Case Cedar Rapids

Citing mistrust, Iowa districts pull support from school boards association

Some of the school districts that supported the Iowa Association of School Boards through a financial scandal are dropping their memberships or calling for the organization's governing board to resign.

The vast majority of the association's 356 member school districts are standing by the organization and continuing to pay their annual dues, but some of Iowa's largest districts are defecting over IASB's controversial decision to oust one of its own board members.

Dubuque and Linn-Mar school district board members agreed this month to drop their annual memberships in IASB, which cost the taxpayers of each district about $10,000. The Cedar Rapids school board recently passed a resolution expressing a "lack of confidence and trust" in the IASB board. Board members in other districts are weighing similar moves or are pushing for changes in leadership of the nonprofit association.

"We have a high degree of mistrust," said Randy Bauer, board president of the College Community school district, which includes Prairie High School in Cedar Rapids. "We ended last year with a little bit of faith that they said things would get better. I don't know that we've seen any change."

Read the letters from the school districts.

On May 12, IASB's governing board voted to oust its president-elect, Lee Ann Grimley, who was chosen by Iowa's school board members to serve on the association board.

Grimley had been calling for the board to accept greater responsibility for the financial scandal that engulfed the association in 2010.

The association, which collects millions of taxpayer dollars from Iowa school districts and government grants, was investigated by federal and state authorities last year after The Des Moines Register published a series of stories about executive pay and the alleged misuse of public money.

No charges were filed in the case, but the group's former director, Maxine Kilcrease, was fired for allegedly lying to the IASB board and raising her own pay to $367,000 without board approval.


In apology letter, IASB notes 'poor timing'

Grimley's removal, which was made without any public discussion, sparked outrage among taxpayers and some longtime IASB supporters. Emails obtained by the Register under the Iowa open-records law show that the day after Grimley was ousted, IASB interim executive director Veronica Stalker advised the remaining board members on how to handle questions about the matter.

More Cedar Rapids arrests dropped before court action | TheGazette

The number of people arrested by Cedar Rapids police but never charged is on the rise, and although that can be frustrating for officers, Linn County Attorney Jerry Vander Sanden said it’s his duty to look closely at every case and file charges only when they’re supported by the evidence and can be proven at trial.

From Jan. 1 to May 31, Vander Sanden refused to prosecute 105 Cedar Rapids arrests, according to police statistics. That’s 133 percent higher than the 45 Cedar Rapids arrests not charged during the same period last year, when Vander Sanden’s predecessor was at the helm.

Vander Sanden’s office also keeps numbers on arrests that don’t result in prosecutions, including both cases he declines to prosecute and those he asks police to investigate further. According to those numbers, Vander Sanden’s office turned away 174 Cedar Rapids police cases through May 31 this year, up 67 percent from the 104 cases the office either rejected or requested for follow-up during the same period last year.

Vander Sanden said the difference in the numbers might be his office’s inclusion of cases sent back for more investigation. And, he said, the increase might be partly linked to a rise in population that coincided with a 7.58 percent increase in overall arrests this year over last year through May 31, he said.

But, Vander Sanden said, it also shows that police efforts don’t always meet his office’s standards for what it takes to land a conviction.

“Part of the problem is that peace officers only need probable cause to make an arrest,” Vander Sanden said. “We as prosecutors need proof beyond a reasonable doubt to obtain a conviction.”

Cedar Rapids police Sgt. Cristy Hamblin said officers want the county to prosecute all their cases. They don’t make arrests if they don’t think charges could result in a conviction, she said.

“It can be frustrating,” she said.

Different view

Vander Sanden, appointed to succeed Harold Denton last July and elected to keep his job in November, said he’s sympathetic to challenges police face when they investigate a case and find reason to suspect someone broke the law.

“But sometimes,” he said, “we have to make a judgment call on whether there is sufficient evidence.”

Vander Sanden said he takes a different view than his predecessors when it comes to reviewing cases and filing charges.

“I do believe that, perhaps, I scrutinize them more closely,” he said. “I might be more inclined to send one back for more investigation.

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