Former Des Moines Public Schools Superintendent Ian Roberts had both a professional and personal relationship with a vendor he promoted for a school contract and failed to disclose his conflict of interest, Iowa State Auditor Rob Sand has found.
Sand also said in an audit of the district released Tuesday, April 28, that the district’s chief financial officer and procurement manager knew about the conflict and failed to report it to the school board and district staff. The board was unaware of the conflict, later contracted with the vendor, Lively Paradox of Kansas City, Missouri.
The $6,275 agreement in December 2023 with Lively Paradox owner Nicole Price was for conducting personality assessments for board members, the audit reported. Roberts resigned Sept. 30, 2025, after his arrest on immigration and gun charges
He was later convicted and is being held in the Polk County Jail awaiting sentencing.
According to the audit, Roberts had authored books with Price in 2022 and 2023, before his July 1, 2023, hiring by the district, and was listed with his photo on the “Our Teams” section of the Lively Paradox website.
“In addition, documentation obtained from local law enforcement shows a personal relationship between Dr. Roberts and the owner of Lively Paradox that, if not in fact amorous as the documents allege, was certainly close enough to constitute a conflict of interest that renders contracting with Lively Paradox inappropriate without disclosing,” the audit said.
It said that in September 2023, Roberts proposed using Lively Paradox for a district contract, but the district CFO spotted Roberts’ photo on the website and decided not to proceed.
It said only the CFO and the procurement manager were aware of the potential conflict and the CFO “did not think it was necessary to report the conflict to board members or other district staff because he did not think Dr. Roberts would propose using Lively Paradox again after being declined the first time and because the district does not have a conflict-of-interest policy in place for all employees, including Dr. Roberts.”
When Roberts suggested Lively Paradox to the board for the personality assessments, it said, the district was not aware whether the board chair at the time was aware of the conflict of interest “because the CFO and procurement manager did not disclose the conflict to the Board or executive cabinet members.”
The audit said that “the CFO was out of the country when this contract came through to be signed. The controller signs contracts in absence of the CFO. The controller was not aware of the conflict of interest. Under normal circumstances when Dr. Roberts was aware that the district knew of the conflict, one would assume that he would not try it a second time in the CFO’s absence.”
In response to recommendations in the audit, requested by the district officials after an initial audit following Roberts’ resignation, the district revised its conflict-of-interest policy on April 7 to require “annual disclosure of actual and/or potential conflicts from administrators and other personnel deemed appropriate.”
In response to the findings, district officials have revised their conflict-of-interest policy “to include required annual disclosure of actual or potential conflicts from administrators and other personnel,” Des Moines School Board Chair Kim Martorano said in a statement Tuesday.
The Texas Lyft reimbursement noted in the report led to the district updating its travel reimbursement policy on rideshare requirements.
Additionally, there will be training related to not using DMPS funds for donations to nonprofit organizations – a practice banned before the audit, Martorano said.
“… (W)hile these issues were identified when they occurred and corrective action was taken to prevent repeat mistakes, the district will more explicitly prohibit any such donations and reinforce that prohibition through training,” she said.
The audit was part of officials’ larger ongoing investigation around Roberts’ hiring and time at DMPS.
“While these findings may be considered relatively minor given the size and scope of our school district’s operations,” Martorano said, “we are determined to continue doing everything possible to adhere to all regulations, especially any involving the use of taxpayer and public money.”
The audit also found additional irregularities involving Roberts’ expenses, leave and use of a procurement card.
Sand has scheduled a Tuesday morning news conference to discuss the audit and its findings.
Roberts resigned after being arrested by federal agents. A native of Guyana, he was later found to have lied to the district about his immigration status and also was illegally in possession of guns at the time of his arrest.
This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Audit finds conflict of interest between Ian Roberts and contractor
Reporting by Tyler Jett, Samantha Hernandez and Marissa Payne, Des Moines Register / Des Moines Register
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