Missing Webster County girl Kathlynn Shepard. (images via Iowa Department of Public Safety)

Law enforcement agencies are probing whether a central Iowa kidnapping may be linked to the murder of two girls abducted last July from Evansdale.

About 200 officers and volunteers searched rural areas in Webster, Boone and Hamilton counties Tuesday for a 15-year-old Dayton girl investigators believe was kidnapped Monday afternoon.

Kathlynn Shepard was still missing Tuesday evening.

The kidnapping suspect, Michael Klunder, 42, was found dead Monday night. The cause of death was suicide.

Klunder, a sex offender registered as living in Stratford, Iowa, about 90 miles west of Evansdale, has been convicted of kidnapping and assault.

Black Hawk County Deputy Sheriff Rick Abben told The Des Moines Register Tuesday that Klunder had not been questioned in the investigation of the murders of Elizabeth Collins, 8, and Lyric Cook-Morrissey, 10, cousins who were abducted in July from Evansdale and found dead in December.

“We are working with state and local investigators in Webster County to see if there is any connection,” Abben said. “However, it is too early in the Webster County investigation to draw any conclusions.”

The focus of the central Iowa case at this time is finding Kathlynn, Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation Special Agent Bill Kietzman said during a news conference Tuesday afternoon.

“Time is obviously not our friend in these situations,” he said. “Our plan is we are going to find her alive.”

Klunder picked up Kathlynn and a 12-year-old girl around 4 p.m. Monday as they got off the school bus, officials said. The girls were taken to a rural agricultural facility southeast of Dayton at 4:30 p.m.

The 12-year-old girl escaped and found help at a nearby house. She was taken to Trinity Regional Hospital in Fort Dodge and is O.K., officials said.

The girl told investigators what happened and described Klunder’s vehicle, a red Toyota Tundra. Investigators found Klunder dead around 8 p.m. at a rural property northeast of Dayton, officials said.

Klunder had a long history with kidnapping charges.

He was convicted of third-degree kidnapping and assault resulting in bodily injury in 1992. He abducted and assaulted Lori Lee Smith, a 21-year-old from Rudd, court records state. He was sentenced to 11 years in prison.

Klunder abducted Smith on Highway 18, east of Mason City, and then forced her into his car, according to trial testimony. Smith said Klunder pulled up behind her and flashed his headlights. She pulled over and Klunder said her lights were not working. When she got out to check her lights, Klunder told her he had a knife and pulled her into his car.

Smith said she struggled with him in the car and was thrown out when a truck turned around to help, according trial testimony.

Klunder was also convicted in 1992 of two counts of kidnapping and one count of willful injury, according to court records. He snatched two 3-year-old girls, Brittany Koster and Tricia Schmitt, as they played outside at their babysitter’s apartment in Charles City. The girls were found several hours later in a dumpster near Northwood, about 50 miles away.

One of the girls had signs of strangulation marks on her neck and a cut on her hand but the other child was unharmed, Geoff Greenwood, spokesman for the Iowa Attorney General’s Office, said Tuesday. Klunder forced the girls into a trunk and placed it in a car, driving them to an area outside Northwood. A county employee then found the girls in the dumpster.

Klunder was sentenced to 30 years in prison.

Greenwood said he didn’t have any information regarding the plea deal because the attorney who prosecuted the case from their office had retired.

Floyd County Attorney Norm Klemesrud said Tuesday the sentences from both cases were run consecutively and Klunder was released in 2011 according to court records. The charges involving the kidnapping of the 3-year-olds originated in Floyd County but transferred to Bremer on a change of venue. The other kidnapping was prosecuted in Cerro Gordo County.

According to Iowa Department of Corrections, Klunder started work release in 2010 and was discharged Feb. 25, 2011. He served about 19 years and remained on the sex offender registry after release.

Hamilton County Assessor’s records show Michael and Lisa Klunder purchased a house at 924 Byron St., in Stratford, Feb. 25 for $46.000.

Lynn Schlief saw a half dozen law enforcement vehicles arrive at the residence Monday night.

“We had no idea what was happening,” she said.

Schlief was visiting her son, Gary Schlief, who lives across the street from Klunder. Two women came out of the house when police arrived, but neighbors did not know who they were, Lynn Schlief said.

Kathlynn is described as 5 feet 6 inches tall and 160 pounds with blond hair, blue eyes and braces. She was last seen wearing jeans, a gray hooded sweatshirt and a Minnesota Vikings baseball cap.

The Iowa Department of Public Health may replace ‘father’ and ‘mother’ labels with ‘parent’ on Iowa birth certificates following an Iowa Supreme Court ruling Friday requiring the department to list both lesbian spouses on a child’s birth certificate.

“The Department of Public Health appreciates the definitive direction from the Supreme Court,” wrote public health spokeswoman Polly Carver-Kimm in an email to The Gazette. “We will have to train hospital staff and change our birth worksheets as we currently have the labels of ‘mother’ and ‘father’ in the electronic system. These may have to be changed to say ‘parent’.”

The Supreme Court affirmed a district court ruling that both spouses in a lesbian marriage should be listed on a child’s birth certificate. The court ordered the state health department to reissue a birth certificate Heather and Melissa Gartner, of Des Moines, for their daughter Mackenzie, born in September 2009.

The department previously refused to list Melissa Gartner, 42, the nonbirthing parent, on the birth certificate.

“All I know is that we won,” Heather Gartner, 41, said Friday morning after dropping off her children Zachary, 6, and Mackenzie, 3, at school and daycare.

Guided by its 2009 ruling in Varnum vs. Brien that legalized same-sex marriage, the Supreme Court wrote in the Gartner case that Iowa laws must “recognize that married lesbian couples who have children enjoy the same benefits and burdens as married opposite-sex couples who have children.”

“By naming the nonbirthing spouse on the birth certificate of a married lesbian couple’s child, the child is ensured supported from that parent and that parents establishes fundamental rights at the moment of birth,” the 29-page ruling states.

Among those rights is a parent’s right to allow medical procedures for a child, Heather Gartner said. When Mackenzie was hospitalized as a baby because of a respiratory issue, Heather stayed with her the entire time in case the hospital needed parental permission for treatment.

“That gets scary,” she said. “You don’t want to take a chance.”

There are other occasions, such as enrolling a child in school or filing taxes, when legal parentage is required, Heather said.

Melissa and Heather got married June 13, 2009, after being together since 2003. Heather was pregnant at the time through an anonymous sperm donor — the same man who supplied sperm for the couple’s son. Heather gave birth to Mackenzie on Sept. 19, 2009.

Health department officials said they did not know Friday how many people could be affected by the ruling. They are going through records to see how many children were born to same-sex couples since 2009.

“The court found that the department’s construction of the presumption of paternity law — which directs the department to name a woman’s husband as the father of her child on the birth certificate — was correct,” Carver-Kimm wrote. “But the Court went on to hold that the statute itself violates the equal protection clause of the constitution.”

Camilla Taylor, the Gartners’ attorney and marriage project director for Lambda Legal, said the Supreme Court decision could also help gay couples who have a child through a surrogate mother.

“The language the court uses about spousal presumption of parentage clearly applies equally to all kids,” she said.

The Varnum decision has had far-reaching effects. In 2010, Iowa voters ousted two Supreme Court justices who supported the ruling. A few conservatives in the Iowa House of Representatives offered a budget amendment last month that would have cut the pay for any remaining justices who were part of the unanimous Varnum decision.

While Justices Edward Mansfield agreed with the court’s decision, he issued a special concurrence saying “if Varnum is the law, then Iowa Code Section 144.13(2) cannot be constitutionally applied.” Justice Thomas Waterman joined the special concurrence. Both judges were appointed in 2011 by Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad.

Justice Bruce Zager, also a Branstad appointee, did not weigh in on the case.

Regina Elementary School's Blaise Guidry dumps the remainder of his lunch into the garbage after eating lunch at the school Tuesday, April 23, 2013, in Iowa City, Iowa. In 2011, Regina began a program to compost more of its food waste. (Jim Slosiarek/The Gazette)

IOWA CITY — When students at the Regina Catholic Education Center finish the school year May 31, they will have composted more than 11,000 pounds of food waste from their cafeteria since August.

That waste once went to the landfill, where it took up space and generated methane, a potent greenhouse gas. But since August 2011, Regina has been turning food scraps into compost, a valuable soil enhancement for gardeners and home developers.

“I think it’s kind of cool for the environment,” said Regina first-grader Lydia Pritchard, 7, of Iowa City. “People get used to doing (composting), and then they start it at home.”

Regina is among a handful of local K-12 schools joining colleges and businesses looking for ways to reduce food waste. The school of 950 students pays for its composting and recycling program with lower trash hauling fees — a critical factor for other schools considering similar programs.

Waste audit

Recent waste audits of three Cedar Rapids-area schools showed more than 65 percent of cafeteria trash was food. Eighth-graders at Excelsior Middle School in Marion helped Green Iowa AmeriCorps sort the lunch trash Jan. 25.

“Once they got over the initial grossness of sorting through other people’s food, their biggest reaction is how much food is wasted,” said Todd Lane, an eighth-grade science teacher at Excelsior.

Excelsior students collect chip bags and drink pouches for recycling. A parent also picks up leftover food that hasn’t been served to students and feeds it to his hogs, Lane said. But launching compost programs can be challenging because of the startup costs and lack of hauling options in some communities.

The Cedar Rapids/Linn County Solid Waste Agency is discussing a pilot project with the Cedar Rapids School District that would include 16 weeks of free hauling of food scraps for one school, agency spokesman Joe Horaney said.

“It’s an opportunity to educate and divert,” he said.

Forty percent of food in the United States goes uneaten, according to the National Institutes of Health.

Food makes up about 15 percent of Iowa landfill waste, or about 19,000 tons a year, according a 2011 state waste characterization study. The Iowa City Landfill has composted more than 300 tons of food since 2007 and wants to expand its program.

Compost pickup

Cedar Rapids is one of the only communities in the state to do curbside compost pick up. Residents may put food scraps in their green Yardy Carts along with yard waste, Horaney said.

School administrators trying to stretch budgets to pay for teachers, facilities, technology and other needs often don’t want to spend money on composting, Lane said.

Regina got a $1,460 Solid Waste Alternatives Program grant from the Iowa Department of Natural Resources to pay for startup costs, including large bins, signs and biodegradable bags.

The school spent $6,420 a year on trash pickups before the program, said Missy Aitchison, a parent who started the recycling and composting program in 2011. Composting has cut the number of trash pickups required so the cost of trash and compost hauling is now $6,515 a year — just $8 a month more than the previous costs, she said.

School rules

New federal guidelines requiring students to take at least one fruit or vegetable for school lunch are generating more waste, teachers and parents at several schools said. It’s common to see whole apples or bananas in garbage bins at Excelsior, Lane said.

“They want the option to take just what they want to eat,” Lane said of his students.

The guidelines, which also add more whole grains and reduce sodium, are intended to improve children’s health. Ann Feilmann, the state Department of Education’s Nutrition and Health Services bureau chief, said there has always been waste with school lunch programs because short lunch periods and chatting don’t always allow kids to eat all their food.

Regina has a basket where students can put uneaten food, such as whole fruit or sealed bags of carrots. The food is donated to Table to Table, an Iowa City-based non-profit that picks up surplus food from schools, grocery stores and restaurants and takes it to area shelters and food banks.

Parent volunteers help Regina kindergartners and first-graders sort their plastics, paper and food after a recent lunch period. Leftover milk goes into a five-gallon bucket, plastics are pulled and leftover chicken potpie, green beans and fruit are dumped in a large bin with a biodegradable bag.

“It helps the earth a lot because if you throw away everything, it would take up too much space,” said Morgan Squiers, 7, of North Liberty.

New online resource

Iowa restaurants, schools and hospitals have a new online resource for finding ways to recycle food waste.

The Iowa Department of Natural Resources and the Iowa Waste Reduction Center at the University of Northern Iowa have launched a website with information on food waste haulers, sites that accept surplus food and case studies of other groups that are reducing or composting food waste.

The website, www.foodwaste.iwrc.org, will eventually include the capability for entering zip codes to find nearby sites for taking food waste.

The site is part of a $162,000 year-long campaign that will include regional food waste workshops in the fall, said Dan Nickey, senior program manager.

Hy-Vee plans composting project

Iowa City and Cedar Rapids Hy-Vee stores will start composting food waste, produce and floral trimmings through a pilot project.

Green RU, a Des Moines-based organics recycler, will pick up the waste from Hy-Vee stores and haul it to compost facilities in Iowa City, Cedar Rapids and Eddyville, said Demetrios Hadjis, regional sales and marketing director for Green RU.

Hy-Vee officials would like to see how the pilot works before deciding whether to expand composting to more of its 230 stores in eight Midwestern states, Hy-Vee Spokeswoman Ruth Comer said.

“We have high hopes for the program,” she said.

The program will not replace Hy-Vee’s donations of edible food to shelters, food banks and food rescues like Table to Table, Comer said. The compost project will focus on food that is past expiration or plants that are not edible, such as floral trimmings.

Other stores, including Walmart and Sam’s Club, have been composting food waste for several years.

Green RU, a Des Moines-based organics recycler, will pick up the waste from Hy-Vee stores and haul it to compost facilities in Iowa City, Cedar Rapids and Eddyville, said Demetrios Hadjis, regional sales and marketing director for Green RU.

Hy-Vee officials would like to see how the pilot works before deciding whether to expand composting to more of its 230 stores in eight Midwestern states, Hy-Vee Spokeswoman Ruth Comer said.

“We have high hopes for the program,” she said.

The program will not replace Hy-Vee’s donations of edible food to shelters, food banks and food rescues like Table to Table, Comer said. The compost project will focus on food that is past expiration or plants that are not edible, such as floral trimmings.

Other stores, including Walmart and Sam’s Club, have been composting food waste for several years.

DCI State Crime Laboratory criminalist Victor Morillo holds a Thompson submachine gun that is part of the permanent reference collection of firearms at the DCI’s State Crime Laboratory in Ankeny on Thursday, April 4, 2013. Iowa law enforcement agencies that seize guns as part of criminal investigations give them to the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation once the guns are no longer needed as evidence. The DCI collected 1,584 guns in 2012. About 200 of those guns were added to the DCI’s gun reference collection, which includes about 4,000 firearms of different makes and models. (Cliff Jette/The Gazette)

Rifles and shotguns seized in Iowa crimes are sold back to the public to raise money for the state, but some victim advocates say the annual gun auction adds to the problem of easy access to weapons for abusers and would-be criminals.

Seized handguns are destroyed unless law enforcement agencies need them for officer use. But rifles and shotguns — viewed primarily as hunting weapons — go to the Iowa Department of Natural Resources for the auction, this year scheduled for May 4 in Polk City.

