Auditor Sand says state agency blocked review after DMPS superintendent arrest

Iowa Auditor Rob Sand said Tuesday his office was obstructed from obtaining information necessary to review the Iowa Department of Education and Board of Educational Examiners’ background check processes in attempts to conduct a review following the arrest of former Des Moines Public Schools Superintendent Ian Roberts.

Sand received requests to conduct these reviews in October 2025, shortly after Roberts was arrested and detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in late September. After his arrest, reporting had found the former superintendent, who was hired by DMPS in 2023, had falsified parts of his resume and credentials in addition to not disclosing his immigration status or criminal history during the hiring process. Reporting from the Associated Press also uncovered repeated instances where Roberts had contracted with Lively Paradox, a Kansas City-based vendor he was affiliated with.

Sand — the only Democrat to currently hold statewide elected office and a Democratic candidate for governor in 2026 — had denied a request from GOP state senators to audit and investigate DMPS spending practices after the Roberts situation came to light, saying it was invalid, but later shared he had received a valid request from a party within the district to reaudit the district.

The results of this audit were released Tuesday. The audit found more than $2,000 in “questionable reimbursements and disbursements” related to the former superintendent, Sand said in a news conference. Sand said the audit also had found two undisclosed conflicts of interest, which he called “more troubling terms of deception.”

The audit had identified the preexisting professional and personal relationship with Lively Paradox and the company’s founder Nicole Price, as Roberts’ name was listed on the website of Lively Paradox, and he had coauthored at least two books with Price. The audit also states “documentation obtained from local law enforcement shows a personal relationship between Dr. Roberts and the owner of Lively Paradox that, if not in fact amorous as the documents allege, was certainly close enough to constitute a conflict of interest that renders contracting with Lively Paradox inappropriate without disclosing.”

Additionally, the audit stated that the DMPS chief financial officer and procurement manager were both aware of the conflict of interest regarding Roberts and Lively Paradox, but did not disclose this conflict to the Des Moines School Board or to district staff. The audit states the CFO did not believe it was necessary to report the issue to board members or others “because he did not think Dr. Roberts would propose using Lively Paradox again after being declined the first time and because the District does not have a conflict-of-interest policy in place for all employees, including Dr. Roberts.”

However, this lack of shared information led to a contract being approved with Lively Paradox.

“Ian Roberts waited until the CFO was out of the country on vacation and then pushed a contract, so that the comptroller who signs these contracts or advances them in the CFO’s absence, would be the one that would do the work,” Sand said. “So, by waiting for that, he was demonstrating the fact that he knew that he shouldn’t be doing this, and waited for the opportunity to do it instead, This is completely unethical for someone to advocate for either the contract with someone with whom they have a professional conflict or an intense personal conflict.”

Sand said when these events occurred, DMPS did not have a conflict-of-interest policy in place for all employees.

Kim Martorano, chair of the Des Moines School Board, said in a statement Tuesday DMPS has revised its conflict-of-interest policy “to include required annual disclosure of actual or potential conflicts from administrators and other personnel,” in addition to requiring all district employees to complete annual conflict-of-interest training.

In October, Sand said though state lawmakers could not request an audit of DMPS because they were not affiliated with the district, lawmakers could request audits regarding “spending by a state department with money from a state department.” He questioned why GOP legislators did not pursue a valid request to audit the Iowa Board of Educational Examiners, the state entity that licensed Roberts as an administrator in 2023. Sen. Tony Bisignano, D-Des Moines, submitted a request to audit the state Education Department and BOEE for their licensing and background check procedures, which Sand accepted.

In a news release Tuesday, Sand stated he made “multiple inquiries” to the Educational Department seeking information and documentation regarding Bisignano’s request, but that the DOE “refused to provide the relevant records unless the Auditor of State signed a separate engagement letter.” The news release stated, “The DOE’s insistence on a new engagement letter aligns with a 2023 directive from the Department of Management following the passage of SF 478, which itself violates Chapter 11 of the Code of Iowa.”

Sand said he did not agree to the request for additional engagement letters “because we follow the law in this office,” he said, and the request would be a violation of general auditing practices.

The issue of having the auditor sign multiple engagement letters during audits has come up in several other instances, like Sand’s work to audit the state’s Education Savings Account (ESA) program and the Iowa Board of Parole. Sand linked this “directive” with the 2023 law Senate File 478, that limited the state auditor’s ability to access certain personal information while performing investigations as well as preventing the auditor from going to court for subpoena enforcement against state agencies, departments, boards, commissions and statewide elected officials.

Sand also said at the news conference when his office first asked for materials, DOE had not initially requested an additional engagement letter, as detailed in communications shared in the release Tuesday. He said this suggests that “they thought that they should give us some information, and then someone else came along and said, ‘we didn’t want you to do that.'”

“These are people who know they need to make words come out of their mouth that might sound like a tolerable argument for why it is they refuse to provide information to us so that we can provide it to taxpayers,” Sand said. “But that’s all this is, it’s words coming out of their mouth. It has no basis in fact.”

A spokesperson with the DOE said the department had not been given an opportunity to review the auditor’s report or recommendations prior to the news conference and had yet to receive them Tuesday afternoon. The spokesperson referred to the email sent to the auditor’s office after submitting 48 questions to the department about BOEE processes, in which they requested a letter of engagement in accordance with Generally Accepted Government Auditing Standards (GAGAS) and American Institute of Certified Public Accounts (AICPA) standards, which did not receive a response.

“The Department stands ready to immediately answer all questions as soon as a letter of engagement is received that outlines the scope of the audit, the objectives and the responsibilities of both parties,” the DOE spokesperson said in an email. “As always made clear, the Department of Education and Board of Educational Examiners welcome a review of the Board of Educational Examiners’ implementation of Iowa’s statutory licensing and background check procedures. The Department continues to await the Office of the Auditor of State’s response to its April 10th email.”

Reynolds said in a statement Sand was “yet again using his position as state auditor as a platform for his political aspirations,” referencing his 2026 bid for Iowa governor.

“He refuses to issue engagement letters to define the start, scope, and terms of his audits, calling into question his own credibility and objectivity,” Reynolds said in a news release. “Instead, he holds press conferences to put state agencies on notice and points his finger at everyone but himself. All the while preventing well-intentioned state employees from responding, delaying the work of his own office, and failing to deliver for Iowans.”

The governor said the issue of requesting engagement letters is for “establishing terms upfront also prevents overreach, something Sand has been known to attempt,” citing instances of the auditor’s office seeking access to personal medical records during the COVID-19 pandemic and a case where the Iowa Supreme Court ruled against the auditor having the ability to access communications protected by attorney-client privilege in an audit of the City of Davenport’s $1.9 million in taxpayer-funded settlements.

Reynolds had signed an executive order in 2025 requiring the BOEE, alongside all state government departments and licensing boards, to use the federal E-Verify and SAVE systems to verify the immigration and citizenship status of applicants for state jobs and occupational and professional licenses. Lawmakers are currently considering codifying these changes, included as a part of Senate File 2218, which is on the calendar for debate in the Senate Tuesday.