It appears that I (Rob Smith) only scribe on days full of sunshine and blues skies. And today is not an exception!
President Don chimed in at 12:07 with a holiday grin from ear to ear. He wasted no time and called Lance Noe to the podium.
Words of inspiration were offered by Lance Noe. A great human spirit, Nelson Mandela, died six years ago today, so Lance shared a quote from Nelson Mandela. “No one was born hating another person…people must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite.
Guests and Rotarian were introduced by Jackie Norris.
Rotary will promote eradicate polio at the upcoming Iowa Wolves game on February 1. This event has been going on for six years and raised over $160,000. Funds are raised by Rotarians selling tickets to the game and Rotary receives part of the ticket price.
Three reasons to come to the game.
1. $2 beer
2. Lindell Wigginton, former Iowa State star, is playing and scoring big.
3. Rotarians can put on a wrestling outfit and wrestle for Rotary.
Jackie Norris introduced today’s speaker, Rob Sand, state auditor. She shared he is a great twitter, father of two, good negotiator, from Decorah, and a former attorney.
Rob worked for six year at the attorney general office and focused on criminal prosecution. He realized he was not happy and needed a change. Additionally, he worked on many financial cases and as a result worked closely with the state auditor office.
Rob was excited to be state auditor because one thing that the auditor was not doing is recommending efficiencies. The auditor is delegated this role in government. Since he is appositive person, Rob wanted to enact change.
Soon after taking office he started the PIE program. PIE stands for PUBLIC INNOVATIONS AND EFFICIENCIES. Information is gathered every year to measure success of departments being more efficient.
PIE consists of the PIE chart, PIE contest, and PIE recipes. The chart keeps track, the contest allows people to submit ideas, and recipes for sharing what is done good in any government agency. Rob shared a new venture the state-wide job work program for his department. Rather than travel from Des Moines to other counties, employees can live in other parts of the state and not just Des Moines. Certainly, travel costs are minimized.
Besides the economic benefit of wages is not concentrated in the Des Moines market. The program allows highly paid staff to serve rural Iowa and live where they want to live. Less turnover is expected, and turnover is an issue for the department because staff are gone from their families when travelling.
Questions from the members followed.
QUESTION ONE
What is Rob doing to make the department more diverse? He brought two people of color with him and continues to look for a more diverse staff.
QUESTION TWO
What does the deer season look like? (Jackie Norris is a dear friend of Rob’s and asked this question). Rob has already bagged two deer this season with his bow. He is an urban hunter and is looking for a tree stand in the backyard of a Foster Drive residence. If you know of someone give him a call.
This article was just featured about Rob in the New York Times