Senate passes government accountability bill

DES MOINES - Senate Democrats passed a wide-ranging accountability bill Friday to address transparency and whistle-blower deficiencies uncovered in state government over GOP objections the measure shields state workers from public disclosure of the reasons they are fired.

Senators voted 26-22 along partisan lines to approve legislation that seeks to ban secret employee settlements, strengthen protections for whistle-blowers that expose wrongful activity, prevent no-bid contracts, and require state officials to advertise government jobs to combat cronyism.

Democrats say the legislation is in response to so-called 'hush money” settlements and other troubling employment practices and scandals uncovered within Gov. Terry Branstad's administration. They say the governor's executive order - codified by the GOP-led House in House File 2462 - that Republicans have offered as a solution does not go far enough in addressing concerns.

'The events of the last two months, the testimony before the Oversight Committee, and what I've been told personally by former - and current - state employees, is shocking, disappointing, and far, far less than what Iowans expect from their state government,” said Sen. Janet Petersen, D-Des Moines, floor manager of Senate File 2358.

'This is not a time for half-measures. This is not a time for Band-Aids,” she told her colleagues during floor debate. 'There are serious, systemic problems with our state government. Iowans deserve better. Taxpayers deserve clean government.”

Republicans countered that the bill was a partisan document that wouldn't go far enough in publicly divulging reasons why state employees are terminated. They rejected majority Democrats contentions that such provisions would expose the state to defamation lawsuits, saying instead the omission appeared to be a protection at the behest of 'union bosses.”

'Iowa taxpayers shoulder the whole bill of state government, they deserve the whole story,” said Senate GOP Leader Bill Dix of Shell Rock. Instead of getting more government sunshine, he said, Iowans unfortunately 'had the lights turned out on them today by Senate Democrats.”

Sen. Mark Chelgren, R-Ottumwa, said he wished the bill did what Democrats claimed it would do, but because they insisted it was 'your way or no way,” he said the bill is going to pass over to the House 'and then it's going to die.”

Sen. Matt McCoy, D-Des Moines, dismissed that notion, saying 'It's far too early to be calling this bill dead. We need to let the process work.”

Democrats said they are offering a comprehensive approach that would expand protections for state employees and others who act as whistle-blowers and would establish due process in the state's use of a 'do-not-hire” database for former state workers, noting that current state government practices in handling that data could result in a class-action lawsuit.

Other provisions would ban secret settlements with pay-for-silence clauses for ex-public employees throughout state government, including state universities, executive-branch agencies, the Legislature and the courts; require the state auditor to investigate previous secret settlements; bar no-bid contracts; and outlaw cronyism in the hiring state employees; mandate disclosure of state worker bonuses.

'We're going to get rid of the friends and family club,” said Petersen. 'We've got crooked things going on in state government,” she added, noting that when state employees brought allegations of wrongdoing, harassment and other problems to the attention of Branstad administration officials 'they did nothing.”

Sen. Julian Garrett, R-Indianola, an Oversight Committee member who tried unsuccessfully to amend the Senate's accountability bill, expressed disappointment that after hours of committee hearings, rhetoric and debate 'nothing is going to get done.”

'It's just so disappointed to see that this is just a partisan thing,” he said. 'It doesn't adequately resolve the issues. It some ways, it does more harm that good.”