Saturday, August 30, 2008














Iowa Central president receives $400K for resignation

Des Moines Register [available ONLINE] Article by Clark Kauffman


Iowa Central Community College President Robert Paxton will collect $400,000 from the school in return for his resignation.

After 13 years as president of the Fort Dodge school, Paxton resigned Wednesday, one day before the school’s board of trustees was scheduled to discuss an undisclosed “personnel matter.”

The special meeting was called after The Des Moines Register published a July 4 photograph of Paxton aboard a boat with a group of young people, holding the spigot of a small beer keg suspended over a young woman’s open mouth.

College trustee Mark Crimmins was aware of the photo before it was published and told the Register that Paxton had done nothing improper and the matter wasn’t deserving of the board’s attention.

When questioned by the Register, Paxton initially denied knowing anything about the photo or any recent boat outings with young people. After being told that Crimmins had already informed the Register that he had seen the photo and the two men had discussed it, Paxton acknowledged the photo’s authenticity. He said he had done nothing illegal or improper.

But the photograph, along with Paxton’s explanation for it, was picked up by other media outlets and sparked a heated debate in Fort Dodge over the personal conduct of public officials.

At today’s board meeting, the trustees met for eight minutes and agreed, without discussion, to accept Paxton’s resignation and approve a compensation package for him. The deal calls for Paxton to receive $200,000 in January 2009 and $200,000 in January 2010.

Trustee Larry Hecht said the board felt the compensation package was fair to all parties.

“The thing we struggled with was whether his personal life was, you know, his,” he said. “I think we all thought that was true. On the other hand, his position — I guess what you do in your personal life does affect the public’s perception of what you do on the job.”

Hecht said the decision to accept the resignation was “heart-breaking” given Paxton’s dedication to the school. Asked why there was no discussion of the compensation package, Hecht said, “It wasn’t like he killed somebody or stole money, so where we’d end up court was ‘who knows.’”

Paxton was not present for the board meeting, but said in a written statement to the board, “It was a true joy and honor to serve” the school.

Paxton, 52, has said all of the people who were drinking in the boat when the photograph was taken were of legal age. He said the beer keg was broken and wasn’t dispensing beer into the young woman’s mouth. He said his 19-year-old son, who was arrested for second-offense drunken driving early the next morning, was in the boat but was not drinking.

Three days before the photo was taken, Paxton signed a new employment contract with the school. The deal awarded Paxton a 33 percent increase in his annual retention bonus, raising it to $15,000 per year.

The deal also included a $156,000 annual salary; a $27,960 stipend toward the purchase of an annuity; a $13,200 annual car allowance in addition to mileage payments; and an expense account worth $7,250.

In 2002, Paxton was indicted on charges of felonious misconduct in office, falsification of public records and tampering with public records. The charges grew out of an investigation into student athletes being awarded false grades.

Three of Paxton’s colleagues at Iowa Central eventually pleaded guilty to charges they tampered with student records to benefit the athletes and to deceive others. All three men retained their jobs at the school. The charges against Paxton were deferred under an agreement in which he accepted responsibility for the transcript fraud.

Tuesday, August 26, 2008

so creeps in this petty pace

"Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow creeps in this petty pace from day to day to the last syllable of recorded time. And all our yesterdays have lighted fools the way to dusty death. Out, out brief candle. Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage, and then is heard no more. It is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing." Act V, Scene V, Tragedy of MacBeth


so i have some thinking to do. ive done some already. but i have a lot more to do. i cant say that im ever in a good spot for very long. a situation of sorts has arisen at work, such that im expected to make a choice that i feel very pressured to make. its not life or death or anything like that. its not even really all that important. but to me, its a hard decision to make. the option is on the table for me to switch to a different department, for equal pay, equal position. it 'costs' me; a change of weekends, a slightly worse schedule than i already have, plus the entire problem of learning everything there is to know about an entirely different group of garbage. i 'get' the change of scenery, the heartwarming sensation that i can learn something else, and the ability to cast my net wider for future spots by doing this. it, however, is not that simple of a choice to make.

at its root is the stability of my current slot. should i choose to go, a whole lot of people are going to think i jumped ship, before it sunk. because there will be some sinking involved, without question. my entire menards life has been spent in the same spot, and its quite warm, even with the garage i deal with. this is going to look bad if i jump, because there isnt any direct benefit for me other than to be out of the old department. ... ... ... and i think people will take note of that quite readily.

if money were involved, or a true promotion up, no one would think any different, and id probably never have to think much about the outcome. but for this... this to me, would look like someone wants out, and found a way out. because it is that way.

so im rather conflicted about the whole mess. i know, that at noon tomorrow, they want an answer from me. who the hell could fee anything but pressured by that? i tried to force my self to think this over a lot today, so i spent most of the day driving to nowhere doing just that. i know that if im reflecting this much on it, something says this isnt a small of a deal as the others are offering it up to be. so here i sit.

the honest answer should be; if i cant make a decision, then dont. but i also know, that not making a decision is the same as rejecting future offers without saying as much. but thats unfortunately part of the package. i really dont know what im going to say tomorrow.





