The investigation into hundreds of thousands of dollars, believed to be misspent by the former head of the Iowa Communications Network, has revealed a lack of scrutiny in promoting someone from within.
"What you have is this director, who has a really shady past, was elevated from his previous position of being a salesperson." Kaufmann was referencing fired ICN executive director Ric Lumbard.
In a conversation with WHO Radio's Jeff Angelo, Kaufmann said when you elevate people from within your agency, they can circumvent traditional hiring practices that involve vetting.
He added, Lumbard's secretary, "that was extremely under-qualified and given a $19,000 raise on 'our dime' she also was elevated from within."
Kaufmann says if the usual background and qualification checks had been run on these two, he believes red flags would have been raised.