Extraordinary abuse of authority. It looks like blatant Racial discrimination against Black woman by Des Moines city government so clear that there was no lawsuit filed even....
Is the city administrator and Mayor and City Council all "white supremacists" with a no black people as police chief ideology. ??? It looks like it.
Every black Native American mixed race and others including white people in Des Moines should be appalled..
The demand letter should be immediately released and the secrecy clause preventing the black woman from speaking out eliminated.
Davenport Iowa Police chief Jeff Bladel just retired....I believe there is zero percent chance that Davenport Iowa will hire a black police chief....the Racial disparity in staff and arrests and other actions should be looked at closely ...
Davenport for example has 15 department heads and 14 are white and the black Department Head was hired by the Civil Rights Commission not the human resources director and city administrator. The only black Department Head has clearly been discriminated against and has a Racial discrimination lawsuit against the city and specific individuals...
I sincerely believe that for years the city has intentionally discriminated....
I'm too tired to comment more but Des Moines looks as racist and corrupt as Davenport Iowa right now...
On the face of it it looks like Des Moines city leaders didn't want a Black Woman.....and wanted a white man instead.
.that's not fair...every arrest should be considered suspicious since Des Moines appears intentionally discriminatory ...
Racial disparity in hiring promotion and arrests should be looked into by the press....
The Civil Service Commission ranked her first. The city manager chose the candidate ranked seventh and paid $975,000 in taxpayer money to make the questions go away. Des Moines residents deserve to know what happened — not because of the settlement amount, but because confidentiality agreements funded by public money are a contradiction in terms. Thank you for staying on this, Randy.
— Rebecca Nicole Schweitzer, Des Moines, Polk County, Iowa
And these confidentiality agreements are not exclusive to Des Moines City Hall. Taxpayers in Des Moines are still paying the salary of the chief academic officer of the Des Moines Public Schools, who has not worked for the past five months. He resigned effective June 30, 2026. School officials refuse to say why they are continuing to pay him — or why he is not being required to work. Why? Why? Why?
This is a page right out of the Davenport playbook. See this link for a detailed timeline about how Davenport secretly paid out close to $4 million is cash and benefits to the former City Administrator and 2 secretaries and then sued a citizen who had the temerity to put in a FOIA for the demand letter. https://www.rcreader.com/the-decline-and-fall-of-davenport-iowa-a-timeline
Who is Maj. Parker’s attorney? Has that even been disclosed? If that attorney has a track record of success in such cases, it may provide some insights into why the city folded. How is the city paying for the settlement ? Out of the city’s general fund, reserves or under their insurance coverage, for which the taxpayers no doubt now will be paying higher premiums?
If Maj. Parker was ranked first on the Civil Service list and the chief hired much lower, maybe they could at least address that in terms of what the chief’s overriding qualities were.
Lillie Parker was represented by prominent Des Moines attorney Alfredo Parrish. … As to the source of the money for the settlement payment, the agenda item states that the City Council was voting to direct the city staff to “draw a warrant” for the settlement amount, which suggests the money is coming from the city treasury, not from an insurer.
The scope of secrecy with city and school board settlements increases my skepticism of elected and appointed officials. We the people in a democratic republic is a myth. We the people just pay for hidden decisions. Thank you Randy for being a beacon for honesty.
This is a perfect example of why I hate Des Moines, and one reason why I really wish, back in time, I had never returned to live in Iowa. Even though I had good reasons to approve of Connie Boesen as the new Des Moines mayor, I am very disappointed with her as well. I wish I had the resources I would need to move back to the Southwest and leave this trash dump behind, forever.
No where is perfect Dave. We are Iowans who left for the Southwest. We were born and raised in the tiny DeWitt area and raised our 3 sons in Bettendorf, IA. Two sons are down here as well. It is a different world and far too populous and diverse for entire cities to get away with such shenanigans. However, I miss the green, spacious beauty of Iowa and ease of movement, familiarity and sounds. We also have a deep red state legislature who are much more emboldened by worshipped rugged individualism and the convicted felon POTUS. Change is coming; our Democratic governor and state’s AG will be re-elected; and one by one the
Extraordinary abuse of authority. It looks like blatant Racial discrimination against Black woman by Des Moines city government so clear that there was no lawsuit filed even....
