Rock In Prevention Taxpayer Ripoff Update

Clark Kauffman finally has an update on the Rock In Prevention scandal in the Sunday Des Moines Register:

A controversial, publicly financed Des Moines charity routed $315,732 to its executive director last year - an amount that represents almost 39 percent of the agency's total spending.

The money was paid after state lawmakers agreed to directly finance Rock In Prevention Inc. with $600,000 in Iowa taxpayers' money. The Legislature's action enabled the charity to bypass the normal, grant-application process through which private organizations typically must compete for public money...

...In recent years, the government has been Rock In Prevention's single biggest contributor. The biggest private donor has been Don Lamberti, the father of Senate Republican Co-President Jeff Lamberti of Ankeny. The senior Lamberti is founder of Casey's General Stores and last year gave the charity $98,392 in Casey's common stock.

And from the sidebar:

...After federal officials cut off financing for Rock In Prevention due to questions over the program's effectiveness, state lawmakers stepped in and awarded the agency $600,000 in public money through a no-compete contract.

Taxpayers were billed $298,000 for a recent evaluation of the agency's effectiveness. But that study was conducted by researchers who previously worked for Rock In Prevention. The lead researcher redesigned the program, then evaluated it and declared it a success.

What's missing from the Kauffman piece is an explanation of how McManus was able to convince State legislators to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on his taxpayer-leeching scam.

I think we know how all this happens. Don "Casey's General Stores" Lamberti is the biggest private donor. Don's son, State Senator Jeff Lameberti, just happened to be on the Appropriations Committee in the Iowa Legislature. I think we can all add two and two together, or, in this case, $300,000 and $300,000.

Rock In Prevention is nothing but a scam. Pat McManus is nothing but a Christian leech, sucking the blood out of state taxpayers. And Jeff Lamberti is derti and a complete hypocrite.

This is just another CIETC-like scandal, created by Republicans this time, and it stinks just as badly.

Go Boswell.