State auditor speaks out against sexual harassment, talks efficiency recommendations for local government

Rob Sand is making some changes in the state auditor's office. From attaching efficiency recommendations to audits to being the only dissenting vote in a sexual harassment settlement, the new state auditor isn't afraid to make waves.

Sand spoke at Noon Kiwanis in Mt. Pleasant on Wednesday, Feb. 20. He was elected state auditor in the Nov. 5, 2018, election, defeating incumbent Mary Mosiman.

Every time the state auditor's office issues an audit, they will attach an efficiency recommendation to it, Sand said. Sand said auditors can come in and 'poke” at Henry County, or they can partner with them and give them ideas of what other counties are doing well.

'There's a lot of good public servants sitting on city councils and boards of supervisors who are busy, they probably have a full-time job and family obligations and are doing their public service in their free time,” Sand said. 'They can't be an expert on the most efficient way to provide government services.

'When you hand them their audit, you're also able to hand them a few ideas for how they can do things differently,” Sand continued. 'All you're doing is telling people who already want to do good things a few easy ways to do a few more good things.”

The efficiency recommendations should be available with audits in the next six weeks, Sand said.

In his first two months in office, Sand was also involved in the State Appeal Board vote to pay two women more than $4 million for sexual harassment claims against former Iowa Finance Authority director Dave Jamison. Sand was the only dissenting vote in a 2 to 1 vote on the settlement on Feb. 4.

Sand sits on the State Appeal Board as state auditor. The state treasurer and director of the Department of Management also sit on the State Appeal Board.

Jamison was fired from his position as Iowa Finance Authority director in March 2018 after a female employee complained to Gov. Kim Reynolds about harassment, The Gazette reported. The settlement money came from a fund used to support state housing programs.

Sand said no one can remember the last time there was a 2-1 vote on the State Appeal Board. Sand said he did not support the settlements because there was no further conversation about how Jamison would be held accountable for what he did.

'I want to know now before I write a check with (taxpayer) money that (Jamison) is going to be writing a check too,” Sand said. 'If he's destitute and he can't write a check, fine, we should be going after him anyway.”

Sand said it's time for government leaders to 'do something differently” about sexual harassment allegations.

'If we can put taxpayers in a better position at the same time that we have fewer victims of sexual harassment in the future, that seems like a no-brainer,” Sand said, promising to continue to vote similarly in the future about sexual harassment allegations.

Sand also spoke on his investigation into Medicaid privatization.

'If you think you know what my investigations are going to say, you are wrong,” Sand said. 'I don't know what they're going to say yet because the investigations aren't done yet. If we're really interested in politics, what we should be doing is trying to figure out what the truth is. We can't really have an opinion on things until we know the facts.”