Auditor's Report - Interesting Facts

I killed a good hour or so thing morning looking through the State Auditor's report about the film incentive problems and found some interesting information in the section on "Background"

The first excerpt:

"Tom Wheeler was hired as the Film Office Manager (Administrative Assistant 4), effective January 5, 2004. The Department was unable to provide a written job description for the Film Office Manager."

So does this mean that his responsibilities weren't clearly defined and that they piled on these additional responsibilities later? There was no written job description given to him at the time he was hired and the responsibilities then were the same as for his predecessors: to promote Iowa to film producers, both outside and within the state, as a location to shoot movies. The usual thought was to increase tourism. It was after Tom was hired that the bill for film tax incentives was passed and it was decided that he should do it all.

As I've mentioned a number of times, Tom is not trained as a lawyer and he is not trained as an accountant. To have him perform duties outside of his area of expertise like this is negligent and those responsible for these decisions should be the ones put on trial. To prosecute Tom only serves to deflect blame from the true perpetrators of this incompetence.

Other excerpt:

"Although Mr. Wheeler was the only full time staff person assigned to the Office, he was able to enlist the services of an Administrative Assistant, who was shared by the whole Division, and the Division Secretary, who reported to Ms. Johnson and Mr. Rossate. According to Ms. Johnson and other Department staff, Mr. Wheeler was to request assistance from Ms. Johnson and Mr. Rossate when needed. According to Department staff we spoke with, Mr. Rossate and Ms. Johnson did not allocate time to the Office on their time sheets."

Tom's only help in handling this mountain of paperwork and making heads or tails out of the financial accounting and the legal aspects was an Administrative Assistant (fancy word for "Secretary"), who was shared by the whole division, and the Division Secretary. I doubt you would want either of them doing your legal work or your accounting, much less Tom, who was obviously not qualified for this work. His supervisors, Ms. Johnson and Mr. Rossate, from what I've heard were asked for assistance by Tom Wheeler. The fact that they did not allocate time to his concerns shows that they blew him off. I've heard also that he contacted Governor Culver's office with his concerns about inadequate staff and was ignored.

Obviously it shouldn't be Tom Wheeler who is to be put on trial.