Sunday, August 24, 2008

Police think body found in park is Miller's

Iowa City Press-Citizen • August 24, 2008


[available online: Press-Citizen] No Author Attributed

Iowa City police say “more than likely” the body and rifle found in Hickory Hill Park on Sunday is that of embattled University of Iowa professor Arthur Miller, dead of an apparent suicide.

If so — police have not made a positive identification yet or confirmed a cause of death — this would conclude a search for the man accused of offering better grades to students willing to bare their breasts or let him fondle them. Police began looking Wednesday after his wife reported him missing.

“Clearly, at this point everything points to that being Mr. Miller,” Iowa City Police Sgt. Mike Brotherton said.

Daniel Hoover, 51, of Marion who works with Linn County Underwater Search and Recovery, began looking for Miller at 10 a.m. Sunday and found a body in a meadow about 30 yards off a deer path in the north part of the park. He called police at 12:28 p.m.

It was something because of past associations that I thought I could do. I didn’t think it would bother me if I did find a body, so I thought I would give it a try. … I hope that it will help provide closure to everybody involved,” Hoover said. “The woods there are very overgrown. (Finding the body) would be as much luck or divine guidance as anything. You could call it good luck or maybe bad luck.”

Police think Miller, 66, a UI political science professor for the past 23 years, felt humiliated after accusations stemming from May 8 and 13 became public. Police charged Miller on Aug. 8 with four counts of soliciting a bribe, a class C felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison. Miller also was to be put on paid leave when school resumed today as the university conducted an internal investigation.

Miller’s wife reported him missing and said he left an “apologetic” possible suicide note before 7 a.m. Wednesday morning. His red BMW was discovered Wednesday parked at the Upper Hickory Hill Park entrance. A city worker saw someone matching Miller’s description walk into the park Tuesday morning with a mustard-colored blanket. Miller used his cell phone at about 10 a.m. Tuesday, which is thought to be his last known contact, and a gunshot was reported in that vicinity late that morning, police said.

Police learned Miller had purchased a high powered rifle in June. Police found in Miller’s car his wallet, cell phone and boxes of ammunition, including one that was missing a few cartridges.

“If it is Mr. Miller, he’s been there since 10:30 a.m. Tuesday,” Brotherton said, noting advanced stages of decomposition of the body had set in. “That was when we lost contact with him.”

Police closed the 185-acre park and began a two-day search on Wednesday, including using specially trained K-9 units. Police initially suspected Miller had committed suicide, but they called off the physical search on Thursday evening after they didn’t find his body and considered the possibility that Miller may have left the park.

Police have not yet positively identified the body, but all signs point to this being Miller.
The body was discovered with the rifle underneath it and a yellow blanket nearby, about 200 yards from police’s staging area for its search on Wednesday and Thursday. The body also had a green shirt and green shorts, which was consistent with the description of what Miller had been wearing, Brotherton said.

Police could not say for certain the 30-06 rifle had fired or that the person died of a gunshot wound, but there was head trauma, Brotherton said.

There are some consistencies and similarities with a suicide,” he said.

A crime scene unit and the medical examiner were on scene investigating Sunday as the northern entrance to the park was closed off for the afternoon. The rest of the park remained open.

The family has been contacted, Brotherton said.

“I think it is pretty much what they’ve been expecting all along,” he said.

The family did not return a phone message Sunday.

The family issued a statement Thursday indicating they thought Miller already had died.

“The ordeal of the last two weeks has become unbearable for Arthur. He could not live with the thought that his name and reputation were smeared and associated with the things which he believed he never had done,” the family said in Thursday’s statement.

An autopsy, which would allow for positive identification, is scheduled for today in Ankeny.

“More than likely, the signs point to (it being) Mr. Miller, but we can’t say 100 percent positive,” Brotherton said.

University spokesman Steve Parrott said the university would wait until confirmation before they issue a statement.



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Because I told you so, only works so well. Remember people; I'm only capable of selling toilet seats... I have no other marketable skills, and no functional knowledge to use in the working world outside of toilet seat sales.

I was off by approximately 12 hours on the lead time to find the body. However, I also had to work all weekend, otherwise I'd have gone corpse hunting I suppose. Also note, the person credited as making the recovery works for law enforcement, but is obviously doing this as an amateur, much as I suspected. The position of the body on the rifle is more indicative of kneeling position taken by the shooter, balanced forwards over the center of gravity, likely due to the angle necessary to hold the weapon. Properties boarding the entire western edge of the park are of residential are development, with several small schools and churches approximately in a mile radius from the center of the park. The northwestern border of the park is adjacent to a cemetery.

Any how, back to selling toilet seats for me.