IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) - A now-public list of workers who are supposed to be barred from returning to Iowa’s executive branch is filled with mistakes, including at least two names of individuals who currently work for state agencies, a union official said Friday.
The Iowa Department of Administrative Services released the list Tuesday to the Associated Press, days after the department’s since-fired director told lawmakers no such list existed. It contains 975 names of people disqualified from state employment based on previous firings or, in some cases, resignations.
Danny Homan, president of Council 61 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, said his staff launched a review after the list was posted online Thursday and have identified numerous errors, including some he called “very egregious.”
He said that an employee once fired by the Department of Corrections is on the list, even though he was reinstated after an arbitrator ruled that his discipline was not justified. At least one other current employee is on the list, as are others who resigned or retired and shouldn’t be included, he said.
The list also mistakenly includes former Medicaid fraud control unit director John Judisch, whose 2011 resignation agreement, obtained by the AP, specifically notes that he remains eligible for future employment.
Several other employees are listed, even though they are appealing their firings, including some who are scheduled for grievance meetings and arbitration hearings, Homan said. The release of their information is a violation of state law and the union contract, which specify that the names of fired employees can’t be released until they exhaust appeals, he said.
The Department of Administrative Services continues to withhold more than 600 additional names of former probationary and at-will employees who are also disqualified from state employment. The department and the Iowa Attorney General’s Office say those names, which include former political appointees, should be kept confidential because they had no ability to appeal their terminations.
Critics of the state’s practices, including some lawyers and union officials, say those employees are the most likely to be unfairly on the list since they could be fired for any reason.
Homan, a leading critic of Republican Gov. Terry Branstad’s administration, said he believed none of the information should have been made public, and its release will cost people jobs once employers see their names.
“Why are they sticking us out there? Because Terry Branstad wants to make our people suffer. It’s wrong. This is discriminatory,” he said.
Attorney General’s spokesman Geoff Greenwood said the union contacted his office to report mistakes Friday. He said such complaints should be directed to DAS, whose spokesman said any mistakes that are proven will be corrected.
The AP reported last month that Iowa’s executive branch has continued for two decades a little-known practice of banning some fired workers for life, despite questions about the legality of the practice. Critics say it amounts to a blacklist that’s open to abuse, particularly because the policies for adding names aren’t clear. Supporters say the practice helps safeguard against hiring workers who have committed prior misconduct.
Then-DAS Director Mike Carroll told lawmakers last week that: “There is no ’blacklist.’ There is no ’do-not-hire’ list. There is no list.” Branstad fired him for falsely telling lawmakers in the same hearing that no former employees had been offered cash in exchange for signing confidentiality provisions.
Democratic lawmakers expressed outrage Thursday after learning the department released such a list to AP. They’re expected to ask DAS about the practice during an ongoing investigation into personnel practices.
DAS claims it can disqualify former workers who are fired or resign instead of termination under state code. But administrative law judges have ruled the code only gives DAS discretion to reject those workers if they apply again for new jobs. In response to those rulings, DAS stopped notifying workers when they’re placed in disqualification status and only does so if they ever reapply.
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