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Senate Update: We deserve answers on ‘hush money’
by Bob Dvorsky, State Senator · Op-Ed · April 03, 2014


Recently, Iowans learned that hundreds of thousands in taxpayer dollars were paid in secret settlements to former state employees who were asked to sign confidentiality agreements.


After saying that he didn’t know about the hush money paid by state agencies until last week, Governor Branstad issued an executive order intended to end the use of confidentiality agreements going forward, make employee settlements readily available to taxpayers and increase scrutiny of settlement agreements.

While this is a step in the right direction, Iowans deserve to know how this abuse of taxpayer dollars happened. In the Legislature, we are taking our own steps to find out and to prevent it from happening again.

First, the Senate Oversight Committee is investigating 24 confidential settlements in several agencies. We want to know why confidentiality agreements were created, and what information they were intended to conceal. In addition, how was more than $400,000 paid out without regulators noticing? When the Legislature writes the state budget, we give every dollar a purpose. There should not be any secret slush funds.

Second, the Administration & Regulation Budget has been amended to include an audit of terminated employee agreements handled by the Department of Administrative Services going back to 2011. The audit will include the nature of the positions subject to termination with nondisclosure provisions, the payments provided and the funding source of the payments, and the identity and authority of those agreeing to the settlement on behalf of the state.

Finally, I am supporting efforts to make sure all of the various state budgets going forward specifically prohibit tax dollars from being used for payments to state employees as a part of confidentiality clauses.

Legislators take oversight of the state budget seriously. It’s your money, and we want to ensure that it’s used as intended.



To contact Senator Dvorsky, call the Senate Switchboard at 515-281-3371. Otherwise he can be reached at home at 319-351-0988. E-mail him at bob.dvorsky@legis.iowa.gov.