Timeline | Anatomy of a disaster in Wausau, Wis.

This is a story about what happens when a newspaper fails its most basic function: to serve as a watchdog over government. In late December, the 20,000-circulation Wausau Daily Herald named a local government official its Person of the Year -- despite signs he's been bullying local residents.

When a reader criticized the official -- Dean Zuleger -- in anonymous comments on the paper's website, Zuleger sent the citizen a threatening letter to his home address, using the citizen's real name. There's evidence the Daily Herald gave that personally identifiable information to Zuleger. What follows is a timeline of these events.

Dec. 28
The Daily Herald publishes a feature profile and accompanying editorial announcing that it's named Village of Weston Administrator Dean Zuleger (left) the paper's Person of the Year.

The village has about 12,000 residents. Zuleger is chosen over six other candidates, including an 89-year-old woman who donated $100,000 plus land for a new animal shelter, and the head of a food pantry who saved the non-profit by leading a successful $500,000 fundraising drive.

Both the profile and editorial include red flags that should have caught the attention of editors -- and Publisher Michael Beck.

The headine over the profile says, "Zuleger's intensity earns him 2008 honors." From the profile: "At times this intensity shows itself in anger, or the occasional verbal outburst. Zuleger doesn't hold grudges, and often his anger disappears as quickly as it flared up. But it does flare up. 'That's a weakness in my life. I've got a temper,' Zuleger said. 'Quite frankly, I'm sometimes embarrassed by that.'"

From the unsigned editorial: "His temper sometimes gets the better of him -- and we here at the newspaper know of that firsthand. Daily Herald reporters and editors have been on the receiving end of his outbursts more than once. He doesn't always take criticism well -- that noise you hear right now is his teeth grinding as he reads this sentence."

The profile and editorial do not mention the fact that Zuleger is one of the state's highest-paid city managers: His base pay is $118,000 a year. And he's about to get a bonus on top of that.

Many Wausau residents were angered by the paper's Zuleger honor. Negative comments posted online became such a problem that the paper apparently removed all of them, and shut down commenting entirely. We know this because of a letter the Daily Herald published within a week.

Jan. 6
"Online comments were horrid,'' says the headline over that letter: "I would like to ask that next year the Daily Herald not hold a 'Person of the Year' award because, frankly, I do not want to go through the hurt of knowing that I live in a community that can be so outright horrid to its recipient. . . . I have known the inaugural winner, Dean Zuleger, almost my whole life and consider him my friend. . . . What I don't understand is why many of you feel the need to be so blatantly cruel in comments left on the story online."

Jan. 16
Getting named Person of the Year likely didn't hurt Zuleger's standing with the village's elected board of trustees. "Village Administrator Dean Zuleger was awarded a $5,000 bonus for meeting 2008 performance goals outlined in his contract,'' the paper reported, in a story that noted the bonus was "unusual" in the area. The Daily Herald then quotes the village's finance director saying something absurd: "John Jacobs, finance director, said the bonus did not increase village expenses because officials found offsetting savings on a state contract and in the municipal building budget."

A Daily Herald reader isn't convinced: "The only reason that he got this bonus is because everyone is afraid of him,'' the reader, zachoaray5, says in a comment on the bonus story. "I wish somebody could just take a stand for once!"

Jan. 23
In a new editorial, the same editorial board that declared Zuleger Person of the Year now discovers something it didn't know. "It was a surprise to learn that the Village Board had rewarded Zuleger with a $5,000 bonus on top of his $118,000 annual salary,'' the editors say. "This is the same Village Board that grappled with a $32,000 budget deficit last fall. It's the same group of people who increased the property tax rate to balance the budget and cut 1% from all department budgets to build a contingency fund. Awarding the bonus was the wrong decision for two reasons: Weston taxpayers simply can't afford such financial rewards right now, and it is imprudent public policy. Elected officials shouldn't tell taxpayers the budget is so tight it requires more money from them just to keep operating, then turn around and find money for an extra pay raise for their top guy."

But having declared Zuleger its favorite, Beck and the rest of the editorial board now have no choice but to stick with their guy: "Let us be clear about one thing, however. This editorial is not a criticism of Dean Zuleger and certainly not of the work he has done these past eight years for Weston taxpayers,'' the editorial says. "Zuleger easily could point to tens of thousands of dollars he has saved taxpayers over the years, and hundreds of thousands in new revenue he helped to generate by encouraging growth. On top of that, Zuleger says he told the board he did not want the bonus. When the board insisted by approving it, he gave part of the money to charity. And we should point out that although he is paid handsomely, Zuleger deserves credit for freezing his own salary this year. Rather, this is a criticism of the idea of awarding bonuses and automatic pay raises to public employees with little regard for the current state of the local economy."

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[Photo: Daily Herald]