COLUMBUS — American Packaging Corp. in Columbus is supposed to be one of the safest places to work. In 2009, the company was recognized as a model of safety when it joined other Wisconsin workplaces, now totaling 49, in a voluntary compliance program run by the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

But accidents happen, even in the safest places. About 6 p.m. on Oct. 18, 2009, an explosion rocked the plant 28 miles northeast of Madison. By the time police arrived, it was clear that one of the five employees working that night was missing. Jeffrey Doxtater, or “Doc” to fellow employees, was thought to be in an enclosed back room, called the wash room, when the blast happened.

As the smoke cleared, rescuers found Doxtater, 47. The Columbus man was later pronounced dead at Columbus Community Hospital.

The blast caused an estimated $1 million in damage to the plant, which employs about 230 workers.

American Packaging Corp. of Columbus, Wis., was cited for 29 serious workplace safety violations after worker Jeffrey Doxtater died in an explosion in October 2009. The company remains enrolled in OSHA's Voluntary Protection Programs. Lauren Hasler/Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism

“There’s a concrete block wall that was separated, cracked from ceiling … a good way to floor,” Columbus Fire Chief Randall Koehn told reporters afterward. “It had to be pretty violent.”

An OSHA inspection found numerous safety problems related to the fatal explosion, which was sparked by a metal grinder that Doxtater, a maintenance worker, had been using in a room with flammable vapors. “The employer did not take adequate precautions to prevent the ignition of flammable vapors,” OSHA alleged.

Despite the death of its employee — and a $127,350 fine — the company, which makes wrappers for food products including Pringles and Wrigley’s gum, remains in OSHA’s Voluntary Protection Programs, or VPP.

The program began in 1982 with the goal of recognizing model workplaces that would be exempt from regular inspections, allowing OSHA to extend its limited resources. The idea was that cooperation between regulators and industry could achieve better results at less cost than enforcement alone.

Supporters argue that many of the 2,400 sites in VPP have become safer workplaces since joining the program. And they say it has become impossible for OSHA to keep tabs on conditions facing every American worker through traditional enforcement.

But a collaborative investigation by the Center for Public Integrity’s iWatch News, a nonprofit investigative news website based in Washington, D.C., and the nonprofit Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism has found that a number of VPP sites, including the Columbus plant, remain in the program despite being cited for serious safety violations.

Since 2000, at least 80 workers have died nationwide at these locales, and investigators alleged serious violations in at least 47 of these cases, including American Packaging.

OSHA defines serious violations as ones in which “there is substantial probability that death or serious physical harm could result and that the employer knew, or should have known, of the hazard.” The VPP certification process, which OSHA describes as “rigorous,” failed to detect the cited problems.

The collaborative investigation found that once a workplace enters the program, it is largely left to police itself. Only serious accidents, formal complaints and referrals — when OSHA is informed of a potential hazard — will trigger a visit from an enforcement official.

“I hope he’s not grinding”

On the night of Oct. 18, Randall Larson and his wife, Ruth, of Columbus, contract janitors for American Packaging, were cleaning at the factory. The couple was gathering trash in the break room when they heard a loud bang. Larson felt the reverberation and immediately thought something large had fallen on the plant.

In an interview with Columbus police, Larson said an employee ran into the break room after the explosion and asked if they knew where to find Doc, an amiable man who had worked at the plant for 15 years. When Larson said he had not seen him, the employee reportedly said, “I hope he’s not grinding,” and took off running.

An OSHA inspection after the blast determined that sparks from the grinder Doxtater was using ignited highly flammable ethyl acetate vapors from nearby washing equipment. Inspectors cited the company for 29 serious workplace health and safety violations. American Packaging had joined VPP just seven months before the blast.

In presenting the company with a flag and a plaque, OSHA’s Madison-area director, Kimberly Stille, noted American Packaging’s “excellent record in workplace safety and health,” “outstanding efforts” by management and “exceptional employee involvement in safety and health programs.”

After the explosion, Stille was not so laudatory. “These types of violations show the company’s disregard for the safety and welfare of its employees,” Stille said in a press release announcing the alleged violations. “Those who ignore safe practices and OSHA regulations are inviting tragedy into the lives of their workers.”

OSHA charged that American Packaging failed to have procedures to ensure safe entry into the wash area by ventilating the room and eliminating other hazards.

It also cited American Packaging for allegedly failing to train employees on how to recognize and avoid hazards in the wash area or how to protect themselves while doing so-called “hot work” in an enclosed space.

