ICCSD Runs out of Money Again But Continues to Engage in No-Bid Contracts & Wasteful Spending

May 27, 2014 Phil Hemingway pointed out to the board that if they really want to save money, they wouldn't allow the district to buy $24,000 worth of fertilizer from D & K Products in Des Moines for summer use, fertilizer being something which the administration and the board are producing a lot of on their own.

"We don't need it. Fertilizer just means we have to mow the grass more often, and why are we buying from a Des Moines firm?

"Also, stop twittering amongst yourselves . . . " [quorum requires public meeting?]

"We have a new managerial position, construction manager, which pays $69,000 a year, when we already have a physical plant director (Duane Van Hemert) and two physical plant assistant directors. You're cutting teachers and programs, but you're adding new administration?"

Phil produced examples of hundreds of thousands of dollars of no-bid contracts, including one to Shive-Hattery for $650,000, and numerous others to Shive-Hattery of lesser amounts, all adding up to a staggering total.

Is Duane Van Hemert still commuting to his Iowa City job from Des Moines or West Des Moines? If he is, there should be a residency requirement. Police officers usually have a residency requirement. Why shouldn't he? He's supposed to be policing the staggering amount of money spent in his department.

Are we hiring a new administrator to do what Mr. Van Hemert doesn't know how to do or isn't there to do? I don't get this good ol' boy mentality where we have to have a good ol' boy in charge of the physical plant who isn't necessarily qualified to do his job or isn't there to do it.

When Paul Schultz was director of the district physical plant before Duane Van Hemert, he was gone a lot. His employees used to say he was "at church" when he was gone during work hours for prolonged periods of time, because that's what he would tell them.

For a man who allegedly spent so much time praying, he sure did swear a lot at vendors he was unhappy with, like Deb Noel of Noel's Tree Service and others. In 30 years of work, she told me, only a few people had ever spoken to her using such abusive, sexist, and obscene language. Schultz also fired the whistle-blowers who questioned his wasteful spending, his failure to follow the law in removing asbestos and lead paint, and tyrannical behavior, and kept the sycophants who followed orders and kept their mouths shut.

The district needs to improve its hiring practices, not hire extra administrators to "represent" those who can't do their jobs, even with two assistant physical plant directors plus David Dude, who supervises Van Hemert. Mr. Van Hemert said the new administrator will be "an extension of [him]self."