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.

Brother: Tom Wheeler wanted to leave Iowa Film Office

by Rod Boshart/SourceMedia News for the Cedar Rapids Gazette, August 23, 2011, 5:59 pm

DES MOINES – David Wheeler testified Tuesday he advised his younger brother in 2009 to “hold on” as manager of Iowa’s Film Office given the tough economy even though he was swamped with what defense attorneys are portraying as a burgeoning though poorly structured state tax-credit program for which he was not adequately trained or staffed to run.
“I remember specifically writing to him: ‘Tom, it’s tough out there. I would hold on.’ In retrospect, I wish he wouldn’t have taken my advice,” he told a nine-woman, three-man Polk County jury during the second week of Tom Wheeler’s trial on charges of felony misconduct in office, first-degree fraudulent practices and conspiracy related to his work at the film office prior to his September 2009 termination.
David Wheeler, a Norwalk native who now lives in Spruce Pine, N.C., and operates an event management company, said he had several “chats” with his brother about leaving the post in the Iowa Department of Economic Development to pursue other options, but he told Tom to keep his job for the time being due to the tight employment market.
“He was very upset. He was working his tail off,” said David Wheeler, who struggled to keep his composure during about four minutes of testimony. “Our father had died the year before and he never really had time to deal with that, and the bottom fell out and here we are today.”
David Wheeler told jurors he is paying for his brother’s defense because “Tom’s been out of work and he’s got nothing left.”
The testimony came on a day when prosecutors rested their case after showing a brief video of Tom Wheeler making a presentation to California moviemakers touting Iowa’s film tax credit program as half-price filmmaking that provided a 25 percent tax credit for production expenditures made in Iowa and a 25 percent tax credit for investors for projects that spent at least $100,000 in Iowa.
Prosecutors have painted Wheeler as “an inside man” who allegedly helped filmmakers fraudulently obtain state tax credits for bogus claims, inflated expenses and unqualified purchases. They contend he used his position in the film office to help filmmakers improperly benefit from the tax credit program by knowingly altering and substituting public documents, and by knowingly approved false and inflated expenses submitted to the film office.
Defense attorney Angela Campbell worked to dispel that image by calling witnesses who praised the former film office manager as friendly, professional, ethical and honest.
“I felt that he was a straight forward, honest guy,” said Joel Sadilek, a former Cedar Rapids resident who works as a movie line producer in California.
Sadilek said Wheeler never suggested anything untoward to skirt the program’s rules during the two films he worked on in Iowa, but he conceded during cross examination by prosecutors that some of the rental costs approved by Wheeler for other projects that qualified for tax credits were excessive – examples such as $450 to rent two shovels for six weeks or $250 for a rake.
Among the six defense witnesses to testify Tuesday was Donald Schnitker, a special agent of the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation, who helped probe the film office operations after former Gov. Chet Culver suspended the tax-credit program when allegations surfaced of lax oversight, sloppy bookkeeping and questionable expenditures that included two luxury vehicles that were taken to California for personal use. After the scandal broke, six people lost their jobs within the economic development agency, including Wheeler.
Campbell produced a bank statement seized by DCI agents and asked Schnitker: “Sir, can you tell me where in that exhibit it demonstrates that Mr. Wheeler was getting paid on the side, getting a bribe or otherwise improperly benefitting from the film tax credit program?”
“There’s no evidence of that in this bank account,” Schnitker replied. He also said DCI agents were unable to locate any other bank accounts held by Wheeler.
“So, either Tom Wheeler is so talented at hiding bank accounts or he doesn’t have another one,” Campbell noted.
“Correct,” the DCI agent said.
Campbell also talked about 32 boxes of materials investigators seized from the film office and asked Schnitker: “Sir, can you tell me where in those boxes you found evidence that Mr. Wheeler was improperly benefitting from his work at the Iowa Film Office?”
“Monetarily benefitting?” he replied.
“Yes,” Campbell said.
“That wasn’t found,” Schnitker testified.

An Afternoon at the Tom Wheeler Trial

Since I had the day off today, I went down with Jay Villwock to the Tom Wheeler trial. We were able to join the proceedings in the afternoon.

