The Des Moines Register reports
that for five years ending in February 2011, the Iowa Civil Rights
Commission shook down landlords for “voluntary contributions” in
exchange for dropping discrimination complaints. The
Register obtained copies of 27 settlement agreements
involving about $20,000 in contributions. Unlike money from
fines, which end up in the state’s general fund, the donations went
directly to the commission, creating “the impression that justice
is for sale,” as state court administrator David Boyd puts it. The
commission ended the practice after Winterset attorney Mark Smith
questioned its propriety.

Smith tells the Register that a landlord he
represented was the target of a sting operation in which a
commission employee posed as a tenant who needed a “service dog”
for anxiety and asked whether a pet deposit would be required.
Evidently the landlord said yes, because the commission later sent
him a transcript of the telephone conversation along with a
proposed settlement agreement calling for “a voluntary contribution
to the commission in the amount of $500.”

“In my opinion,” Smith says, “their conduct was grossly
unethical.” The Register reports that the Iowa
Attorney General’s Office initially “agreed that soliciting
donations in lieu of fines was acceptable under Iowa law” but
“revisited the issue early last year [i.e., after Smith’s
complaint] and concluded the practice is not appropriate.”

[Thanks to Mark Lambert for the tip.]