Former Floyd County assessor retires after investigation, agreement with county board

By Bob Steenson, bsteenson@charlescitypress.com

The Floyd County assessor, after having been on paid administrative leave for more than three months, has retired from his position as part of a separation agreement with the Floyd County board that governs the Assessor’s Office.

The last official day of employment for Gary VanderWerf was Monday, Sept. 26. As part of the four-page agreement, he will continue to be paid his regular salary through Nov. 4, and the county will continue paying for his health insurance benefits through Nov. 30.

Floyd County Supervisor Doug Kamm, who is chair of the county Conference Board that oversees the Assessor’s Office, said there is little he can say about the specifics of why VanderWerf was placed on administrative leave at a Conference Board meeting June 8, why an investigation that was initially predicted to take three weeks took more than three months, or what the investigation determined.

“He wrote a letter of retirement or resignation, and we have an agreement between us that we’re only going to provide certain things. It’s public record, the agreement that we have with him. Basically I’m going to tell you that he worked for us for 19 years and retired,” Kamm told the Press.

The document, which was signed by VanderWerf and by Kamm representing the Floyd County Conference Board, is titled “Retirement from Employment and Release Agreement.” In it, it spells out how long VanderWerf will continue to be paid and receive insurance benefits.

In consideration of that, VanderWerf agrees to “return all property of the County, including but not limited to, any and all information in his possession that would assist the Assessor’s office in its efficient operation,” and he agrees to “not seek reemployment with the County.”

The agreement also states, “VanderWerf will direct any prospective employers seeking a reference to Mr. Doug Kamm, or in his absence, Ms. Gloria Carr, Auditor. The County will only provide information regarding VanderWerf’s length of employment, job duties, salary history, and any other information that is required to be produced pursuant to Iowa Code Chapter 22,” which is the Iowa Open Records Law.

VanderWerf agrees to “fully and forever” release the county and any of its employees or agents from any and all claims or liabilities, and to not sue the county or cause any kind of claim or legal action in any court against the county.

Kamm confirmed that VanderWerf had not been working as the assessor since his administrative leave began.

Asked whether the investigation had resulted in any matters being referred to the Floyd County Attorney’s Office or the Floyd County Sheriff’s Office, Kamm said the retirement and release agreement ends the matter and he can’t say anything more.

When asked why the matter had gone on for more than than three months, Kamm said, “My honest opinion is there are too many lawyers involved. It just took awhile to get through that investigation.”

At the meeting June 8, the Conference Board had gone into closed session “to evaluate the professional competency of an individual whose appointment, hiring, performance, or discharge is being considered when necessary to prevent needless and irreparable injury to that individual’s reputation and that individual requests a closed session,” as allowed under the Iowa Open Meetings Law.

When the board came back into open session at that June 8 meeting it passed a motion “to do an investigation of the Assessor based on discussion in closed session and place current Assessor on paid administrative leave until results are in.”

At a follow-up meeting held the next week to appoint an acting assessor, Dean Andrews, the Charles City mayor and a member of the Conference Board, told the Press there had been “an allegation of potential wrongdoing, and so we’re having this investigation just to see if that’s a valid implication or not.”

Members of the board had declined to comment on the nature of the allegation or whether it came from within the department or from outside. They said it fell within the Code of Iowa regarding reasons an assessor can be removed from office, but declined to discuss specifics and would not say whether the allegation concerned a monetary matter or some other type of legal issue.

The Conference Board consists of the county supervisors, the mayors of the cities in Floyd County and a member from the board of education from each school district with area in the county.

The Conference Board is the governing board of the office of the assessor and appoints the assessor, approves the office budget and appoints members to other boards that work with the assessor’s office such as the board of review.

A three-person Assessor’s Examining Board will now make a recommendation to the Conference Board on a new county assessor, Kamm said. Former Deputy Assessor Brandi Schmidt has been acting assessor since VanderWerf was placed on leave. Members of the Examining Board are Mark Huegel, Gerald Joerger and Cheri Schafer.