Auditor of State Rob Sand announced on Tuesday he has completed his fifth “100 Town Hall Tour” across all of Iowa’s 99 counties. The tour kicked off in July and continued through October.
“Visiting with Iowans is the best way for our office to connect with people about what’s happening in state government. I’m proud to have held public town halls in each of Iowa’s 99 counties every year I’ve been in office,” said Sand following the completion of the tour. “Iowans care about good stewardship of their tax dollars, and they want to know someone’s paying attention to how that money is spent. That’s why we do these tours every year.”
Some topics of discussion for this year’s tour included the new pro-corruption law that allows public entities to hide documents from the State Auditor, the lack of accountability for taxpayer money in the new school vouchers law, proposed rules to limit access to public records, and the Auditor of State’s PIE (Public Innovations and Efficiencies) program designed to save taxpayer dollars and encourage local, government entities to develop their own money-saving strategies.
“Leadership closest to the people is best positioned to create positive change and works more efficiently than a top-down approach,” said Sand. “That’s why we created the PIE program. PIE provides local leaders with an easy, streamlined sharing process—that’s why each year, we’ve seen more engagement than the last.”
The PIE program has proven so successful that the Mississippi State Auditor, a Republican, copied the program for use in his own state—even using the same name. “The appeal of PIE is that everybody likes good government—Republican, Democratic, or independent. Good government shouldn’t wear partisan blinders.”
Sand is now visiting Iowa communities, presenting their hard-working leaders with 2023 PIE Awards, which includes delivering a pie to each entity, to celebrate their achievements.
