This story first appeared in the Sunday edition of the Wisconsin State Journal newspaper.
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.
Carl Guse, who manages the radio channels used by emergency responders, and a partner have for years bought rights to frequencies that were later sold to the state, some at an enormous profit.
Several experts questioned the sales, saying the type of frequencies the state buys are normally available to public safety agencies for free.
Guse's outside work has had the blessing of his bosses at the Department of Transportation, who have made some efforts to insulate him from state purchasing decisions.
But it's unclear whether his superiors were aware of the extent to which Guse - privately dubbed by some associates "the god of radio" for his considerable knowledge and expertise in the arcane world of emergency communications - profited from state actions over which he had some influence.
The state and a private group charged by the Federal Communications Commission with coordinating public-safety radio frequencies are reviewing Guse's official actions in light of his extensive private business interests. Guse, whose salary is $59,833 a year, has been the State Patrol's frequency specialist since 1997.
Robert Jambois, DOT's chief legal counsel, said his agency suspended purchases of frequency licenses last month while he investigates possible ethical problems with Guse's outside business ties. The probe began in March after a Motorola executive raised questions about Guse's potential conflicts of interest, Jambois said.
"The purpose of the code of ethics is to ensure ... the only economic benefit I derive from being a state employee is my state paycheck," Jambois said. "I'm not supposed to derive any other benefit, and neither is Carl Guse."
But Guse said he and his bosses made "extraordinary efforts" to ensure the relationship between his personal business and state work was "squeaky clean."
"I honestly believe I haven't done anything wrong," Guse said.
Coordinating signals
In the wake of disasters such as Hurricane Katrina and 9/11, when firefighters and other emergency responders reportedly failed to receive critical information that could have saved hundreds of lives, the state has sought to coordinate the channels public safety agencies use to communicate.
For Wisconsin, that has meant acquiring the rights to available channels from the FCC or buying others from private owners.
Since 2003, the DOT and the state Office of Justice Assistance paid at least $877,980 for private radio frequencies. Of that, Guse's company, Badger Spectrum, received $247,500. In most cases, records show, the company bought the frequencies in FCC auctions for as little as $325 each, then resold them to the state two years later for $12,000 each.
Guse (pronounced GOO-zee) first disclosed his corporate ties to his bosses in 2001 and began filing forms required of all state employees with outside jobs in late 2003, when the requirement was brought to his attention. The forms are intended to identify potential conflicts of interest.
The forms stated Guse could do business with the state only on a case-by-case basis as approved by his managers but prohibited him from competing with the state in buying radio licenses.
Michael Eisenbrandt, Guse's business partner in Badger Spectrum, said Guse had no direct involvement in the company's dealings with the state nor the FCC auctions - a position Guse echoes.
"I know he talked to his bosses at the state about it, and when the bidding process came up and everything, I was the only one involved," Eisenbrandt said. "I didn't ask him, ‘Is this price OK?' or say boo about it. For all he knows, I could have sold them all for $1 apiece."
Eisenbrandt and Guse, 49, formed Badger Spectrum in May 2001 and started buying radio frequency licenses in Wisconsin and elsewhere. Eisenbrandt said they were bought as investments, which the pair expected to sell to two-way radio shops.
"To tell you the truth, I had never even thought of it - that the state would even be buying anything," Eisenbrandt said.
'Oodles' of free channels?
Eisenbrandt wasn't the only one surprised by the sales.
Experts in emergency communications say they're puzzled why the state is buying frequencies on the private market since the FCC already sets aside channels for public safety agencies to use for free.
"Based on our review, it's really uncommon for public safety to lease or buy commercially held spectrum," FCC spokesman Robert Kenny said, referring to the range of radio frequencies. He added his agency hasn't heard complaints of any shortage of public safety channels in Wisconsin.
Michael Marcus, a Washington, D.C., frequency consultant who worked for the FCC for 25 years, agreed.
"It's not the normal thing for state and local governments to be paying for spectrum at all," he said. "There's oodles and oodles of bands already available to local governments."
Guse challenged that view, saying, "You're talking to people who apparently don't know what they're talking about. That's a distortion of the situation."
He said there aren't enough channels available in the crowded range needed under a project to coordinate radio operations across the state known as WisCom (Wisconsin Interoperable System for Communications). Three-quarters of emergency responders in Wisconsin already use that range, Guse said, and the state needs more than 800 frequencies for WisCom alone.
"There are (some) frequencies available from the FCC," Guse said. "I am spending an enormous amount of time securing frequencies from the FCC."
Officials in Illinois, Iowa and Minnesota say they aren't buying radio licenses as part of similar overhauls of their emergency communications systems. But Tami Jackson, spokeswoman for the state Office of Justice Assistance, said WisCom is cheaper than other systems in nearby states, which use a different type of frequency and require more towers.
"By investing a few hundred thousand dollars to acquire VHF frequencies, Wisconsin is able to save taxpayers millions that otherwise would have to be spent to construct radio towers," Jackson said.
