Wahlert resigns as state workforce director

DES MOINES - Teresa Wahlert's sometimes-embattled tenure as director of Iowa Workforce Development ended Sunday with her announced retirement.

Gov. Terry Branstad and Lt. Gov. Kim Reynolds said Wahlert notified them late Friday that she was stepping down from the post she held for nearly four years effective on Sunday.

'I wish to thank Teresa Wahlert for her work to help lead initiatives like Skilled Iowa, which trains workers with the skills needed to fill the high-paying careers available across Iowa, Home Base Iowa and the National Career Readiness Certificate,” Branstad said in a statement.

Branstad announced Sunday that he has appointed Beth Townsend, current executive director of the Iowa Civil Rights Commission, as acting IWD director. The governor indicated that he will appoint a permanent IWD director at a later date, although a timeline for naming a permanent director has not been set.

Branstad, who will take the oath of office for his sixth term on Friday, also appointed Don Grove - former Iowa Civil Rights Commission director and current Iowa Civil Rights Commission employee - the acting executive director of the Iowa Civil Rights Commission.

Allegations came to light last year that Iowa's Workforce Development agency gradually had become a hostile work environment where overworked administrative law judges said they felt their judicial independence was being improperly threatened under a business-friendly Branstad administration.

Past and present judges made claims to Senate Government Oversight Committee members in August 2014 that Wahlert was interfering in the jobless claims appeals process in a manner that potentially could bias outcomes in favor of Iowa employers over workers.

However, Wahlert presented testimony to the legislative panel refuting those claims, saying the changes that she had made since taking the IWD helm in 2011 had brought efficiency and accountability to a once 'sleepy” organization. Wahlert also flatly denied she had pushed an employer-friendly bias in deciding unemployment benefit cases or meddled with the appeals process in a way that has threatened the independent impartiality of administrative law judges as some critics had contended.

Democrats on the Senate panel expressed doubt that Wahlert could receive the two-thirds majority, or 34 affirmative votes, that would be needed to confirm her if Branstad reappointed her this year to continue serving as IWD director.

Branstad had repeatedly defended Wahlert as an outstanding administrator, charging that allegations brought against her were politically motivated. However, critics like Sen. Bill Dotzler, D-Waterloo, called for federal investigators to look at abuse of power allegations against Wahlert and decried 'bullying” tactics that were being employed to intimidate IWD employees.

On Sunday, Branstad said he and the lieutenant governor wanted to wish Wahlert 'all the best” as she begins her retirement.

'Director Wahlert's energy and passion to serve the people of Iowa was evident in her dedication to ensuring that Iowa workers had access to programs that would assist them in filling the new, highly-skilled careers coming to Iowa,” Reynolds said in a statement. 'Under her direction, Iowa Workforce Development was a key partner as 168,700 jobs were created in the past four years.”