Rants: “Under Bob Vander Plaats’ leadership, things got worse. A lot worse.”
- Wednesday, September 2, 2009, 7:24
- Iowa, News Center
- 1,525 views
- 25 comments
GOP Gubernatorial Candidate Chris Rants continues to examine Vander Plaats’ record while President and Board Chairman of Opportunities Unlimited. Below is the press release his campaign sent out today.
Rants: Internal Audit Shows More Financial Trouble Under Vander Plaats
SIOUX CITY — “The audits and tax returns speak for themselves. Under Bob Vander Plaats’ leadership, things got worse. A lot worse. When an audit shows his organization violated the terms of their primary bond agreement – that’s not a track record to take to the Governor’s office. We have that in Chet Culver already,” said Rep. Chris Rants, candidate for Governor from Sioux City.
A review of the audit of Opportunities Unlimited during Vander Plaats’ last year as Chairman of the Board (June 2003), reveals that Opportunities Unlimited violated their bond agreement. The audit states, “For 2003 the Organization did not meet the Net Income Available for Debt Service requirement. Under the Special Covenant section of the Loan Agreement, the Organization is required to retain a management consultant.”
“Both Vander Plaats and Culver have a habit of telling Iowans that everything is fine, they have it all under control. But in both cases, their financial audits tell a very different story,” explained Rants. “Culver says he has a Triple A bond rating, and Vander Plaats says care for resident improved. Both are true, but neither explains away their deficits, nor the deficiencies in their audits. We never hear about that on the campaign trail. A self proclaimed ‘turn around’ expert is supposed to make things better, not worse.”
###
*From the June 2003 Opportunities Unlimited audit report: “In 1994 the Organization received $2.53 million from Health Care Facility Revenue Bonds through the City of Sioux City, Iowa. Additional Revenue Bonds of $3.0 million were issued in 1998 through the County of Woodbury, Iowa. The terms of the Revenue Bonds include various covenants which require the maintenance of a debt service funds equal to the maximum annual principal and interest requirements, restrict how the proceeds are to be spent and have certain financial conditions. For 2003 the Organization did not meet the Net Income Available for Debt Service requirement. Under the Special Covenant section of the Loan Agreement, the Organization is required to retain a management consultant.”
About the Author
Craig Robinson has written 502 stories on this site.
Craig Robinson serves as the founder and Editor-in-Chief of TheIowaRepublican.com. Prior to founding Iowa's largest conservative news site, Robinson served as the Political Director of the Republican Party of Iowa during the 2008 Iowa Caucuses. In that capacity, Robinson planned and organized the largest political event in 2007, the Iowa Straw Poll, in Ames, Iowa. Robinson also organized the 2008 Republican caucuses in Iowa, and was later dispatched to Nevada to help with the caucuses there. Robinson cut his teeth in Iowa politics during the 2000 caucus campaign of businessman Steve Forbes and has been involved with most major campaigns in the state since then. His extensive political background and rolodex give him a unique perspective from which to monitor the political pulse of Iowa.
25 Comments on “Rants: “Under Bob Vander Plaats’ leadership, things got worse. A lot worse.””
Write a Comment
Gravatars are small images that can show your personality. You can get your gravatar for free today!
You must be logged in to post a comment.
Chess/checkers
This should end the Vander Plaats campaign. He’s worse than Culver.
I really hope so 2501 Grand. I am really sick of him and his lies.
It’s funny how Rants said yesterday that Bob was the CEO in 2003 and now says he was the “chariman of the board.” I think Bob should fire back with what happened under Rant’s leadership. I’ll wait for Bob’s response. Rants and BVP are duking it out right now to be the “anti-Branstad” vote. Their will only be two candidates after october–Rants and Branstad or Vander Plaats and Branstad. I personally think that Rants shares some of the same support who would likely join the Branstad camp after Brandstad gets in. BVP, on the other hand, has support who will not support Branstad. If it is a Rants-Branstad race, Branstad would win in the primary by 70-30%. If it was a Branstad-BVP race, the primary would be a bloody one and Branstad would probably win by 55-45%. One thing that is overlooked is Bob’s organizational strength–and I think it would by dumb of Branstad to ignore it.
Honey, I think BVP is what you eat for breakfast.
Rants is a smart guy. He knows there will be room for one other candidate if Branstad gets in, and he’s going to spend the next six weeks trying to make sure that candidate is himself instead of BVP. If it doesn’t work, maybe he’s earned enough goodwill to become Branstad’s running mate.
I think BVP is what you step in if you’re not careful!
desmoinesdem, I think you probably have nailed it. If Branstad does get in, He’ll suck most of the oxygen out of the room. It is indeed very smart for Rants to position himself in the #2 slot if need be.
Has there been a respone from Mr. Vander Plaats to this missive?
Yes there has been a response. It satisfies this voter.
Is this the Rants campaign strategy? No issues, just attacks? We’ve seen this style before and it always involves the Rants team.
I wonder if they contemplated whether this element of their campaign strategy is the achilles heel behind all our losses. Rants was the campaign architect during those years, right?
Rather than tell people WHY we should vote for Rants, the strategy is to vote against BVP.
Voters hate that ya know. They don’t want to hate the primary candidates in their own party. Once one wins the primary, we all have to jump on board to help the victor beat the D’s.
This strategy just makes those voters who’s candidates lost – absolutely hate with all their fiber the candidate who did nothing but attack to win. They won’t end up helping you or even vote for you candidate.
