The
Scenario: A clothing company contacts an
activities director and coaching staff with a deal for their school. To get the AD and coaches to recommend
the company to the superintendent and school board members, the company wants to
give clothing to the AD and coaches.
The
Reality: Iowa’s gift law (Iowa Code chapter 68B)
prohibits the above conduct.
The law applies to all
public employees, which includes administrators, teachers, and coaches at school
districts. The gift law prohibits a
public employee or that person's immediate family member from accepting or
receiving, directly or indirectly, any gift or series of gifts from a
“restricted donor. “
A restricted donor is defined in the law as a person or company who is or is seeking to be a party to a sale, purchase, lease or other type of contract with the employer of the public employee. Thus, in the above scenario the clothing company and all of its representatives are restricted donors. They want a contract with the school district. They want to sell goods to the district. There are some exceptions to the prohibitions in the gift law. The ones that would most commonly occur regarding school employees are as follows: Ø Nonmonetary items with a value of three dollars or less that are received from any one donor during one calendar day.
Ø Informational material relevant to a public employee's official functions, such as books, pamphlets, reports, documents, periodicals, or other information that is recorded in a written, audio, or visual format.
Ø Anything available or distributed free of charge to members of the general public without regard to the official status of the recipient.
The consequences for
violating the gift law are severe.
A person who knowingly and intentionally violates the gift law may be
punished in ALL of the following three ways:
Ø
Both donor and
recipient are guilty of a serious misdemeanor. Serious misdemeanors are punishable by
up to one year incarceration and a fine between $250 and $1500, plus 30%
surcharge and court costs.
Ø
The gift law
specifically gives the public employer permission to fire the employee who takes
a gift in violation of this law.
Ø
Finally, violation of
the gift law is a violation of the Board of Educational Examiner’s Code of
Ethics. Therefore, the public
employee who is also licensed by the BoEE could lose his or her
license.
Carol Greta
Iowa Department of
Education