Supervisor fired after ISU worker collects pay for unworked hours
An Iowa State University supervisor was fired earlier this summer after it was discovered that an employee was collecting wages without showing up for work.
State records indicate Todd P. Kelley began working for the university in July 2020 and was most recently employed there as a manager of facility maintenance. He was fired in June after being accused of playing a role in the falsification of employee timesheets.
The university alleged that in April 2023, it learned through an employee complaint that pipefitter Gene Leaman had been routinely punching in at the beginning of his workday and then going home for the day. Leaman was allegedly spending most of his workday at home while clocked in and earning a paycheck, all without working remotely.
After receiving the complaint, the university launched an investigation that allegedly concluded Leaman was claiming roughly 60 hours of pay each week while spending only 10 to 15 hours per week at work.
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The ISU campus has 146 buildings, and Kelley supervised 25 employees. As Leaman’s direct supervisor, Kelley was held responsible for approving the recording of Leaman’s hours, but he denied any knowledge that Leaman was spending a significant amount of time off campus while collecting pay.
Kelley allegedly told his superiors he had harbored concerns that multiple employees were taking advantage of ISU by clocking in remotely from home via their cell phone. However, each time Kelley performed a random check on a specific employee such as Leaman, he would find the employees in their assigned work areas.
In June, after Leaman’s alleged absences were discovered, Leaman’s employment with ISU ended. Around that time, Kelley was fired and subsequently filed for unemployment benefits. After a hearing dealing with his request for benefits, Administrative Law Judge Elizabeth Johnson ruled in Kelley’s favor and awarded him benefits.
“The parties agree as to the essential facts,” Johnson wrote in her decision. “The issue is whether (Kelley’s) failure to discover Leaman’s conduct earlier is disqualifying misconduct.” Johnson found the evidence indicated Kelley was performing his job to the best of his ability.
According to ISU records, Gene Leaman had worked for the university since February 1990. In 2020, he was awarded the ISU Facilities Planning and Management Merit Superior Service Award.
Other unemployment cases
Other Iowans whose unemployment-benefit cases were recently decided by a judge include:
Matthew T. Hanson-Reed, who was fired from Care Initiatives, an Iowa company that runs the Ravenwood Specialty Care nursing home in Waterloo. Hanson-Reed was accused of falsifying records in advance of the care facility’s anticipated inspection by state officials. State records indicate Hanson-Reed had worked for the company as a full-time maintenance supervisor since May 2022.
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In July 2023, the company discovered that Hanson-Reed had not checked fire extinguishers and conducted periodic fire drills as instructed. The company then concluded that Hanson-Reed had falsified fire extinguisher inspection logs and fabricated documents suggesting the fire drills had been conducted. He was denied unemployment benefits.
Theresa Michels, who worked as a registered nurse for Great River Medical Center until she was fired earlier this year. On May 12, 2023, a nurse manager at the hospital allegedly issued Michels an action plan regarding patient-safety concerns, claiming Michels had far more errors in her patient charts, and far more missing information in the charts, than her colleagues.
Days later, Michels was treating a patient after heart surgery and was tasked with checking the patient’s vital signs every 15 minutes. She allegedly failed to perform the checks but, about 80 minutes later, she charted that she had done so. Additional charting irregularities were found in the days that followed and the hospital fired Michels, alleging her conduct could have resulted in serious injury or the death of a patient. She was denied unemployment benefits.
Brenda L. Cullom, who worked for Hope Haven, an agency that serves people with disabilities, as a direct-support professional until July 2023 when she was fired due to an alleged founded child-abuse report issued by the state. Court records show Cullom was arrested in March and charged with multiple criminal offenses related to a 3-year-old child who was in her care at her Estherville apartment.
Police reported Cullom had become intoxicated on Black Velvet whiskey “to the point that she was acting erratically by damaging the patio sliding door, yelling, causing a disturbance to the public, and went into public completely naked” and hurled items from her second-floor balcony.
Cullom was charged with child endangerment, public intoxication and disorderly conduct. All of the charges were later dropped by prosecutors when Cullom agreed to plead guilty to an unrelated charge of possession of a controlled substance.
Cullom had notified her superiors of her arrest, but after the criminal cases were resolved, the Iowa Department of Health and Human Services investigated and allegedly filed a founded report of child abuse on the matter. Cullom reportedly failed to report that finding to Hope Haven, though there was no evidence to indicate when she learned of it. Cullom was awarded unemployment benefits.
Find this story at Iowa Capital Dispatch, which is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Iowa Capital Dispatch maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Kathie Obradovich for questions: kobradovich@iowacapitaldispatch.com.
This article originally appeared on Ames Tribune: Iowa State facility maintenance manager fired for inaccurate time cards