OSHA alleged American Packaging also lacked sufficient plans and equipment to help employees stay safe in emergencies such as hazardous materials releases, among other problems.

American Packaging is contesting the citations. Tom Ringelstetter, American Packaging’s corporate manager of health, safety and environmental services in Rochester, N.Y., declined to discuss the incident when contacted for this article.

In an April 2010 statement, the company said it was “shocked and dismayed” by OSHA’s citations.

‘We have worked long and hard for many years to protect the safety and health of our employees resulting in OSHA Voluntary Protection Programs star status, and we take great care and pride in putting workplace safety above all else,” according to the statement from Jeff Koch, operations manager of the Columbus facility.

Jordan Barab, OSHA’s deputy assistant secretary of labor for occupational safety and health, told iWatch News that deaths leading to the discovery of serious violations is “certainly a strong indication that you’ve got a serious problem.” But overall, he said, VPP is “very useful as a model to all employers of what can be achieved.”

The U.S. Department of Labor, which includes OSHA, said it is reviewing whether American Packaging should remain in the program.

In written answers to submitted questions, the agency said the problems at the company were not detected earlier because the VPP evaluation looks at management practices and “is not a comprehensive safety and health investigation.” It added that evaluators “did not observe employees entering a confined space.”

Programs active across Wisconsin

Including American Packaging, there are 49 VPP sites in Wisconsin. Among the VPP sites that have avoided citations for serious workplace health and safety violations for the past decade, according to online OSHA records: Flint Hills Resources sites in McFarland, Milwaukee and Waupun, and the C. Reiss Coal Co. site in Green Bay, all owned by Koch Industries; and three Monsanto locations in Middleton, Arlington and Janesville.

Emergency crews respond to the fatal October 2009 explosion at American Packaging Corp. in Columbus. Seven months before the accident, the company became part of a program that rewards companies with good safety practices with less federal scrutiny. After the explosion, the company was cited for dozens of workplace safety violations. Courtesy of Beaver Dam Daily Citizen

Another VPP site, the nuclear power plant near Kewaunee owned by Dominion Resources Inc., got a $60,000 fine from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission in 2003 for failure to safeguard the workplace from an employee whose behavior may have “impaired” his job performance. It has recorded no serious OSHA violations since joining VPP in 2007, according to online records.

In all, online OSHA records show at least five of Wisconsin’s VPP sites have been cited for health and safety violations in the past 10 years — some before they got into the program and some after — with the explosion at American Packaging by far the worst. The citations at those sites, none of which involved a fine, were classified as “other” — having a direct relationship to job safety and health, but not likely to cause death or serious physical harm.

Feds warned against expansion

Nationwide, between 2003 and 2008, the number of VPP sites doubled, despite warnings from government auditors that such ambitious expansion could threaten the program’s integrity.

A 2009 Government Accountability Office study found that “OSHA’s internal controls are not sufficient to ensure that only qualified worksites participate in the VPP.”

The GAO found in its review of VPP files of the 32 fatalities nationally between January 2003 and August 2008, there was no record of follow-up to assess the companies’ health and safety systems nor whether the workplaces should remain in the VPP.

According to iWatch News, OSHA officials responsible for overseeing the program must follow up, but what happens after that is a judgment call. The agency could perform a full re-evaluation of the site’s VPP status, or it might just call the company on the phone to check in.

During the past decade, these judgment calls usually tipped in favor of letting companies stay; 65 percent of sites where a worker has died remain in the program today.

When the Obama administration sought to curb spending on the program last year, the participants’ association and supporters in Congress resisted; the administration gave in. Members of both parties in Congress are pressing to make VPP permanent and ensure its government funding.

Adam Finkel, a former OSHA regional administrator, told iWatch News that during his tenure in the early 2000s, the agency emphasized adding VPP members at the expense of enforcement. “It was always, ‘How many people are you putting on this? How many new sites have you got?’ ” said Finkel, who now teaches at the University of Pennsylvania law school.

As terrible as the 2009 accident was, Larson said he feels safe working at American Packaging. Larson said as a cleaner at the plant, “most people don’t pay attention to me.” But Doxtater, who loved NASCAR and playing with his grandson, was different. “He always took an interest in me. Everybody really liked him.”