The sale brought in nearly $83,000 last year, but at what price?

“Batterers that have weapons available to them tend to be more violent,” said Kristie Fortmann-Doser, executive director of the Domestic Violence Intervention Program in Iowa City. “A weapon is a weapon. It doesn’t matter if it’s a handgun, if it’s a shotgun, if it’s a knife.”

Sold at auction

Iowa law enforcement agencies that seize guns as part of criminal investigations are required to give them to the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation once the guns are no longer needed as evidence. The DCI collected 1,584 guns in 2012.

About 200 of those guns were added to the DCI’s gun reference collection, which includes about 4,000 firearms of different makes and models. The collection is used for training and for comparison with weapons used in crimes across the state.

The DCI has transferred or is waiting to transfer 183 guns to law enforcement agencies in Iowa and in other states.

Last year, 585 guns were destroyed. These guns, mostly handguns, are shredded by a private company in Des Moines.

The remainder of the seized guns — about 600 rifles and shotguns — was transferred to the DNR for the auction.

“We have over 700 items at the auction this year,” said DNR conservation officer Jeff Swearngin. “That’s over 500 guns, maybe 20 bows and various traps.”

The auction brought in $82,700 last year. More than $55,000 went to the DNR’s Fish and Wildlife Trust Fund, which pays for fish stocking, habitat restoration, wildlife surveys and game wardens. Another $27,200 went to the state’s general fund.

The DNR is expecting an even larger turnout for this year’s auction because of fears gun-control legislation will make it tougher to buy firearms in the future, Swearngin said.

Destroy or sell?

How police dispose of seized weapons has been a hot topic across the country.

Arizona law prohibits law enforcement agencies from destroying guns they confiscate during criminal investigations. The logic behind the legislation is that destroying sellable guns is a waste of state resources.

On the other end of the spectrum, Washington state law enforcement agencies were criticized for selling seized guns, including SKS military-style rifles and AK-47s, according to a February report by Seattle television station King5.

In Iowa, the Fremont County Sheriff’s Department traded 114 guns, including handguns, rifles and shotguns, to a firearms dealer in 2011 in exchange for $6,000 in gun parts for the department. Sheriff Kevin Aistrope said he didn’t know Iowa law requires departments to forfeit seized guns to the state.

“It’s given me a little black eye, but we did what we thought was right and saved a small county six grand,” Aistrope said.

He thinks the state should do more to educate departments about proper disposal of seized guns.

Several Iowa police departments have planned gun buybacks in which residents can turn in firearms for gift certificates or free gasoline. The Waterloo Police Department recovered nearly 60 guns in a 2011 buyback, Capt. Tim Pillack said.

Cedar Rapids police are seeking up to $10,000 in donations so they can offer $100 gift certificates to people who anonymously hand over a gun at a buyback later this year. The guns will be destroyed.

“If we only get one gun back, then you know what, to me it’s a success because that one gun will not ever be used to hurt someone,” Cedar Rapids Police Chief Wayne Jerman said.

Rep. Bob Kressig, D-Cedar Falls, pointed out the contradiction between one state agency “buying” guns while another agency sells them.

“It seems odd that we’re taking guns off the street from criminals and then reselling them,” said the ranking Democrat on the House Public Safety Committee.

Only sporting weapons

The Iowa DNR gun auction is tightly regulated, requiring all participants to have a valid firearms permit.

“You can’t just walk off the street and purchase a weapon,” Swearngin said. “You have to be cleared to buy that weapon before you even come into our auction.”

The DCI isn’t aware of any guns sold at auction coming back to the lab in a second crime.

Swearngin recalls at least one weapon — a hunting bow — being seized in a poaching case and then sold at auction to the man who was charged with the crime. That bow was recently seized in a new poaching case, he said.

State officials stressed that the guns sold at auction are sporting weapons.

“We’re not selling handguns,” said Victor Murillo, a criminalist with the Iowa DCI. “We’re not selling so-called assault rifles. None of that is being put back on the street.”

History of crimes

However, some of the state’s most well-known murders involved shotguns or rifles.

Dixie Shanahan Duty, of Defiance, shot her abusive husband in the head with a shotgun in 2002 and then left his body in the bedroom for more than a year while she and her children continued to live in the house.

Shawn Bentler, of Bonaparte, gunned down his parents and three teenage sisters in 2006 with a rifle that likely came from his father’s collection of hunting weapons.

In 2011, Jeffery Krier used a rifle and a shotgun in a shootout with police that killed Krier and Keokuk County Sheriff’s Sergeant Eric Stein.

The Linn County Sheriff’s Office and the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives are investigating the burglary of more than 70 rifles and shotguns from a Palo residence in January. Investigators are trying to figure out whether those guns were trafficked to criminals, as is often the case with stolen guns.

“You can do more damage with a long gun than with a handgun,” Linn County Sheriff Brian Gardner said.

Weighing risk

Having access to firearms of any kind can increase the odds that domestic abuse will escalate to violence, Fortmann-Doser said.

“We’ll have individuals who will describe how their partner, after an argument, will go and clean their weapons,” she said. Victims “feel that’s a very direct threat to them, a way of letting them know ‘I can take your life at any moment.’ ”

Linn County Attorney Jerry Vander Sanden takes a pragmatic view of the gun auction.

“I guess it’s a way of recycling assets to raise money,” he said. “If the DNR canceled this program, would that result in a drop in crime? I don’t think so.”

“Mr. Williams’ record while incarcerated has been extraordinary,” Branstad stated in an April 26 letter to the Iowa Board of Parole. “He has made the most of his life and has had a positive impact on the lives of both inmates and Department of Corrections’ staff.”

The Parole Board recommended commutation for Williams and prison officials called him a model inmate who has prevented two inmate attacks on correctional officers at the Iowa State Penitentiary at Fort Madison.

Williams was convicted of shooting Lester Givhan, 40, on July 20, 1974, after the men argued over a $30 gambling debt, the Des Moines Register reported. Givhan allegedly offered Williams the money, then pulled it back when Williams reached for it. Williams drew a revolver and fatally shot him, authorities said. Williams claimed self-defense, saying Givhan, who had a criminal history, appeared to be going for a gun.

Commutation is rare in Iowa, with governors reducing the legal penalty for only 30 people in the last 44 years. Most of the commutations cut mandatory life sentences to fixed-length terms with a possibility of parole.

Branstad has commuted the life prison terms of just two other inmates in his 18 years in office. One of those, Rubben Jones, 64, of Des Moines, told The Gazette earlier this month he thought Williams deserved another chance.

“Thirty to 40 years of your life, I know it can’t replace a life that has been taken, but I think he’s suffered enough,” Jones said.

Branstad denied commutations for 10 other inmates earlier this month.

Branstad commuted Williams’s prison sentence from life without parole to life with the possibility of parole. The Parole Board will create a plan that gradually reduces supervision, likely ending with Williams’s parole, said Fred Scaletta, spokesman for the Iowa Department of Corrections.

“Now that his status has been changed, he can move from maximum to medium security with more privileges and programming,” Scaletta said. The process could take over a year. “It’s going to be a while.”

[Graphic by John McGlothlen/The Gazette. Timeline courtesy of the Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier]

The Gazette reported March 6 that Tyler Barnes, engaged to Joanne Ferentz, has been working as an administrative assistant for the football program since January 2012.

The Athletic Department reassigned Barnes March 7 so he no longer reports through football and submitted a conflict-of-interest management plan April 10. The UI’s Committee on Conflict of Interest in Employment, composed of nine faculty and staff, approved the plan April 19.

Most of the plan is confidential, but it does change Barnes’s supervisor.

Since March 7, Barnes was asked to report to Rick Klatt, associate athletics director for external relations. He now reports to Steve Roe, director of athletic communications, said Sue Buckley, UI’s vice president for human resources.

Barnes, 27, and Joanne Ferentz, a 26-year-old Iowa City elementary school teacher, were dating when Barnes was hired. They got engaged last summer and are planning a July 6 wedding.

The UI’s policy on nepotism says conflicts of interest in employment can arise not only from blood relationship, but through marriage, “intense personal friendships or significant business relationships.” When conflicts can’t be avoided, the UI requires supervisors to create plans for managing the conflict.

Barnes, who earned two Bachelor’s degrees and a Master’s degree from UI, was hired in January 2012 as a temporary administrative assistant for football.

The one-year appointment with an annual salary of $32,000 was intended as a proving ground for young men who want to learn about football operations, Kirk Ferentz told the Gazette in March. Barnes succeeded LeVar Woods, who became an assistant coach earlier this year.

Athletics officials asked the UI in November to extend Barnes’s employment for an extra year and bumped up his pay to $38,000.

Ferentz told the Gazette he didn’t see a reason to tell Athletics Director Gary Barta about the change in Barnes’s personal status.

This Nov. 1, 2012 photo provided by the Iowa Department of Corrections shows Rasberry Williams, who is serving a life sentence for fatally shooting an acquaintance over a $30 debt outside a Waterloo, Iowa, pool hall in 1974. (Iowa Department of Corrections)

Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad has denied commutations for 10 inmates serving life sentences for murder, kidnapping and robbery.

Branstad is still considering commuting the life prison term of Rasberry Williams, a 66-year-old who has served 38 years in prison for a 1974 shooting outside a Waterloo pool hall.

“The Williams’ application is still under consideration and no decision has been made by the governor,” spokesman Tim Albrecht said in an email Wednesday.

Commutation is rare in Iowa, with governors reducing the legal penalty for only 39 people in the last 44 years. Most of the commutations cut mandatory life sentences to fixed-length terms with a possibility of parole.

Branstad has commuted the life prison terms of just two inmates in his 18 years in office. He has until May 4 to decide whether to grant commutation to Williams.

Williams shot Lester Givhan, 40, on July 20, 1974, after the men argued over a $30 gambling debt outside a Waterloo pool hall, the Des Moines Register reported. Givhan allegedly offered Williams the money, then pulled it back when Williams reached for it. Williams drew a revolver and fatally shot him, authorities said. Williams claimed self-defense, saying Givhan, who had a criminal history, appeared to be going for a gun.

The Iowa Board of Parole has recommended commutation for Williams and prison officials have called him a model inmate who has prevented two inmate attacks on correctional officers.

Branstad denied commutations for the following inmates:

• Darrell Bizzett, 64, committed his crime on September 1, 1970, in Woodbury County.  He is serving a life sentence for first-degree murder.
• Rodney Borushaski, 40, committed his crimes on August 12, 1996, in Polk County.  He is serving two life sentences for first-degree murder.
• Raymond T. Freie, Jr., 71, committed his crime on August 28, 1981, in Hancock County.  He is serving a life sentence for first-degree murder.
• Mark Greiman, 51, committed his crime on July 27, 1998, in Cerro Gordo County.  He is serving a twenty-give year sentence for first-degree robbery. Offenders must serve 85 percent of the sentence for this crime.
• Kevin Johnson, 58, committed his crime on June 29, 1980, in Pottawattamie County.  He is serving a life sentence for first-degree murder.
• Ed Shaker Nassif, 43, committed his crime on September 1, 1990, in Linn County.  He is serving a life sentence for first-degree murder.
• Dee Jay Radeke, 49, committed his crime on May 31, 1991, in Linn County.  He is serving a life sentence for first-degree kidnapping.
• Robert C. Richey, 68, committed his crime on May 8, 1996, in Bremer County.  He is serving a life sentence for first-degree murder.
• Arthur Rogers, 40, committed his crimes January 27, 2000, in Scott County.  He is serving two 20-year sentences for second-degree robbery. Offenders must serve 85 percent of this sentences.
• Richard T. Steltzer, 69, committed his crime on February 6, 1979, in Warren County.  He is serving a life sentence for first-degree kidnapping^.

Tyler Barnes (UI courtesy photo)

The University of Iowa Athletics Department has submitted a proposal for managing the conflict of interest of having Head Football Coach Kirk Ferentz’s future son-in-law work in his department.

The Gazette reported March 6 that Tyler Barnes, engaged to Joanne Ferentz, has been working as an administrative assistant for the football program since January 2012.

Athletics reassigned Barnes March 7 so he no longer reports through football. Sue Buckley, UI vice president for Human Resources, asked the department to develop a conflict-of-interest management plan to be reviewed by a nine-member committee composed of faculty and staff.

Buckley received the proposed management plan Wednesday and gave her committee until April 17 to submit comments, she said.

“They will review the plan and will either offer modifications or approve,” she said in a previous interview about the process.

Barnes, 27, and Joanne Ferentz, a 26-year-old Iowa City elementary school teacher, were dating when Barnes was hired and got engaged last summer. They are planning a July 6 wedding.

The UI’s policy on nepotism says conflicts of interest in employment can arise not only from blood relationship, but through marriage, “intense personal friendships or significant business relationships.” When conflicts can’t be avoided, the UI requires supervisors to create plans for managing the conflict.

Barnes, who earned two Bachelor’s degrees and a Master’s degree from UI, was hired in January 2012 as a temporary administrative assistant for football.

The one-year appointment with an annual salary of $32,000 was intended as a proving ground for young men who want to learn about football operations, Kirk Ferentz told the Gazette in March. Barnes succeeded LeVar Woods, who became an assistant coach earlier this year.

Athletics officials asked the UI in November to extend Barnes’ employment for an extra year and bumped up his pay to $38,000.

Ferentz told The Gazette he didn’t see a reason to tell Athletics Director Gary Barta about the change in Barnes’s personal status.

Iowa inmates serving life prison terms during the last 30 years are more than ten times less likely to see their sentences commuted than in the previous 38 years.

From 1945 to 1983, Iowa governors commuted the sentences of an average 5.5 inmates a year, according to data provided by the Iowa Department of Corrections. Since 1983, lifers have seen only .4 commutations a year – or an average of one commutation every two to three years.

“There’s been a large drop in granting clemency at the national level over the past 20 years,” said Ashley Nellis, senior policy analyst with the Sentencing Project, a Washington, D.C., group that promotes sentencing reform. “The political decision-makers are so politically entrenched and don’t have the ability to do what they want.”

Commutation is a form of clemency in which a mandatory life sentence is converted to a fixed-length term with a possibility of parole.

• RELATED: Iowan embraces second chance after prison commutation

Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad, a Republican, has commuted the life prison terms of just two inmates in his 18 years in office. He has until May 4 to decide whether to grant that clemency to Rasberry Williams, a 66-year-old who has served 38 years in prison for a 1974 shooting outside a Waterloo pool hall.

Former Gov. Chet Culver, a Democrat, also commuted two life sentences, but led the state only four years.  Former Gov. Tom Vilsack, a Democrat who is now U.S. Secretary of Agriculture, commuted an average of one life sentence a year for his eight years in office.

