The pattern continues: I report on the Mid-Central scandal, and Angela Kennecke gets the players to speak unflatteringly on camera.
Last week I reported that state Board of Education member Kelly Duncan received $51,000 from Mid-Central Educational Cooperative from June 2011 to December 2012 for work on the federal College Access grant. I also noted that Duncan served as principal investigator on the 2015 formal evaluation of the federal GEAR UP grant administered by Mid-Central.
KELO TV doesn’t cite my work, but it does add information from sources that Duncan was on Mid-Central’s payroll prior to 2011. And bulldog investigator Angela Kennecke gets Duncan to look bad on the record:
Sources tell KELOLAND News that Duncan was getting paid by Mid Central as far back as 2010 to train guidance counselors under the College Access Grant and at one time was even the Project Director–all while working as a Professor for the University of South Dakota. I tried to ask her about it. At first, Duncan thought I was only asking about the GEAR UP evaluation and her recent role in that for USD.
Duncan: The program evaluation was part of our work at USD.
Angela Kennecke: No, I’m talking about being program director for College Access.
Duncan: No, we did the program evaluation.
Kennecke: You weren’t program director? What work did you do for College Access where you were paid by Mid Central?“I think you need to do this at another time,” Duncan said, as she closed the door [Angela Kennecke, “Board of Education Member on Mid Central Payroll,” KELO-TV, 2015.11.16].
Rick Melmer, Keith Moore, Joseph Graves, now Kelly Duncan—you all might want to start reading my blog so you’re ready when Angela Kennecke comes knocking with questions.
While the GOP spin blog pretends that corruption is a made-up issue, Dakota Free Press is driving news coverage on real corruption in South Dakota government.
Keep up the stellar investigative/reporting work! I have recently become an avid reader of your blog and very much appreciate the coverage that you have given this whole Gear Up, Mid Central, EB5, SD government obvious corruption……etc. Hopefully all of these painfully obvious truths will be viewed and accepted by the rest of our state, and the people of S.D. will do the right thing at election time and clean house in Pierre. If this doesn’t open the eyes of the people that voted for the current incompetents in power….I fear that nothing ever will.
It’s such a tangled web that there’s almost no way to tell the whole story other than chipping away at it as you and Kennecke have been diligently doing.
It’s valuable work being done. That video of Duncan scurrying behind the door once she realized what the line of questioning was about tells more of the story than 10,000 words could.
Now that the Regents know about this, no doubt they will painstakingly investigate their NSU employee who’s freelancing in legally questionable ways. Just like they did with Joop. Wait …
Forgive me for stating the obvious in my comments…
The administration of these grants was wacky. When you have full time employed folks (ex. Kelly Duncan at USD) receiving another full time salary (ex. Kelly Duncan with College Access grant), that’s weird. Shouldn’t the full time position for the grant go to someone who is available? To me, that’s an issue of the Mid-Central board, to hire available staff to cover the positions needed to run the grant. It’s clear that Mid-Central filled the positions of the grants based on “who you are” (Kelly Duncan at USD) instead of advertising openings.
To me it all points back to the administration and board at Mid-Central. The Scott Westerhuis horrible situation was fallout for the MCEC administration/board poor handling of stuff. Angela Kenneke might want to interview Dan Guericke, and any/all MCEC board members, other MCEC employees…but I suppose they’re in lockdown, under their lawyer’s advisement, etc.
And one more observation…most of grant money was going to the administration of these grants (Kelly Duncan $50,000) when the intended recipients (Native American students) got a mere pittance. Disgusting.
What Lance Russell said.
I follow and try to stay informed, share with all my friends, keep up the hard work.
Thanks CH you really are the best at digging deep. I wonder how long people can say nothing wrong here. At both EB5, MEC, and even Grant it is always the same answer. While the Governor might not have been involved the buck should stop there.
Corresponding responses to EB-5 – GEAR UP – College Access Programs; Westerhuis tragedy; and Gant boondoggles from Duagaard, Jackley, Schopp, Melmer, Moore, Graves, Duncan, Krebs and a supporting cast of others has proven what we have know for decades. Due to a lack of integrity, honor, candor and courage, “What happens behind one-party rule closed doors in Pierre stays in Pierre – Just like it does in Vegas!”
Team-Guymon, Out!
As both Melmer and Duncan held administrative appointments, they fall into the category of non-faculty exempt employees. If they were regular faculty, the Board of Regents Policy manual and Collective Bargaining Agreement are very specific about how much time and under what procedures they must follow to do outside work in addition to their contractual duties. However, both statute and policy also have requirements for them, and there should be a record at USD of what arrangements were made for them:
3-8-4.
Dual salaries prohibited.
Except as provided in §§ 3-8-4.1 to 3-8-4.3, inclusive, no person receiving a salary payable out of the state treasury or from the funds of any state institution or department, may, during the period for which such salary has been or is to be paid, receive any other salary from the state or any institution or department thereof.
3-8-4.1.
Salary or per diem prohibited for service by state employee on board, commission, committee, or council–Reimbursement of expenses.