Lauren Hasler may be contacted at lhasler@wisconsinwatch.org. The nonprofit and nonpartisan Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism (www.WisconsinWatch.org) collaborates with Wisconsin Public Television, Wisconsin Public Radio, the UW-Madison School of Journalism and Mass Communication and other news media. All works created, published, posted or disseminated by the Center do not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of UW-Madison or any of its affiliates.

University of Wisconsin-Madison graduate Abby Panozzo says she was raped at an off-campus party in 2006. Read her story and hear her account in her own words by clicking the photo. WCIJ/Andy Hall

By the Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism

At University of Wisconsin campuses, sexual assaults remain seriously underreported and many women still face barriers to notifying authorities. Most victims do not report crimes. The statistics are inconsistent. And most rapists go free.

The Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism today launches Suffering in Silence: Sexual Assaults at the University of Wisconsin, an investigation that examines how UW is tackling sexual assaults on its 13 four-year campuses. The multimedia project, which includes audio clips and a searchable database of campus reports, is the result of dozens of interviews the Center’s reporters conducted with rape victims, UW officials, advocates, researchers and others.

Reactions to the investigation began even before the stories were published. As a result of our reporting, on Tuesday, Feb. 23, the UW System acknowledged its annual summary of sexual assaults — required by the Legislature — should be more accessible and posted it on a new Web page. Two days later, UW-Madison Dean of Students Lori Berquam issued a statement saying that “reading these stories reminds us of the importance of the work we are doing to try to prevent these horrible acts, to respond in victim-centered ways and to seek accountability from those who would perpetrate them.”

Berquam added, “We are deeply sorry that the women identified in these stories were assaulted and then experienced challenges in obtaining assistance that they sought.”

The Center produced this investigation with support and collaboration from the Center for Public Integrity, and published it in coordination with other reports on campus assaults from colleagues in the Investigative News Network.

The links that follow will send you to the separate site we’ve created for this project. We invite you to share your reactions with us by posting comments on the stories or by writing to Andy Hall, the Center’s executive director, at ahall@wisconsinwatch.org.

MAIN STORY
Suffering in silence: Campus sexual assaults underreported

At UW campuses, estimated rapes outnumber reports by a margin of 17-1. That means nearly all rapists go unpunished, whether by schools or the criminal justice system. Victims tell us how tough the system is on them, and why they don’t want to file reports.

SIDEBAR: THE STATS
Data draw murky picture of sexual assaults on Wisconsin campuses

No one contests that campus sexual assaults are underreported. But even nailing down how many are reported at a campus is a challenge. At UW-Madison in 2008, either one, five, eight or 44 sexual assaults were reported — depending on which report you consult.


SIDEBAR: UW’S DISCIPLINARY SYSTEM
How will recent changes affect rapists and rape victims?

In a controversial move, the University of Wisconsin System last fall revised its campus conduct code. Some experts say the changes could make it easier to punish rapists, while others worry that one change could intimidate victims.


SIDEBAR: PROMISING PRACTICES
Teaching students to intervene in acquaintance rape

Rape whistles are out, and there’s evidence some campuses are tailoring prevention programs to the most recent research on college rapes. Given the vast underreporting, it may seem like there are countless rapists out there. In reality, a small minority of men — undetected serial rapists — perpetrate many of the crimes. New “bystander intervention” programs aim to teach students to identify and prevent predatory behavior.


Wisconsin gets a grade of “C” for disclosing the financial interests of its state lawmakers, according to a report released today by the Center for Public Integrity.

Jonathan Becker, administrator of the ethics division for the state Government Accountability Board, said Wisconsin hasn’t changed its financial disclosure requirements since the last “States of Disclosure” survey in 2006, when it was ranked 19th. This year it’s ranked 22nd, in part because a few states boosted their disclosure requirements, the Center for Public Integrity reported.

The Center found that since the last survey, a number of states had improved public access by making legislators’ disclosure forms available electronically, mostly online. In 2006, 21 states had this capability; since then, eight more states have followed suit — Alaska, Arizona, Connecticut, Florida, Maine, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and South Carolina.

In the latest survey, 20 states — including Minnesota, Iowa and Illinois — received a failing grade.

Becker said a bill pending in the state Legislature sponsored by Rep. Spencer Black, D-Madison, would open the door to more transparency. It would eliminate the requirement that the Government Accountability Board notify public officials each time someone requests to see his or her report — which would allow the GAB to offer more information to the public online.  “That (bill) would allow us to post the official’s entire statements on our (Web) site rather than just an index, as we do now,” Becker said.

