Iowa agency office sealed off amid charges

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) - Troopers sealed off the headquarters of Iowa's troubled state jobs agency Thursday and searched two garbage bins after an employee was spotted dumping papers from the office.

The agency's director and deputy director had been ousted the previous day, following a scathing audit that questioned the agency's oversight of federal funds .. http://24hour.startribune.com/24hour/nation/story/3252268p-12022871c.html

Dumping records in the trash?

H'm how much do we get paid? Smells of guilt in the night and the rush to remove evidence that will convict them all...ahh the sound of jail cell doors slamming shut.

Report: Board misused $1.8 million
A Des Moines city councilman paid three executives excessively, auditors say.

CLARK KAUFFMAN AND JASON CLAYWORTH
REGISTER STAFF WRITERS

April 1, 2006

A central Iowa job-training agency headed by a Des Moines city councilman is under federal investigation for paying three top executives a total of $1.8 million in public money over a 30-month period.

The agency's board chairman, Des Moines City Council member Archie Brooks, is alleged to have personally approved the payments.
(snip)

The three consortium executives and their total pay from June 2003 through December 2005 are:

• Chief Executive Officer Ramona Cunningham — $795,384. Cunningham's contract allows her to take three months of paid time off each year.

• Chief Operating Officer John Bargman — $767,575. Bargman's contract allows him to take 21/2 months of paid time off each year.

• Chief Accountant Karen Tesdell — $292,226. The report didn't specify the amount of annual paid time off Tesdell received.

The consortium has 72 employees and is a governmental agency run by a board made up of publicly elected officials from the city of Des Moines and eight central Iowa counties. One of its primary functions is to provide services for the unemployed and the under-employed.
(snip/...)

http://desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060401/NEWS05/604010321/1001/NEWS

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Here's the first piggie, Ramona Cunningham at an opening of a learning center (gulp) named after Tom Harkin. I hope he gets her but good!


http://www.employmenttraining.org/harkinlearningcenter.html

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Auditors: Friendship motivated high pay, impeded fairness
Iowa official's ties to workers may have led to inflated salaries

CLARK KAUFFMAN
REGISTER STAFF WRITER

April 3, 2006

A personal friendship between a high-ranking state official and two other state employees may have contributed to the employees each collecting $360,000 in annual pay, Iowa auditors allege.

Jane Barto is the deputy director of Iowa Workforce Development, the state agency that is charged with overseeing spending at a publicly funded job-training program called the Central Iowa Employment and Training Consortium. According to state auditors, Barto's friendship with two CIETC executives may have undermined her agency's ability to oversee the consortium's spending.

Federal officials are investigating CIETC for what state auditors allege are excessive salaries paid to Chief Executive Officer Ramona Cunningham and Chief Operating Officer John Bargman. State records show that CIETC, which has 72 employees, paid Cunningham $795,384 over the past 2 1/2 years, making her one of the highest-paid public officials in Iowa. Bargman collected $767,575.

In recent months, Cunningham has argued that the consortium doesn't have enough money to help unemployed Iowans. But over the past 20 years, state and federal authorities have repeatedly criticized the consortium for inappropriately using public money.
(snip)

The audit shows that Cunningham's and Bargman's employment contracts include an unusual provision for payment into the afterlife: The pair are to be paid through the end of the month in which they die, assuming they still work at CIETC. State auditors say federal regulations prohibit the payment of salaries to the dead, even if only for a few weeks.
(snip/...)

http://desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060403/NEWS10/604030347/1001/NEWS01&lead=1

Is that more than once I've been in direct competition with govt agencies or non-profits that have these hefty grants. There's no doubt somebody in Iowa is doing good work helping people find new careers, and can't get a penny of this money because they don't play the political game.

This group just can not run a gov. and I hope we can get every one in Dc out of office before every thing has been put in some ones pocket. Crooks every place.

Commission and so we are quite bothered by these people who betray the goals of the state organization by misappropriating funds in such a way. Why do so many in public (or semi-public office) feel the need to so grossly enrich themselves (and then think they won't get caught)? This is a democratic embarassment since these people were supposely under democratic supervision. Richard Running is a former dem state legislator. The people just want gravy jobs in DM and it has been going on for ages. I'm sick of it all.