Paid for by the taxpayers in...

West Des Moines
(All items paid Jan. 17)

Amount: $9,425.45
To: Brice Oakley
For: First installment of a $36,750 contract with the city for "governmental consulting and legislative representation services" for calendar year 2006. In addition to the initial installment, the payment included $238.45 in other expenses from 2005, such as $15 for a West Des Moines Chamber breakfast on Nov. 9 and $50 for a "legislator lunch" on Dec. 12.

Amount: $150
To: Eugene Meyer
For: Registration fee for the West Des Moines mayor to attend the "2006 Renaissance XIII" conference in Pella on Jan. 7-8, which included sessions on "What is the role of religion in Media-Education-Politics" and "Civility in Public Policy" (during a "dinner at David and Betsy Roe's").

Amount: $85,835.97
To: Artistic Solid Waste System Inc.
For: Residential trash collection fees for post-Christmas pick-up on Dec. 27.

Amount: $100
To: Jack Benge
For: Check to the fire department official for inclusion on the city's 2005 "Team of the Year" awarded to the "City Fire Works Team." According to the city's human resources division, checks for $100 will also be made out to T.J. Szwarc, Rodney Benson, Ed Cowan, Ryan Knowles, Becky Miller and Allen Cox for their inclusion on the team.

Amount: $3,238.10
To: MacDonald Letter Service
For: Printing fees for various city documents, newsletters and brochures, including $400 for 10 Strategy Map posters, $80 for Raccoon River Dog Park Rules Brochures and $80.25 for an "expedited freight charge for Classic Crest Earthstone envelopes."

Amount: $3,157
To: America's Best Inc.
For: T-shirts, polo shirts and sweatshirts for the West Des Moines Police Department.

Amount: $60
To: Greater Des Moines Partnership
For: Fees for Mayor Eugene Meyer, City Manager Jeff Pomeranz, Assistant City Manager Ray Seidelman and management intern Amy Larsen to attend the Legislative Opening Reception on Dec. 9.

Amount: $158.99
To: Fern Stewart, city administrative services
For: Reimbursement for a Sanyo 4.9-cubic-feet compact refrigerator (cited by the manufacturer for "a design that never needs defrosting" and a "vegetable crisper [that] keeps produce fresh and tasty for longer") purchased at Costco for the city's administrative services division, after the previous staff refrigerator began malfunctioning.

Amount: $396.95
To: Carpenter Uniform Co.
For: Uniform coat for Greg Jones
of the West Des Moines Fire Department, including a $10 charge to shorten the sleeves by a half-inch and $22 charge to add three rows of gold braid around the sleeves.

Amount: $4,300
To: Matrix Consulting Group
For: Fee to a Palo Alto, Calif., company for consulting work regarding an "evaluation of the Fire and EMS evaluation." This installment dealt with an "analysis of alternatives" by three employees billing $175 and $125 per hour respectively.

Amount: $85
To: National Fire Sprinkler Association Inc.
For: Annual membership fee for fire department employee Kent J. Eubank.

Amount: $2,380
To: Occupational Safety Consultants
For: Safety trainings for city departments, including $1,610 for 10 "Confined space entry procedure"
sessions for the Parks and Recreation Department.

Amount: $1,425
To: Spindustry Systems Inc.
For: Web hosting and Web maintenance of city Web sites, including $180 for graphic design of "an animated GIF and banner photo on the fire department page," and $705 for "Web trends reporting" and virtual domain hosting for www.wdm-ia.com and www.raccoonriverpark.com for the first quarter of 2006.

Amount: $250
To: Mark McMahon
For: Officiating of 12.5 adult league basketball games at $20 per game.

Amount: $156
To: Val Lanes
For: Three bowling outings on Nov. 2, Dec. 8 and Dec. 28 billed to the West Des Moines Parks and Recreation Department.

Amount: $60
To: West Des Moines Community Schools
For: Fifteen continental breakfasts and five lasagna lunches on Nov. 15, 16 and 18, regarding the recruitment of a property officer.

Who's giving to:

Chet Culver
Iowa Secretary of State
Democratic gubernatorial hopeful
Scott Ginsburg (Dallas) $40,000
Jean Wallace Douglas $15,000
(Washington D.C.) David W. Douglas (Santa Fe) $10,000
James A. Johnson $10,000
(Washington, D.C.)
Catherine Reynolds $10,000
(McLean, VA)
Jean Kennedy Smith $10,000
(New York City)
James Erb (Charles City) $10,000
Matthew Pickering (Chicago) $10,000

Expense report:

The only expense submitted by Iowa Supreme Court Chief Justice Louis Lavorato over the past three months was a five-hour trip to Council Bluffs for a meeting on Nov. 7, for which Lavorato was reimbursed $90.30 for 258 miles traveled.

Travel:

Lillie Miller-Sistrunk, a senior police officer with the Des Moines Police Department, was approved earlier this month to travel to Miami, Fla., from Jan. 23-27 to attend a seminar titled, "The Reid Technique of Interviewing and Interrogation." Officials explain that the trip is necessary to "acquire and develop skills of interviewing and interrogations." The cost of Miller-Sistrunk's travel will be $1,936.

Salaries and such

In addition to nearly 30 administrative assistants with pay ranging from $3,460.80 to $102,724.40, the governor's office paid "construction technician" Brian Browning $40,851.20, "housekeeper" Samol Thlang $26,572.80, "food and housekeeping coordinator" Sharon Vanverth $35,094.40 and "nursery worker" Montgomery Lovell $30,438.40 in fiscal year 2005.

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