Before this era, Iowa governors – Republicans and Democrats – were much more generous with commutations.

Gov. Herschel C. Loveless, who served from 1957 to 1961, commuted the life prison terms of 46 inmates.

But Gov. Leo Elthon holds the record – at least since 1945 — for commuting the most sentences in the shortest amount of time. He commuted the terms of 17 lifers from November 1954 to January 1955.

A Jan. 10, 1955, story in The Gazette, said Elthon’s commutations were following the wishes of Gov. William Beardsley, who died in a car accident.

Elthon commuted life sentences for nine inmates convicted of murder, five of bank robbery, one of attempted murder and two for crimes that would now be considered sexual abuse, The Gazette reported. Three people under age 18 were among those whose terms Elthon commuted.

Rubben Jones sits with his granddaughter Ahmia Huntley, 3, surrounded by family photos at his home in Des Moines on Thursday, April 4, 2013. Jones is one of two former Iowa inmates to have his life sentence commuted by Gov. Terry Branstad. (Cliff Jette/The Gazette)

DES MOINES — Rubben Jones’ life once looked as small as an 8-by-8 foot prison cell.

That all changed in 1986, when Gov. Terry Branstad commuted Jones’ mandatory life prison sentence for a murder Jones didn’t commit. Since his release from prison, Jones, 64, has lived a rich life that includes children, a career and even an Iowa Lottery jackpot.

“I’ve really been blessed,” Jones said. “I’m happy that I had a second chance.”

Branstad has commuted the life prison terms of only two inmates during 18 years in office. He has until May 4 to decide whether to grant that freedom to Rasberry Williams, a 66-year-old who has served 38 years in prison after a 1974 shooting outside a Waterloo pool hall.

Commutation is rare in Iowa, with governors reducing the legal penalty for only 39 people — 35 men and four women — in the last 44 years.

Most of the commutations cut mandatory life sentences to fixed-length terms that can be reduced for good behavior. Lifers whose terms have been commuted since 1969 spent a median 22 years in prison and had a median age of 56 when paroled, according to information provided by the Iowa Department of Corrections.

Of the 39 freed by commutation, four went back to prison for new criminal charges. One of those is Jones.

Jones’ case

Jones was convicted of first-degree murder in 1976 after the shooting of Jimmy Wayne Wright in Des Moines, the Associated Press reported.

Jones’ brother, Johnny White Jr., later said he was the shooter and Jones was an accomplice. White was convicted of second-degree murder and was paroled in 1981. Another accomplice also was freed in 1981 — five years before Branstad commuted Jones’ life prison term to 99 years.

Jones was put on work release May 20, 1987, and paroled five months later, when he was 39. He had served more than 10 years in prison.

“There are a lot of people who believed in me,” Jones said.

But Jones fell back into old behaviors, like drinking. One day, he left work early to see if his first wife was spending time with another man. Jones was later charged with violating his parole following three incidents of alleged domestic abuse.

Iowa revoked Jones’s parole May 3, 1990, and he went back to prison.

• RELATED: Modern Iowa governors stingy with commutations compared to past

“I understand Gov. Branstad’s decision when I was sent back,” Jones said. “But I think it was more political than anything.”

Jones served another 20 months for violating parole. He was put on work release in August 1991 and released in January 1992.

Since then, Jones says he’s never had a negative interaction with police. In fact, he served several years as a security guard for Des Moines’ Oakridge Neighborhood. He also managed a team of 48 custodians in another job before working 17 years at the Firestone tire plant in Des Moines.

Jones won a $100,000 Iowa Lottery jackpot in 2009, which allowed him to pay off his white, two-story house. He’s been married to his wife, Teresa, for 18 years, has five children, 15 grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. He spends most days with his 3-year-old granddaughter, Ahmia, who calls him “Papa.”

“My wife asked me the other day if I knew Rasberry Williams and I said ‘Sure. He was one of the guys there with me,’ ” Jones said, referring to the Iowa State Penitentiary in Fort Madison.

“I know from the situation with Mr. Williams, it was not a premeditated shooting,” Jones said.

Williams’ case

Williams shot Lester Givhan, 40, on July 20, 1974, after the men argued over a $30 gambling debt outside a Waterloo pool hall, the Des Moines Register reported. Givhan allegedly offered Williams the money, then pulled it back when Williams reached for it. Williams drew a revolver and fatally shot him, authorities said. Williams claimed self-defense, saying Givhan, who had a criminal history, appeared to be going for a gun.

The Iowa Board of Parole has recommended commutation for Williams and prison officials have called him a model inmate.

Even if Branstad grants Williams’ release, life on the outside won’t be easy.

“Rasberry Williams has been incarcerated for nearly 40 years,” said Jerry Bartruff, deputy director of offender services for the Iowa Department of Corrections. “Our society has changed dramatically.”

The corrections department helps offenders through survival steps like finding a place to live, getting a job, setting up a support network to avoid substance abuse, if necessary, Bartruff said. The department wants offenders to spend six months to a year under supervision, rather than paroling immediately, so the offender has structure, he said.

Jones believes living a good life and helping others can redeem past actions. He thinks Williams deserves the same opportunity.

“Thirty to 40 years of your life, I know it can’t replace a life that has been taken, but I think he’s suffered enough,” Jones said.

The department studied the fiscal impact to Iowa’s coffers of 133 sales and use tax exemptions and 63 property tax exemptions and credits on the books in 2010. Revenue from sales/use tax and income tax makes up about 85 percent of Iowa’s General Fund, which pays for schools, roads, prisons, social services and other state programs.

The department has not yet completed its review of corporate and individual income tax breaks.

Twenty-six property tax exemptions reduced the taxable assessment of Iowa property by an estimated $83.3 billion in 2010, the department found. The impact of another 37 exemptions was minimal or could not be estimated.

Since property taxes are paid based on assessed value, these breaks cut into state revenue. However, because property tax rates vary widely among Iowa counties, the Revenue Department was not able to accurately estimate the fiscal impact for the property tax exemptions, said Amy Harris, administrator for Revenue’s Research and Analysis Division.

The largest property tax break benefits residential property owners, who pay taxes on about half of the assessed value of their properties. This rollback reduced the taxable assessment of Iowa residential property by an estimated $70.2 billion in 2010, the report found.

Agricultural property rollbacks reduced the assessment of ag property values subject to taxes by $1.7 billion. The Iowa Legislature is debating proposals that would slash the taxable assessment for commercial property owners as well.

Tax breaks have been a hot topic in the last year as the Iowa Department of Economic Development approved up to $100 million in tax credits for an Egyptian-owned fertilizer plant in Lee County. Economic Development Director Debi Durham asked lawmakers to raise the annual cap on awarded tax credits from $120 million to $185 million.

Friday’s report shows six property tax credits cost Iowa $151.2 million in revenue in 2010. Supporters of tax credits point to the jobs created and the infrastructure improvements made when businesses locate or expand in Iowa.

Sales tax breaks are often handed out as political favors to industry groups, ranging from agriculture and manufacturing to drycleaners and newspaper publishers.

Iowa’s 2005 Tax Expenditure study found 112 sales and use tax breaks cost the state nearly $2.4 billion in revenue. The number of sales and use tax exemptions rose by nearly 19 percent to 133 in 2010, with the loss to state coffers increasing to $3.87 billion.

The largest sales tax exemption in 2010 was an estimated $421 million for transportation and delivery services. This means Iowans don’t pay sales tax on shipping and handling. An estimated $382 million in sales tax revenue was lost in 2010 from property or services sold outside of Iowa.

Gambling boat games and admissions had the third-largest sales exemption, with an estimated fiscal impact of $365 million, up 76 percent from $207.3 million in 2005. The fourth-largest sales tax loss was $362.8 million for food for human consumption.

The Gazette reported Jan. 20 that UIHC Food and Nutrition Services wasted $181,000 of food in 2012. The waste amounted to 12 percent of prepared food in the operation that serves 10,000 meals a day.

The hospital announced in February it would eliminate Styrofoam and nonrecyclable plastic from its cafeterias, allowing waste to be composted, rather than trashed at the landfill.

Starting March 28, the hospital will provide compost bins in each dining area so employees and visitors can sort out leftover food, carry-out containers, paper sacks, straws, silverware, coffees cups and other items for composting.

“All employees of UIHC are encouraged to participate in the new composting program,” said a memo that went out to hospital employees last week.

UIHC compost will be taken to the Iowa City Landfill, which has been composting food since 2007. The landfill, which sells the compost, has run out in recent years because of the popularity of the nutrient-rich material for gardens and landscaping.

Reducing food waste in the landfill can also decrease production of methane, a potent greenhouse gas, the UIHC memo states.

The hospital also asks employees to bring their own cups to use at ice and water dispensers and to avoid choosing food in take-out containers if they plan to eat it in the dining room.

Pharmacist Gary Grabe grabs bottles to fill a prescription at Medicap Pharmacy in Cedar Rapids on Tuesday, March 19, 2013. In order to prevent drug addicts from going to multiple doctors or emergency rooms to get prescription drugs, more Iowa Medicaid recipients are being required to “lock in” to one doctor, one pharmacy and one hospital. (Stephen Mally/Freelance)

The number of Iowa Medicaid recipients “locked-in” to using one doctor, one pharmacy and one hospital to prevent prescription drug abuse has increased sevenfold from 200 in 2010 to 1,430 in January.

The jump came after Iowa Medicaid started screening patients not for just doctor-filled prescriptions, but for non-emergency visits to hospital emergency rooms.

“If someone is prescription shopping, they will seek out the ER for additional medications,” said Kelly Williams, clinical operations manager for Iowa Medicaid’s member services.

By locking in more patients, the state saved $14.8 million from July 2010 through September 2012 in the cost of drugs and doctors’ visits, said Roger Munns, spokesman for the Iowa Department of Human Services. Medicaid reimburses only designated providers.

Prescription painkillers caused 62 deaths in Iowa in 2011, a dramatic increase from four deaths in 2000, the Iowa Department of Public Health reported. Prescription abuse treatment admissions in Iowa more than quadrupled from 187 in 1999 to 878 in 2009.

High-profile overdoses, such as the 2010 death of Paul Gray, a Des Moines musician and founder of well-known metal band Slipknot, have raised awareness of painkiller addiction.

Prescription monitoring

Iowa’s Prescription Monitoring Program, launched in March 2009, is a database of all the people prescribed Schedule II, III and IV drugs in Iowa over the past four years. Doctors and other prescribers can search the database to see if their patients have prescriptions from other providers.

The goal is to prevent addicts from amassing dangerous amounts and combinations of prescription drugs.

“We physicians love the prescription drug database,” said Dr. Robert Lee, a family medicine doctor in Johnston and president of the Iowa Medical Society, which represents nearly 5,300 Iowa doctors.

And yet, only one-quarter of Iowa doctors and prescribers are registered to use the database, which includes more than 4.2 million prescriptions annually.

Gary Grabe, a pharmacist at Medicap Pharmacy, 2030 Sixth St. SW, Cedar Rapids, said he has used the PMP, but not often.

“As small of a pharmacy as we are, we know everyone,” he said.

Legislative action

The Medical Society was among groups to weigh in on three bills in the Iowa Legislature this year dealing with the PMP.

One proposal, Senate Study Bill 1015, would have required prescribers to use the database if they believed a patient might be abusing drugs. The bill, which died in subcommittee, would have protected doctors from liability from damages only if they acted reasonably and in good faith. Current law says doctors do not have a duty to use the database.

Another bill that failed to gain traction at the Statehouse would have allowed the Iowa Board of Pharmacy to sign agreements with other states to share PMP information. Doctors in border cities like Dubuque, Davenport and Council Bluffs wanted this change so they could see prescription records from neighboring states, said Terry Witkowski, Pharmacy Board executive officer.

The only PMP proposal still alive in the Legislature is House File 558, which would require the Iowa Department of Human Services to share with the Pharmacy Board the names of people added to the Medicaid lock-in list so that information could be included in the PMP.

The Medical Society is concerned the PMP — which has more detailed records than the lock-in list — would be increasingly used by law enforcement agencies for criminal prosecution, Lee said.

“More information is good,” Lee said “But I’m not sure it’s going to give us more information. We don’t want this to turn into a law enforcement tool.”

House File 558 would not change current law requiring law enforcement to have probable cause to use the PMP, said Dale Woolery, associate director of the Governor’s Office of Drug Control Policy.

A Cedar Rapids police officer lifts crime scene tape, allowing motorists to drive past the scene of an officer-involved shooting along 27th Street NW near the intersection with Johnson Avenue NW on Tuesday, Dec. 4, 2012, in northwest Cedar Rapids, Iowa. While Cedar Rapids Police Department policy is to trace all weapons taken into custody, C.R. Police Chief Wayne Jerman said traces usually only happen when a criminal investigation is involved.(Jim Slosiarek/The Gazette

The federal government recommends law enforcement agencies trace all firearms, but many of Iowa’s largest police departments traced half or fewer of the guns they took into custody in 2012, a Gazette review shows.

Some departments blamed lack of staff and long waits for tracing by the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. Others said tracing rarely helps solve local crimes.

“The last time I traced a gun was five years ago,” said Sioux City Police Lt. Mark Kirkpatrick. “It’s kind of a haphazard system.”

But there’s a new federal push to increase gun tracing following the Newtown, Conn., school shooting in December. Among proposals considered by a commission led by Vice President Joe Biden was a plan to create a national database of gun purchases, which would improve the tracing process.

ATF traces provide law enforcement agencies with the manufacturer and original buyer of a firearm, information that can link a suspect to a crime or indicate whether a suspect obtained a gun illegally.

Johnson County officials are trying to figure out when and where weapons used in a March 10 shootout in North Liberty were purchased — information that could come from an ATF trace. Taleb Salameh, who shot three officers non-fatally before he was shot and killed by police, had a permit to acquire a firearm, but investigators would still like to know how he got his weapons, Sheriff Lonny Pulkrabek said last week.

Tracking data also can reveal how guns flow across the nation and stop gun trafficking, federal officials said.

Handgun tracking

The ATF traced 1,304 guns recovered from Iowa in 2011, the most recent data available. Of those traces, requested by 116 Iowa agencies, 46 percent were for handguns, 27 percent shotguns and 26 percent rifles.

Nearly 68 percent of Iowa crime guns traced through the ATF were originally purchased in Iowa, the ATF reported. Besides Iowa, more guns recovered here came from Nebraska — 28 — than any other state.

The Des Moines Police Department has requested the most traces in recent years, ATF data shows. DMPD traced 265 guns in 2012 — nearly all the firearms they took into custody.

Cedar Rapids police traced about half of the 161 guns taken into custody last year, despite a written policy saying they trace all firearms.

