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CIETC "whistleblower" confronts Des Moines City Councilman

May 22, 2006 By

The retired accountant who helped blow the whistle on excessive salaries at a central Iowa job training agency spoke Monday night at the city council meeting. James Quinn, the retired chief financial officer at Iowa Workforce Development, tipped federal officials off to questionable operations at the Central Iowa Employment and Training Consortium.

During the council meeting, Quinn complained about a memo allegedly written by Des Moines City Councilman Archie Brooks. According to Quinn, the memo attacked both him and fellow whistleblower Kelly Taylor. “The thrust of this memo seems to be to cast Kelly and I as troublemakers and rationalize the salary business that was going on at CIETC,” Quinn said.

Their work environment was “extremely stressful” according to Quinn, who said his two bosses were “actively” trying to cover-up the excessive salaries. Quinn said the memo “belittled” his efforts to publicly reveal the truth about the executive pay at CIETC. “I would like to make sure that this memo is being disavowed by the city council and that you’re appreciative of the efforts that we’ve had not only on the part of the beneficiaries of those services rendered by CIETC but on the part of taxpayers whose money was being misspent,” Quinn said.

Brooks immediately responded. “Mr. Quinn, I want to thank you for coming down. You were supposed to ask me a question. I’m going to answer you even though you didn’t ask it,” Brooks said. “That memo was a request that I made to the staff to notify all board members that an audit was coming. I did not author that…so I’m sorry about that, but I did not do that…and you did not see my signature on that and I never did I ever receive a copy of it.”

The city council directed the city manager to review protections for city employees who might blow the whistle on wrong-doing. Des Moines City Councilman Michael Kiernan says it appears the “checks and balances” of all levels of government are working in regards to the CIETC scandal. “The one thing I don’t want people to lose sight of is the process is working,” Kiernan says. “I do believe that anybody that was wrong in their actions will be held accountable.”

The memo Quinn cited is dated March 27, 2006 and calls the complaints about excessive salaries “baseless” and refers to past attempts by Quinn and Taylor — the whistleblowers in this case — to create “problems” in the state agency that oversees CIETC. The two-page memo maintains that “the amount of wages paid to (CIETC) staff is not in question; what may be in question is whether or not it is an allowable federal cost.” You can listen to last night’s Des Moines City Council discussion of the memo by clicking on the link below.

Filed Under: Politics & Government

Democratic gubernatorial campaign ad war

May 22, 2006 By

The ad war between two of the Democrats running for governor is heating up, with each accusing the other of being nastier.

Chet Culver launched his first negative ad this weekend, lambasting rival Mike Blouin for supporting a constitutional amendment that would have outlawed abortion back in the 1970s and failing to press for an increase in the minimum wage when Blouin worked as an economic development official in Cedar Rapids and Des Moines.

For the past couple weeks Blouin has been airing an ad that attacks Culver for lobbying for IBP several years ago. “Mike Blouin chose to make this a negative campaign by airing misleading attack ads,” Culver campaign manager Patrick Dillon says. “The ad…sets the record straight on a set of issues that are important to primary voters.” The Culver ad talks about abortion, stem cell research and the minimum wage, but does not address Blouin’s charge that Culver once sided with IBP.

Blouin maintains his attack ad, which focuses on Culver’s work for IBP, is not as nasty as Culver’s. “I stood in front of the camera and asked folks to listen to me as I expressed a difference in philosophy and integrity between Secretary Culver and myself. His is just a third-party running a slow motion picture, out-of-focus, of Mike Blouin while he attacks me,” Blouin says. “It’s more of the traditional, brickbat approach.”

Blouin told reporters on Monday that he’d be swinging back at Culver’s ad, but Blouin refused to reveal the details of that response. “Stay tuned,” Blouin said.

Outgoing Governor Tom Vilsack, a Democrat, suggests the ad war is to be expected. “Primaries are always tough, but they’re supposed to be tough,” Vilsack says. “At the end of it, I think (Democrats) will all come together, support our nominee — whoever that might be, and we’ll have a very spirited campaign in the fall.”

