an example of "the politics of political destruction," citing other attacks from supervisors opposed to her policies. Collins said the phrasing bothered him. "What bothered me was the shift to it being an attack on me rather than responding to the issue," he said. "The issue is spending the money, but then trying to conceal it in another department's budget. This was an expenditure that should have come out of her budget, not the corporation counsel's." John Jacques, the corporation counsel, is the county's staff lawyer. He is serving as acting counsel pending confirmation of his appointment. Collins compared the issue to problems other board members, notably Guy Zima, had during Nancy Nusbaum's term as executive with then-counsel Kenneth Bukowski. "It's the same thing Zima accused Nusbaum and Ken Bukowski of - not talking to the County Board," Collins said. "Here we have the guy Kelso wants as counsel doing the same thing. "I bring something forward, and I'm attacked. What is that?" Collins noted Kelso, who took office in April, would not comment on the issue when first contacted, then discussed it as a security issue. "Next thing I'm going to read is that it's a national security issue to keep al-Qaida out," he said. FYI: The Public Safety Committee meets at 5:15 p.m. Wednesday in Room 200 of the Northern Building, 305 E. Walnut St.