Chief Wayne Jerman, hired in September, said the department traces all firearms involved in criminal investigations. Guns not traced could include firearms citizens ask police to hold to prevent possible suicide of a family member, he said.

“There were some cases where a trace may have been determined to be futile or not necessary and no trace was requested,” Jerman wrote in an email. “While this may have not been in compliance with policy, it was done to conserve resources by not asking the (Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation) and/or ATF to conduct a trace.”

The CRPD policy on firearms is among policies under review, Jerman said.

Sioux City and Davenport traced 20 percent and 18 percent, respectively, of the guns they took into custody in 2012. The Coralville Police Department seized 12 guns last year and traced six of them. Waterloo and Iowa City didn’t know how many ATF traces their departments had requested, but officers said trace information often wasn’t useful.

“Who actually purchased (the gun), may or may not be a factor in the case,” Waterloo Police Capt. Tim Pillack said.

No electronic database

TV shows and movies portray police tapping into an electronic gun database, but federal law prohibits the creation of a nationwide registry of gun purchases. Gun-rights groups have argued such a database could be used to seize citizens’ weapons.

Instead, employees at the ATF’s National Tracing Center in West Virginia use a gun’s serial number to trace it from manufacturer to first buyer. This is often done through multiple phone calls and sorting through paper files.

“It’s basically a manual process,” said Trista Frederick, public information officer for the ATF Kansas City Field Division.

The ATF traced more than 344,000 firearms in fiscal 2012, with an average trace time of five days, the bureau reports. Guns involved in murders or other serious crimes can be traced in 24 hours, Frederick said.

But Iowa law enforcement officers reported waiting two weeks to nine months for traces.

“It just takes forever to get them back,” Coralville Police Chief Barry Bedford said. “In one case, we put in a trace request last July and we still don’t have anything back.”

The Johnson County Drug Task Force, which combines officers from Iowa City, Coralville, University of Iowa and other agencies, traces almost all the guns seized in drug investigations because of the clear link between drugs and guns, Iowa City Police Officer Jerry Blomgren said.

“We definitely see people trafficking in drugs also trafficking in weapons,” he said.

The task force recently caught a man transporting an assault rifle on Megabus, a low-cost bus carrier with hubs in Iowa City and Des Moines, Blomgren said. Officers checked the gun’s serial number with the NCIC and learned it had been stolen from somewhere near Des Moines, he said.

The task force also requested an ATF trace, which could confirm that the gun was stolen. If the case goes to federal court system, Blomgren said, prosecutors want officers to do ATF traces.

New push for tracing

A Jan. 16 memo from President Barack Obama required all federal law enforcement agencies to trace all guns they take into custody.

“If federal law enforcement agencies do not conscientiously trace every firearm taken into custody, they may not only be depriving themselves of critical information in specific cases, but may also be depriving all federal, state and local agencies of the value of complete information for aggregate analyses,” the memo states.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office Northern Iowa division has prosecuted several cases in recent years in which ATF traces revealed more serious crimes, Assistant U.S. Attorney Peter Deegan said.

In one case, three men were found with three guns, Deegan said. The ATF trace showed all three weapons had been purchased by one man, who investigators determined was acting as a “straw buyer” for felons who weren’t allowed to legally buy guns.

“By doing the trace, a larger criminal scheme can be discovered,” he said.

The ATF referred 192 people for criminal prosecution in Iowa in 2008, the most recent year for which data is available from the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, a Syracuse University organization that collects federal court statistics. There were 156 ATF convictions in Iowa in 2008 and 142 people were sentenced to prison for ATF crimes.

In January, 735 people were charged with new ATF cases nationwide, with the most common lead charge being “firearms; unlawful acts.”

This photo shows a broken gun case after a burglary on Dec. 8, 2008, at the Scheels store at Coral Ridge Mall in Coralville. Seventeen handguns, valued at a combined $11,400, were stolen. Twelve have been recovered so far. (Coralville Police Department)

CORALVILLE – Thieves broke through a rooftop window in the early morning of Dec. 8, 2008, and stole 17 semi-automatic handguns, valued at $11,400, from the Scheels store at Coral Ridge Mall.

The most expensive gun, a .45-caliber Kimber Warrior worth more than $1,000, was used to rob a Nashville bank in 2009.

At least six more guns were recovered in Chicago. One was dumped in a garbage can as a man fled from police. Another ditched in a flower pot. A third was used to rob three men of their cash, cell phones and clothes, police reports show.

The theft and recovery of the Scheels guns provides a look at how stolen guns move throughout the country and how police attempt to get them back to their rightful owners.

“It’s interesting how so many were recovered in Chicago,” Coralville Lt. Shane Kron said.

Charles Curry of North Liberty and Mohamed Elkamil of Coralville were charged with stealing the guns from Scheels after police found one of the firearms, a Kimber SIS Custom, .45-caliber pistol, in Curry’s car during a Feb. 16, 2009, traffic stop.

These charges were dismissed when the men were indicted in federal court for robbing an Iowa City bank July 20, 2009. Both were sentenced to 10 years in federal prison.

Court records don’t indicate whether investigators probed how the Scheels guns got to Chicago and Nashville.

Joel Barrows, an Iowa district court judge who prosecuted the Curry case when he worked in the U.S. Attorney’s Southern Iowa district, said gun trafficking wasn’t part of the federal case.

When law enforcement agencies seize firearms, they usually check the FBI’s National Crime Information Center database to see if the guns were reported stolen.

A recovering agency communicates with the police department that received the stolen gun report because the gun may be evidence for both departments.

“Anytime a weapon is stolen and put out into the community, it’s a danger for all of us,” said Linn County Sheriff Brian Gardner.

Linn County is working with the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to investigate the Jan. 30 theft of about 70 rifles and shotguns from a Palo man.

Investigators found one of the stolen guns in a March 8 search of another Palo house and charged five people with a host of charges, including possession of a firearm as a felon.

Linn County investigators are trying to find the rest of the guns, since stolen weapons often lead to other crimes, Gardner said.

“Rarely does a person steal the amount of guns we’re talking about to put them in a collection,” he said.

The Scheels guns started showing up in Chicago in May 2009.

Two men arrested separately on Chicago’s south side were found with Desert Eagle revolvers, according to police reports. An NCIC check showed one came from an Indianapolis burglary. The other was stolen from Scheels.

One suspect told police he purchased the stolen gun in the parking lot of a Dolton, Ill., night club. Though the gun sold in the stores for $600, the suspect told police he paid between $700 and $800 for the gun. He told police he bought the gun for protection when he went to visit his mother in a Chicago public housing project, police reports state.

Another Scheels gun was used during a robbery on May 15, 2009, in which two men mugged three others for their wallets, phones, shoes, clothes and car keys, police reports state. The man holding the gun ran from police, but his pants got caught in the top of a fence.

The Browning 9-milimeter pistol, valued at $560, was recovered with 13 live cartridges.

So far, 12 of the 17 guns stolen from Scheels have found their way back to Coralville, Kron said. It’s common practice for agencies that recover stolen guns to return them to victims once the weapons are no longer needed as evidence. Scheels was able to sell all the guns used, he said.

The whereabouts of the other five guns are unknown.

University of Iowa football coach Kirk Ferentz addresses the media on Wednesday, Feb. 2, 2011, at the Jacobson Athletic Building in Iowa City. (Liz Martin/SourceMedia Group News)

IOWA CITY – The University of Iowa Athletics Department has reassigned an administrative assistant so he no longer reports through the football program, headed by his future father-in-law, Kirk Ferentz.

Tyler Barnes will report to Rick Klatt, associate athletics director for external relations, until the completion of a UI review of whether Barnes’s employment violates the UI’s conflict of interest policy, Athletics Director Gary Barta said in a prepared statement Thursday.

“This supervisory move makes sense, as several of Tyler’s current duties within the football program focus on website, internet and social media functions associated with recruiting,” Barta said in the release. “This will also help mitigate his change in personal status in the short term.

The announcement was made the same day The Gazette reported on the UI’s review of Barnes’s hire. Barta and other athletics officials said they did not know Barnes and Joanne Ferentz were engaged until the newspaper asked about it last week.

Barnes, 27, and Joanne Ferentz, a 25-year-old Iowa City elementary school teacher, were dating when Barnes was hired in January 2012 and got engaged last summer. They are planning a July 6 wedding, according to an online wedding registry.

The UI’s policy on nepotism says conflicts of interest in employment can arise not only from blood relationship, but through marriage, “intense personal friendships or significant business relationships.” When conflicts can’t be avoided, the UI requires supervisors to create plans for managing the conflict.

UI Vice President for Human Resources Sue Buckley said last week she would request a review of Barnes’s employment by someone from UI President Sally Mason’s office. On Thursday, she said she expected to talk with Athletics officials next week about possible resolutions.

“There are various options,” Buckley said, but declined to discuss available remedies. “I will be hearing from athletics about how they are proposing to resolve it.”

Barnes, who earned two Bachelor’s degrees and a Master’s degree from UI, was hired in January 2012 as a temporary administrative assistant for football, according to documents The Gazette obtained through an Open Records request.

The one-year appointment with an annual salary of $32,000 is intended as a proving ground for young men who want to learn about football operations, Ferentz said. Barnes succeeded LeVar Woods, who became an assistant coach earlier this year.

“By all accounts, Tyler has been a model employee within the athletics department and other areas across campus the past few years,” Barta said in the release. “I am not aware of any complaints or concerns related to Tyler’s job performance during that time period. “

Athletics officials asked the UI in November to extend Barnes’s employment for an extra year and bumped up his pay to $38,000.

Kirk Ferentz told the Gazette he didn’t see a reason to tell Barta about the change in Barnes’s personal status.

“I didn’t see any reason to,” Ferentz said earlier this week.

Tyler Barnes (UI courtesy photo)

“My No. 1 responsibility is to do my job as well as I can. Anytime we hire anybody, we are going to try to get the best possible person we can. Tyler’s expertise is in operations, recruiting and technology. His strengths complement what we have,” he said.

In February 2012, the UI hired Brian Ferentz as offensive line coach under his father.

Brian Ferentz, a former Hawkeye who had experience coaching for the New England Patriots, beat out more than 100 other applicants for the job, the Associated Press reported. In Brian’s case, the UI did complete a conflict-of-interest management plan, which included Kirk Ferentz not supervising his son.

Iowa Hawkeyes head coach Kirk Ferentz makes his opening statement during his season wrap up press conference Wednesday, Nov. 28, 2012 at the Hayden Fry football complex on the University of Iowa campus in Iowa City. (Brian Ray/The Gazette-KCRG)

© 2013 The Gazette

IOWA CITY – The University of Iowa has called for a review of whether the Athletics Department followed proper procedure in hiring Head Football Coach Kirk Ferentz’s future son-in-law as an administrative assistant for football.

Tyler J. Barnes, 27, was hired in January 2012 as a temporary administrative assistant with a one-year appointment and an annual salary of $32,000, according to documents The Gazette obtained through an Open Records request.

Tyler Barnes (UI courtesy phot0)

About six months into the job, Barnes got engaged to Joanne Ferentz, a 25-year-old Iowa City elementary school teacher. The couple is expected to marry July 6, according to an online wedding registry.

No conflict-of-interest review was done for Barnes, even after his engagement. Ferentz said he didn’t think he needed to tell Athletics Director Gary Barta about the change in Barnes’s personal status.

“I didn’t see any reason to,” Ferentz told The Gazette.

The UI’s policy on nepotism says conflicts of interest in employment can arise not only from blood relationship, but through marriage, “intense personal friendships or significant business relationships.” When conflicts can’t be avoided, the UI requires supervisors to create plans for managing the conflict.

“If he’s reporting within football operations and the reporting line goes to the head coach and he’s becoming the son-in-law of the head coach, that becomes a conflict,” said Sue Buckley, UI vice president for human resources.

Barta said he didn’t know Barnes and Joanne Ferentz were engaged until The Gazette asked about it.

“There are a lot of things going on in people’s personal lives that I don’t know about,” Barta said. But he doesn’t think Barnes or Ferentz was trying to hide the relationship.

“I believe people didn’t think about it,” Barta said.

Barnes, who deferred questions to Kirk Ferentz,  brings skills which strengthen the UI’s football program, Ferentz said.

“My No. 1 responsibility is to do my job as well as I can. Anytime we hire anybody, we are going to try to get the best possible person we can. Tyler’s expertise is in operations, recruiting and technology. His strengths complement what we have,” Ferentz said.

Family Program

Brian Ferentz. Photo was taken March 5, 2012 in Iowa City. (Nikole Hanna/The Gazette-KCRG/)

This isn’t the first time the UI Athletics Department has come under scrutiny for hiring family members. In February 2012, the UI hired Brian Ferentz as offensive line coach under his father.

Brian Ferentz, a former Hawkeye who had experience coaching for the New England Patriots, beat out more than 100 other applicants for the job, the Associated Press reported. In Brian’s case, the UI did complete a conflict-of-interest management plan, which included Kirk Ferentz not supervising his son.

Head UI Wrestling Coach Tom Brands also hired his twin brother, Terry Brands, as an associate head coach.

The Athletics Department did a conflict-of-interest review and management plan when they hired Monica Mims, daughter of long-time athletics official Fred Mims, to be associate director of compliance in August.

Monica Mims, 28, is a 2003 Iowa City High graduate who ran track at Iowa. She earned a UI law degree and interned at the NCAA before working in the compliance division of the University of Southern California athletics department.

Monica Mims (UI courtesy photo)

The UI job was posted June 4 by Fred Mims, then associate athletics director for student services and compliance, according to documents obtained by The Gazette. Mims selected the seven-member search committee, which he was slated to lead, Curtis said.

When Monica Mims applied June 17, her father removed himself from the search. She was among 64 people who applied for the job and among three who had interviews, records show.

“The consensus is that Ms. Mims is the most qualified and the best fit,” the search committee wrote in a July 17 memo to the UI’s Office of Equal Opportunity and Diversity (EOD).

A recent Board of Regents audit found competitive job searches were done in 82 percent of recruitments in athletics, compared to the university average of about 94 percent. UI President Sally Mason told the regents she was not troubled by the discrepancy given that athletics often has high-profile and quick searches for coaching jobs.

Barnes groomed for promotion

Barnes, who earned two Bachelor’s degrees at UI, worked for the Athletics Department for several years while he was in graduate school.

The administrative assistant position, created about seven years ago, became open when LeVar Woods was hired as an assistant football coach in January 2012.

“It’s for a young guy willing to work a lot of hours for relatively low pay,” Ferentz said of the administrative job. “It’s a testing ground for us to see what kind of potential they have.”

Barnes’s supervisor is Scott Southmayd, quality control director, Ferentz said.

In November, Curtis asked EOD to extend Barnes’s temporary employment an additional year.

