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Investigations allege Johnson County conservation officials abused jobs
Department leaders were not seen at work for two years
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The operations superintendent of the Johnson County Conservation Department for years took supplies and equipment from the department for his personal use and went on extended vacations without reporting them, according to court records.
Further, Superintendent Wade Schultz and his boss, Director Larry Gullett, were not seen by their employees at work for about two years before they were suspended with pay in June 2024, the State Auditor's Office reported Tuesday.
Their alleged indiscretions are detailed in the auditor's report and search warrant documents associated with investigations into their conduct.
The auditor's office identified more than $60,000 of improper spending by the department over a five-year period while Gullett and Schultz were in charge.
Schultz, 55, declined to comment for this article. Gullett died last year. He was 65.
Johnson County Attorney Rachel Zimmermann Smith said she is reviewing the allegations to determine whether to file criminal charges against Schultz.
The investigations date back to at least August 2022, when someone reported Schultz's alleged conduct to the county sheriff, court records show.
Anonymous complaints a year later to the county conservation board, which oversees the department, alleged Schultz was stealing from the county with Gullett's approval.
"Wade Schultz is stealing truckloads of material things that belong to Johnson County," one complaint alleged.
According to search warrant documents, the sheriff's investigation yielded a voluminous amount of accusations against Schultz, including:
- The repeated theft of toilet paper, trash bags, washer fluid, oil, wood and other items;
- Schultz's repeated use of county equipment — including a skid loader — for his own projects;
- Improper purchases of tools and equipment the county did not use;
- County employees doing work for non-county projects;
- Claiming to work while vacationing: "Employees reported that Wade spends several months over the winter vacationing out of state where he rides snowmobile trails. He does not utilize vacation or other time off during this time period and claims to work from out of state," according to search warrant documents;
- Paying his daughter as a seasonal employee of the department, even when she did not work and returned to college.
At the time Schultz was suspended last year, his annual salary was about $115,000. He still is employed by the county.
At the time of his suspension, Gullett was paid about $157,000 per year.
Audit uncovers financial malfeasance
The county asked state auditors to investigate the matter in January 2024 and gave them information the sheriff’s office had gathered.
The auditors reviewed the county’s financial information for a roughly five-year period from January 2019 to June 2024. They identified about $64,000 of improper disbursements.
More than half of that was unauthorized payroll for Schultz, according to the audit report. Auditors used cellphone records and other information to verify instances in which Schultz was not in the county or working for a different company during his normal county workday and didn't use vacation time.
Also deemed improper was about $14,000 the county paid to host an Ioway Tribe gathering, which employees alleged Gullett held, in part, for his own benefit.
Gullett invited members of the tribe to an October 2023 gathering at Two Horse Farm, a park near Solon the county acquired in 2022. The county gave seven acres of it to the tribe.
An anonymous complaint alleged the event — which was not open to the public — was part of a string of "gifts and bribery" to the tribe "to make Gullett look good." The complaint did not say how that might benefit Gullett.
The auditor's office also found about $25,000 of credit card charges and payments to vendors that had insufficient documentation to determine whether they were improper.
The office said the county lost about $5,000 of wood because it was used for personal projects or was given away or traded.
Department employees alleged Schultz took wood from the county’s sawmill building and used it to fashion furniture such as a desk and tables. He further was accused of taking truckloads of firewood.
“The findings of this report are deeply concerning since public trust is essential to our mission,” Bill Waldie, president of the county’s conservation board, said in a prepared statement about the audit.
County officials declined to comment about the future of Schultz’s employment. The county is in the process of creating a more robust system to track its inventory and expenses.
Download: Johnson Co Conservation Report.pdf
Comments: (319) 368-8541; jared.strong@thegazette.com
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