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Guiltless greed at our expense

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By Barb Ickes | Thursday, April 17, 2008 6:16 AM CDT | () comments

Our pockets are easily picked.

Of all the questions that came out of the dollar-by-dollar details of the CIETC pay scandal, one keeps coming back: How is it that so many people agreed it was a good idea?

From the job training agency’s top brass to the bookkeeper and board members — nobody batted an eye at the fat bonuses being handed out like tequila shots on Cinco de Mayo. Cashing those checks was as easy as falling down.

Take Ramona Cunningham (please!), the CEO of CIETC who evidently figured she had the $368,000 annual pay coming to her. All those on-the-clock trips to the local casino can get expensive, after all.

And this is the woman who, when the scandal broke, offered the defense that the Central Iowa Employment and Training Consortium was “a well-run machine.” Sure it was — if the machine was video poker.

One thing that struck you if you sat through any of this week’s testimony is how easy it was for money to simply disappear. Even though the place was sometimes crawling with auditors, passing out employee bonuses on the federal dime was commonplace.

The lawyer for the CIETC accountant, who made $129,168 during that last profitable year, portrayed the culture perfectly.

Why would Karen Tesdell, who bears a striking resemblance to everyone’s aunt, think anything of her skyrocketing salary? Her pay had been going off like fireworks ever since she started at CIETC 20 years ago.

And that was before Cunningham was in charge.

Every time “a new funding stream” (which means a new name has been given to our tax dollars) became available, workers got more money. In 1990, the accountant who didn’t oversee so much as a single worker, got a pay increase of $14,479.

But the grossest of the gross came in a seven-month period, beginning in late 2005. That’s when Tesdell pulled down $42,300 in bonuses and pay raises. This isn’t a vice president of Deere & Co., people. This was the bookkeeper for a nonprofit agency that’s supposed to train untrained workers with federal money.

This was a culture of ca-ching!

When the boss handed you an envelope with a $10,000 check inside and said, “never tell anyone,” you kept your mouth shut. At least, you zipped it if you ever wanted to see another envelope.

Cunningham was generous that way, passing out our money, evidently with the blessing of the CIETC board. Maybe it was hush money. Maybe it was the way she cultivated loyalty. Whatever it was, it was wrong and no one said a word about it.

The culture of entitlement runs too deep.

When asked whether that last 42 grand was “reasonable,” Tesdell replied, “To me, yes.”

But her most telling reply came when a prosecutor compared her pay to the salaries of directors of statewide agencies who often oversee thousands.

“But CIETC’s not state,” she said.

Right. Evidently everyone’s supposed to know that federal money is free.

Barb Ickes can be contacted at (563) 383-2316 or bickes@qctimes.com.