Wisconsin got high marks for requirements including listing the name of an official’s employer on the statement of economic interests. But the state got low marks for not requiring officials to list their spouse’s name, how much money they earn or the value of property they own. Becker said it’s up to the Legislature to determine how much financial information its own members must disclose.

Statements of economic interests filed by members of the legislative, executive and judicial branches allow the public to determine whether officials in Wisconsin have a conflict of interest when it comes to actions they take. For example, the financial-disclosure forms filed by then-Wisconsin Supreme Court candidate Annette Ziegler revealed that as a judge, she had repeatedly presided over cases involving West Bend Savings Bank when her husband was on the bank’s board of directors. Ziegler, who was elected to the high court in 2007, was given a public reprimand by her fellow justices.

The Center for Public Integrity bases its rankings on a 43-question survey that measures public access to information on legislators’ employment, investments, personal finances, property holdings, or other activities outside the legislature. Center researchers obtain answers to the survey questions by examining state statutes and disclosure forms and interviewing state ethics officers.

Survey answers are assigned a numerical value adding up to a possible 100 points; the highest scores reflect the highest degree of disclosure. Wisconsin scored a 70. The nonprofit Washington, D.C.-based investigative reporting center has been ranking the effectiveness of state financial disclosure laws since 1999.

The grant from the Ethics and Excellence in Journalism Foundation is the first major donation to the independent nonprofit Center, which began operations in January.

The Foundation, a national philanthropic organization based in Oklahoma City, said the Wisconsin Center could become a model for strengthening local investigative journalism in other states as traditional for-profit news organizations pare newsrooms in response to economic pressures.

“We’re excited about the Center becoming a leader in this new wave of investigative reporting,” said Bob Ross, president and CEO of the Foundation. “Its alliances with journalism schools, public broadcasting and mainstream and ethnic media create an inspiring initiative.”

The Center was among 19 organizations nationwide receiving $1.27 million in grants to support journalism projects from the Foundation, which was established in 1982 by journalist Edith Kinney Gaylord to invest in the future of journalism by building the ethics, skills and opportunities needed to advance principled, probing news and information.

The Center, one of the first of its kind in the nation, will produce journalism in the public interest with its partners — Wisconsin Public Radio, Wisconsin Public Television and the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Journalism & Mass Communication.

A staff of professional journalists will operate the Center under the guidance of a board of directors composed of nationally acclaimed journalists and experts in management of nonprofit organizations.

“We are deeply appreciative for the timely and crucial support that the Foundation has given to the Center and to investigative reporting across the nation,” said Brant Houston, the Center’s board president and the Knight Chair in Investigative Journalism at the University of Illinois.

Award-winning investigative reporter Andy Hall, who worked at the Wisconsin State Journal for 18 years and has taught numerous journalism courses at UW-Madison, is executive director of the Center, which is headquartered at the UW-Madison journalism school.

“This generous gift will help protect vulnerable Wisconsin residents, expose abuses of power and accelerate the search for solutions to problems,” Hall said.

The Center will collaborate with its partners and with mainstream and ethnic media across Wisconsin. It also will train students in investigative techniques and will teach residents how to scrutinize issues — such as school performance, neighborhood safety, water quality and the ethics of government officials — in their own communities. The Center will provide its content free to the news media of Wisconsin.

The Center will seek contributions from individuals and foundations to reinvigorate local investigative journalism and democracy at a time when many traditional news organizations are facing financial crises.

Hall will spend the next few months initiating stories and securing funding for the Center, which also has received a pledge for $2,000 from the State Journal. The Center plans to eventually have four Wisconsin-based investigative journalists and a Washington, D.C., correspondent who will track the impact of federal policies and funding on Wisconsin and serve as a watchdog over the state’s congressional delegation and lobbyists.

The Center operates as a 501(c)(3) organization under an IRS ruling issued April 6, 2009. Contributions to the Center are tax-deductible.

The Wisconsin organization also will collaborate with the Center for Public Integrity, an internationally renowned and nonpartisan, nonprofit investigative organization based in Washington, D.C., that has produced global, national and state-related stories over the past two decades.

Posted Feb. 17 and updated April 15, 2009

Contacts:
Andy Hall, ahall@wisconsinwatch.org, 608-262-3642; Brant Houston, brant.houston@gmail.com, 573-529-3581

For more information:
Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism: WisconsinWatch.org
Ethics and Excellence in Journalism Foundation: www.JournalismFoundation.org