Legislative hearings on the CIETC scandal continue today (Wednesday) with the agency’s former chief operating officer returning to testify. Lawmakers have more questions for John Bargman about the role his wife played in setting up the accounting system used by the Central Iowa Employment and Training Consortium.
Meanwhile legislators are still waiting to hear from the Iowa Workforce Development secretary accused of throwing away hundreds of documents in the early morning hours of April sixth. Republican Senator Ron Wieck of Sioux City says Laurie Rieck has volunteered to provide written testimony — but says he wants to ask her questions in person. He wants to hear what talks she had and with whom, and what they were about. He also wants to know what motivated Rieck to go to the office at five that morning and how she decided what files needed to be dumped.
Wieck says it’s a “way too important piece of our investigation” to simply accept a written statement. He wants Rieck to come to the table, sit and tell with the lawmakers what she knows about it, and then they can move on to something else. Wieck says the committee is still working on writing a subpoena, and says if Rieck hasn’t come to testify by the time it’s finished, they will not hesitate to issue that subpoena to summon her to come and talk to them in person.
The resolution’s not yet completed but work continues and Wieck says when it’s in place they’ll use it. Lawmakers are also working on legislation to beef up oversight of state spending. On Tuesday, Department of Human Services Director Kevin Concannon said his agency funnels federal money to state agencies to direct to programs that help the poor, and said he was outraged to learn three program officials had been paid one-point-eight-Million dollars over the past 30 months.