Regulator: Iowa official won’t have to ID outside businesses

IOWA CITY, Iowa – Iowa’s top elections official will not be required to identify his private businesses in a conflict-of-interest disclosure form because other state officials have kept them secret without consequence, a regulator said Wednesday.

The Associated Press reported Tuesday that Secretary of State Paul Pate owns a strip mall and two rental storage businesses in the Cedar Rapids area that he didn’t list on an ethics filing submitted last week. As mandated by state law, the filing asked Pate to identify “each business, occupation, or profession” in which he was engaged during 2017 and warned of criminal and civil penalties for failing to do so.

In a statement Wednesday, Iowa Ethics and Campaign Disclosure Board director Megan Tooker said Pate’s disclosure was “comparable in the level of detail” to other statements filed by executive branch officials who have routinely not identified companies that hold their real estate assets or addresses of their properties.

“Since I am not requiring other filers to provide more detail for their real estate or other sources of income, I do not think it would be appropriate to single out Secretary Pate and hold him to a different standard simply because I received a media inquiry,” Tooker wrote.

In the filing, Pate named the asphalt paving business that he has long owned. But he didn’t mention his role as the managing partner of the PRG Group, LLC, which he formed days before the 2016 election and operates the newly opened Noelridge Storage business in Cedar Rapids and the City Center strip mall in Hiawatha. The corporation has taken out lines of credit totalling more than $2 million to develop and purchase those holdings since last summer.

Pate also didn’t disclose his role as an owner of the PEP Group, which formed years ago and owns the Stoney Point Storage rental business in Cedar Rapids. Instead, Pate reported that he received rental income from unspecified residential and commercial properties.

Tooker said she told Pate he would be welcome to voluntarily revise his form but that it wouldn’t be required for now.

Tooker said the agency’s board will ultimately decide whether Pate’s disclosure is adequate, but that Chairman James Albert agreed it “was not out of the norm.” Tooker said the two believe “it would be wise” to develop more guidance to help filers understand how much detail they should provide in statements next year.

Filing a false or incomplete statement is illegal, but the board doesn’t audit them, rarely issues sanctions and typically allows officials to revise incomplete disclosures if they are questioned.

Pate hasn’t made himself available for an interview since last Friday or responded to questions submitted to his office by AP on Monday. Instead, his office took to Twitter on Tuesday evening to label the story “fake news.”

In a fundraising email sent to supporters Wednesday, Pate claimed he was unfairly under attack and asked for campaign donations to fight back.