“Kirk would like the option to retain Tyler for this position (up to January 16, 2014) in order to give Tyler the additional professional experience needed to compete for a full-time administrative job in the intercollegiate athletics industry,” wrote Mary Curtis, associate athletics director for human resources and compliance.

Curtis said she did not know Barnes was engaged to Ferentz’s daughter. Human resources employees who become aware of a possible conflict of interest with a job candidate are obligated to tell Buckley, she said.

Buckley didn’t know about the relationship until The Gazette called her last week. She said she would request a conflict-of-interest review, likely by someone from Mason’s office.

Barnes’s January 2012 hire letter said he would not have benefits for the year-long appointment, but he received health and dental insurance starting in June. His pay went up 19 percent in his second year to $38,000.

Barta said he’s thrilled for Barnes and Joanne Ferentz, but he’s waiting to see what the UI review says about Barnes’s employment: “It’s undetermined what his status will be going forward.”

A for-sale sign is posted in front of the former Pohaku building on Thursday, Feb. 7, 2013, in Washington, Iowa. Owners of the company owe the state $49,516 as reimbursement for incentive funding. (Liz Martin/The Gazette)

More than 50 companies owe Iowa taxpayers $7.5 million they received, but did not pay back since 2003 after breaking contracts to deliver jobs and capital investment, a Gazette review shows.

The debts make up about 11 percent of all cash assistance paid by the state, which often trumpets the news when a company decides to locate or expand in Iowa.

When those companies fold or don’t deliver the jobs, Iowans don’t hear a peep.

“They had big plans,” Randy Van Winkle said of his former tenant, Vivakor Inc. The Coralville company received $150,000 from the state in 2008 to market cryogenic freezing containers. Five years later, the start-up has dried up without paying its debt.

Among the Gazette’s findings:

• State officials tout their process for vetting start-ups, but Cedar Rapids firm AgSugar International got $250,000 for technology that didn’t work. Democrats say not enough research was done on an Egyptian company offered more than $100 million in incentives to build a fertilizer plant.
• Companies that can’t pay their debts sometimes depart quietly, leaving the state little recourse for recouping cash.
• Firms that fail to create at least half of their promised jobs usually must repay all incentives, but Wells Dairy, in LeMars, was allowed to keep some incentives without meeting that threshold.

The Iowa Economic Development Authority expects to offer more than $120 million in tax breaks and $8.3 million in direct assistance for the fiscal year that ends June 30. Cities and counties provide further incentives, such as tax-increment financing or reduced property taxes.

Companies that have received incentives from Iowa since January 2011 have promised to spend $5.4 billion on buildings and infrastructure while creating 15,000 jobs, according to the economic development group.

Risk comes with any investment, but some Iowans wonder whether potential rewards of business incentives are worth diverting that money from public services.

“The private sector is for taking risks,” said David Swenson, an Iowa State University economist. “The public sector is for protecting the public’s money.”

Sweetening the pot

For decades, Iowa has been sweetening the pot for companies considering expanding or relocating here. Between 2003 and June 30, the state approved more than $1.5 billion in tax credits and cash assistance for more than 920 projects, according to data provided to The Gazette as part of an Open Records request.

“Incentives have made a difference,” said Tina Hoffman, economic development spokeswoman. “It’s a global economy we’re in and incentives help us to push the scale in our favor sometimes.”

Just because the state offers incentives doesn’t mean companies use them. One-quarter of awarded tax credits are claimed, which amounts to an expected $104.5 million this fiscal year. Companies don’t get tax credits until after making a financial investment, such as building new headquarters. Owners may choose not to tap incentives if they have concerns about meeting their contractual goals.

Iowa disbursed $67.6 million in cash assistance between 2003 and June 30, most in the form of low-interest or forgivable loans. Of that, nearly $12 million went to companies that did not fulfill their contractual obligations for job creation and capital investment, records show.

These companies still owe a combined $7.5 million, which is about 11 percent of the disbursed cash assistance.

Most of the companies in collections are small to medium-sized firms that couldn’t execute their business plans or were hit hard by the economic recession. At least one, Peregrine Financial Group of Cedar Falls, fell to fraud.

PFG founder Russell Wasendorf Sr. was sentenced last month to 50 years in federal prison after stealing $215 million from customers over 20 years. Included in the lost money is $350,000 in cash assistance the state provided for PFG’s $24 million headquarters.

Even good ideas can fail

Another company that owes Iowans is Pohaku, which means “rock” or “foundation” in Hawaiian.

The database-marketing company founded by Iowa native Wendy Gady received a $100,000 loan from the state in 2004 to set up shop in Washington, Iowa. The company looked like a winner, said Curt Nelson, president and CEO of the Entrepreneurial Development Center in Cedar Rapids.

“Wendy was a very successful person in that industry, in advertising,” Nelson said. “She had clients, she had the capabilities and skills to make this work.”

But Gady wasn’t able to land enough customers without extensive travel, Nelson said.

In March, a judge ordered the company to pay the state $49,516, plus interest. West Chester Savings Bank, in Washington, has a $191,300 judgment against Pohaku for another unpaid loan.

The Gadys, who now live in Hawaii, could not be reached with phone numbers and email addresses available online.

About half of small businesses fail within five years, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. Despite the risk, offering business incentives to start-ups like Pohaku is a good investment for Iowa, Nelson said.

“We expect to lose three out of 10,” he said. “The ones you invest in pay for the ones you lose.”

Balancing risk and reward

Wells Fargo, IBM and Google are among companies to secure multi-million dollar packages from Iowa since 2003, while start-ups were more likely to get $500,000 or less, the data shows.

The state works hard to vet new companies, Hoffman said.

Start-ups are paired with mentors who talk them through their business plan before presenting to the state’s Technology Commercialization Committee. That group, composed of investors and industry experts, evaluates the commercial potential of the new idea.

TCC-approved projects go forward to the economic development authority board for review.

Lawmakers have said economic development officials didn’t do enough research before offering Egyptian firm Orascom Construction Industries up to $109 million in incentives to build a fertilizer plant in Lee County.

State officials bragged about beating Illinois for the $1.4 billion investment and news reports indicated Illinois lawmakers were talking with Orascom. But officials with Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn’s administration say they backed off after seeing the size of Iowa’s offer.

“To be clear — the state never put an offer on the table. We recognized early on that Iowa’s bid was excessive and we were not going to engage in a bidding war,” Marcelyn Love, communications manager for the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity, told the Quad-City Times.

Iowa Sen. Joe Bolkcom, D-Iowa City, believes Orascom had no intention of building in Illinois because the company was approved for up to $300 million in federal financing to build in Lee County, which suffered in the 2008 floods.

Economic development officials also failed to turn up information about a pending lawsuit alleging one of Orascom’s subsidiaries defrauded U.S. taxpayers out of millions of dollars in construction contracts, the Associated Press reported last week.

Orascom broke ground on the plant in November and is expected to open in 2015. The firm has promised to hire 165 people.

AgSugar International secured $250,000 from the state in 2011 by promising to hire 24 employees to assemble machines used in ethanol production. When tests showed the technology didn’t work, the company changed its focus to LED office lights. The state settled with AgSugar, now Vertecra, in June for the Cedar Rapids-based company to repay the $250,000 over 30 months.

Getting Iowa’s money back

The state includes “clawback” clauses in most contracts so officials can recoup money from companies that don’t create the required number of jobs at specified salary levels. A compliance team files lawsuits or pursues collections.

In general, if a company creates less than half of the promised jobs, it must repay all of the incentives, Hoffman said.

Wells Dairy was able to collect $983,000 of its approved $4.4 million in incentives for expanding its headquarters in LeMars because it created 52 of the 126 required new jobs, according to a January settlement.

Recouping money from smaller firms is harder. “We do have a couple of examples where we are unable to collect,” Hoffman said.

Vivakor Inc. came to Coralville in 2008 promising to work with Iowa manufacturers to commercialize products used for rapid freezing and thawing of biological specimens. The state gave the company a $150,000 Demonstration Fund grant.

CEO Tannin Fuja leased a 2,900-square-foot lab at VJS Executive Park in July 2008, manager Van Winkle said. Fuja came with seven employees, lab equipment and a large cryogenic freezer with temperatures below -238 degrees Fahrenheit.

“He thought they had the next big thing,” Van Winkle said.

But the company started running behind on its rent, Van Winkle said. Fuja said the company was waiting for renewal of a federal grant.

“Five to six months later, I was told they didn’t get their grant renewed,” Van Winkle said.

Vivakor’s staff dwindled until it was just Fuja. Eventually, he left too.

When the state tried to contact Vivakor in October 2011 about a late report, the notice was returned because Fuja had left no forwarding address, court records state. A process server who tried to find Vivakor in Irvine, California, also struck out.

A Polk County judge ruled in December that the company had 10 days to take action or default.

Vivakor Inc. has a website that describes itself as a “technology holding company” with special interest in cryogenic preservation. Several messages to this firm’s phone number have not been returned.

Some question expansion of incentives

Economic Development Authority Director Debi Durham asked the Iowa Legislature last month to raise the yearly cap on tax credits from $120 million to $185 million. Iowans could lose another $1 billion in business investments this quarter without the credits, she warned.

But spending more public money on incentives could cause losses to schools, roads and conservation efforts – which can also create jobs, Swenson said.

“We’re robbing the social Peter to pay the private-sector Paul,” he said.

Status of projects

Iowa has been providing business incentives in Iowa for decades, but started in 2003 keeping records on projects that get state aid.

The Gazette requested information about these projects and received eight spreadsheets describing more than 920 projects awarded a total $1.5 billion between 2003 and June 30.

Most projects have three years to make hires and an additional two years to retain them. If projects succeed, they are closed. Some companies renegotiate contracts with the state. Others default and fall into collections. Many companies repay their debts gradually.

Here is a summary of project statuses as of June 30:

• 37 projects offered $101 million are in negotiations with the state.
• 171 projects offered $376 million were declined by company or rescinded by state.
• 283 projects offered $385.7 million are in a performance period, usually three years allowed to create jobs.
• 120 projects offered $330.4 million are in a maintenance phase, a two-year window during which time the jobs must be kept.
• 219 projects offered $204 million are closed, either by meeting goals or repaying the state.
• 20 projects offered $6.9 million are in settlement, which means the state is working out a deal for company to repay the cash.
• 30 projects offered $89 million are in default.
• 44 projects offered $30.4 million are in collections.

Curated by Erin Jordan, The Gazette

Iowa City Fire Chief Andy Rocca talks on his radio as he manages the scene of a blaze in an apartment building at 804 N. Dubuque Street in October 2007 in Iowa City. Rocca plans to retire after 35 years with the department, city officials said Friday, Feb. 15, 2013. (Brian Ray/The Gazette)

Iowa City Fire Chief Andy Rocca, an Iowa City native who has served with the city’s fire department for nearly 35 years, has announced he will retire May 13.

Rocca joined the fire department in 1978 as a firefighter. He was promoted to fire lieutenant in 1987, followed by a series of other promotions. He was named fire chief in 1996.

“He’s well-known, he’s well-liked in the community and the department, and he’s done a great job in developing a really fine operation,” City Manager Tom Markus said.

Markus said there are solid internal candidates to replace Rocca, but he likely will do a national search. If an Iowa City firefighter ends up being selected, that person will have competed against the best candidates and it will make the new chief and department stronger, he said.

Rocca oversees a 65-member department, as well as emergency operations including fire suppression, emergency medical services, hazardous materials response and technical rescue. The department has four fire stations and a training center.

“The city has been extremely fortunate to have benefited from someone of Chief Rocca’s caliber for nearly 35 years,” City Manager Tom Markus said in a prepared statement.

“He is a consummate professional and his impact on the Iowa City Fire Department and this community will be forever lasting. We will greatly miss his leadership, but we congratulate him and wish him and his family the best in the many years ahead.”

Rocca led the department during high-profile fires, including the March 1999 blaze that destroyed a downtown building that housed Mondo’s Sports Cafe and several levels of apartments. One of the largest fires in eastern Iowa, the blaze caused $4.76 million in damage and left more than a dozen residents homeless.

The same month, Iowa City firefighters fought a fire set by Jonathan Memmer to conceal the bodies of two women he murdered in an apartment left vacant over spring break 1999.

The Iowa City Fire Department was awarded Accredited Agency Status in 2008, becoming one of only 128 agencies worldwide to be recognized as such by the Commission on Fire Accreditation International. The Insurance Services Office, which conducts insurance risk analyses for businesses and municipalities, upgraded Iowa City’s Public Protection Classification to a Level 2. Nationwide, only 716 fire-protection areas, or less than 1.5 percent of the 48,000 areas reviewed, achieve Level 1 or Level 2 status.

The hospital, which serves about 10,000 meals a day, will eliminate Styrofoam and nonrecyclable plastic from its cafeterias, allowing the hospital to compost food waste, CEO Ken Kates told the Iowa Board of Regents.

“We will cook smaller batches of food based on our customer demand in order to reduce wastage,” Kates added.

Changes will be made by the end of March.

Hospital officials also plan to increase the amount of food they donate to Table to Table, an Iowa City nonprofit that delivers salvageable food from restaurants, grocery stores and institutions to agencies that feed hungry people, said Regent Bob Downer, of Iowa City.

“The hospital has proceeded very proactively in terms of the concerns raised in your article,” Downer said.

A Jan. 20 Gazette investigation showed UI Hospitals threw away 355,000 servings of food valued at $181,600 in the year that ended Nov. 30. This was food prepared, but not sold, in seven dining areas in the state’s largest hospital.

The UI Hospital’s 12 percent pre-consumer food waste is above the 4 percent to 10 percent average waste seen at institutions that work with LeanPath, a Oregon-based company that provides automated food waste tracking for schools, hospitals, restaurants and corporations in more than 30 states.

UI Hospitals previously donated only packaged food because they didn’t want to violate state health codes. But donating prepared food is legal as long as hot food is kept above 135 degrees and cold food is kept below 41 degrees, Johnson County Public Health Department officials said.

A 1996 federal law protects food donors from civil and criminal liability except in cases of gross negligence or intentional misconduct.

The UI reported sending between 220 to 330 gallons of waste to the Iowa City Landfill each day. By removing Styrofoam and plastics from the food, more can be composted.

Food waste makes up about 14 percent of Iowa’s landfills, according to a 2011 waste characterization study. As food breaks down, it generates methane, a potent greenhouse gas. A growing number of waste haulers are adding food scraps to their rounds because of the potential revenue from compost.

UI Hospitals is making other changes to increase recycling by 10 percent and reduce waste by 10 percent, Kates said. Officials bought 4,100 desk-side recycling containers for employees and have switched to microfiber mops, which require less detergent.

The hospital is also studying ways to reduce energy use in the heating and electric systems.

