State auditors allege former Iowa Communications Network Executive Director Ric Lumbard is responsible for $380,000 in misspent taxpayer money. Wochit
Members of ICN board should resign and other oversight entities should learn from this fiasco
The Iowa Communications Network is a state agency that provides internet and technology services to schools, hospitals, libraries and other entities. It is funded with taxpayer money. And it needed a bundle of dough to bankroll the personal endeavors of its former executive director, Richard Lumbard.
His alleged spending and hiring misadventures are detailed in a recent report from Iowa Auditor of State Mary Mosiman. It appears taxpayers were swindled out of at least $380,000 by an agency director who wanted the public to support Wind and Fire Ministries, a Christian nonprofit that shares an address with him.
Lumbard has been fired and is being criminally investigated.
Every one of the five paid members of a state commission charged with overseeing him and the agency should resign.
Iowa law states the commission “shall ensure” the network “operates in an efficient and responsible manner." There is nothing efficient or responsible about what has gone on since the board hired an unqualified director in 2014 and proceeded to take a long nap while he ran amok.
Members apparently were not concerned in 2016 when this newspaper raised questions about Wind and Fire Ministries. The Register noted Lumbard’s effort to connect unlicensed volunteer counselors with military veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder as an alternative to real help.
Didn’t board members at least wonder how someone collecting $132,000 annually to be the full-time executive director of a state agency supposedly also worked 35 hours at a ministry offering round-the-clock worship services? Did they review invoices? Did they notice he was hiring his buddies into state employment? Did they ask questions about anything?
Apparently not.
It was ICN staff members who notified authorities with concerns.
Commission members remained in their subsidized slumber while Lumbard instructed an ICN vendor to deliver two semi-trailers to the ministry. Those were paid for with ICN money. So were $71,187 in “leadership training and coaching services” provided by a company called Character Genetics, which had a previous relationship with the ministry.
Then there were the trips to Belize. The $50,000 in vehicle expenses for his commute to work. The $547 Google Home units kept for “personal use” by Lumbard and his executive secretary, Jessica Jensen, who had also been associated with the ministry.
She was not qualified for the job, auditors determined, but was apparently qualified to receive double-digit pay raises and accompany Lumbard on taxpayer-financed travels. Also not qualified or approved for hire by the state was his friend T.J. Boulet, who pulled down an annual salary of more than $98,000.
These are only a few of the findings in the 197-page auditor’s report.
The bottom line: Members of a paid state commission did nothing while the director of an agency they were supposed to oversee used taxpayer dollars to enrich his “charity” endeavors.
What does the board have to say now?
“It appears that director Lumbard betrayed our trust,” said one member after the auditor’s report was released.
No, he took advantage of the fact that you were not paying attention.
The commission does not exist to trust the director. It exists to ensure the individual is trustworthy — by verifying information he supplies, asking questions, reviewing documents and raising concerns when the ICN office begins to look like a Lumbard family and friends holiday party.
The director is gone. Members of the commission need to go. Lawmakers may need to rethink the very existence of this agency. And every other state entity charged with oversight responsibilities should learn a lesson from this fiasco: Do your job.
This editorial is the opinion of The Des Moines Register’s editorial board: David Chivers, president; Carol Hunter, executive editor; Lynn Hicks, opinion editor; and Andie Dominick, editorial writer.