Be afraid, be very afraid

You're scared. You are, admit it. I can tell. Wanna know how? You're calling me, a newspaper editor - someone whose sole purpose is to shed the light of day on relevant issues - and you're asking to remain anonymous. You're refusing interviews but venting your frustrations in long, off-the-record conversations. You are saying things like, "I wish I could lead you to the corruption I see," and then when I offer to be led, you describe an industry code of silence.

Any industry with a code of silence is scared.

Face your fear.

If Wisconsin's Legislature passes and Gov. Tommy G. Thompson signs wording slipped into the budget bill, then local governments statewide will be encouraged to use design/build delivery on jobs that need not be bid out.

If you're a big contractor with close connections to the governor's office, the mayor of Dairytown, Wis., or Up North County executives, - and you maintain a reputation for excellence - you're figuring you're in. That is until someone with closer connections edges you out.

If you're a small sub who counts every penny and cuts every bid close, but who isn't established enough, connected enough or big enough to land on the design builder's radar screen - you're figuring you're out. You're probably right. If you're a local government executive, you're counting on the windfall from a streamlined construction process and fantasizing about the hero worship you'll inspire from appreciative taxpayers. You're also afraid that you're dreaming. Even those of you who have supported the legislation all along say you're having nightmares about the opportunities for impropriety and negative public perception .

I'm not going to help you sleep easier. See, I have an example of another industry, the health care field, which also once enjoyed a reputation for building communities .

Hospitals once were the centers of their communities, the places where our families were born. They held bake sales, hosted local civic organization meetings and offered good-paying jobs to everyone from heart surgeons to custodians.

Then came life-saving technology we couldn't afford, and our eyes opened to 45 million uninsured Americans who often go without care.

Many hospitals bought out their doctors and insurers and became for-profit monoliths - turnkey operations claiming they could provide all services at a lower price and greater efficiency than smaller, individual providers. Does this system sound familiar?

Public perception shifted as the industry's political clout grew. The Justice Department began investigating these health care giants' performance on government contracts. I remember running photos of armed FBI agents carrying files out of hospitals and a few executives being led away in handcuffs.

The public stopped seeing the many good doctors, fine hospitals and honest insurers. Their perception remains clouded by the impression that some number-crunching idiot might deny their loved one necessary care.

Can you see yourself reflected in this story? Can you see how your reputation could be tarnished by a few bad apples and a judgmental public?

If you don't have to bid for public jobs, then might it not be natural to perceive that you won the contract because it's who you know, or who you pay, to get the work?

As a government executive, might not the public wonder whether that one contractor keeps getting jobs because his office manager is your second cousin's niece?

Maybe it's none of my business. I'm just here to deliver the news - accurately and fairly. But as you read this report, filled with news of design/build's virtues, keep in mind that reporters live to hear things. We're hearing that it's not the innovative delivery system that's so troubling. It's how it might be used to shut out the taxpayers.

- Liz Oplatka