Gov Branstad: Start cleaning up your scandal-ridden Administration

Personal Point by State Senator Mary Jo Wilhelm of Cresco – 

Thank you Madame President. I hope we complete our work this week and adjourn.

It is clear, however, that the Oversight Committee must keep working.

That’s what I concluded after watching Governor Branstad’s news conference from yesterday.

If you haven’t watched it, you should.  About 17 and a half minutes in, Governor Branstad tells Iowans what a great job his staff has done about the scandals and the problems that were exposed:

He stated:

“I was on vacation when the Des Moines Register wrote that article about confidentiality clauses in settlement agreements, and by the time I came back they’d already researched how many there were, how many settlement agreements, how many had confidentiality clauses, and we developed a strategy.

“And the next Monday press conference, I signed an executive order banning any use of settlement agreements for the executive branch of state government…”

Maybe that “strategy” is helping avoid answering tough questions, but it is a terrible way to govern the state of Iowa.

Governor, where have you been?  The so-called investigation by your top staff was a total failure.

Based on that failed investigation, you accused the fired workers of lying.  Two days later, the facts forced you to reverse that decision.

So you send an aide to fire Mike Carroll, the head of the Iowa Department of Administrative Services for lying to you when he said – during that top-notch internal investigation—that he didn’t know about the hush money payments.

Mike Carroll still insists he didn’t know.  In fact, not one of your top people who testified before the Oversight Committee has admitted to approving the secret settlements.

That all happened in the first few days AFTER you released the results of your failed, internal investigation.

Since then, we’ve learned so much more than you found out. We’ve learned how handpicked cronies replaced the experienced specialists overseeing hundreds of millions in state contracts.  We’ve learned how whistleblowers were fired and put on the state blacklist.

We’ve learned about the Iowa Veterans Home disaster, about how veterans and workers were bullied by your Commandant, how a report on sexual harassment was delivered to your office, and how no action was taken.

Governor Branstad, aren’t you interested in learning what is really going on?  Should we tell the people back in our districts that delay, deny, dodge and distract is the best they can expect from their Governor?

Yesterday’s empty rhetoric and finger-pointing by Iowa’s Governor is more evidence that the Iowa Senate did the right thing by passing legislation to increase whistleblower protections.

It appears that key parts of the state of Iowa are being managed by fear and intimidation.  That must stop.

Governor Branstad, you need a new strategy.

Instead of obsessing about who will blow the whistle next on your office and your department directors, start cleaning up your scandal-ridden Administration.

It won’t be easy, but it is what you owe the people of Iowa.