Des Moines, IA- Iowa State Auditor Rob Sand is calling for the enforcement of a state law that would hold state employees accountable for intentional misconduct.
Radio Iowa reports that means, in some cases, a state employee could be held financially liable if the state offers a settlement to a victim.
“The law right now in order to have people…held personally accountable for those damages would require evidence of willful and wanton misconduct,” Sand says. “…Willful and wanton is typically somebody doing something and doing it repeatedly and they know this is a terrible thing to do and they keep doing it, which is why it oftentimes comes up in the context of sexual harassment.”
In 2019 Sand argued that the Iowa Finance Authority Director, who had been fired from the position, should have been on the hook for the $4 million paid to the two employees who claimed they were sexually harassed.
“This isn’t just something that you should care about as a taxpayer. This is something that I hope all Iowans would care about in terms of preventing sexual harassment,” Sand says. “There are people who are willing to do things like this because they think they are going to be insulted from the consequences of their action. We have to illustrate to them that that’s not the case.”
Sand made his comments during an appearance on “Iowa Press” on Iowa PBS.
