Internal review: Iowa legislators made sexual comments on Senate floor

At least one Senate Republican caucus staff member made sexually suggestive comments to others and multiple GOP senators have spoken on the Senate floor about sexual preference, an internal review released Friday shows.

The Senate report references handwritten documentation and emails about the allegations.

“Several of the staff members interviewed indicated they possess a fear of retaliation, which is why they did not feel comfortable reporting any instances of harassment,” the report states.

Friday’s investigative report examined Dec. 12, 2012, through July 2017 and was conducted between July 25 and Aug. 7 by Charlie Smithson, the secretary of the Senate, and Mary Earnhardt, a senior aide for the Senate president.

It was released after criticism prompted by the announcement that the investigation was complete but that it wouldn't be made public.

Among the report's key findings:

Ineffective training: The report says both current and past measures to prevent workplace harassment among the Senate Republican staff are ineffective.

The report says both current and past measures to prevent workplace harassment among the Senate Republican staff are ineffective. "Zero tolerance" confusion: The phrase “zero tolerance” to harassment as outlined in the Senate personnel guidelines has been the source of confusion. The report says “it had not been phrased that way for some staff members.”

The phrase “zero tolerance” to harassment as outlined in the Senate personnel guidelines has been the source of confusion. The report says “it had not been phrased that way for some staff members.” No need for further investigation: The review “was a very delicate matter” that “may have had a chilling effect on some of the responses,” the report said. It concluded that “it does not appear that bringing in yet another entity to conduct further investigation would be productive.”

The investigation came after former Iowa Senate GOP staffer Kirsten Anderson alleged she was fired in May 2013, just hours after filing a complaint alleging a toxic work environment caused by sexual harassment. She won a $1.75 million legal settlement in her harassment case against the state.

Names have been redacted in the report. It says many of the Senate Republican caucus staff members said an environment exists on the Senate Floor with senators making sexually suggestive comments about sexual preference.

The report says most staffers declined to give specific senator names, although at least one provided email documentation. Another detailed an instance when a senator made sexually suggestive comments about proposed “dense breast tissue” legislation.

Senate Majority Leader Bill Dix, Senate Spokesman Caleb Hunter and multiple Republican lawmakers involved with the passage of a bill this year to improve mammogram reporting — the only bill in the last five years that has the term “dense breast tissue” — did not immediately return phone calls seeking comment Friday.

“As this review shows, the workplace culture needs to improve, it can improve, and with a lot of hard work, it will improve,” Dix said in a statement.

Copies of the exhibits were not made public Friday. The report includes a three-page Nov. 22 letter from Des Moines attorney Danielle Jess Haindfield to Smithson outlining legal reasons she believes can be used to maintain the confidentiality.

Even if the legal reasons are applicable, Iowa’s open records law exemptions allow but do not require secrecy.

Dix, R-Shell Rock, said the redaction of personally identifiable information was made to balance public transparency with a possible chilling effect the release could have on the willingness of employees to make reports of future incidents.

Earlier this week Mary Kramer, a former Iowa Senate president and U.S. ambassador with a background in human resources management, was appointed to advise the Senate on its workplace culture.

Iowa isn't the only state to wrestle with allegations of sexual misconduct among its legislators.

At least 40 lawmakers — nearly all men — in 20 states have been publicly accused by more than 100 people of some form of sexual misconduct or harassment in the last year, a USA Today Network analysis found.

Lawmaker reaction

Senate Democratic Leader Janet Petersen of Des Moines said the report will lead to more lawsuits unless Senate Republicans make dramatic changes.

She said Republicans so far have “ignored the calls for action by refusing to fire any of their staff or to make any changes in their leadership.”

“The findings of this internal report are deeply troubling,” Petersen said Friday. “The report will increase the disgust that Iowans feel about the harassment, discrimination and retaliation against Kirsten Anderson and other legislative staff."

Senate Republicans as recently as Nov. 12 had said they plan to maintain the secrecy of their internal investigation.

A few days later Gov. Kim Reynolds — who earlier this year expressed support for how Dix had handled the issue — urged senators in her party to release any new details they uncovered in their internal investigation.

"If this is new information that was not brought out through the trial process, then I think that it should be made public," Reynolds said.

Brenna Smith, a spokeswoman for Reynolds, said the office had no comment Friday about the report.

Consultant: Report leaves questions

It’s difficult for readers of the report to assess the gravity or the degree of the alleged misconduct because of a lack of description, said Kevin Pokorny of Pokorny Consulting, a Des Moines-based firm that helps businesses investigate and train to prevent workplace harassment.

Incidents where employees say they have knowledge about harassment but decline to provide names or details of those involved could indicate a lack of trust and the possibility that the employer doesn’t know the full universe of the alleged misconduct, Pokorny said.

But Pokorny — who reviewed the three-page report at the Register’s request — cautioned that it is possible those issues have been addressed but not detailed in the Senate report that was released Friday.

“If there are gaps in the investigation that would come out in a lawsuit or trial or with the Iowa Civil Rights Commission that is not going to help the employer in defending its actions,” Pokorny said.