The other leading Democrat in the race for governor is sticking to positive ads. One of Ed Fallon’s ads even takes a humorous approach, highlighting Iowans with the same name as famous Americans — like Bill Clinton and Jackie Robinson — who are backing his campaign.

Culver seemed to suggest this past Saturday that he was siding with Fallon in running only positive commercials. “The campaign in the last couple of weeks has become somewhat contentious. Some of the candidates in this race have decided to run negative ads,” Culver said. “I think it’s important that we focus on beating Jim Nussle.” But the very next morning, on Sunday, Culver’s attack ads were being broadcast in Iowa.

Filed Under: Politics & Government

Governor continues to try and build foreign policy credentials with Israel trip

May 22, 2006 By

Governor Tom Vilsack has just returned from a trip to Israel. The trip is seen as an attempt by Vilsack to bolster his foreign policy credentials as he mulls a run for the White House.

Vilsack met with Israel’s prime minister as well as leaders of the Palestinian Authority. He was also briefed by Israeli security officials. “It was a phenomenal trip. It was an opportunity, first and foremost, to learn about homeland security,” Vilsack says. “They obviously have very serious and significant concerns about people coming in and out of their country intent on doing harm.”

While the first President Bush had an extensive network of overseas contacts through years of travel outside the U.S., the current President Bush had not been outside the country before he was inaugurated. Vilsack says a president must have perspective, and he suggests visiting other countries accomplishes that. “I think it’s important to have an understanding of the world and (an) understanding of different cultures and a different approach,” Vilsack says.

Vilsack delivered the commencement address at Grinnell College today (Monday) and he used the occasion to list what he sees as faults in President’s Bush conduct of foreign policy. “America’s security, first and foremost, has been compromised by our effort in Iraq,” Vilsack said. “We were wrong about the reasons for going to war, we were wrong about planning the aftermath of war, we were wrong about how best to win the peace, and we were wrong about (the) treatment of prisoners.”

Vilsack called that a list of “critical errors.” Vilsack says while the fighting may continue, the “actual war” in Iraq and Afghanistan is over. He says that means the local governments have responsibility now for maintaining safety and building a functioning economy and the U.S. should be bringing home more troops from Iraq, though he says we may need more in Afghanistan.

Vilsack visited Iraq and Afghanistan over the Easter weekend, and he mentioned his other travels during his speech in Grinnell. In the last year I’ve traveled to China, to India and South Korea — three highly-motivated economic competitors of the United States,” Vilsack said. “The people of these great nations want only what we want here: a decent job to support their family, food on the table, a safe place to live, healthcare when they need it and, perhaps, a little left over for a few of their wants.”

While he was in Israel, Vilsack, who is Catholic, visited sites of significance to Christians. “It’s a deeply moving experience to go to the place where Christ was crucified, to go to the place where Christ preached, where he gave the Sermon on the Mount, where he talked about the loaves and the fishes, where he found his disciples,” Vilsack says. “It’s an amazing country.”

And the old adage that it’s a small world was driven home to Vilsack, who says he ran into several Iowans who were visiting the holy land, too.
“We were right near the Dead Sea and we were on ruins, and I was sitting down just taking a breather and somebody came over and said ‘Governor Vilsack?’” Vilsack says. “We had a nice chat.”

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Study pharmacist make fewer mistakes with direct talk

May 22, 2006 By

A University of Iowa study finds when pharmacists come out from behind the counter and work directly with patients, the number of medication errors and other problems are greatly reduced. Peter Kaboli, a U-of-I internal medicine professor who headed up the study, says it seems like a no-brainer.

Earlier studies looked at monitoring specific drugs, which pharmacists are very good at doing, but Doctor Kaboli says the studies evolved over time into having pharmacists interview patients, interact with physicians while they’re rounding and looking at it as more of a team approach, which is the way health care is moving.

