JIM PETERS INTRODUCTION:
I grew up in Adel attending K-12 and graduating from Adel Community High School in 1971. I had joined the Navy in March of my senior year and reported for active duty in August.
The typing skills I learned in high school served me well as I was trained to be a disbursing clerk. During my three years and nine months in the Navy I was stationed at the San Diego Naval Training Center, the Naval Station at Adak, Alaska (Aleutian Islands) and was honorably discharged in 1975 while serving on the warship U.S.S. John King (DDG-3) at Norfolk, Virginia.
In 1980 I graduated from Iowa State University earning a Bachelor of Science degree in Industrial Administration with majors in Accounting and Marketing and a minor in Economics. Internal Auditing was my profession where I earned Certified Internal Auditor, Certified Information Systems Auditor and Certified Financial Services Auditor designations.
My career has taken me first to Ticor Title Insurance as a senior auditor where I lived and worked for three years in Los Angeles and two years in Chicago. In 1985 I returned to Adel and worked nine years for the Principal Financial Group, five years with the Federal Home Loan Bank and the last 18 years with Wells Fargo, all as an internal audit manager.
When you review my resume you will see I have 37 years of business experience where I have managed operations, projects, people and budgets.
From a city perspective I am in my 34th year of elected office with the City of Adel. I have served on city council under two mayors and as mayor have served with 27 different members of the city council. I have managed six city administrators, six city clerks and five finance officers.
NOVEMBER 2nd IS NOT THE TIME TO TAKE A CHANCE ON INEXPERIENCE.
EDUCATION:
• 1967 – 1971: Adel Community High School
• 1975 – 1980: Iowa State University, Bachelor of Science Degree in Industrial Administration with a double major of Accounting and Marketing, minor in Economics
MILITARY SERVICE:
• 1971 – 1975: United States Navy (Vietnam Era Veteran)
WORK EXPERIENCE:
• Audit Manager 1999 – 2018 (retired); Wells Fargo Audit Services. Responsible for planning, conducting, reporting, following up on corrective actions and closing internal audits and projects of Wells Fargo Home Mortgage, Wells Fargo Financial and Consumer Credit Solutions lines of business. These audits and projects focused on operational and compliance risks and controls.
• Director of Internal Auditing 1994 – 1999: The Federal Home Loan Bank of Des Moines. Responsible for internal audit function including reporting to the board of directors and senior management. Developed annual audit plan to address key business risks including investments (mortgage backed securities), funding, derivatives, hedging, collateral, credit, and information systems. Evaluated and concluded on the bank’s internal control structure. Supervised audit staff to ensure compliance with the “Standards for the Professional Practice of Internal Auditing.”
• Audit Manager 1985 – 1994: The Principal Financial Group. Responsible for coverage of the organization’s investment operations, including mortgage lending functions. Supervised eleven professional staff on various assignments. Developed the following for the internal audit department: audit charter; mission and vision statements; annual audit plan; annual audit results report; survey for completed audits; follow-up report for outstanding audit issues; orientation for new auditors; and marketing material promoting internal audit services.
• Senior Auditor 1980 – 1985: Ticor Title Insurance Company Los Angeles. Performed audits of title insurance and escrow closing operations, along with reviews of agency relationships. Supervised audit team during assignments in the Los Angeles and Chicago offices.
CERTIFICATIONS:
• 1998: Certified Financial Services Auditor (CFSA)
• 1996: Certified Information Systems Auditor (CISA)
• 1990: Certified Internal Auditor (CIA)
• 1988: Fellow Life Management Institute (FLMI)
PROFESSIONAL ORGANIZATIONS:
• 1984 – 2018: The Institute of Internal Auditors (IIA)
• 1996 – 2018: Information Systems Audit and Control Association (ISACA)
• 1998 – 2018: National Association of Financial Services Auditors
COMMUNITY ACTIVITIES:
• Mayor of Adel, Iowa (currently serving 15th term)
• Adel Manor Board of Directors
• Adel Assisted Living Board of Directors (Past)
• ADM Alumni Association (founding member) Treasurer and Board of Directors (Past)
• Adel – Dallas County Corporation Board of Directors (Past)
• The ADM High School Improvement Advisory Committee
• The American Legion, Post 464
• Main Street Adel Chamber of Commerce (Past) Board of Directors
• Dallas County Development (Past) Board of Directors
• The Iowa Chapter of the Institute of Internal Auditors (Past) Board of Directors
JIM’S STORY:
Living in Adel as a kid was the best time of my life. I am so lucky my parents moved here and I was able to grow up in a small town like Adel. My friends who grew up here and moved away still have real connections with Adel. I love those friendships and that feeling.