Is the city administrator and Mayor and City Council all "white supremacists" with a no black people as police chief ideology. ??? It looks like it.
Every black Native American mixed race and others including white people in Des Moines should be appalled..
The demand letter should be immediately released and the secrecy clause preventing the black woman from speaking out eliminated.
Davenport Iowa Police chief Jeff Bladel just retired....I believe there is zero percent chance that Davenport Iowa will hire a black police chief....the Racial disparity in staff and arrests and other actions should be looked at closely ...
Davenport for example has 15 department heads and 14 are white and the black Department Head was hired by the Civil Rights Commission not the human resources director and city administrator. The only black Department Head has clearly been discriminated against and has a Racial discrimination lawsuit against the city and specific individuals...
I sincerely believe that for years the city has intentionally discriminated....
I'm too tired to comment more but Des Moines looks as racist and corrupt as Davenport Iowa right now...
On the face of it it looks like Des Moines city leaders didn't want a Black Woman.....and wanted a white man instead.
.that's not fair...every arrest should be considered suspicious since Des Moines appears intentionally discriminatory ...
Racial disparity in hiring promotion and arrests should be looked into by the press....
And all city legal settlements should be public..
The Civil Service Commission ranked her first. The city manager chose the candidate ranked seventh and paid $975,000 in taxpayer money to make the questions go away. Des Moines residents deserve to know what happened — not because of the settlement amount, but because confidentiality agreements funded by public money are a contradiction in terms. Thank you for staying on this, Randy.
— Rebecca Nicole Schweitzer, Des Moines, Polk County, Iowa
And these confidentiality agreements are not exclusive to Des Moines City Hall. Taxpayers in Des Moines are still paying the salary of the chief academic officer of the Des Moines Public Schools, who has not worked for the past five months. He resigned effective June 30, 2026. School officials refuse to say why they are continuing to pay him — or why he is not being required to work. Why? Why? Why?
…oops..we will vote out the corruption.
This is a page right out of the Davenport playbook. See this link for a detailed timeline about how Davenport secretly paid out close to $4 million is cash and benefits to the former City Administrator and 2 secretaries and then sued a citizen who had the temerity to put in a FOIA for the demand letter. https://www.rcreader.com/the-decline-and-fall-of-davenport-iowa-a-timeline
Looks like ‘Woke’ turned into a bit of other sided ‘smoke’?
Who is Maj. Parker’s attorney? Has that even been disclosed? If that attorney has a track record of success in such cases, it may provide some insights into why the city folded. How is the city paying for the settlement ? Out of the city’s general fund, reserves or under their insurance coverage, for which the taxpayers no doubt now will be paying higher premiums?
If Maj. Parker was ranked first on the Civil Service list and the chief hired much lower, maybe they could at least address that in terms of what the chief’s overriding qualities were.
Lillie Parker was represented by prominent Des Moines attorney Alfredo Parrish. … As to the source of the money for the settlement payment, the agenda item states that the City Council was voting to direct the city staff to “draw a warrant” for the settlement amount, which suggests the money is coming from the city treasury, not from an insurer.
I respect your reporting. I always learn something I haven't read or heard elsewhere. Thanks.
The scope of secrecy with city and school board settlements increases my skepticism of elected and appointed officials. We the people in a democratic republic is a myth. We the people just pay for hidden decisions. Thank you Randy for being a beacon for honesty.
This is a perfect example of why I hate Des Moines, and one reason why I really wish, back in time, I had never returned to live in Iowa. Even though I had good reasons to approve of Connie Boesen as the new Des Moines mayor, I am very disappointed with her as well. I wish I had the resources I would need to move back to the Southwest and leave this trash dump behind, forever.
No where is perfect Dave. We are Iowans who left for the Southwest. We were born and raised in the tiny DeWitt area and raised our 3 sons in Bettendorf, IA. Two sons are down here as well. It is a different world and far too populous and diverse for entire cities to get away with such shenanigans. However, I miss the green, spacious beauty of Iowa and ease of movement, familiarity and sounds. We also have a deep red state legislature who are much more emboldened by worshipped rugged individualism and the convicted felon POTUS. Change is coming; our Democratic governor and state’s AG will be re-elected; and one by one the