Is this the reason Nussle lost? There was so much hate that went on amongst teams, that I can’t help but think that had some impact on turnout.
Chris – please tell us why you instead of why not him. Do you have anything positive to offer or just the most hatefilled and nasty attacks you and your team can muster?
UPDATE FROM BVP on 9-3: “Dr. Kim Hoogeveen, who was Chairman of Opportunities Unlimited at the time Vander Plaats was hired and continues to hold the position, has issued this statement:
“Christopher Rants has again made several incorrect and misleading statements regarding Bob Vander Plaats’ leadership at Opportunities Unlimited. Bob Vander Plaats was OU’s president and CEO from February 1996 to Dec. 31, 2000 – not from 1997 to 2003 as Christopher Rants continues to incorrectly assert. At the risk of being repetitious, I will say it again as clearly as I can: Bob Vander Plaats was recruited to lead Opportunities Unlimited at a time when our image, finances, and clinical performance were in acute need of improvement.”
Hoogeveen continued, “Under Bob Vander Plaats’ day-to-day leadership, OU’s net assets rose from $621,000 to $2.69 million between fiscal year 1996 and fiscal year 2000 – a 430-percent increase – as evidenced by audited statements.
During that period of time: OU went from having 54 pages of cited deficiencies to being deficiency free; Bob was awarded the JoAnn Kramer Award presented to Iowa’s Best Brain Injury Services Advocate; Bob was appointed by Governor Branstad to serve on Governor’s Council for Brain Injury – a council he chaired from 1997-99; and OU received the highest accreditation by Commission on Accreditation for Rehabilitation Facilities (CARF).”
Hoogeveen said Rants’ attempt to make an issue of a 2003 instance in which Opportunities Unlimited was not in compliance with a bond covenant is “trivial to the point of silliness.”
“Let me once again point out to Mr. Rants: Bob Vander Plaats’ tenure as CEO concluded on December 31, 2000, i.e., Bob was not the CEO during the audit period Mr. Rants references.
In response to Mr. Rants’ decision to put out more incorrect information, let me offer the following: OU never missed a single bond payment and has a long record of responsible financial operations.
By searching for a technical violation of a bond covenant, Chris Rants shows that he either has little understanding of finance, is intentionally distorting OU’s record for his own gain, or both.
I’m disappointed that a candidate for governor would use such misleading assertions. Bob Vander Plaats made a large contribution to the success of Opportunities Unlimited and misleading statements issued by a politician cannot alter that fact.”
Rants looks really really petty on this. Plus, if Rants is wrong, then Rants is lying. Should Rants exit the race for lying as he suggests that BVP do? This was really a dumb move if BVP ends up on the end of the truth – which so far looks to be the case. It seems especially stupid considering that the only private sector experience Rants has is 2 years right out of college working for a special interest group that lobbies to get tax dollars. Then, he’s been nothing but a career politician. He’s one of the guys we are all angry about. He’s been one of the tax raisers and tax spenders. He’s been a hired gun as a sitting legislator to pass legislation that would directly benefit his employer.
I wanna know more about that arrangement. That sounds very damning to this voters ears. Was his salary from that firm an illegal campaign contribution? Was it pay for play? It smells bad and I think it needs more light of day.
Just in case you glossed over this part – the salient portion that responds to Rant’s attack:
Hoogeveen continued, “Under Bob Vander Plaats’ day-to-day leadership, OU’s net assets rose from $621,000 to $2.69 million between fiscal year 1996 and fiscal year 2000 – a 430-percent increase – as evidenced by audited statements
I don’t think the work of Lt. Gov. would be satisfying for Chris Rants. It would be a step down.
Esther: I agree. The one who is lying should be gone.
I’ve said for a couple years that Rants is one unpleasant person.
The job of lt gov has turned into nothing but a token spot for a token female in both parties – as if women will flock to that candidate because of identity politics. It offends me. But, since that is the case, Rants may be the perfect fit. He fights like a girl. Meoowwww.
Con Dem, yes he can be, but sometimes you need somebody to be an asshole in order to get things done. I still think he got screwed out the House Speaker seat, he wasn’t the to blame for Republicans losing any more than the party itself. But when it comes to credibility, I’ll take him over BVP anyday!
You’re giving Rants a bum rap. On one hand we gripe because Republicans aren’t tough enough and then we turn around and criticize them for being too tough.
Rants is a good guy and knows what he’s doing.
DV, there’s asshole-tough and there’s civil and polite tough.
What do you call Tom Harkin?
DV, that’s dumb debate methodology, that’s Peggy’s style. You’d flunk Debate 101 for sure with that approach.
Rants was and is the subject at hand. If you throw in an example and I follow with a different one, pretty soon ten new examples have totally moved the subject away from Rants being an asshole.
How about I just give you in advance that _every_ Democrat politician is an asshole?
Now there’s none you can throw in to deflect our scrutiny of Rants assholism.
Rants is not an asshole–Harkin is. How’s that?
What do I know!
Hope everyone has a wonderful holiday celebrating Labor’’s contributions to our Nation. Find a union picnic or two to attend and fellowship with some fine people.
Have a good weekend. Don’t get food poisoning from your “”friends” who wouldn’t want to use electricity to make ice. It will leave a carbon footprint. You know about global warming and all that.
I’ll think of you this weekend when we have our watermelon–you know, green on the outside and red on the inside. Totally appropriate for labor day.