Michael Gartner

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Michael Gartner (born October 25, 1938, in Des Moines, Iowa) is an American journalist and businessman. He is also President of the Iowa Board of Regents. He is a graduate of Carleton College and the New York University School of Law.

His long career in journalism began in the sports department of the Des Moines Register at the age of 15. Eventually, he became page one editor of The Wall Street Journal (1960-1974), editor and president of the Des Moines Register (1974-1985), general news executive of the Gannett Company and USA Today (1985-1986), editor of the Louisville Courier-Journal (1986-1987) -- during which time he served as president of the American Society of Newspaper Editors -- and president of NBC News (1988-1993).

He resigned from NBC in 1993 as a result of controversy over the show "Dateline NBC." The show reported on dangers of GM pickup trucks, but did not state that it had staged the explosion of a truck for broadcast. Years later Gartner said, "It happened on my watch. I took responsibility for it. I did what I thought you ought to do when you make a mistake. You say 'we made a mistake' and apologize to the viewers." (Iowa City Press-Citizen, April 23, 2005.) But New Yorker media columnist Ken Auletta states online that while "Gartner's bosses did not hold him personally responsible for the story about the crash ....Even before Gartner resigned, on March 2nd, he was about to be fired." (http://www.kenauletta.com/changingchannels.html )

As chairman and editor of The Daily Tribune in Ames, Iowa, from 1993 to 1999, Gartner won the Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Writing for his editorials about community issues. He has also been a columnist for the op-ed pages of The Wall Street Journal and of USA Today.

Gartner chaired the Vision Iowa fund, which gave communities money to fund projects such as the Iowa Events Center in Des Moines, from 2000 to 2005. In May 2005, Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack named him president of the Iowa Board of Regents, which oversees the state's three public universities (the University of Iowa, Iowa State University, and the University of Northern Iowa). Gartner is also chairman of Raccoon Baseball, Inc., which has owned the Iowa Cubs baseball team since 1999, and is co-owner of Big Green Umbrella Media, which publishes the Cityview alternative weekly newspaper in Des Moines.

Controversy over Gartner's Leadership of the Iowa Board of Regents

On December 9, 2006, the Johnson County Democratic Central Committee voted 24-4 to ask Gov. Tom Vilsack to seek the resignation of Gartner (and President Pro-Tem Teresa Wahlert) from the Board of Regents. The editorial page at the Cedar Rapids Gazette called on all the regents to resign. On December 12, 2006, the University of Iowa Faculty Senate voted 62-1 for a no-confidence resolution expressing “a lack of trust and confidence in the leadership of the Iowa Board of Regents.” U of I law professor Sheldon Kurtz, chairman of the Faculty Senate, said he hopes the vote convinces Gartner and Wahlert to resign from their positions on the Regents. On December 13, the University of Iowa staff council passed a no-confidence resolution by a vote of 38-1, with two abstentions. The staff council president Mary Greer called for Gartner and Wahlert to resign.

Gartner and Wahlert have both said that they will not resign. Gartner's response to the faculty no-confidence vote was to say "I'm sorry that the Faculty Senate had no confidence in us, but that's life. I don't have a lot of confidence in some of them, frankly" - quoted in the Daily Iowan, Dec. 13, 2006, p. 1). In the Iowa-City Press Citizen on Dec. 13, Gartner said, "This is an Iowa City and Cedar Rapids phenomena. It doesn't interfere with my job and will not force change." Gartner told the Press-Citizen that he has "received 'far more' support via phone calls, e-mails and personal visits than he has received criticism. He also said he would not resign even if asked by the governor. He also described faculty's litany of complaints as a 'combination of half truths and untruths and innuendoes.'"

The votes of no-confidence are in response to the Regents' decision of November 17, 2006 to reject the four candidates nominated for University of Iowa presidency by an 18-member search committee, after a $200,000 search involving about 150 candidates. The Regents voted 6-2 to reject the four final nominees and dissolve the search committee. Gartner said that the nominees were rejected because they lacked experience running a large university hospital complex, but the Des Moines Register, Nov. 22, 2006, reported that it was because Gartner's preferred nominee (Dr. Deborah Freund, a medical economist and former vice chancellor and provost at Syracuse) was not one of the four finalists. The Register reports that the four nominees included "three current provosts at major universities with medical schools and/or hospitals. The fourth finalist is now the president of a well-known school."

As a result of the ensuing controversy, Vilsack instructed the Board of Regents to reconsider the four nominees. The regents met again and chose one of the four original nominees, but when this candidate received the offer he withdrew his name from consideration, in spite of a lobbying phone call of 15-30 minutes from Vilsack.

The presidential search was made necessary by the departure of Dr. David Skorton, who left the University of Iowa presidency to become president of Cornell University in June of 2006. (Gary Fethke, Dean of the school of business at Iowa, is the acting president.) Gartner has been accused of playing a role in causing Skorton to leave. In August, 2005, the Regents under Gartner and Wahlert voted to give Skorton a smaller raise (3%) than those given to the two other Regents university presidents in Iowa (5%). Skorton has stated repeatedly that the salary decision had no effect on his decision to accept the Cornell position. Gartner has stated only that that "there must have been a reason" for giving Skorton a smaller raise than the other presidents. But dissenting Regent Robert Downer, in a recent Des Moines Register op-ed, opined that the Regents' decision "was due to Skorton's heresy in giving a notice of termination of the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics/Carver College of Medicine contract with Wellmark in December 2004... [S]ince then . . . there seems to be an unusual level of emotion that has attached to issues involving UIHC." Wellmark is the largest health insurer in the state, and its CEO, John Forsyth, was head of the Board of Regents when Skorton gave notice. Skorton asserted that Forsyth's position on the Regents constituted a conflict of interest, and Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller ruled in Skorton's favor. Vilsack appointed Gartner to replace Forsyth when the latter resigned.

On December 13, 2006, a former president of the Iowa Board of Regents - Republican businessman Marvin Pomerantz - told a group of Des Moines Register editors and reporters that Vilsack should never have appointed Gartner to be president of the Board. “It’s a policy-making board. Mike engenders conflict where ever he goes,” said Pomerantz. “Mike is brilliant. He’s got a lot of great ideas, but he’s not a great leader. I would get down to fundamentals. There’s a lot of separate agendas over on that board right now.”

On "Iowa Press," a show on Iowa Public Television to be aired on Sunday, Dec. 17, Gartner responded that Pomerantz had opposed Gartner’s appointment from the start. Gartner added, “I like Marvin a lot, but he’s trying to settle some old scores." (Relating to Gartner's tenure as editor of the Des Moines Register.)

Regarding the faculty and staff votes, Gartner said, "If I resigned, I think that it would set the system back for another 20 years.... it’s very important that the regents do what the law says they’re supposed to do, which is to be the governing body for the three universities and to hire a president..... It’s not about the president search. It’s really a governance issue … The issue is, who governs the University of Iowa? The Board of Regents or … the faculty over there? .... I don’t think this Mardi Gras atmosphere adds anything to it. It’s almost like a lynch mob some days, and that’s not good.”