Kaboli says the change in pharmacists’ roles over the past 20 years has also helped patients understand and follow their drug regimes. He calls pharmacists an “incredible resource for information” both at the pharmacy but also when you’re in the hospital. He says one problem is when a patient is in the hospital, they’ve been sick, their medication may have changed, the doctors or nurses don’t have time to fully explain everything, so they go home and get confused.

Pharmacists can be very helpful, he says, if they work with patients while the patient is still at the hospital. Kaboli says “That’s where pharmacists can be incredibly valuable and studies show that, that if they help at the time of discharge, reconciling medications, talking to the patient and even doing follow-up telephone calls in three or four days to make sure the patient got their medicines and understands what they’re taking, can really make a big difference.”

Kaboli is also an investigator with the Center for Research in the Implementation of Innovative Strategies at the Veterans Affairs Iowa City Health Care System. The team analyzed 36 studies that were published between 1985 and 2005 in medical journals. The study appears in the Archives of Internal Medicine.

Filed Under: Health & Medicine Tagged With:

Governor signs tax breaks for seniors into law

May 22, 2006 By

Governor Tom Vilsack today (Monday) signed a bill into law which grants tax breaks to seniors. The measure gradually eliminates the state tax on Social Security benefits and increases the amount of other income seniors can earn before income taxes kick in on things like pensions or rental payments, as well as dividends and interest on their investments.

When fully implemented, an individual over the age of 65 will be able to collect 24-thousand from pensions or other investments tax-free, and the earnings threshhold for elderly couples will be 32-thousand before state taxes are assessed.

“This is a very important bill. It’s going to provide a substantial amount of tax relief for people over the age of 65,” Vilsack says. The governor signed the bill into law mid-day Monday during a ceremony at the 2006 Governor’s Conference on Aging in Des Moines.

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Blouin says 500 "empowered women" have endorsed him

May 22, 2006 By

Democratic gubernatorial candidate Mike Blouin today (Monday) announced five-hundred “empowered” women have endorsed his campaign. Andy McGuire is Blouin’s runningmate and she backs abortion rights. McGuire says she and these other women “trust” Blouin on the abortion issue.

“There are lots of issues we’re involved with. Choice is one of them and we trust Mike Blouin on all those issues,” McGuire says. McGuire says most women base their vote on a variety of factors, and Blouin is a candidate who can bring “factions” together.

“Women are multi-faceted,” McGuire says. “They’re worried about all the issues.” Blouin, who is pro-life, has repeatedly said that if he’s elected governor, he will not allow current Iowa laws governing abortion to be changed. “I think my position on abortion is very acceptable to the overwhelming majority of Iowans,” Blouin says.

Blouin’s rival Chet Culver has been endorsed by Planned Parenthood, the first time the organization has endorsed a candidate in an Iowa primary. Ed Fallon, the other leading Democrat in the race, backs abortion rights.

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Upper Iowa ready to compete at new level

May 22, 2006 By

When the next sports season begins the teams at Upper Iowa University will compete for conference titles, again. The Peacocks will begin play in the Northern Sun Conference which completes a move to division two that begin in August of 2003 when the school announced it was leaving the Iowa Conference and the division three ranks.

Athletic Director Gil Cloud says they were able to fulfill all 22 points in the model division two model of the national athletic directors association. so Cloud feels they’ll have an impact in the first year.

After a period of transition Upper Iowa was granted active membership in division two this past year. Cloud says that allowed them to participate in post-season play for the first time in several years.

Cloud says being part of a conference not only helps with scheduling and the ability to compete for championships but it also allows athletes to receive all conference honors. Cloud says when you’re independent, it’s tough to get recognition for postseason honors as there are only eight independents.

Cloud says the move to division two has taken a great commitment from the administration and a sacrifice by the athletes who have not been able to compete for championships. He says the seniors have paid the price of not being able to play in postseason play, and he says that’s a legacy that will always be with the school

Upper Iowa begins play in the Northern Sun Conference when the football team opens the 2006 season with an August 31st visit to Wayne State.

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