Traffic travels on Interstate 380 south of Cedar Rapids in August 2009. (Cliff Jette/The Gazette)

Iowa has a shortfall of $215 million to meet the state’s most critical public roadway needs, according to a December 2011 Road Use Tax Fund Study prepared for the Iowa Legislature by the Iowa Department of Transportation.

Critical needs include pavement and bridge preservation on Iowa’s interstate system, key roads for industry and farming and major city streets.

Iowa has 114,153 miles of primary, secondary and municipal roads, with much of the system built or modernized in the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s, the DOT reported. The condition of Iowa’s roads compared to other states was in the bottom half for rural and urban areas, according to a study of 2008 data from the Reason Foundation included in the DOT report.

While highway needs continue to mount, revenue streams are in question, said Stuart Anderson, director of the IDOT’s Planning, Programming and Modal Division. Local revenue has been flat, and federal funds unstable. The DOT also faces unknowns, such as whether increased use of hybrid vehicles will reduce the money the DOT gets from the fuel user fee.

“The total of all needs that exist or will exist on the system in the next 20 years far exceeds forecast revenue,” Anderson said.

The DOT has about $80 million budgeted for each of the next four years for “new” construction that includes segments on new alignment or additional lanes to primary roads for economic development, Anderson said. These types of projects include the Mount Vernon-Lisbon Highway 30 bypass and Highway 100 extension.

Food waste from Cedar Rapids and Marion Wal-Mart and Sam's Club stores will be worked into yard waste and composted at the Solid Waste Agency's compost site at the Site 1 landfill on Thursday, Sept. 8, 2011, in Cedar Rapids. (Liz Martin/SourceMedia Group News)

Food waste and other compostable material made up nearly 42 percent of the garbage by weight at the State Capitol cafeteria in Des Moines during a recent waste audit done by Iowa City students.

The Jan. 16 audit done by students from Northwest Junior High, South East Junior High and Borlaug Elementary, in conjunction with the Iowa Waste Exchange, yielded 285 pounds of garbage from the Capitol cafeterias, operated by Treat America Food Services.

Nonrecyclables – or actual garbage – made up the largest share of waste with 42.1 percent by weight, but compostables were right behind with 41.75 percent. Compostables include food, paper towels and paper dining products.

Plastics made up about 8 percent of the waste and Styrofoam containers were 3.7 percent. There were very small amounts of glass, metals and paper, the group reported.

“They currently have recycling places,” said Ethan Trepka, a seventh grader at Northwest. “They could add one for compost. It would be pretty easy.”

Dave Correy, food service director, said Treat America has changed practices following previous waste audits. They got rid of Styrofoam plates and now serve food on china and tried to get diners to use reusable glasses.

Rep. Chuck Isenhart, D-Dubuque, said the audit was a good way to show lawmakers how much recyclable product can be diverted from the waste stream. Food waste makes up about 14 percent of Iowa’s landfills, where it generates methane, a potent greenhouse gas.

“I am hoping that the students will come back to the Capitol and give us a report and recommendations, perhaps to a subcommittee meeting on a bill I am working on related to product stewardship,” Isenhart said. “If we get the right group of people around the table, we can see what is feasible.”

Isenhart, ranking member of the Environmental Protection Committee, is pushing for legislation that would reclassify food waste as yard waste so cities could pick it up at the curb. Dubuque and Cedar Rapids are among just a few communities that provide curbside pickup of food scraps.

The student group, called Chasing Methane, would like the Iowa Department of Natural Resources to study ways to make it easier for restaurants to compost food.

More than three-quarters of the garbage at two Iowa City-area restaurants was food waste during recent audits conducted by the students. Carlos O’Kelly’s trash was about 80 percent compostable material and Applebee’s trash was 76 percent compostable.

In June 2012, $6.86 million in unemployment was deposited directly, compared to $2.13 million put on debit cards.A small share of payments, $126,000 in June, still came on paper checks, according to Iowa Workforce Development.

The state used to make all payments via checks sent through the mail, but the federal government stopped paying for postage.

Iowa contracted with Xerox subsidiary ACS in 2008 to administer the unemployment debit cards. The state pays nothing for the service, shifting the cost of the program to ACS, which in turn makes money from fees charged to users.

Exactly how much ACS and its subcontractors make in fees from unemployed Iowans is confidential, the company said.

In Iowa, unemployment recipients who use debit cards get one free ATM withdrawal per week, as long as they use an ATM operated by Wells Fargo, Alliance One or MoneyPass. Additional ATM transactions and non-network withdrawals cost $1.35.

Other fees include 50 cents for an ATM balance inquiry or ATM denial. There is a $3 fee for international ATM withdrawals, plus 3 percent of the transaction amount.

Card holders get six free customer-service phone calls per month, which cost 40 cents per call.

Khrista Erdman wore ankle restraints the day after giving birth to her daughter Jeweliana at University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics in Iowa City in December 2010. (Liz Martin/The Gazette)

UPDATE: The Iowa Department of Corrections has changed its policy on restraining pregnant inmates, a hot-button topic in Iowa and across the nation.

The new policy will prohibit corrections officials from restraining pregnant inmates who are 22 weeks or more in their pregnancies unless they pose an immediate security risk, department spokesman Fred Scaletta said. The previous policy left officers more discretion and resulted in some women being shackled immediately before and after labor.

“When you are pregnant and swollen, especially the handcuffs and belly chain is tight and can be painful,” wrote Khrista Erdman, an inmate at the women’s prison in Mitchellville. “The restraints make worry about falling, and about your baby’s safety.”

Erdman, 34, and two other Iowa female inmates filed statements with the American Civil Liberties Union of Iowa about how they were restrained while pregnant in the prison system. The Gazette profiled Erdman when she gave birth to her daughter, Jeweliana, on Dec. 26, 2010.

Erdman, serving time for forgery, burglary, theft and parole violations, was brought from Mitchellville to the Iowa Medical and Classification Center in early December 2010. Like nearly all pregnant inmates in Iowa, she was taken to the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics to give birth.

Guards restrained Erdman through her seventh month of pregnancy with devices that included leg shackles, a belly chain and handcuffs, she wrote in the statement to the ACLU.

Khrista Erdman holds her daughter Jeweliana Copeland the day after giving birth at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics Monday, Dec. 27, 2010, in Iowa City. (Liz Martin/The Gazette)

Angela Hollingsworth, another inmate, said she was shackled immediately after she gave birth to twins through a Cesarean section.

“It was extremely painful, embarrassing and uncomfortable having to go back and forth (to the bathroom) in shackles, on medication, picking up my twins, getting into a step-up bath tub,” Hollingsworth wrote. “I stumbled several times.”

Erdman and Hollingsworth were involved several months ago in an attempt to smuggle drugs into the prison, Scaletta said.

Erdman’s husband, Dan Copeland Jr., disputed the drug allegation against his wife. He’s also doubtful the prison system will stop restraining late-term pregnant inmates.

“I’ll believe it when I see it,” Copeland said. “In late 2010, they told the Legislature they didn’t do it and it wasn’t part of their procedure.”

Copeland, who is raising 2-year-old Jeweliana, said Erdman will go before the parole board in April.

The American Medical Association and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists have condemned the practice of restraining pregnant inmates, saying it could harm the baby or mother. Other states, including Washington state, have prohibited prison and jail officials from shackling most pregnant inmates.

Similar bills have also been drafted in Iowa, but not passed.

Prison births are rare in Iowa, with 17 to 26 pregnancies in each of the last five years. These women are pregnant when they come into the prison system. Pregnant inmates receive the same prenatal care as other women, with regular doctor visits, vitamins and procedures that include ultrasound.

Robert von Wolffradt served as CIO for the state of Wyoming before moving to Iowa last spring.

The Gazette started examining relocation expenses of state officials last summer after we learned the state’s revenue director received nearly $8,000 in moving costs even though she didn’t move her primary residence.

Paul Trombino III, director of the Iowa Department of Transportation, received more than $30,000 in relocation expenses for his move from Wisconsin to Des Moines in May 2011.

We’ve also written about more than $132,000 in bonuses Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad has approved for agency heads, pushing them over state salary caps.

We filed an Open Records request Dec. 21 seeking information about all directors and deputy directors who have received additional pay beyond base salaries since Jan. 2, 2011.

Nearly 170 pages of records came back Tuesday from the Iowa Department of Administrative Services. None show additional bonuses beyond what the Gazette has reported.

Most of the records are duplicates of documents The Gazette already had concerning Courtney Kay-Decker’s relocation expenses after she was named director of the Iowa Department of Revenue.

Another 40 pages documented von Wolffradt’s relocation expenses, which included three months of rent, electricity and cable television totaling $8,338. Von Wolffradt and his wife, Ginger, signed a one-year lease in May stating they would pay $2,300 a month for a Des Moines-area residence, but records show only three months of rent were covered by the state.

The state also paid von Wolffradt $2,918 to cover his income tax on the relocation expenses.

State employees required to move as part of their jobs are eligible for up to $50,000 in relocation expenses under a policy updated in 2009.

A 2011 state audit suggested administrative services lower the maximum to 10 percent of an employee’s salary — as many other states do — but the agency stuck with the higher level.

Twelve state employees received relocation expenses totaling $94,217 in fiscal 2012, according to administrative services. Employees from eight departments were reimbursed for expenses ranging from $1,134 to $20,000. The DOT and state universities are not included in this database.

Von Wolffradt, a former Air Force sergeant and county IT director, said in May he was looking forward to helping Iowa with efficient technology.

“I look forward to putting in place business objectives and lead people and teams to achieve more than they thought possible,” he said in a prepared statement. “I will bring a background of delivering business improvements, operational performance, efficiency and customer service to the citizens of Iowa through our initiatives in state government.”

Food waits to be purchased in the Melrose Dining Room at University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics Tuesday, Jan. 15, 2013 in Iowa City. (Brian Ray/The Gazette)

University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics, which wasted about 350,000 servings of food worth $181,000 in the last year, could do more to reduce food waste, Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad said.

“I would hope they could do better than that,” Branstad told The Gazette. “The bigger the institution, the smaller percentage of waste they should have.”

Branstad reacted to a Gazette report showing UI Hospitals wasted about 12 percent of food prepared for employees and visitors in seven dining areas from Dec. 1, 2011, through Nov. 30, 2012.

UI Hospitals does not regularly donate unsold food, nor does the hospital recycle food waste into compost, which is striking at a campus with a Sustainability Office that promotes the UI goal of 60 percent waste diversion by 2020.

About 40 percent of food produced in America goes uneaten, according to the National Institutes of Health. This is everything from misshapen fruit left in the orchard to meat that spoils in the refrigerator.

But in institutions like UI Hospitals, the average pre-consumer food waste is 4 percent to 10 percent, according to LeanPath, an Oregon-based company that provides automated food waste tracking for schools, hospitals, restaurants and corporations in more than 30 states.

“Even the best-run organizations in the world struggle with this,” said Andrew Shakman, LeanPath president.

Branstad said the state should encourage schools and other state institutions to reduce food waste, which makes up 14 percent of Iowa landfills.

“There are programs that are available,” he said.

The Iowa Department of Natural Resources provides forgivable loans to groups that want to start programs focused on recycling, composting or other ways to reduce landfill waste. The DNR and Iowa Waste Reduction Center at the University of Northern Iowa have a $162,000 year-long campaign to reduce food waste. The team will  launch a website this spring that will allow people to enter their zip code and find places that will take food waste.

Food rescues, like Iowa City’s Table to Table, distribute salvageable food from restaurants, grocery stores and institutions to groups that feed hungry people.

“If you’re going to donate food, certain standards need to be met,” Branstad said.

Donating prepared food is legal as long as hot food is kept above 135 degrees and cold food is kept below 41 degrees, the Johnson County Public Health Department reported. Unless food has been on a buffet line, where patrons serve themselves, it is safe for up to seven days as long as it is cooled properly and reheated to 135 degrees.

A 1996 federal law protects food donors from civil and criminal liability except in cases of gross negligence or intentional misconduct.

Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad delivers the annual Condition of the State address before a joint session of the Iowa Legislature, Tuesday, Jan. 15, 2013, at the Statehouse in Des Moines, Iowa. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)

Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad will push lawmakers to adopt education reform by February so school funding can be set by mid-April, he said Tuesday.

Sounds doable, but five terms as governor has taught Branstad otherwise.

“Difficult decisions get left for the end,” he told The Gazette’s editorial board. “But putting it off is not going to make it easier.”

Branstad’s $187 million education reform proposal would increase pay for new teachers, revise the system for teacher advancement and recognition and encourage high school students to complete a “career-ready” portfolio in addition to traditional tests like the ACT and SAT.

Branstad’s budget doesn’t provide new money for schools because he wants to secure the reforms first. But he hopes the reform and funding pieces can move forward simultaneously at the Statehouse.

The governor, accompanied by Lt. Gov. Kim Reynolds, promoted their plan to reduce commercial and industrial property tax values by 20 percent over four years. The state would provide direct funding to local government to make up for the loss in taxes.

“Some companies don’t even consider Iowa because the property tax just isn’t competitive,” Branstad said.

Branstad’s fiscal 2014 budget would provide some funds to use 178 beds in community-based corrections facilities in Cedar Rapids, Davenport, Ottumwa, Sioux City and Waterloo. Other facilities will remain vacant because there’s not enough money for staffing, he said Tuesday.

Editorial board visits often bounce from topic to topic. Tuesday’s visit hit on global warming, which Branstad downplayed.

“Whatever is happening, people project it into the future,” Branstad said. “We’re in a cycle right now, we’re experiencing great warming. But there have been other times it’s gotten colder.”

Branstad predicted Iowa will not change gun laws, even after the school shootings in Connecticut.

“A lot of fellow sportsmen think this the first step to the government coming to collect their firearms,” said Branstad, a longtime hunter who recently bagged an eight-point buck.

The governor indicated he’s still irked the National Rifle Association endorsed former Iowa Gov. Chet Culver, Branstad’s opponent in 2010. Culver, a Democrat, signed a bill in April 2010 that removed much of sheriffs’ discretion to deny concealed weapon permits.

“I’m sure that’s why Culver got the NRA endorsement,” Branstad said. “I wasn’t born yesterday.”

Table to Table volunteer Dan Nidey (right) delivers donated food items to Four Oaks Iowa City office manager Marcia Steckly of Wellman (left) as he works his route Wednesday, Jan. 9, 2013, in Iowa City. Concern about liability over donated food sometimes prevents groups like hospitals and grocery stores from donating unsold food to food-rescue programs like Table to Table. This can leave these organizations with thousands of dollars in wasted food. (Brian Ray/The Gazette)

IOWA CITY — University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics threw away 355,000 servings of food worth $181,600 in the year that ended Nov. 30 — a waste of 12 percent of food prepared for employees and visitors at the state’s largest hospital.

