Iowa Auditor of State Rob Sand pictured with his family dog, Pow, on July 13 outside the Tama County Courthouse in Toledo while on his 99 county tour. PHOTO BY RUBY F. MCALLISTER

TOLEDO – State Auditor Rob Sand is just like us.

On his most recent visit to Tama County, he stopped by the courthouse lawn in Toledo with his dog – an adorable two-year-old, female bernedoodle named Pow; his lovely mother Leslie Sand – a retired Keystone AEA physical therapist who now spends at least part of her summers traveling the state with her only son on his 99 county tour; and an intense dislike of waste in most forms but specifically financial forms.

He’s an Iowan through and through.

But he’s rather alone these days.

Since the 2022 election, Sand has – through no obvious fault of his own – assumed the role of the lone Democrat in statewide office.

Rob Sand, left, Iowa’s state auditor, listens as Traer resident Kennan Seda, seated, asks him a question during his Tama County town hall that took place on July 13 in Toledo. PHOTO BY RUBY F. MCALLISTER

And sometimes, it would appear, he’s rather alone on his 99 county tour stops.

As his mother parked the car on the Toledo town square on Thursday, July 13, the duo and their pup were met by a meager five people – Kennan Seda of Traer, a father and son from Eldora who were being paid to trail and film Sand (most likely by the GOP, they alluded), and this newspaper’s reporter and her infant daughter.

To be fair, Seda, a longtime Democrat, pointed out Sand’s office did not send word they would be stopping in Tama County in time for the weekly paper’s deadline, but there also isn’t a Democratic party to speak of in Tama County anymore – a county that once upon a time voted for Barack Obama before pivoting to Donald J. Trump – that could have spread the word, too.

“No, there’s nobody. There’s no officers,” Seda said when asked about the state of his county party these days. “It’s all defunct.”

As Sand and his mother settled themselves and Pow near a pair of benches mere steps from the Tama County Courthouse’s front doors, they both instantly began chatting with those in attendance – Sand with the film crew about trout fishing in Decorah, his hometown – and Leslie about the reporter’s baby, a baby she voluntarily scooped up and watched for nearly 45 minutes during her son’s visit because that’s Iowa for you.

Leslie Sand, right, mother of State Auditor Rob Sand tends to the local reporter's baby during her son's visit to Tama County on Thursday, July 13. PHOTO BY RUBY F. MCALLISTER

This was certainly no Chuck Grassley #99countytour visit, but maybe that’s the point.

Sand is not Chuck Grassley despite clearly taking a move from his playbook.

For one thing, he’s quite a bit younger at age 40, and, of course, he’s a Democrat.

But like Grassley he seems hellbent on weeding out waste and sniffing out corruption – something the senior Senator from Iowa often touts about himself while on his own annual visits across Iowa.

Of his mother’s presence in Toledo, Rob explained: “When we’re doing northeast Iowa, Mom or Dad oftentimes will drive just because they get a little bit of time with me.”

PHOTO BY RUBY F. MCALLISTER

And Pow?

“She’s very very well behaved. Calm. Great with kids,” Sand further explained. “We’re actually thinking about getting a second one.”

Rob Sand can be infinitely relatable. There is no question about that.

Let them eat pie

The first thing Sand officially discussed during his 45-minute visit to Toledo was his voluntary PIE Checklist. As Iowa’s “taxpayer watchdog,” Sand created the Public Innovations and Efficiencies Checklist – PIE, for short – to help municipalities and school districts across the state save money.

“The idea behind it is it just helps cities, counties, and school districts save money,” Sand explained to Seda as he sat on a bench across from him. “It’s like a checklist for things that they can do to save money. The more of them they do, the more they’re gonna save. Pretty simple.”

The PIE program began in 2020 and has about 500 participants currently, Sand said. One aspect of the program compares and, in essence, pits cities, counties, and school districts against one another in a “PIE” contest.

“The best performers,” Sand said, “get an actual pie [as a prize] that I deliver. Usually a local pie.”

In Tama County, the city of Dysart received a pie for its efficiency efforts back in 2021.

This year it appears Tama County is on track to set a record in terms of the number of PIE participants.

“Chelsea, Clutier, Elberon, Garwin, Gladbrook, Montour, Toledo, Traer, North Tama Schools, Tama, GMG Schools, and South Tama Schools,” Sand said, listing the various entities in Tama County that have chosen to participate during the last fiscal year.

“Is that like everybody?” Sand asked. He was told it was ‘practically everybody’ to which he chuckled.

No cake for you

During his Tama County stop, Sand also addressed recent legislation passed by the GOP-controlled Iowa Legislature and signed into law by Gov. Kim Reynolds, a Republican, that prevents his office from subpoenaing state agencies for records.

The legislation, however, doesn’t apply to cities, counties, and school districts. Those entities must still comply with his office’s audits or risk being taken to court.

“When the state rewrote that law,” Sand explained, “they made it so that it only applies to themselves. Which gives you an indication of what it’s all about. If it was a good idea, it would apply to everybody.”