The defense attorney for Tom Wheeler was cross-examining Vince Lintz, the former Deputy Director of the Iowa Department of Economic Development (IDED). From the way the questioning was going, I had guessed that it was the defense's witness, not the prosecutions because for the most part the answers couldn't have been more favorable to the defense's case.

The judge from what I could tell appeared to be the same one who had presided over the Wendy Runge trial. I got a vibe from his of being fair and impartial and that his mind wasn't made up in support of either side. Wheeler's attorney, Angela Campbell, was a very sharp lawyer during what I saw and there was a lot more action during this portion of the trial than I had expected.

The main thing that was established through the questioning was that Wheeler was overwhelmed and overworked and that the people above him at the IDED were in many ways clueless or asleep at the wheel. Many examples of what he had to do, what he was expected to do, and what kind of support he received from his higher-ups was given with thorough, respectful questions asked to confirm things.

Even early in the film program, Tom Wheeler was overwhelmed and needed assistance but was not provided the additional staff that was needed. And then the onslaught happened after a cap was set and a total of 122 applications were submitted to the office. As an example of the number of documents required for just one film to establish expenses three bankers boxes of receipts were brought onto the courtroom floor. And this was just for one average film. It was emphasized how long it would take to go through all of this and how unreasonable it was to expect one person to do this alone. (I recall it took a team at the Attorney General's Office at least 6 months before they could even start to bring any charges.) There was mention of phone voice message boxes being full and unanswered, both for Tom's office and cell phone (that's a LOT of messages). Wheeler's attorney recounted all of the various jobs he was supposed to do and it sounded like enough for at least 3 people to keep busy to me. Practically every question the defense attorney asked about responsibilities ended with the answer "Tom".

There was evidence presented to show that Tom Wheeler was not the "inside man" the prosecution has claimed him to be but rather that he was making strong efforts to tighten the program and to identify and eliminate the loopholes. It was established that Tom tried to work with people to make changes in the rules to make the program run better and that he worked with legislators. It also established that he did not write the law. In fact it was made clear that he had neither the legal training nor the training in accounting that was needed for what he was asked to do.

The issues of the cars was brought up. You remember those, don't you? The Land Rover and the Mercedes - the vehicles that started this whole scandal? It turns out that there was nothing in the law as it had been written nor in the contracts made with producers that excluded these purchases - the ones that got the press and the Culver administration into such an uproar. It was shown beyond a doubt that leasing and purchasing of motor vehicles was allowed under the terms of the law and the contracts. There was no mention of how they were to be used or what kind of vehicles could be purchased. Have you ever wondered why no charges have ever been brought up concerning these vehicles? If you didn't before, you do now.

Toward the end of the session the prosecution tried to counter some of the arguments of the defense. A job review form was exhibited that showed that Tom Wheeler had not filled in an area where it asked if he needed additional staff to do his job. After the evidence in emails from earlier in the program, this omission didn't seem to carry as much weight. Given the work load it certainly seems possible that Wheeler could have either forgotten to fill it in or was at the point of throwing up his hands and not bothering because of the futility of asking. That is at least my impression.

I'm sure I've probably have left some things out from the afternoon's proceedings but that's the gist of a lot of it. Tom Wheeler's trial is set for three weeks and this is the second week. I'll be off work again next Monday and will try to attend and see what I can give as an eye witness report.

-Dave

Tom Wheeler trial finally underway

After being delayed 4 times at least, the trial of Tom Wheeler looks like it may be finally beginning, according to this article on WHO-TV's website:

http://www.whotv.com/news/who-story-film-head-court-date-20110804,0,6415666.story

There seems to be a feeling from many people that the idea of this trial is to "throw Tom Wheeler under the bus" and leave higher-ups of his from the Iowa Department of Economic Development (IDED) and members of the Culver administration, including former Governor Chet Culver himself, unscathed by the scandal with total blame assigned to Wheeler. We'll have to stay tuned to see how all of this plays out. Besides the Tom Wheeler trial, there are 3 other known trials that have been reported by the press.