APPLETON – In the midst of the Outagamie County executive race, an anonymous political group is bringing into question how much time incumbent Tom Nelson spends in office by releasing records it says detail his security card access in and out of the county Government Center.
Fact Check the Exec sprung into the inboxes of both media outlets and Outagamie County Board members a week before the February primary with records the group says show the lack of tasks on the executive’s calendar and the infrequency of his security card accesses.
The group said the records show Nelson “doesn’t show up for work.” Nelson told The Post-Crescent the records don’t “reflect an accurate picture of (his) time in office,” saying he often works from home and doesn’t put all his commitments on his calendar.
The record release didn’t have a negative impact on Nelson’s performance in the primary. The incumbent secured 50% of the votes compared with his challengers Kevin Sturn and Justin Krueger, who received 28% and 17%, respectively.
Who is Fact Check the Exec?
The group is anonymous. Facebook posts and emails from the group give no indication of who is behind it, and Fact Check the Exec declined to identify its members when asked by The Post-Crescent.
The group popped up on Facebook at the end of January and started posting claims about the county executive’s work in office and criticizing the time he spent campaigning for U.S. Senate last year.
“Fact Check the Exec is an alliance of fair-minded citizens dedicated to good governance,” the group said in a statement to The Post-Crescent. “We are not affiliated with any political party. We are not a corporation or a PAC. We are not partisan. We’re simply interested in shining a light on the truth to help voters make informed choices on April 4.”
In the statement, the group also told The Post-Crescent its members are frustrated with Nelson’s performance in office.
The group is endorsing Sturn, Nelson’s challenger and a former board member, who told The Post-Crescent he is not a part of or affiliated with the group.
After its initial records release, the group put out a Facebook ad on Tom Nelson, but it was taken down for not disclosing who paid for the ad as is required for political ads.
What records did Fact Check the Exec send out?
Fact Check the Exec sent out records on Feb. 13 detailing the number of times Nelson’s security card was used to enter or exit the Outagamie County Government Center over the last year, his official county outlook calendar, remote county network access logs and IT security training logs.
Later, the group requested Nelson’s county-issued and personal phone call logs after Nelson told FOX 11 News he often works from home and uses his phone to conduct county business.
“I’ve got my phone, and smartphones can do a lot of things, whether they need me to call or email or anything like that,” Nelson told FOX 11 News. “I can do all those tasks and all that work.”
Security card access records don’t show the whole picture
Fact Check the Exec said in an email its records on security card access provide “unrefuted revelations that the county executive was rarely in his office in 2022.” However, most days the records only show when Nelson entered the building and not when he left, so no conclusion can be drawn from the records about his actual time spent in office.
Records requested by the group on Nelson’s badge in and out times from the Government Center show him in the building for a relatively short period of time each month, however, Corporation Counsel Kyle Sargent said it is not required for county employees to badge in and out of the building so the number of days in office or time spent there cannot be determined from the records.
Also, a county employee could enter with another employee or go through the front doors, where a security card isn’t needed.
“There’s really no specific provision that says you have to (badge in and out),” Sargent said during a county board meeting. “I think it is, in essence, a best practice.”
Nelson told The Post-Crescent he frequently enters through the front door of the building or other access points that don’t require security card access, so the records aren’t accurate to his time in office.
But Sturn, who is challenging Nelson in the April 4 election, told The Post-Crescent he rarely saw Nelson at County Board or committee meetings during the U.S. Senate race. Sturn also said Nelson was hardly around during his 2016 congressional run.
“His office attendance is the highest in August right after he ended the Senate campaign,” Sturn told The Post-Crescent. “So when he wasn’t campaigning, then he went to work.”
Nelson said he doesn’t put all of his tasks on his calendar
Records on Nelson’s 2022 official county calendar show a few tasks and commitments entered each day, which Fact Check Exec claims in an email confirms Nelson is spending relatively little time on county business.
But Nelson said his county calendar doesn’t reflect his day-to-day work, as he doesn’t put all his tasks in the calendar.
“There are often times when an issue arises when I just go straight to the department and not put it into my calendar,” he said.
Phone records show Nelson makes multiple county calls a day
The latest records release focuses on Nelson’s call logs from his personal phone, as the county executive does not have a county-issued phone. The logs show numerous daily phone calls with the redacted logs representing personal phone calls.
Nelson told FOX 11 News he often works from home or on his phone while out in the county, making it so he doesn’t go into the county Government Center as much.
After the release of the phone logs, Nelson told The Post-Crescent the call logs and his accomplishments speak to his attendance as county executive.
“The county is my office and I conduct my business accordingly,” he said.
On the other hand, Sturn said it’s understandable that Nelson works from his phone and out in the county, but said he thinks it’s important for a county executive to spend time in the office in order to interact with the nearby departments and be easily reached.
“You can’t lead from home,” Sturn said. “People need to see you.”
Sophia Voight is a local government and political reporter with The Post-Crescent. She can be reached at svoight@postcrescent.com. Follow her on Twitter @sophia_voight.
