10 an 12 13 14 15 16 1s 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 eq (VIDEO DEPO OF JEFFREY IN THE IOWA DISTRICT CHRISTOPHER J. GODFREY, Plaintiff, vs. STATE OF IOWA; TERRY BRANSTAD, Governor of the State of Iowa, individually and in his official capacity; KIMBERLY REYNOLDS, Lieutenant Governor of the State of Iowa, individually and in her official capacity: JEFFREY BOBYINK, Chief of Staff to the Governor of the State of Iowa, individually and in his official capacity; BRENNA FINDLEY, Legal Counsel to the Governor of the State of Towa, individually and in her official capacity; TIMOTHY ALBRECHT, Communications Director to the Governor of the State of Lowa, individually and in his official capacity; and TERESA WARLERT, Director, Towa Workforce Development, individually and in her official capacity, Defendants. THE VIDEO ROBERT BOEYINK, VOLUME I Quinlin, Certified Short Public of the State of I 9:13 a.m., December 3, 2 1igth Street, Suite 200, HUNEY-VAUGHN COURT ROBERT BOEYINK) 2 COURT FOR POLK COUNTY Law No, LACL124195 VIDEOTAPED DEPOSITION oF JEEFREY ROBERT BOEYINK VOLUME I DEPOSITION OF JEFFREY ) taken before Chris A. hand Reporter and Notary owa, commencing at 014, at 1820 nw Des Moines, Iowa. REPORTERS, LID. (515) 288-491010 ua 12 13 14 15 16 47 18 19 20 2a 22 23 24 25 eq (VIDEO DEPO OF JEFFREY ROBERT BOEYINK) 2 ARBPEARANCES Plaintiff by: Defendants by: State of Iowa by Videographer: Also present: ROXANNE BARTON CONLIN Attorney at Law ROKANNE CONLIN & ASSOCIATES 319 Seventh Street Suite 600 Des Moines, IA 50309 (515) 283-1111 GEORGE A. LaMARCA Attorney at Law LaMARCA LAW GROUP 1820 NW. 118th Street Suite 200 Des Moines, IA 59325 (515) 225-2600 JEFFREY C, PETERZALEK Assistant Attorney General 1305 Bast’Walnut Street Second Floor Des Moines, IA $0319 (515) 281-4213 AMY COOPER BRENNA FINDLEY CHRISTOPHER J.. GODPREY (via telephone) HUNEY-VAUGHN COURT REPORTERS, LID. (515) 288-491010 1 12 cq (VIDEO DEPO OF JEFFREY ROBERT BOEYINK) LNDEX Examina! Page Ms. Conlin 5 Marked 105 79 106 107 107 150 108 256 HUNEY-VAUGHN COURT REPORTERS, LID (515) 288-491010 1 12 13 14 15 16 47 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 cq (VIDEO DEPO OF JEFFREY ROBERT BOEYINK) 4 PROCEEDINGS (ur. Godfrey not present.) THE VIDEOGRAPHER: On the record beginning the videotaped deposition of Jeff Boeyink requested by the plaintiff in the matter of Chris Godfrey -- Christopher J. Godfrey, Plaintiff, versus state of Iowa, Terry Branstad, et al., Defendants, in the Iowa District Court for Polk County, Case Number LACL124195. Today's date is December 9th, 2014, and the approximate time is 9:13. This deposition is being held in the offices of LaMarca & Landry -~ of LaMarca Law Group, 1820 Northwest 118th Street, Suite 200, Clive, Iowa. My name is Amy Cooper, certified legal videographer, of Fidelity Video Services, Incorporated, West Des Moines, Iowa. Counsel will please identify themselves for the record. MS. CONLIN: Roxanne Conlin on behalf of the plaintiff MR. LaMARCA: George LaMarca of LaMarca Law Group for the defendants. MR. PETERZALE. : Jeff Peterzalek, HUNEY-VAUGHN COURT REPORTERS, LID. (515) 288-491010 at 12 13 14 15 16 7 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 cq (VIDEO DEPO OF JEFFREY ROBERT BOEYINK) 7 assistant attorney general, for the state of Towa. THE VIDEOGRAPHER: The oath will now be administered by Chris Quinlin, certified shorthand reporter, of Huney-Vaughn Court Reporters, Des Moines, Iowa. JEFFREY ROBERT BOEYINK, called as a witness, having been first duly sworn, testified as follows: DIRECT EXAMINATION BY MS. CONLIN Q. Tell us your name for the record, please. A. Jeffrey Robert Boeyink. Q. Mr. Boeyink, where do you live? rN I live at Towa. Q. What is your date of birth? A. Have you had your deposition taken before? I've