The Supervisor of Ethics?

Milwaukee County Supervisor Willie Johnsnon, Jr., Lee Holloway's new handpicked chair of the Judiciary committee, will have oversight over the county Ethics Board.

Hmmm. That name is familiar....

Supervisor printed racy Net photos
Johnson's surfing has County Board officials looking at Web filters
By DAVE UMHOEFER Last Updated: March 13, 2003

A Milwaukee County supervisor acknowledged Thursday that he printed out racy images from the Internet using his county-assigned personal computer and a County Board color printer.

Discovery of the materials Supervisor Willie Johnson Jr. printed last month has board officials pricing equipment to filter Internet sites for thousands of county-owned PCs.

Last month, Johnson, 51, surfed Web sites offering candid celebrity and supermodel-swimsuit photos; news and views of Russian beauty queen Oxana Fedorova; and online dating services, county computer records show.

Over the Presidents Day weekend, Johnson tried to print dozens of images from the Sports Illustrated swimsuit edition and other sites, but a malfunction delayed the job. A County Board staffer found 36 pages on the printer the following Monday morning. The top page, according to the aide, was a woman posing nude but covering sensitive body parts.

The aide reported the discovery to Board Chairman Lee Holloway.

Asked about his Internet habits, Johnson said Thursday that he visited such sites only occasionally on nights and weekends. Computer records confirm that pattern. Johnson said he does not have a computer at home.

The first-term supervisor said it was "maybe inappropriate" to use county equipment, but he emphasized that his interest was innocent, not pornographic. A review of computer data found no evidence that Johnson viewed nude photos or images of sexual acts.

Johnson said if others took offense at his pastime, he understood and would refrain from the activity in the future.

While his Internet "cookie" files suggest visits to several online dating sites, Johnson emphatically said he was not dating online. He said he may have clicked on such sites as links to pages he sometimes views.

Johnson said he is a close follower of beauty pageants. He said he visited several sites in February for information on a controversy involving Fedorova, who lost her Miss Universe crown.

"I thought she was a cute woman, and I wanted more information," he said.

He said he only recently found out about the board's color printer, so he switched to using it for the photos and related stories about actresses and other celebrities.

These are some examples of sites listed on Johnson's Internet trail, according to county records: photorazzi.com; starpulse.com; askmen.com; perfectpeople.net; and dannii.com.

After a reporter inquired about the printouts last month, Holloway asked county information managers to investigate blocking access to "inappropriate" Web sites on County Board computers.

Currently, the county doesn't filter access on any of its 3,000 to 4,000 personal computers, according to Mary Reddin, acting manager of Information Management Services. ...The technology policy for Milwaukee County employees prohibits engaging in personal activities without prior approval or that may embarrass the county. It also bans accessing material that is indecent or obscene or that violates anyone's civil rights.

Johnson's office is stacked nearly floor to ceiling with work-related reports, many of them from the Internet. "I'm here to take care of business," said Johnson, who considers himself a full-time supervisor. "There's nothing sinister or nefarious about this."

He disagreed with the need for filtering and said he need not be "watched" because of what he did.

"I'm here to take care of business."

Indeed.