Jason Clayworth

jclayworth@dmreg.com

Two Iowa Department of Transportation workers who were unfairly fired have returned to work, ending a two-year hiatus expected to cost taxpayers well over $400,000 in lost pay, benefits and legal expenses.

Administrative Law Judge Bob Wilson ruled earlier this year that Steven Scott and Ken Morrow were wrongly fired in August 2012 after other employees lied under oath and took advantage of Lt. Gov. Kim Reynolds in an effort to oust people considered "outsiders." The Iowa Public Employment Relations Board ordered the state, in a Sept. 2 decision, to give Scott almost $128,000 in back pay and $30,000 in other costs for such things as insurance and retirement benefits, documents obtained this week by The Des Moines Register show.

Agreements for back pay for Morrow, who returned to work about six weeks ago, are not yet complete but are expected to be higher since his rate of pay is greater, West Des Moines attorney Mark Sherinian said.

Sherinian, who represented the men, said the state has not taken any steps to penalize the employees who lied. One of those employees — Jim Armstrong, deemed by a judge to have provided inaccurate testimony — supervises Scott and participated in his welcome back introduction Monday. Another, Matt McCann, has been promoted, Sherinian said.

A state official Monday declined to comment, saying the issue was a personnel matter that was exempt from public record requests.

"What this really reflects is the cronyism we've seen from the Branstad administration," Sherinian said. "Not only do they effectively get away with kicking" employees out "but they promote the people who were instrumental in making that happen."

Scott and Morrow were longtime DOT employees and had been promoted to the Osceola-based maintenance garage from other assignments. They alleged that a group of veteran employees there conspired against them, partly because they had landed jobs that group members believed were rightfully theirs or belonged to their friends.

The veteran Osceola workers claimed Scott and Morrow participated in or allowed workplace safety violations and failed to require work crews to live nearby, according to documents in the case. At one point, Reynolds and Rep. Joel Fry made inquiries into the matter, which both men said created an atmosphere of political pressure that ultimately resulted in their being fired.

Nearly two years later, Wilson ruled they were wrongfully fired and ordered the state to reinstate them. Both are also asking the state to pay attorney costs, expected to be at least $60,000 each.

Scott and Morrow both previously said they rejected settlement offers from the Branstad administration — deals that would have had confidentiality clauses prohibiting them from speaking publicly about their ousters.

The confidential requests are noteworthy since Branstad's administration has been at the center of controversy this year over its use of confidential settlement deals — a total of 42 since 2011 at a cost of around $700,000. The matter continues to be the subject of investigation by the Senate Government Oversight Committee.

Multiple deals have included thousands of dollars more to employees in exchange for their silence. Those agreements failed to go before the Iowa Appeal Board, the clearinghouse for most state settlements where payouts are made public.

Scott said he believes that illegal employment practices are more widespread than the public knows. He believes his case is relatively rare because he and Morrow were able to live without income for two years while their cases made their way through Iowa's legal system, while many employees are forced into settlements because they can't afford a court battle.

Scott said he agreed to speak to the Register because he fears that without public scrutiny, what he sees as a systematic breakdown within state government will otherwise never be fixed.

"There is absolutely no accountability for anybody that did anything wrong. There's no reason for them to deter what they're doing," Scott said. "There is no recourse for them. They're safe and they know it."

Although Scott won't report directly to Armstrong, Armstrong is nonetheless one of his superiors, Sherinian said. Armstrong was about to take part in a gathering to officially reintroduce Scott to DOT employees about 2 p.m. Monday when contacted by the Register. He declined to comment.

McCann, another employee named by Wilson as providing false testimony, also declined to comment.

DOT Director Paul Trombino III would not comment, but his staff acknowledged that Scott and Morrow were back at work.

Scott, who lives in Osceola, said his new position requires him to drive farther since he now has supervisory duties in Knoxville, Chariton and Albia. Sherinian said the extra commute punishes Scott for the wrongdoing of others.

"They were counting on the fact that I wouldn't have been able to have done this. And without the support of my family, I wouldn't have been able to have done this," Scott said. "They would have succeeded, and it would have been swept under the rug."

State won't say whether employees face discipline

Iowa officials are prohibited by state law from discussing any possible or pending disciplinary measures involving employees deemed by a judge to have provided inaccurate testimony, Caleb Hunter, a spokesman for the state's Department of Administrative Services, said Monday.

Under state law, government officials are generally restricted from releasing information about disciplinary measures unless the person was fired for "just cause," a status that can sometimes take years to work its way through the legal system.

Gov. Terry Branstad has spoken out against that law and called on lawmakers to make changes. "The danger in that is these individuals who may be dangerous or violent can then be rehired by another unsuspecting employer who doesn't know that information," Branstad said during a March press conference. "The public has a right to know that."

— Jason Clayworth