Oops! ‘Secret group’ is secret no more

News analysis

A secret (or maybe not-so-secret) group of environmentalists that has supposedly been suspected of monitoring the activities of the Oneida County zoning committee has been accidentally exposed by the organizer of the group, an activist with Wisconsin Lakes.

Assuming, of course, that anyone ever really suspected that a group existed in the first place and that the group actually sees itself as a group.

Apparently, the nameless-but-not-faceless-and-not-really-secret group has someone attend zoning meetings, in person or via Zoom, then report back. A newsletter allegedly circulates and sometimes open records requests are sent to drill down into the committee’s activities, especially on shoreland zoning issues.

According to an email sent to Oneida County zoning director Karl Jennrich from Dan Butkus, an official with Wisconsin Lakes, the group has previously operated in the shadows (but not really), that is, until Butkus accidentally sent an email to Jennrich exposing its existence.

The accident occurred when Butkus, who was fishing around to have someone send an open records request to Oneida County board chairman and zoning committee chairman Scott Holewinski, also accidentally sent the email to Jennrich. The Lakeland Times obtained the email string though an open records request.

Butkus intended to send the original email to his “group” asking for people to send the records request because he wanted to “lay low.” On the list of nearly 50 names was a veritable Who’s Who of Northwoods environmental activists and supporters: former DNR official Bob Martini, former Oneida County supervisor Bob Mott, current Oneida County supervisors Linnaea Newman and Lenore Lopez, DNR alum Tom Jerow, former assistant county corporation counsel Tom Wiensch, Sarah Juon, Kathleen Cooper, Karl Fate, Eileen Lonsdorf, and Joe Steinhage, among others.

Also on the list was Lakeland Times outdoors writer Beckie Gaskill.

In the email to the list, Butkus warned that the issue of revisions to the county’s shoreland ordinance was resurfacing and that maybe it was time for an open records request to be sent the county’s way.

“It may be useful to know two things: 1) a summary of all payments made to attorney Larry Konopacki since July of 2022 (ask Finance Director); and 2) the reports received from Larry Konopacki (ask Karl Jennrich),” Butkus wrote. “Both should be subject to an ORR [open records request]. ORR’s should be in writing.”

Butkus was asking for volunteers because, he wrote, he wanted to fly under the radar.

“I’d like to not do these ORR’s,” he wrote. “I’ve done a number of them recently. The last one resulted in 379 pages from Scott Holewinski. I should lay low for a while.”

Butkus then included contact information for Jennrich and Oneida County finance director Tina Smigielski and closed with “Any takers?”

Typical me

Jennrich was obviously surprised to open his email and find that missive in his inbox, so he sent a response to Butkus to clarify the situation.

“Is this an open records request or are you asking these individuals to submit an open records request?” Jennrich asked Butkus. 

Butkus replied that Jennrich was accidentally included on the request.

“Ha ... yeah, I accidentally copied you on this email,” Butkus wrote to Jennrich on May 20. “I wanted to get your email address correct, so I put it in my CC list copied it to the body of the email, and then ... forgot to delete your name from the CC list. Typical me.”

Butkus went to say that the list was of a “group” that gets zoning committee recaps.

“These people get the P&D summary I put out,” he wrote. “I (or someone from our group) attends the meeting and we issue a summary of the meeting as it relates to shoreland issues. Kind of a newsletter of sorts.”

According to Butkus, the group has a back-and-forth and give-and-take on various zoning committee issues. This one involved the zoning committee’s hiring of outside counsel Larry Konopacki, who is helping the county draft ordinance language related to shoreland revisions. The county has been at loggerheads with the Department of Natural Resources over several provisions — and might challenge the agency — including the agency’s prohibition of stairs to reach a boathouse rooftop used as a deck. 

The legislature has sanctioned such rooftop use, but the DNR formally blocks stairway access to the legal use. Butkus allowed that the “group” could use some more information on Konopacki’s status.

“We had kicked around the idea of an ORR on the Larry Konopacki issue,” Butkus explained to Jennrich. “This email was a solicitation of the group to see if someone would like to step forward and make an ORR. I know I am wearing out my welcome at the county. I’m sure you heard from Scott (he told nearly anyone who would listen) about my last ORR with him. Yeah, even I heard about the grumbling 180 miles away.”

So Butkus said he didn’t want to take the lead.

“I figured I’d take the bench after my last request,” he wrote. “He deserves a break from me, and I from him.”

So, Butkus warned Jennrich, someone on that list might fire off the open records requests: “So don’t be surprised when an ORR appears officially sometime on this subject.”

Butkus then apologized for accidentally copying Jennrich on the email and fessed up that he guessed the secret was out about the group, confirming what he said many believed — that a group had come together to monitor the committee.

“But now you know what you and others mostly suspected ... there is a large group following the P&D meetings on shoreland issues,” he wrote. “It really wasn’t a secret anyway. We just coalesce around the same issue despite our widely different methods. Just continuing on with what [former Oneida County supervisor] Bob Thome started.”

Sure enough, the day after Butkus appealed for help, he got it from one of those he emailed, Tom LaDue. In an email sent to Holewinski, Jennrich, and assistant zoning director Todd Troskey, LaDue asked for all emails, reports, summaries, and text messages between Konopacki and the three officials from January 1, 2024, to May 20, 2024, related to the proposed shoreland revision. 

The same day LaDue sent a request to Oneida County finance director Tina Smigielski for payments to Konopacki’s law firm, Stafford Rosenbaum. Those payments totaled $3,472 through the dates of the request. A budget of $10,000 has been authorized for the project.

As open records requests go, it was a minor one. But at least everybody who suspected that a group was watchdogging the zoning committee — if anybody was indeed wondering such a thing — knows there is, and can rest assured that it has now been exposed, even though it wasn’t really a secret anyway.

Richard Moore is the author of “Dark State” and may be reached at richardd3d.substack.com.