Among unsold food tossed in a single November day were 160 servings of meatloaf, 174 servings of ham and au gratin potatoes and 140 sides of mashed potatoes.

On another day, 85 servings of macaroni and cheese went in the trash.

On a third day, staff prepared 77 servings of spicy French fries. None was eaten.

“It made me angry and kind of sick to my stomach,” said Dan Lesieur, a former UI student who worked for two years at the UI Hospitals cafeterias. “There are huge amounts of food that could still be served and that could still be used for a profit or just for people to eat.”

Forty percent of food in the United States goes uneaten, according to the National Institutes of Health. More than 34 million tons of food waste was generated in 2010, with most of that going to landfills where it creates methane, a potent greenhouse gas.

UI Hospitals does not regularly donate unsold food, nor does the hospital recycle food waste into compost, which is striking at a campus with a Sustainability Office that promotes the UI goal of 60 percent waste diversion by 2020.

By the numbers

The UI Hospitals Food and Nutrition Services prepared more than 3 million servings of food in seven dining areas from Dec. 1, 2011, through Nov. 30, 2012, according to data obtained by The Gazette through an Open Records request. This does not include food for patients, which is ordered a la carte.

About 2.65 million servings of food were sold, leaving 355,256 for the trash.

The $181,630 in wasted food over the last year is less than 1 percent of the program’s $20.7 million fiscal 2012 budget.

“Bottom line, all of that falls into what it costs us to produce and serve a meal,” Food and Nutrition Director Joan Dolezal said.

The 6OR Dining Room, which serves doctors and nurses who work in the operating rooms, tossed 32 percent of its food over the last year. The Compass Cafe, which provides healthy fare, had the second-highest waste rate of 16 percent. The Atrium Dining Room, which has waiters and a to-order menu, only threw away 1 percent of its prepared food.

Above average

The average pre-consumer food waste is 4 percent to 10 percent at institutions that work with LeanPath, an Oregon-based company that provides automated food waste tracking for schools, hospitals, restaurants and corporations in more than 30 states.

“They are at the higher end,” LeanPath President Andrew Shakman said of UI Hospitals. “I would definitely say there is room for improvement with focused effort.”

Dan Nickey, senior program manager with the Iowa Waste Reduction Center at the University of Northern Iowa, was surprised by the UI Hospitals’ food waste.

“It’s a little disturbing that they accept that as the cost of doing business,” he said.

Preventing food waste through better forecasting is the top priority, Shakman said.

Food service managers tend to overproduce because they don’t want to run out and want to make sure food looks tasty throughout the service period. But this can go overboard, with staff padding margins by two to three times, he said.

The UI Hospitals track daily sales of each food type and use those numbers to decide how much food to prepare during the next two-week cycle, said Laurie Kroymann, food and nutrition services senior associate director.

The staff does not review monthly or annual numbers to determine larger sales trends.

On some days, the UI Hospitals’ forecasting was dead on. Thanksgiving Day, for example, staff sold all 820 servings of sliced turkey, all 580 servings of steamed corn and every one of the 828 pumpkin Bundt cakes baked for the holiday.

But the hospital failed to predict that the next day — Black Friday — people wouldn’t be in the mood for foods like ham, potatoes and meatloaf. The hospital served less than one-quarter of the 458 “comfort food” entrees prepared in the Fountain Dining Room.

Donation option

Beyond preventing waste, the next-best option is donating food for human consumption, Shakman said.

The UI Hospitals has a contract with Table to Table, an Iowa City food “rescue” organization, and donated 647 pounds of food in the last year. But the hospital never donates prepared food, which is where most waste occurs.

“Food safety is huge, and there are a lot of regulations we need to follow,” Dolezal said.

Dolezal and Kroymann think donating prepared food violates state health laws and fear a recipient could get food poisoning if the food isn’t handled correctly.

But donating prepared food is legal as long as hot food is kept above 135 degrees and cold food is kept below 41 degrees, said Doug Beardsley, director of the Johnson County Public Health Department.

Unless food has been on buffet line, where patrons serve themselves, it is safe for up to seven days as long as it is cooled properly and reheated to 135 degrees, Beardsley said. Prepared food out of the temperature “safe zone” must be eaten or tossed within four hours.

Table to Table, founded in 1996, collected about a million pounds of food last year from businesses that include Hy-Vee, Aldi, Costco, KFC, Olive Garden and Panera. University (of Iowa) Catering also is a regular donor, providing food that is prepared, but not served, at events across campus.

Refrigerated vans allow Table to Table to keep food cool between donors and recipients, which include organizations like the Crisis Center, Free Lunch Program and the Hope Lodge.

Concern about liability over donated food is the top reason organizations don’t participate in food rescues, Shakman said.

None of the 15 hospitals in the Iowa Health System, including St. Luke’s Hospital, donates leftover food, said Cheryl Lounsberry, integrated service director for the hospital chain. Academic medical centers at the University of Illinois and University of Missouri also don’t donate unsold food.

However, a 1996 federal law protects food donors from civil and criminal liability except in cases of gross negligence or intentional misconduct.

“The liability risk is more perception than a reality,” Shakman said. “We’re trying to bring everybody up to speed on that fact.”

Cost of waste

Institutions across the country are finding ways to reduce and recycle food waste to save money and help the environment.

St. Luke’s slashed its food waste from nearly 13,000 pounds a month to 5,700 pounds through the ValuWaste program offered by LeanPath. The program saved the hospital $17,000 last quarter, said Lori Anderson, St. Luke’s Dining Services manager.

“The cost of food kept going up and up,” she said. “You have to look at different options to save money.”

ValuWaste requires employees to weigh wasted food — everything from watermelon rinds to expired meat — and record a reason for the waste. Employees look at the data to determine what changes are needed to reduce the waste.

St. Luke’s staff decided to prepare vegetables in half pans so they could cook the food only as needed. They also changed staff break times to decrease overproduction before employees took breaks.

The St. Cloud Hospital in Minnesota installed a food pulping and dehydration system that turns leftover food into dry compost used on the hospital grounds.

The UI Hospitals uses a pulping machine to reduce food waste from 10 55-gallon garbage cans down to one, Dolezal said. But because Styrofoam also is pulped with food and paper, the hospital can’t compost much of the material. Instead, they send 220 to 330 gallons of waste to the landfill each day.

Food makes up about 15 percent of Iowa landfill waste, according a 2011 state waste characterization study. The Iowa City Landfill has composted more than 300 tons of food since 2007 and wants to expand its program.

The Cedar Rapids/Linn County Solid Waste Agency also recycles food waste into compost, charging companies lower dumping fees for compostable material than for trash.

Changing the culture

Lesieur was a UI music student when he started working at the UI Hospitals in 2009. He soon noticed large amounts of food, including hundreds of taco salads or 15 pounds of expired pork, in the garbage.

“Those are animals that die, just to be thrown away,” said Lesieur, who now is a musician in New York.

Employees who eat leftover hospital food — even food headed for the trash — often find themselves out of work for stealing, he said.

“Housekeeping employees can’t take rolls of toilet paper,” Kroymann said, defending the rule on eating unsold food.

When Lesieur asked his supervisors about the waste, they said it wasn’t a problem or that there was nothing that could be done about it.

They believe the UI Hospitals runs an efficient food service operation that serves about 10,000 meals a day between patient and retail operations. They provide 530 unique menu options among seven dining areas in the 14-acre hospital.

The UI Hospitals ranks 15th among 47 similar academic medical centers when you compare the retail food service operational costs divided by the number of meals served. Hospital CEO Ken Kates had not seen the food waste statistics until they were compiled for The Gazette, but has since started contacting other hospitals to compare numbers.

“Every nickel we could save in that area, we’re committed to doing,” Kates said.

Wasted food presents an opportunity to meet the UI’s goal of diverting 60 percent of its waste by 2020, said Liz Christiansen, director of the UI’s Office of Sustainability.

“Reducing food waste is a really appropriate way to reduce waste because if it’s properly cared for it could feed other parties,” she said.

Want to compost food waste, but don’t know what to do with it?
•  Compost is great for your garden. Collect kitchen scraps (no meat or dairy) in a covered container under your sink. When the container is full, take it outside to a larger compost bin or tumbler. Stir the mix to speed the process.
• Cedar Rapids residents can put food waste in their green Yardy carts along with yard waste. This is composted at the Cedar Rapids/Linn County Solid Waste Agency.
• Curbside pickup of food waste isn’t provided in most other Eastern Iowa communities, but a growing number of waste haulers are adding food waste to their rounds. Johnson County Refuse picks up food waste from Iowa City customers and Green RU, a Des Moines-based recycler, is looking for Eastern Iowa businesses and institutions that want to compost food waste.

The Rev. Steve Witt, 64, a newly ordained Catholic priest, prepares for the Holy Communion during evening mass on Tuesday, Jan. 8, 2013, at the Newman Catholic Student Center in Iowa City. The Rev. Witt, a widower who has had experiences with marriage, parenting and losing a spouse, is unusual in a field where most priests choose their vocation early in life and never personally deal with many family issues. (Brian Ray/The Gazette)

IOWA CITY — The Rev. Steve Witt has been a husband and a father.

Now he’s a father, as in black shirt and white collar.

Newly ordained in the Davenport Diocese of the Catholic Church, Witt’s experiences with marriage, parenting and losing a spouse are unusual in a field where most priests choose the celibate vocation earlier in life.

“I’ve been around the block a lot,” said Witt, 64.

While “second-career” priests are a small portion of the 39,000 Catholic priests serving in the United States in 2012, they have a higher retention rate than younger priests. This is important in a nation where the number of priests has declined 33 percent since 1965 and 9 percent since 2005.

Witt serves at St. Mary’s Catholic Church and the Newman Catholic Student Center, both in Iowa City, where his oldest daughter, Courtney Vassiliades, lives with her family. Witt has two other children and three grandchildren.

Witt considered not having that family.

As one of nine children in a Catholic family from Clinton, Witt enrolled in the undergraduate seminary at St. Ambrose University when he was 18. But three years into his priest preparation, Witt dropped out of seminary and completed just his undergraduate degree.

“I realized that I couldn’t handle the celibate lifestyle,” Witt said with a grin. “I was attracted to girls too much.”

Witt met his wife, Patti, on a blind date. He was running the Governor’s Youth Opportunity Program for disadvantaged youths in Davenport and Patti was a nurse. They married six months later, in 1974.

Witt earned his master’s degree in public administration from the University of Iowa before running his father’s sheet metal contracting business in Clinton. The family moved in 1985 to Grinnell, where Witt managed the United McGill Corporation.

He became a permanent deacon in 1982, which allowed him to serve the church, hold down another job and still have a family.

But in 2001, Patti Witt died in her sleep.

“We think she just stopped breathing,” Witt said. “She had sleep apnea, but the autopsy didn’t really indicate what caused her death.”

Witt felt like he was slugged in the gut with a baseball bat. He walked around in a fog for three years before Vassiliades convinced him to seek counseling.

Finding a new path

In 2008, Witt decided he was ready to give the priesthood another try.

He enrolled in the Sacred Heart School of Theology, a Milwaukee-area institution that touts itself as the “No. 1 seminary in North America specializing in priestly formation for men over 30.”

“This is a place for old guys,” Witt said.

Sacred Heart, which has about 100 seminarians with an average age of 43, has focused on “second-career” vocations for the past 30 years. The five-year attrition rate for priests trained at Sacred Heart is 3 percent, compared to 12 percent to 15 percent for younger priests, the school reports.

“Most of the apostles were on their second career — fishermen, tax collector — yet Jesus chose them,” said Rev. Tom Knoebel, director of recruitment for the seminary. “Men with life experiences have a lot to offer.”

Witt traded his house in Grinnell for dormitory-style living and started graduate-level courses that can include Scriptural Foundations, Science and Religion, Social Ethics, and Parish Management.

Catholic seminary is usually four years, but Witt finished in 2 ½ because some of his credits transferred from earlier schooling.

Bishop Martin Amos ordained Witt on Dec. 15, with Witt’s children, grandchildren and mother-in-law among those gathered for the mass in Davenport.

“It was a really happy, festive occasion,” Vassiliades said.

Catholic priests not only perform mass, baptisms and marriages, but they visit people stuck at home or in the hospital. Priests also hear confessions and minister to people struggling with life’s challenges.

Here’s where Witt hopes his life experiences will help.

“I understand how marriages work,” he said.

Witt plans to serve until mandatory retirement at 75, and then continue as a backup priest as long as possible.

“I’d like to die with my boots on,” he said.

Beth Townsend

Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad announced Monday he will give the state’s civil rights commission director a $5,000 bonus for reducing an investigative backlog.

The bonus pushes Beth Townsend past the $79,000 annual salary limit set for her position.

“Beth’s impressive leadership and management has resulted in more efficient case work, reduced backlog, streamlined intake and increased quality,” Branstad said in a prepared statement.

Three Iowa Civil Rights Commission employees were fired in June 2011 after an investigation showed they were sending hundreds of emails to each other on personal accounts calling their peers derogatory nicknames during business hours, Branstad reported. The emails resulted in slower case investigation.

Under Townsend’s leadership, the commission reduced the non-housing investigative backlog from 260 cases to 118 cases in fiscal 2012. Instead of taking an average 535 days to resolve a case, the department now just takes a year, Branstad reported. The commission is on track to eliminate the backlog entirely by June, he said.

The commission now starts processing complaints within 24 to 48 hours as opposed to the historical average of eight to 10 days, the news release said.

Branstad has been criticized by legislators and labor officials for providing bonuses to agency heads that push the leaders over state salary caps.

He gave Debi Durham, Iowa Economic Development Authority director, a $30,000 retention bonus in each of the last three fiscal years. He awarded Revenue Director Courtney Kay-Decker a $20,800 housing allowance in fiscal 2012 and Public Safety Commissioner K. Brian London a $16,000 recruitment bonus in October.

While earlier bonuses were not announced, Branstad acknowledged his philosophy on bonuses in Monday’s news release.

“The governor’s practice is to utilize bonuses to provide a recognition and reward for exemplary performance,” he said in the statement.

Marty Hathaway. AFSCME Local 2985 President. (Matt Nelson/The Gazette)

Iowa labor leaders criticized Gov. Terry Branstad Friday for giving bonuses to directors while asking many state workers to accept a wage freeze and start paying health insurance premiums.

“I don’t know what we did to the governor,” said Marty Hathaway, a correctional officer at the Iowa Medical and Classification Center in Coralville and a member of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Council 61. “I don’t know why he hates us this much.”

Hathaway was one of six AFSCME members who spoke across the state Friday, one day before union leaders start meeting with state negotiators in an attempt to reach new two-year agreements slated to start July 1.