No employee of the state including any institution thereof serving on a board, commission, committee, or council of the state may receive salary or per diem compensation for serving on such body. Allowable expense reimbursement shall be paid pursuant to § 4-7-10.4.
3-8-4.2.
Compensation permitted for other state employment during off duty hours.
Any state employee, with the approval of the department head, agency head, or head of the state institution involved, may use annual leave, weekends, legal holidays, and hours after normal working hours for performing compensable services to a state institution, department, office, or agency other than the institution, department, office, or agency which is the employee’s primary employer. Compensation for such additional services performed during such times does not constitute dual compensation prohibited by § 3-8-4 or 3-8-4.1.
3. Non-faculty Exempt and Civil Service Employees Private Practice, Consultation, and Outside Employment
A non-faculty exempt (NFE) employee (NFE includes faculty members with administrative appointments) or a civil service employee who enters into private practice, private consulting, or outside employment for which leave is required during the course of his or her workday with a Board of Regents institution, must receive prior approval from his or her immediate supervisor as well as follow these criteria:
1. Submit written notification of outside activity or contracting through appropriate supervisory channels;
2. Report to the supervisor and as deemed appropriate the institutional chief executive officer the activity, duration of the activity, and the number of hours which were devoted to the additional activity that will occur during the normally scheduled workday;
3. Submit appropriate leave authorization documentation and receive approval for applicable leave usage to be used to engage in these types of activities; and
4. Limit and restrict such activity so that it does not interfere with assigned responsibilities.
Fittingly, Daugaard’s budget address in a couple weeks should start accordingly:
SooooOOOOOOoooWEEEEEEE!!!!
This is devastating and great TV drama. Apparently, Cory’s new nickname is “Sources.” But who cares as long as it gets on Keloland! Go Angela!!!
Go Angela run against Thune, and get something done for South Dakota
Newquist…wow…thank you for this informatio
So Duncan gets fo grand for doing what.
So who is respnsible for this the Gov, or the Board of regrents?
From my observations, a program director for a grant coordinates getting updates and information about the grant to the site coordinators, receives paperwork and documentation of grant activities, handles training of grant site coordinators, and more. I can totally understand where it’s a needed position, and the need for it to be a paid position. I can’t understand how someone that is fully employed at another job has time to direct the grant program sufficiently. According to the information in Newquist’s post, this is not allowed. I harken back to my earlier post…MCEC admin and board is at fault for allowing this to happen.
Westerhuis, Schopp, Melmer, Moore, Graves and Duncan are like the corrupt Indian agents of the 19th century. They steal the fat from the people they are supposed to serve.
The fat-takers—the wasicu—good term, Jason!
Cory has done a great job following this story, especially in his diligent review of years of MCEC Board minutes.
I’ve reviewed the 2011 GEAR UP application and subsequent annual reports, as well as the Brinda Kuhn evaluation during the first GEAR UP grant (awarded in 2005; evaluation from 2009).
Remember that the SD Auditor General is looking at 22 or 23 programs administered by MCEC. They say it may take six months or more to complete investigating and produce a report. Also remember that the Feds are doing their own investigation. The US Dept. of Ed has its investigators, but suspected criminal activity is referred to the FBI.
I maintain the key to the issue is not to worry about how high up it goes. Instead, focus on how far out it spreads. Once investigators know how widely it spread, the “how high” question will resolve itself through the evidence and the plea bargains.
Excellent info, Newquist!
We’ll see if DD is as committed to laissez-faire supervision as was his predecessor, who declared:
“I’m not going to second-guess the Board of Regents. … He (Joop) was an employee of the Board of Regents. I trust their team and that their human resources team have looked at it or are looking at it when it came to light. I suspect they visited with him. I don’t know what their research turned up.”
http://www.mitchellrepublic.com/content/eb-5-lawsuit-against-sd-dismissed
Instead of the elephant, the SDGOP should use the three monkeys – hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil
Or maybe just someone shrugging their shoulders.
I’ll be honest, in a state like South Dakota, you can’t stop conflicts of interest all the time. You won’t be able to stop people from doing some small consulting on the side, it happens, numerous professors of mine talked about businesses or consulting they did on the side. But they showed up everyday did their job well and what happened on the side, was on the side. When someone is getting two full-time well paid jobs that are in conflict of one another there is a problem, where one oversees or has direct impact of the other one that is a problem. When someone who in the position of his job, gives a contract to himself for a large amount there is a problem.
South Dakota loves to contract things out, which leads to little over-site and large administration cost. I now see why my high school teachers kept saying they should be consultants. I always thought of consulting as a part-time contract based job, where many of these were giving themselves (or their pals), full time jobs on the side.
Speaking Did Gant take a trip to Germany, to show some vets how to vote on some I pad.
Joe’s comments are interesting, especially since I’ve been a full-time consultant for 25 years . In fact, I’m presenting as part of a panel later this week at the ARNOVA Conference in Chicago on – being a consultant to nonprofits!
