County’s top lawyer berates supervisor over contract allegations

By DAVID STEINKRAUS
Journal Times

Tuesday, February 26, 2008 9:27 PM CST

IVES GROVE — It’s not unusual for county staff to talk to the county board, but what was unusual Tuesday evening was Corporation Counsel Jonathan Lehman chastising Supervisor Diane Lange for her comments about a contract he reviewed.

The contract is for laundry service at Ridgewood Care Center, the county’s nursing home, and it was given to Superior Health Linens. In a letter to the supervisor whose committee oversees Ridgewood, Lange said that Superior had misrepresented itself and that the contract had been subsequently amended after she started asking questions. Her question was whether Superior was accredited by the Healthcare Laundry Accreditation Council. The company wasn’t; the contract amendment and an e-mail to Lange both say the company had only applied for that status.

That subsequent change should be looked at, Lange told the board. “It is also deeply troubling,” she wrote in her letter to the committee, “that County Executive McReynolds and Mr. Lehman signed the amendment, particularly after I began to raise questions about Superior’s contract accreditation.”

Lehman told the board that Lange was misrepresenting facts. Accreditation was not a requirement in the county’s bidding documents and thus was not material to the contract, he said. Nor have Ridgewood administrators had any performance problems with Superior, he said. His review of the amendment was delayed, it’s true, he wrote in a letter to the board, because he had knee surgery.

In his first year on the job, he told supervisors, Lange publicly questioned his ability to maintain attorney-client confidentiality, and he let the issue slide.

“I just want to say at this point ... I’d like to know what the rules are here because if it’s all about at your convenience, that you’re going to make an attempt to damage my professional reputation, then I need to know that because I’ll be much more aggressive if that is the case.”

Although many supervisors had questions and wanted to talk, Chairman Mike Miklasevich, with the support of Vice Chairman Bob Miller, deferred those comments because the subject was not on the board’s agenda and any discussion could thus be a violation of Wisconsin’s Open Meetings Law.

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