Tom Wheeler and the "Incompentence" Issue

Two articles in the last two days have brought up the issue of incompetence in regards to Tom Wheeler:

Former IDED Chief: Wheeler wasn't qualified to run incentive program
http://blogs.desmoinesregister.com/dmr/index.php/2011/08/25/former-ided-chief-wheeler-wasnt-qualified-to-run-incentive-program/

Our View - Dialing back the cinematic vision for Iowa
http://www.press-citizen.com/article/20110826/OPINION03/108260303/Our-View-Dialing-back-cinematic-vision-Iowa?odyssey=nav|head

The first is about Mike Blouin, Wheeler's first boss at the IDED being on the stand as a witness and the other is about the Landlocked Film Festival going on at the same time as the trial. Both bring up the idea that Tom Wheeler was incompetent in the most unflattering terms. Let's take a look at the idea of incompetence and see what it really means and see who really deserves the term.

When you look at State Film Tax Credits, it is a relatively new thing - certainly for Iowa. They just have not been around that long and the people who would already have most of the experience are already working - for OTHER states. When something is new, everyone in it is "incompetent". When airplanes were first invented, you can bet that the Wright brothers didn't have a lot of flight hours under their belt when they flew that first plane at Kitty Hawk.

It's well established that Tom Wheeler did not have training in legal contracts or in accounting. There were others at the IDED and in other areas of state government who did and didn't exercise their responsibilities. It is to those people who the term incompetence, in the worst sense, should be applied. And the term should be applied most of all to former governor Chet Culver. From evidence brought up at the trial I could see that Tom Wheeler and to some degree his bosses WERE trying to close the loopholes and make the program work as intended but it was Culver who decided to freeze the whole thing forever instead of allow it to be fixed and decided to turn it into a political football.

I've noticed that there have been a number of people who wish to throw Tom Wheeler under the bus. We've been experiencing this with this trial where the operative word is "persecution" not "prosecution" and I've noticed it in our own film community, such as there is of it. I've heard it mentioned that there was a lot more going on as far as abuses that is being reported with an evil eye directed toward Wheeler. So far at this trial most of the abuses have been those we've known about. At the emergency IMPA meeting I attended there certainly seemed to be a willingness to make Tom Wheeler the sacrificial goat from some parties there. It is just so easy to point fingers when you don't know the facts.

Here is what I believe, given the facts I am aware of:

Tom Wheeler was in over his head and did not have training in legal contracts or in accounting. There was way too much paperwork to sort through, even if he would have had those skills. He wasn't receiving the full support he needed with either additional qualified staffing or support from others in state government. No efforts were made to understand what was going on in his department by those whose responsibility is was to know - his bosses. They just left everything to Tom and forgot about it. ("Ignorance is bliss.") And finally you had someone deciding the fate of the whole thing who knew next to nothing about it and made no effort to - Governor Chester Culver and the results were similar to letting loose a monkey with a hammer into a china shop.