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Umhoefer won in the category of Local Reporting for his investigative report that detailed pension deals for county workers.
“Everybody was high-fiving, hugging,” Umhoefer said, describing the newsroom’s reaction when the list of winners was announced about 2 p.m. “It was a little bit of a mob scene. Then the champagne came out.”
Umhoefer, 47, called the award “a huge surprise.” The La Crosse native said he had never fashioned his career around the goal of winning a Pulitzer.
“I just think local government is important. I’ve always prided myself on giving people the best report on it that I could,” he said. “It’s not typically the route to a national prize.”
In a story published last summer, Umhoefer showed how hundreds of county workers illegally boosted their pensions by as much as hundreds of thousands of dollars.
The employees took advantage of an obscure program that violated county laws and federal tax rules, according to Umhoefer’s story published July 28. Through a roundabout financial process, workers and ex-employees were allowed to tack on extra years of service by paying to convert ineligible service into pension-worthy time.
One county worker paid $683 to convert into pension-eligible time, which bought her a pension increase of $9,000 per year, Umhoefer found.
In all the program cost the county an estimated $50 million.
The story produced results even before it ran. Prompted by Umhoefer’s line of questioning, county officials admitted to the Internal Revenue Service that at least 200 of the conversions were improper. The county also hired two attorneys, both former federal prosecutors, to investigate.
Journal Sentinel editor Martin Kaiser said he was especially proud that his staff was being recognized for its local coverage.
“The essential role of newspapers is to be a watchdog, and we’ve really tried to make that part of our culture here,” Kaiser said. “We’ve got such strong people that if you give them time to do something, they’re going to do something really good, something that can compete with the best newspapers.”
Umhoefer earned his journalism degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1983. He has covered politics and public affairs in a number of positions over a 20-year career.
“I don’t think this will change anything,” Umhoefer said of the prize that carries a $10,000 award. “I’m just a nose-to-the-grindstone kind of guy — that’s not going to change.”
The Wisconsin State Journal in Madison was named a Pulitzer Prize finalist in the Editorial Writing category. It was recognized for “its persistent, high-spirited campaign against abuses in the governor’s veto power,” according to the Pulitzer Prize Web site.
“I am totally awed by my staff,” State Journal Editor Ellen Foley said. “To compete with all of these big papers and then come up as finalists, I’m just very, very proud of our journalists.”
The Pulitzer Prizes are awarded each April by Columbia University.
The Milwaukee Journal had won five Pulitzer prizes before it combined with the Milwaukee Sentinel in April 1995.
On the Net:
The Pulitzer Prizes: http://pulitzer.org/
