A small crowd of about ten people attended a public town hall with Iowa Auditor Rob Sand at Washington Park in Jefferson Tuesday morning.

Sand talked about anti-partisanship and how his office has been able to do their job of being the state’s watchdog, without having partisanship impact their responsibilities. He told attendees he didn’t want people who blindly follow him but that also question him and can disagree at times. An example he used of anti-partisanship is having a Democrat, Republican and an Independent in roles of leadership within his office. 

Sand also talked about assertiveness and deterrence. He said his office doesn’t take governmental entities to court very often, but his office has the power to do that if an entity isn’t being complained about. He also wanted deterrence for people committing financial crimes of stealing taxpayer money. Sand wants the state legislature to allow for jail time for those who steal taxpayer money instead of given probation. Finally, he addressed his Public Innovations and Efficiencies (PIE) program where his office offers ways for governments to save money and also recognize those entities that have done that or showed improvement.

Sand talked about why these town halls continue to play an important role for him as state auditor.

“We’re supposed to be the watchdog for taxpayers. And so getting out and actually talking to taxpayers all across the state is really useful for us learning about things that might be going on in state government that they can experience out here that maybe we don’t see as easily. And a lot of times we get tips about local issues, where people want to talk to me about something that their county’s doing that they don’t want to send us an email, they don’t want to make a phone call, but they’ll come and talk to me in person. So information flows both ways in these (town halls) which I think is good for everybody.”    

The Greene County stop was part of Sand’s 99-county tour.