A $1.75 million settlement has been reached in a lawsuit filed by a former Iowa Senate Republican staffer who alleged she was fired in May 2013, just hours after filing a complaint alleging a toxic work environment caused by sexual harassment.

The settlement between the state of Iowa and former Iowa Senate GOP Communications Director Kirsten Anderson is less than a $2.2 million award from a Polk County District Court jury in July. But it will result in the state officials dropping an appeal that could have prolonged the case by months or years.

The proposed agreement includes a payment by the State of Iowa of $1.045 million to Anderson and $705,000 to the Coppola Law Firm of West Des Moines for attorneys' fees and costs. Details of the settlement were released Thursday by the State Appeal Board, which must still approve it. The panel is scheduled to meet Monday.

Michael Carroll, a lawyer who represented Anderson, told The Des Moines Register he and his client are hopeful that Iowa Senate Majority Leader Bill Dix, R-Shell Rock, is beginning to implement changes promised during the trial that will address issues raised in the lawsuit. With the help of the Iowa attorney general's office, he believes the Iowa Capitol will be a better place to work.

“This case was never about politics, and it was always about the law. We would have brought the case whether it was Republicans or Democrats. It does not matter what political party people are from," Carroll said.

"Second, we believe that this is a good deal for both my client and the people of the state of Iowa. For my client, it ends the litigation forever. It has been a four-year slog and she needs to have this done. The people of the State of Iowa are saving a substantial amount of money because of this settlement," Carroll said.

State Treasurer Michael Fitzgerald, a Democrat who serves on the three-member State Appeal Board, said the settlement money must be paid from the state's general fund, which finances general state government operations, He said he is outraged that Iowa taxpayers will be on the hook for the payment.

Fitzgerald contends Gov. Kim Reynolds, a Republican, should have demanded the resignation of Dix from his caucus leadership post in the wake of the court case.

"Besides throwing money on the ground, this sets a tone for the whole state in business and everywhere else," Fitzgerald said. He suggested that some Iowans will believe that if sexual harassment is tolerated by Iowa Senate Republicans, lawmakers are not taking the matter seriously.

Reynolds has expressed support for Dix, saying she has faith he is implementing a "zero-tolerance" policy towards sexual harassment in the workplace. Reynolds spokeswoman Brenna Smith said Thursday the governor's office had nothing to add to Reynolds' previous remarks.

The lawsuit settlement has been signed by Dix, Anderson and Carroll. The agreement includes a provision which says the state's $1.75 million payment "is not to be construed as an admission of liability or wrongdoing on the part of the State of Iowa or any of the Released Parties, and that the State of Iowa and all Released Parties expressly deny any such liability or wrongdoing."

Dix declined to comment Thursday on the settlement.

After Anderson's firing, Dix and others in the Senate Republican Caucus had maintained that she was terminated because of poor work performance and her lack of improvement after issues with her writing were addressed. Anderson was told one week before her firing that she was on thin ice in a meeting with her supervisors, who had been concerned for months about the quality of the caucus' weekly newsletter that Anderson wrote, according to court documents filed by state lawyers defending the case.

Sen. Pam Jochum, D-Dubuque, who served as Iowa Senate president during the 2013 through the 2016 legislative sessions, praised Anderson Thursday for having the courage to file the lawsuit.

"This is one way to say, 'You know, enough is enough. This is unacceptable behavior,' " Jochum said.

Iowa Senate personnel policies have been reviewed since Anderson brought her lawsuit, Jochum said. Everyone in the Iowa Senate must now attend a mandatory training session to address sexual harassment and issues regarding a hostile work environment, which the senator views as a positive development.

However, Jochum said she is still bothered about whether Iowa taxpayers should be held financially responsible for what she considers to be the bad behavior of a handful of Republican senators and some of the GOP caucus staff.

"I would hope that Sen. Dix would think long and hard about maybe getting out there and raising some of the funds to repay the taxpayer," Jochum said.

Court records show that Anderson had offered to settle her case for $1.25 million before heading to trial. However, lawyers representing the state declined that offer and proceeded to trial where a jury handed Anderson nearly $1 million more than her lawyer was asking that she be awarded.

Anderson was terminated by the Senate Republican Caucus four years ago on the same day she submitted a memo detailing her concerns about her work environment at the Iowa Capitol. She accused her male supervisors in court of ignoring a "boys' club" culture at that fostered rampant sexual harassment.

In handing down the verdict, jurors concluded that the Senate Republican caucus and the state violated Iowa laws preventing workplace harassment, discrimination and retaliation in dealing with the complaints Anderson brought forward.

The jury had sat through a week-long trial in which Anderson and former co-workers testified about a "locker room" environment where women endured, among other things, taunts and quips about their sex lives.

Jim Friedrich, an Iowa Senate government oversight analyst who was at the center of the lawsuit, resigned from the Republican Caucus staff earlier this month. Much of the trial focused on Friedrich's behavior. In her first day of testimony, Anderson said that Friedrich often teased women in the office about their sex lives and called his coworkers "prudes" if they didn't respond to his taunts.

Anderson recalled one incident when Friedrich showed her a nude picture of Kim Kardashian on his work computer. At other times, Friedrich would announce a "hot chick report" and summon staff in the office to look at women walking by outside his window, Anderson said. Amid his divorce in 2010, it wasn't uncommon for Friedrich to use the "c-word" when talking about women, and his use of racial slurs intensified, Anderson said in court.

Anderson also testified about behavior from former state Sen. Shawn Hamerlinck, R-DeWitt, that she found problematic, including comments he made about lobbyists' breasts and the skirt lengths of female pages who were high school students. Russ Trimble, an analyst who works on policy issues for the GOP Caucus staff, told jurors that he once heard Hamerlinck ask a staffer about the size of her areolas. Hamerlinck is currently the chairman of the Clinton County Board of Supervisors.

Anderson admitted during questioning from Assistant Attorney General Molly Weber that she had participated in some off-color jokes during her tenure in the office. Weber showed jurors a string of emails where Anderson used curse words, described frustrations with employees and responded to sex jokes sent by coworkers.

But Anderson said several times throughout the trial that the office had a "go along to get along" atmosphere that left her little choice but to participate at times.

During his closing statements, Carroll asked jurors to grant $1.2 million in damages for emotional distress and urged jurors to "send a message" to statehouse leaders.

The state's attorneys argued in filing an appeal that the use of that "send a message" phrase should have invalidated the jury's award, because it may have pushed jurors to award punitive damages, or awards intended to punish defendants and deter future misconduct. Iowa's civil rights law banning discrimination and retaliation in the workplace does not allow jurors to award punitive damages in those cases.