DES MOINES – AFSCME Iowa Council 61 President Danny Homan released the following statement regarding a media report that blueprints for the new Iowa State Penitentiary may have been stolen:
“First, I want to thank the great work by the staff of the Iowa State Penitentiary that resulted in the recovery of hand-crafted ropes and other contraband that included an unknown liquid and improvised knives.
“I have been told that there are media reports that indicate that the blueprints for the new Iowa State Penitentiary were stolen from a construction shed. If true, this would be a major security breach that would threaten the safety of staff and the public for decades to come.
“Additionally, I have learned that shanks (improvised knives) were discovered hidden inside a roll of crackers at Iowa State Penitentiary. Despite this discovery and Monday’s discovery of hand-crafted ropes hidden at Iowa State Penitentiary, Governor Branstad and Director Baldwin have refused to acknowledge that there is a severe security crisis in the State of Iowa’s correctional institutions and that critically low staffing and the administration’s poor communication with staff are the reasons for this crisis.
“As far as I am aware, the administration has not had a serious discussion with local Union leadership about the security situation at Iowa State Penitentiary.
“There is a failure of leadership and an atmosphere of denial that continues to be pervasive in the Governor’s Office and Department of Corrections administration.”
4 thoughts on “AFSCME Iowa union leader issues statement on possible theft of blueprints for new penitentiary”
Does anyone seriously think AFSCME give a rip about member security due to stolen architectural plans, especially when they roll the whole thing up in an assertion that security is in crisis due to “low staffing” and “poor communication”?
Isn’t this really about trying to get the state to hire more dues paying members?
If they are so concerned about their membership perhaps they should actually provide annual financial audits of the own internal revenues and expenditures to their members so they can see how the dues are actually being spent.
By law, said information is supplied yearly to the Department of Labor.
Correct and can be viewed on the PERB website: https://iowaperb.iowa.gov/
I looked but cannot find any financials on unions. Perhaps you can supply a more detailed link to a financial statement.