Controversial Urbandale Child Care Director Speaks to West Des Moines City Council

As West Des Moines officials last week discussed whether to align the city's regulations for child-care centers with state rules, one of the speakers to weigh in on the subject was controversial child-care provider Theresa Mulhern.

Mulhern, of West Des Moines, now offers in-home child care under a state license. Last fall she made headlines for abruptly closing two day-care centers in Urbandale and West Des Moines, leaving employees and parents scrambling for options.

closed in September 2011 after a week of  by employees of the two centers. The closures were prompted by employees not getting their paychecks on Sept. 9, 2011, media reports, and the Urbandale landlord taking with the Polk County Sheriff.  

Some 78 employees were left without jobs and between 350 to 400 children had to find other child care.

West Des Moines leaders took up the question of whether to amend city code to allow providers to care for as many as 16 children in their homes, according to the Des Moines Register. During its May 14 meeting the council approved the first reading of an amendment to recognize a class of provider — Iowa Home Category C — that is licensed by the state of Iowa to care for, in some circumstances, 16 children at a time.

Former Employees Still Frustrated

Mulhern remains unpopular with her former employees. Earlier this spring, they told Patch that not only did Mulhern fight their unemployment claims, she also has not paid them back wages, the issue that caused them to picket her Urbandale center last fall.

But that wasn't the worst of it, say the directors of her West Des Moines and Urbandale centers. The women said they had been receiving calls from employees beginning in February, because Mulhern apparently never filed any W-2 forms for employees at Imagination and Education Station.

"We get phone call after phone call 'what are we going to do? How are we going to file our taxes? She didn't file our W-2," said Allison Little, who was co-director of the Urbandale center. "Again, she has put us in a hopeless situation."

A spokesman for the Internal Revenue Service said he couldn't comment on a specific case or verify whether Mulhern had or had not filed W-2 tax statements for Imagination and Education Station employees.

Little said former employees are frustrated that even though they've sought help from government agencies, so far Mulhern has not had to meet her legal obligations to employees.

"She's working at Nationwide Insurance. She's running a day care out of her house. She's spending money on her needs," she said. "But we have 70 to 75 former employees who can't file their taxes, can't get a refund."

West Des Moines Ordinance

In West Des Moines, Councilman Russ Trimble told Mulhern and another care provider, Nicole Wilson, that if the ordinance changed, they still would be able to care for as many as 16 children, but to do so they would have to establish child care facilities outside their homes, according to the Register.

“Most parents want to hire a ‘C’ provider; we have assistants who are over the legal age, and those of us who have earned a ‘C’ provider license consider that a sign of our accomplishments and a demonstration that we’re proficient in our field,” Mulhern said in the Register story. “Limiting me to eight children would in effect be asking me to change to a license that says I’m less proficient than I am.”

The council voted to recognize the Category C classification, thereby allowing larger numbers of children to potentially be cared for by providers with that license.

Trimble asked for the addition of language that would call for the council to review the policy in a year. The amendment passed on a 5-0 vote. A second reading likely will take place at the council’s next meeting.