Barto spent most of the morning on the stand answering questions from her attorney, much of the questioning dealt with her interaction with CIETC, her knowledge of the salaries and bonuses of CIETC executives.
Barto testified that she spent very little time in her day-to-day duties dealing with the CIETC operations and she referred to any review of salaries or bonuses as sacred territory, meaning something she considered to be left up to the board of CIETC and other similar agencies. Barto said Iowa Workforce Development had no control to review or monitor CIETC’s salaries or bonuses.
Barto was also asked about her relationship with Ramona Cunningham. Barto admitted to meeting Cunningham and others for drinks after work.
Spies asked, “So you had a drinking relationship with Ramona Cunningham?”
“I guess you could call it that. A sporadic drinking relationship,” Barto said.
During cross examination, prosecutors asked Barto if she felt it was okay to be meeting for drinks and socializing with the head of an agency that she had fiscal oversight.
Barto replied that she did not feel this was inappropriate.
Barto’s former administrative assistant, Laura Rieck, was also called to the witness stand Tuesday morning. Rieck was caught dumping documents outside the CIETC office into a trash dumpster.
Rieck testified that Kelly Taylor, who blew the whistle on this case, had made comments to her that he planned to get back at Jane Barto when she did not take action on his requests for travel.
