State board to investigate Johnson County auditor

The Iowa Ethics and Campaign Disclosure Board voted Friday to investigate a complaint filed against Johnson County Auditor Tom Slockett.

With the 5-0 vote, Megan Tooker, the board's executive director and legal counsel, said she hopes to have the investigation complete in a couple of weeks. The board asked for an expedited inquiry because of the upcoming June primary election, in which Slockett and a challenger are running.

The board plans to hold a telephonic meeting on the matter in the next month, she said.

Tooker said she will speak with Slockett and individuals listed on the complaint as having personal knowledge of the allegations.

Former deputy auditor Nathan Reckman filed a formal complaint on Wednesday with the board, which oversees Iowa's campaign and ethics laws. He accused Slockett, a Democrat, of using public resources in support of his re-election campaign.

The allegations include Slockett using his county email account for campaign-related work, circulating his re-election petition at work and pressuring employees to sign it, using his work phone to talk with campaign supporters, and changing a policy in a way that made it easier for a supporter to get the voter-registration record of Travis Weipert, his opponent in the Democratic primary.

Reckman provided a copy of the email from the first accusation. Slockett, in an interview Friday, said his email was a reply to communication from an Auditor's Office staff member.

Slockett denied using his work phone for campaign activities. He said if Reckman was listening from outside his office Reckman could not know the context of the conversation.

On the voter records charge, Slockett said Weipert himself had acknowledged at a meeting to having registered as a Republican. He said he got a phone call from a “constituent” wanting to verify that information, and he did so. After another inquiry, he decided to review the policy and, after speaking with the Iowa Secretary of State's Office about how the information was a public record, felt it was appropriate to make the change.

Slockett has acknowledged, and apologized for, passing his re-election petition around the office in a well-publicized incident. He did so again Friday.

The Iowa Ethics and Campaign Disclosure Board issued an advisory opinion Friday saying state law allows the circulating of a petition in a government office as long as other candidates are given the same opportunity. Tooker said some members took issue with that but felt it was a matter for the Legislature to address.

Slockett said the allegations from Reckman are “highly politicized.” Reckman is supporting Weipert in the auditor's race, as are some local Democratic elected officials.

“That's a context that they (the allegations) should be viewed in by the public,” Slockett said.

The board's vote, during a meeting in Des Moines, only means that it found the complaint to be “legally sufficient.” That means that the allegations, if true, would violate the sections of state code concerning campaign law and ethics/lobbying law over which the board has jurisdiction.

Members did not weigh the merits of the allegations, Tooker said. Except for the motion and vote, the board's discussion happened in closed session.

If it's found Slockett violated state law, the board's actions could include ordering the illegal activity to stop, issuing a reprimand or fining Slockett up to $2,000.