Conflicts of interest are often unavoidable, and are not evil in and of themselves. The key, as I said on KELO a couple of weeks ago, is how the conflicts are disclosed, documented, and managed.
I’m not saying you can’t be a full-time consultant, but that you have numerous clients (not full-time consulting 1 business, especially if you have a full-time job doing something else).
Very few people are a full-time consultant for __________ organization, and if they are, they are an employee of them and not of a group who got the contract for that group.
Say it ain’t so, a school board member of sorts realizes personal gain from their position. The painful part is that this happens repetitively at the local level, and it’s just not little Joey getting a starting spot on the basketball team.
Moses – Jabba the Gant took a German junket to show soldiers how to vote using a $680K program called iOASIS. Here’s the press release, and you’ll see a very polished video highlighting Gant’s German junket.
http://www.prweb.com/releases/2014/03/prweb11703076.htm
It was a pricey victory lap in lederhosen for the politico boob who wrecked his reputation running a shady office.
moses 2015-10-29 at 16:24
This guy went to Germany to show them how to vote.How stupid was that.
Get over the democrat vs republican. Corruption is bad, most is built in & run by bureaucrats with out being elected. If I had to guess most are Democrats.
The only way to reduce it is to reduce government.
MarkH York comment makes no sense. What makes you guess they are mostly democrats? I thought you said we should get over the dems vs repubs. How do we reduce corruption by reducing government? What body do you suggest to be in charge of rules, regulations, and oversight to keep corruption from happening if not government? I do agree with you that corruption is bad.
Jabba the Gant. Heh. I like it. Reminds me of that movie monster.
Why isn’t Duncan’s Asst. Prof position @ USD listed on the http://bfm.sd.gov/ledger/employee.asp
page? Only her DOE and NSU positions?
I know some of you faithful followers think anyone who still doesn’t believe the AG’s version of the SW family and those of us who have feeble minds that still suspect something is amiss in the who did it, but if any of you have teenage boys, do you ever know them to sleep in each others beds? Not ever for any reason! That is sacred territory to young males and you all know it!
The 7600 sq ft. house collapsed and hurdled their entire bodies into each others beds….again what space odyssey pile of horse crap is that?
If this were my son or daughter and grandchildren, I would have a wrongful death suit against MCEC. Why does Guericke still have a job? I’m not saying he should be in jail, but how is he competent to serve his present employees? He certainly didn’t do his job in following MCEC policy relative to fraud or evaluations/ annual performance reviews or Scott wouldn’t have been working there in 2015! Now he has 2 dead employees and the beat goes on?
Everyone thinks they can just lawyer up and hide from questions to the public who have been paying their salaries. Then they just wait, have a nice Thanksgiving meal, celebrate the birth of Jesus by going to church on Christmas, give time for all the dust to eventually die down and next year we have another dead family?
Really?????
I’m curious. Perhaps Michael Wyland you could provide some wisdom…
If as a result of federal review, SD DOE is again required to “pay back” dollars expended for ineligible expenses for 2015 GEAR Up activities, can they they seek reimbursement from MCEC? What “fund” would that money come out of? Is there any way SD taxpayer dollars would be used to backfill that gap?
“South Dakota loves to contract things out, which leads to little over-site and large administration cost. I now see why my high school teachers kept saying they should be consultants. I always thought of consulting as a part-time contract based job, where many of these were giving themselves (or their pals), full time jobs on the side.”
Incompetent SD Administrators do not like to hire competent staff or workers actually smarter than they are because they view any such person a threat to their jobs. They hire consultants who are no threat to their jobs. I watched this when I worked in Pierre. The office I was in could have had a full-time computer expert for less than they paid part-timers from Denver. SD would not pay enough. The guy left for something like $10,000 a year more in Wisconsin. We ended up buying his washer and dryer when he packed up and left.
KELO haas my respect right now. but, speaking of waivers-SDPR does it all the time-NPR delivers news pieces and culture stories with excerpts of highlighted books and articles. sdpr deletes those and replaces them with insurance advertisments. then follows with lengthy pieces on cranberry sauce (not that there is anything wrong with that!) instead.
republican editors
get over dem/repub divide. reduce government.
the 24/7 cable news cycle vilifies democrats all day every day. and they are wrong.
and wiken, we all know that is wrong. the assistant exec does ALL the hands on work leaving the dear leader to traipse about the country at public expense fulfilling repulicans. mission. otherwise i agree!
‘ not .
Looks like Kennecke’s not letting these crooks loose!
http://www.keloland.com/newsdetail.cfm/board-of-education-member-also-has-contract-with-dept-of-ed/?id=187550
Now that’s a scoop! More money for Duncan, tucked away in a payment to her consulting firm. Good grief: Melmer, Duncan, Moore… they all created consulting firms on the side, just like Scott Westerhuis.
Comet:
There is always the possibility that SD might have to return some funds to the Feds. It’s rare, but it can happen. SD could then pursue MCEC and, possibly, by extension, its member school districts. Realistically, unless an MCEC insurance policy pays the claim, the state would likely take the loss – if any. Remember, this is more theoretical than likely.