MADISON, Wis. -- In a surprising turn of events, Dane County Finance Committee Chairman Brett Hulsey late Monday suddenly pulled his proposal to study replacing jail deputies with less expensive correctional officers.

The switch is an about-face for the powerful Dane County board supervisor and comes in the midst of very hot contract talks with county sheriff's deputies. Hulsey was supposed to introduce the idea in committee Monday night, but apparently changed his mind Monday afternoon amid accusations by deputies' advocates and representatives who said Hulsey's goal was purely political.

"I wouldn't say this rises to level of unfair labor practice, but I think this is a shot across the bow by Brett Hulsey to try to get the deputies to close their mouths," said Jim Palmer, executive director of the Wisconsin Professional Police Association, which represents law enforcement in the state.

Hulsey's proposal to evaluate staffing efficiencies throughout the $28-million jail system surfaced late last week. At that time, Hulsey promised that he'd introduce a proposal to expand a county staffing study to look at the benefits of replacing outgoing sheriff's deputies with cheaper, civilian correctional officers.

Earlier Monday, the supervisor played up the possible advantages of making the transition to correctional officers in Dane County. The pros, he said, ranged from putting more deputies on patrol to saving large amounts of money.

Deputies' groups contend having correctional officers wouldn't put more officers on the streets and wouldn't save money due to high turnover and retraining costs.

"It could save taxpayers millions of dollars, improve public safety and also increase the diversity of our county workforce. It seems like a fair question to ask. I don't understand people who don't even want to find out the information," said Hulsey.

But now, even Hulsey isn't going after the information. In fact, Hulsey said he is dropping the plan after a Monday meeting with Jeff Wiswell, a lobbyist for the sheriff's deputies.

Hulsey denied he was pressured to drop the issue, saying only that Wiswell made a "compelling case" and that it was "wise" to drop the idea so both sides could work together on the whole county budget.

Deputies have been fighting the current plan to have across the board 3 percent pay cuts for 2010, and their representatives said they are "delighted" Hulsey dropped his jail staffing study idea. However, they said they still maintain the proposal was intended to silence deputy concerns.

Palmer said, "It's nothing more than politics at its worst."

In dropping his plan, Hulsey simply said, it's a "critical time" with contract negotiations now and the county budget.

Deputies want to be exempt from the 3 percent pay cut, in part because some officers already voluntarily gave up overtime pay this year to help cut costs.

A jail staffing study will still move forward, but will only examine the cost of administrative positions, not security positions.

The jail is the largest single tax dollar expense for Dane County, an operation totaling about $54 million a year.