There’s an update to a story about which I posted earlier this week, about a Wisconsin State Journal story entitled, “DOT Official’s Company Rings Up Hundreds of Thousands of Dollars in State Business.” The story described how a “company co-owned by a state transportation official has done hundreds of thousands of dollars in business with the state – some of it with the official’s own agency – raising questions about whether he used his government job for private gain, a Wisconsin State Journal investigation has found.”
Robert Jambois, chief legal counsel for the Wisconsin Department of Transportation, has “asked the Office of State Employment Relations to give its opinion on the conduct of Carl Guse, the focus of a Wisconsin State Journal investigation Sunday.”
As one can guess, there’s more information revealed about this possible conflict:
Jambois told the State Journal that his agency has suspended purchases of frequency licenses while it investigates possible ethical programs with Guse’s outside business ties.
Since 2003, the DOT and the state Office of Justice Assistance have paid at least $877,980 to secure private radio frequencies as part of statewide efforts to coordinate emergency radio communications.Of that, $247,500 went to Badger Spectrum, a company Guse co-owns. In most cases, records show, the company bought the frequencies in Federal Communications Commission auctions for as little as $325 each, then resold them to the state two years later for $12,000 each.
Guse told the State Journal he has never used his state position to steer business toward Badger Spectrum and said safeguards had been set up to insulate him from state purchasing decisions.
See, DOT Asks for Ethics Review of Employee over Sale of Radio Frequencies.