Sand characterized the legislation as a bill “passed by a small handful of insiders who don’t want accountability when they waste your money.”

He described it as “pro-waste” and “pro-corruption.”

Seda then alluded to recent corruption uncovered in the Tama County community of Clutier, asking why such an entity wasn’t being audited yearly.

In 2020, a report released by Sand’s office showed improper spending by Keri Kopriva, the former city clerk of Clutier. A special investigation eventually identified more than $64K of improper disbursements, more than $9K of unsupported disbursements, and more than $43K in estimated undeposited collections.

“If a city has under 2,000 population,” Sand told Seda, “they just get a periodic review. And so it’s just once every eight years.”

But he was quick to point out “people get away with” such corruption in larger communities, too, before stating: “I think the smaller the town is, oftentimes the more trust there is in the community, and the more hats everybody is wearing.

“If you’re both the mayor and the street department and the baseball coach, you know, with fewer people there’s more responsibility on everybody. And it just gets more complicated to get everything done in exactly the right way and have those checks and balances that you need. But that doesn’t mean it doesn’t happen elsewhere.”

The fact that the Republican-controlled Iowa Legislature now seems to have specifically carved a special set of rules for itself when it comes to his office’s audits and no one else – not cities, not counties, not public school districts – is plain and simple, wasteful, Sand said.

“They’re making it easier for them to hide the fact that money is getting wasted.”

Vouchers for all, accountability for some

One of the final issues Sand touched on while visiting Tama County was the recent Students First Act signed into law by Gov. Reynolds – legislation that allows for public funds to be used by Iowa parents at private schools and, to an extent, for homeschooling.

“I think you could actually be someone who likes the idea of vouchers and yet looks at this bill and thinks that it’s appalling,” Sand said.

Sand explained there are rules for participating parents as to how they can spend the program’s money – potentially facing criminal charges, he said, if they spend funds inappropriately – but such rules do not apply to the private schools themselves.

“Once the money gets paid as tuition to a private school they can do literally anything in the world with that money except one thing … they can’t provide rebates to parents – that’s it.”

Sand said he is not certain what would happen if a student attends a private school using Students First Act funds for “a month” and then migrates back to a public school. What happens to those funds? He’s not sure.

“Bottom line is, they can do anything else they want with it,” Sand continued. “If they want to send their principal on an all-expenses-paid trip to Europe – first class – they can do that, that’s legal. … There’s almost no transparency.”

There are no public meetings requirements nor public records requirements, and no annual audit requirement accessible by the public for private schools that take public money, Sand explained.

“That’s just not the way we do things,” Sand said. “The public has a right to know. In addition to that, there’s nothing in the statute that gives parents any rights either – parents don’t have a right to go to meetings, parents don’t have a right to ask for records, parents don’t have a right to look at – or demand an audit even happening.

“We just opened up a massive line to the general fund in the state of Iowa and we’re gonna have no idea what’s actually happening to that money.”

Lone reed

Toward the end of Sand’s visit, this reporter queried the state auditor on his lone reed status: “You’re the only Democrat. By default, now, are you the mouthpiece?”

“Well, I represent everybody. And that is really important to me,” Sand answered.

“But you are a Democrat?” this reporter responded.

“Yeah, I have a ‘D’ behind my name. …. We have a dumb political system that only gives people two realistic choices, including candidates.”

Sand said he was an Independent when he first registered to vote as a young man in Decorah.

As the sound of police sirens wailed in the background, Sand continued: “My purpose has always been public service, which I think is a much higher calling than just trying to serve some political calling.”

Sand went on to explain how his office employs people from across the political spectrum, stating, “We don’t do politics in the office, what we do is public service.”

He further said he hopes Iowans are able to look at the business his office conducts and who he is as a person before deciding whether they “like” him or not.

More than once during Sand’s visit — which, again, took place just outside the Tama County Courthouse — an attorney on their way into the building stopped to chat with Sand whom they recognized.

One such attorney was Fred Stiefel of Victor, a community in Iowa and Poweshiek counties which border Tama County to the south and east.

“We met at [Iowa state Senator] Kevin Kinney’s barbeque,” Stiefel reminded Sand.

“That’s right,” Sand said. “That’s right, that’s right.”

“I used to be city clerk in Victor,” Stiefel continued, “which you never came to investigate. I quit and they did an audit and they said everything was OK.”

Stiefel’s comments immediately elicited laughter from the few in attendance at Sand’s event including Sand and his mother.

Later, as the clock ticked toward 10:15 a.m., Sand and his mother began to gather their things, hand back the reporter’s baby, and ensure Pow had one last drink before for the next leg of the trip – a visit to Black Hawk County, Tama’s northern neighbor.

Sand said goodbye to Seda, the lone Tama County citizen present during his visit, and headed inside the courthouse to fill up Pow’s water bowl where he would no doubt encounter someone else he knew.

This is Iowa, after all. We may not vote for you, but we know you.

And your lovely mom.