I attended school here in Adel K-12. I graduated in 1971 and was the last class to attend all 13 of my school years on the block where the ADM School District’s administrative offices now reside. In fact, I was sitting in the room that is now Superintendent Dufoe’s office, when I learned the news of President Kennedy’s assassination.
Van Harden, well-known WHO radio personality and multiple Marconi award winner (Marconi for radio and think Oscar, Emmy, Tony awards for excellence in the field) was the first person I met when we moved to 918 Rapids Street. I lived one block east of where Van grew up and is where he now lives. However, since I was only four years old and did not have permission to cross the street, Van had to come to my house to play.
In 1962 we moved to 608 Main St. Can you get a better address than Main Street? We had fun in the neighborhood with the Carroll clan just on the other side of the alley. With the seven of them and my brother, the nine of us could play work-up baseball, hide and seek, and, during rainy times, Monopoly.
Going to the Adel Swimming Pool was the highlight of every summer day. The closest pools at the time were Perry, Holiday in West Des Moines and Birdland near North High School in Des Moines. Our pool was packed, so packed at times we would joke you could hardly see the water because of so many people.
I was fortunate to be a lifeguard during the ’69 – ’71 seasons where my salary topped out at 87 cents an hour. You can imagine how excited I was when I joined the Navy and was making the equivalent of $1.98 cents an hour.
Watching the men’s fast pitch softball team was a real treat, especially with Jack Smith pitching. It was like the softball was a yoyo. He could make that ball do all kinds of things. And was backed up in the field by the likes of Skip Harsh, Don Cook, Ron Slatten, Charlie Merical and Chick Schwarzkopf to name a few. They were good! So good in fact they beat, on the field in Adel, The King and His Court (the softball equivalent of the Harlem Globetrotters). Check them out on-line.
Watching football games at Macy Field in Kinnick-Feller Park where the arch is located was a blast. As youngsters we would wad up the paper/wax pop cups into a “football” and play in the south end because we couldn’t play in the north end zone. The only thing between the north end zone and the river was the eight lanes of track. A notable feature about the Adel football field was when a touchdown was scored at the north end, to avoid kicking the ball into the river, the teams had to go to the south end for the extra point.
The county fair set up where the Chick and Betty Schwarzkopf fields are now. Back then it was a large baseball diamond where the Tigers baseball and Tigerette (now known a Lady Tigers) softball teams played. The infield served as the rodeo ring and all the activities took place at Riverside Park, now known as Kinnick Feller Park.
I played Little League baseball at the baseball field between Horse Shoe Lanes (now Adel Family Fun Center) and the former Straight Engineering building. All Adel’s little league and minor league teams shared the one field. I was on the Giants and our in town rival was the Yankees. We had so many fun times during baseball season.
Another exiting part about living in Adel was watching our high school teams play and enjoying their consistent success. There were some great Tiger and Tigerette teams … and as a youngster I idolized those athletes
I was fortunate to play sports in high school and was a starting guard on the ’69 – ’70 version of the Tiger basketball team. The year before the team was led by Dave Moyer and Mike Parkins. We ended up 20-3 that year and one win short of making the state basketball tournament for the first time ever. The next season (’69 – ’70) we were 22-2 making the state tournament but losing in the first round.
The community treated us like kings when we returned home on Sunday after we exited the I-80 at DeSoto. The caravan of cars stretched six miles from Adel to DeSoto followed us to the high school gym where we had a pep rally.
We were heaped with praise, well wishes and congratulations and my reply was to express disappointment that we had not done better. As a young high school kid, I didn’t really acknowledge the praise and that moment became one of life’s lessons for me. Since then, when I receive a compliment or praise, I thank the person and express my appreciation for it.
I was also quarterback on the football team during the 1970 season and went 7 – 1 that year to become one of a handful of Tiger football teams to have only one loss. There have been two teams in Adel history with no losses (although each had a tie.) They were the 1933 and 1960 editions of the Tiger gridiron teams.
1970 was a high water mark for Tiger sports. The wrestlers won the state championship, the boys and girls basketball teams played in the state tournaments (boys for the first time and girls the second time – first was 1937), and the girls won the fall state softball championship.
I describe these events and memories because Adel is, and always will be, my home town. The experiences I had growing up here have been with me my entire life. I will never forget them because they made me the person I was back then to go out into the world and become the person I am today.
I want the kids growing up in Adel today to have the same type of experience, that will stay with them the rest of their lives and will keep them grounded no matter where they end up in life.
To sum up my feelings in three words:
“I love Adel”