Hathaway cited Gazette reports detailing $128,000 in bonuses Branstad paid to three state agency heads since January 2011.

The bonuses included $30,000 in each of three fiscal years to Debi Durham, director of the Iowa Economic Development Authority; a $20,000 housing allowance to Revenue Director Courtney Kay-Decker and a $16,000 recruitment bonus paid to Public Safety Commissioner K. Brian London.

“That is more than some state employees make in a year,” Hathaway said of Durham’s annual bonuses.

The news conference highlights the different images the union and Branstad seek to cast about state workers as they go into contract talks.

Branstad’s initial contract offer includes a two-year wage freeze and a requirement that state employees start paying 20 percent of their insurance premiums, which would be a first for many state workers who have paid nothing for coverage in the past. These changes would save $115 million, Branstad said.

The governor has also proposed scaling back or repealing some rules governing grievances, bumping and transfer rights, as well as discipline and discharge issues.

AFSCME has asked for a 1 percent across-the-board pay increase in the contract’s first year and 2 percent in the following year for the roughly 20,000 workers it represents. The union also wants no insurance premiums.

Branstad Spokesman Tim Albrecht issued a statement Friday saying state employees “are well compensated as a result of their great work.”

But he bashed AFSCME President Danny Homan and other labor leaders who don’t want to pay health insurance premiums.

“Governor Branstad will continue growing Iowa’s economy and creating jobs, and will not be dissuaded because a union boss is desperately trying to prevent his members from paying their fair share,” Albrecht said in the email.

Housekeeper Nick Birtcher, 33, of Iowa City (left), works with a co-worker to clean a room Thursday, Dec. 13, 2012, at the AmericInn in Coralville. Birtcher closed his bank account because he need the $7 he was required to keep as a minimum balance but then ran into issues with high fees at payday loan stores when he need to cash his son's disability checks. (Brian Ray/The Gazette)

CORALVILLE — Nick Birtcher closed his bank account because he needed the $7 that was keeping it open.

“It was a decision to cancel my account and utilize the funds or keep the $7 in there and not have food for the day,” the 33-year-old Coralville man said.

But when Birtcher tried to cash his next paycheck, Walmart turned him down because of inadequate identification and Check ‘N Go wouldn’t pay because of issues with Birtcher’s credit. He ended up going back to the University of Iowa Community Credit Union and reopening his account.

These are challenges faced by 10 million households nationwide that do not have checking or savings accounts. About 4.4 percent of Iowans are considered “unbanked,” which is about half the national rate of 8.2 percent, according to a September report from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation.

Steep fees for check cashing, money transfers and debit transactions eat into the meager incomes of people without bank accounts, financial analysts said. The financial services industry is looking for new ways to capitalize on this growing group.

“There’s a lot of money to be made in dealing with the lower-income population, as long as you don’t give them a bank account,” said Richard Bove, a bank analyst based in Florida.

More than 820,000 additional U.S. households have become unbanked, a .6 percent increase, since the FDIC’s first survey in 2009. More than half of unbanked households said they don’t have an account because they believe they don’t have enough money or that they don’t need or want an account, the FDIC reported.

“If you’re spending everything you’re earning, there’s very little reason for you to have an account,” said Tim Terry, founder of Terry, Lockridge & Dunn and World Trend Financial, both in Cedar Rapids.

Cost shifted to unemployed

Increasingly, government agencies are putting payments on debit cards for people without bank accounts.

One quarter of Iowans who get unemployment insurance benefits have the money deposited on a debit card, amounting to $2.13 million in June alone.

Iowa Workforce Development used to send unemployment checks by mail, but then the federal government stopped paying for the postage. In 2008, the state contracted with Xerox subsidiary ACS to administer the debit cards.

The state pays nothing for the service, shifting the cost of the program to ACS, which makes money from fees charged to users.

ACS is a $10 billion business that provides electronic payment card services in 23 states, Xerox reported. Exactly how much the company and its subcontractors make in fees from unemployed Iowans is confidential, Xerox spokeswoman Jennifer Wasmer said.

“This is a competitive business, and we don’t disclose our business model,” she said in an email to The Gazette. “What makes it work, though, is the convenience of a debit card, which far outweighs the use of traditional paper checks.”

In Iowa, unemployment recipients who use debit cards get one free ATM withdrawal per week, as long as they use an ATM operated by Wells Fargo, Alliance One or MoneyPass. Additional ATM transactions and non-network withdrawals cost $1.35.

Other fees include 50 cents for an ATM balance inquiry or ATM denial. There is a $3 fee for international ATM withdrawals, plus 3 percent of the transaction amount. Card holders get six free customer service phone calls per month and then pay 40 cents per call.

Debit card purchases and cash back with purchase are free for the cardholder.

Businesses cash in

Financial institutions have other reasons to provide debit cards to people without bank accounts. First, they make income from the “float,” which is the pool of money available in the combined accounts between the time cardholders make a purchase and the time vendors settle payment.

Institutions also can gather valuable marketing information about where cardholders shop and how much they spend.

“What is less certain is the ability to mine data to see if they are buying milk or beer,” Terry said. “It’s just a matter of time before that data will be readily accessible, if it is not currently.”

Jim Miller, senior director of banking services of JD Power & Associates, doesn’t think banks are getting rich off providing debit cards for government services.

“This isn’t going to be a big moneymaker for them,” Miller said.

Other industries sell services traditionally offered for free to bank customers.

Payday lenders provide cash advances with annual interest rates that can be more than 400 percent. Iowa Sen. Joe Bolkcom, D-Iowa City, has proposed legislation in recent years to limit the interest rate to 36 percent, but the bills have been defeated.

Coinstar machines, located in Hy-Vee and Walmart stores in the corridor, let people cash in their coins for paper money or reloadable debit cards. The company keeps 9.8 cents of each $1.

Avoid nickel-and-dime

“If you are going to stay off the banking grid, the way to do it is to be more capitalistic about how you incur transactions,” Terry said.

Stick with in-network ATMs, or withdraw more cash in fewer transactions, he said. If you need to cash a check, go to the bank that issued the check because officials there will be able to verify the money is available.

The best alternative to avoid service fees is finding a bank account with free checking and a low minimum balance, he said.

“It was a decision to cancel my account and utilize the funds or keep the $7 in there and not have food for the day,” the 33-year-old Coralville man said.

But when Birtcher tried to cash his next paycheck, Walmart turned him down because of inadequate identification and Check ‘N Go wouldn’t pay because of issues with Birtcher’s credit.  He ended up going back to the University of Iowa Community Credit Union and reopening his account.

These are challenges faced by 10 million households nationwide that do not have checking or savings accounts. About 4.4 percent of Iowans are considered “unbanked,” which is about half the national rate of 8.2 percent, according to a September report from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC).

Steep fees for check cashing, money transfers and debit transactions eat into the meager incomes of people without bank accounts, financial analysts said. The financial services industry is looking for new ways to capitalize on this growing group.

“There’s a lot of money to be made in dealing with the lower-income population, as long as you don’t give them a bank account,” said Richard Bove, a bank analyst based in Florida.

More than 820,000 additional U.S. households have become unbanked, a .6 percent increase, since the FDIC’s first survey in 2009. More than half of unbanked households said they don’t have an account because they believe they don’t have enough money or that they don’t need or want an account, the FDIC reported.

“If you’re spending everything you’re earning, there’s very little reason for you to have an account,” said Tim Terry, founder of Terry, Lockridge & Dunn and World Trend Financial.

Cost shifted to unemployed

Increasingly, government agencies are putting payments on debit cards for people without bank accounts.

One quarter of Iowans who get unemployment insurance benefits have the money deposited on a debit card, amounting to $2.13 million in June alone.

Iowa Workforce Development used to send unemployment checks by mail, but then the federal government stopped paying for the postage. In 2008, the state contracted with Xerox subsidiary ACS to administer the debit cards.

The state pays nothing for the service, shifting the cost of the program to ACS, which makes money from fees charged to users.

ACS is a $10 billion business that provides electronic payment card services in 23 states, Xerox reported. Exactly how much the company and its subcontractors make in fees from unemployed Iowans is confidential, Xerox spokeswoman Jennifer Wasmer said.

“This is a competitive business and we don’t disclose our business model,” she said in an email to the Gazette. “What makes it work, though, is the convenience of a debit card, which far outweighs the use of traditional paper checks.”

In Iowa, unemployment recipients who use debit cards get one free ATM withdrawal per week, as long as they use an ATM operated by Wells Fargo, Alliance One or MoneyPass. Additional ATM transactions and non-network withdrawals cost $1.35.

Other fees include 50 cents for an ATM balance inquiry or ATM denial. There is a $3 fee for international ATM withdrawals, plus 3 percent of the transaction amount. Card holders get six free customer service phone calls per month and then pay 40 cents per call.

Debit car purchases and cash back with purchase are free for the cardholder.

Businesses cash in

Financial institutions have other reasons to provide debit cards to people without bank accounts. First, they make income from the “float,” which is the pool of money available in the combined accounts between the time cardholders make a purchase and the time vendors settle payment.

Institutions can also gather valuable marketing information about where cardholders shop and how much they spend.

“What is less certain is the ability to mine data to see if they are buying milk or beer,” Terry said. “It’s just a matter of time before that data will be readily accessible, if it is not currently.”

Jim Miller, senior director of banking services of JD Power & Associates, doesn’t think banks are getting rich off providing debit cards for government services. “This isn’t going to be a big moneymaker for them,” Miller said.

Other industries sell services traditionally offered for free to bank customers.

Payday lenders provide cash advances with annual interest rates that can be more than 400 percent. Iowa Sen. Joe Bolkcom, D-Iowa City, has proposed legislation in recent years to limit the interest rate to 36 percent, but the bills have been defeated.

Coinstar machines, located in Hy-Vee and Walmart stores in the corridor, let people cash in their coins for paper money or reloadable debit cards. The company keeps 9.8 cents of each $1.

Avoid nickel-and-dime

“If you are going to stay off the banking grid, you need to be more capitalistic about how you get services,” Terry said.

Stick with in-network ATMs or withdraw more cash in fewer transactions, he said. If you need to cash a check, go to the bank that issued the check because officials there will be able to verify the money is available.

The best alternative to avoid service fees is finding a bank account with free checking and a low minimum balance, he said.

Courtney Kay-Decker, director of the Iowa Department of Revenue, received $800-per-pay-period housing allowance for her first year on the job, ending March 15, 2012, that totaled $20,800. The portion that fell in fiscal 2012 raised Kay-Decker’s compensation to $175,012.

The maximum salary set by law for the revenue director is $154,300.

K. Brian London was hired as Public Safety commissioner in October at an annual salary of $128,890.

“Since this salary is the top of the pay range for your position, we are approving a $16,110 recruitment bonus effective at the time of hire,” Branstad’s chief of staff Jeff Boeyink wrote London in an Oct. 8 letter The Gazette obtained through an Open Records request.  “This will bring your total annual compensation to $145,000.”

Sen. Jeff Danielson, D-Cedar Falls, said Branstad shouldn’t be using bonuses to circumvent pay ranges established by the Legislature.

“If the governor is having trouble recruiting talent, the case needs to be made to the public,” Danielson said. “It doesn’t need to be done by fiat.”

Rep. Clel Baudler, R-Greenfield, agreed: “As a taxpayer in Iowa, this smells bad.”

Boeyink, who approved bonuses for Kay-Decker and London, declined an interview.

“These two highly-qualified, highly-competent individuals are being compensated at a level that reflects their extraordinary skill sets for their respective leadership positions within state government,” Branstad Spokesman Tim Albrecht said in an email.

Albrecht did not respond to a question about whether Branstad thought it was within his authority to exceed state salary ranges.

Vilsack also used bonuses

Branstad isn’t the first Iowa governor to be criticized for using bonuses to bump up directors’ pay.

Former Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack, now serving as U.S. Secretary of Agriculture, approved bonuses and salary increases totaling $221,000 for 19 agency leaders in 2003, putting nine employees over state salary caps, according to the Associated Press.

Former Gov. Chet Culver, who led the state during the national recession, stopped the practice of giving bonuses to agency heads, said Charlie Krogmeier, who served as Culver’s chief of staff.

Vilsack and Culver are Democrats.

Relocation perks offered

Branstad has used a variety of methods for increasing directors’ compensation.

The Gazette reported in July that Kay-Decker received more than $8,000 in relocation expenses after she was hired in January 2011. This included nearly $1,700 in closing costs on a Des Moines condo – despite Kay-Decker only working part time in Des Moines and maintaining her family home in Davenport.

Paul Trombino III, the director of the Iowa Department of Transportation, received more than $30,000 in moving expenses since he was hired in May 2011.

The expenses include $16,800 in commissions to realtors who helped sell Trombino’s house in Verona, Wisconsin, $11,800 for moving and storage, $1,356 in closing costs on Trombino’s $429,000 house in Johnston, and $1,200 to cover Trombino’s taxes on the relocation benefits.

State employees required to move as part of their jobs are eligible for up to $50,000 in relocation expenses under a policy updated in 2009.

A 2011 state audit suggested the Department of Administrative Services lower the maximum to 10 percent of an employee’s salary — as many other states do — but the agency stuck with the higher level.

Twelve state employees received relocation expenses totaling $94,217 in fiscal 2012, according to administrative services. Employees from eight departments were reimbursed for expenses ranging from $1,134 to $20,000. The DOT and state universities are not included in this database.

Directors promise cost savings

Boeyink told The Gazette last summer that Kay-Decker made up for her relocation expenses by creating efficiencies at the Revenue Department. Changes include imaging, rather than printing, tax returns and eliminating nine field offices.

London also touted his experience with saving money when he was hired in October.

“I believe a more efficient department will offer a better return for Iowa’s taxpayers,” he said in a prepared statement.

London has worked in the U.S. Secret Service and Central Intelligence Agency, as well as serving as deputy chief for law enforcement at the Florida Department of Financial Services, where he was paid $119,832. London was a private security consultant in Florida before moving to Iowa.

London’s relocation expenses have not yet been completed, officials said.

Bonuses not across the board

Danny Homan, president of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Council 61, said Branstad shouldn’t be handing out bonuses to directors while asking 20,000 employees represented by AFSCME to take a two-year wage freeze.

“The people I represent don’t get bonuses,” he said.

Not all department directors received bonuses in fiscal 2012. Heads of education, public health, inspections and appeals, workforce development and human services received 4 percent salary hikes and stayed within state salary caps.

The secrecy of the bonuses was also questioned.

Baudler, who was a state trooper for 32 years before being elected to the Iowa House in 1998, said he believes good leaders are open, honest and fair.

“I’m not sure what you’ve told me meets any of those criteria,” he said.