never been involved in a deposition. Have you had an opportunity to visit with your attorney? HUNEY-VAUGHN COURT REPORTERS, LTD. (515) 288-491010 qa 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 1g 20 21 22 23 24 25 eq (VIDEO DEPO OF JEFFREY ROBERT BOEYINK) . A. Yes, I have. @. For how long a period did you visit with your attorney about this deposition? A. I believe we met yesterday, so a matter of hours. I mean, I feel very prepared. Q@. Good. There are some rules that we follow that are not the rules.of ordinary conversation. Will you please wait until I finish my question before you begin your answer so the court reporter will not have difficulty making a complete record? It's also important that you answer questions orally rather than nodding your head or shaking your head or saying "uh-huh" or “huh-uh," because we -- we never know for sure what that is. And finally, if I ask you a question that you do not understand, rather than answering it, will you please ask me for clarification? AL Yes. @. All right. Are you taking any medication today which can have a side effect of confusion or memory problems? HUNEY-VAUGHN COURT REPORTERS, LTD. (515) 288-491010 a 12 13 14 15 16 7 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 cq (VIDEO DEPO OF JEFFREY ROBERT BOEYINK) 7 A. I am not. @. Are there any factors which would make it difficult for you to focus on my questions and provide accurate and complete answers? A. No. @. What have you-reviewed -- what documents have you reviewed in preparation for the deposition? A. I reviewed my interrogatory that was submitted, I've reviewed the affidavit, and then T also reviewed the defamation claims as they apply to me personally. @. Any other documents? A. Those are the documents I reviewed for today. @. aside from your attorney, have you talked with anyone else? Ms. Findley was part of my discussion yesterday. Yes. That's it. @. Anyone aside from Ms. Findley? No. @. When -- Tell me what your current position is. I am senior vice president for ; which is a public affairs, public HUNEY-VAUGHN COURT REPORTERS, LTD. (515) 288-491010 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 eq (VIDEO DEPO OF JEFFREY ROBERT BOEYINK) 7 relations firm here in the city of Des Moines. My role currently is I head up our government affairs practice within that -- within that organization. Q. Is that the name of the company? A. is the name of the company. Q. Is that part of any national company? A. No. ‘We are independent. @. When you were in the governor's office and during his campaign will you tell me what e-mail addresses you used? I will try to recall. I believe during the campaign my e-mail address was simply ~~ it was -- it was either or it was I don't recall which of those it was. I haven't used that e-mail for so long that I -+ I don't specifically recall the e-mail address there. With the state my e-mail was simply Q. Did you have personal e-mail? A. I have personal e-mail, yes. I have a gmail account. Q@. And what is the gmail account that you HUNEY-VAUGHN COURT REPORTERS, LTD. (515) 288-491010 1a 12 13 14 25 16 a7 18 1s 20 21 22 23 24 25 cq (VIDEO DEPO OF JEFFREY ROBERT BOEYINK) 7 have? A It's Q@. Is that an e-mail address that you've had for some period of time? A. I've had that e-mail address for over five years. Q. While you were the campaign manager for the governor did you have that e-mail address? A. I did. Q. And during your service on the governor's staff did you have that e-mail address? A. I did. Q Did you use that e-mail address for any matters pertaining to the state of Towa, personnel matters, anything like that? A. I did not. Did all of the e-mail that you used go through state servers? Yes. @. Do you have a smartphone? A. I have a smartphone. Q. What kind is it? A i have an iPhone. HUNEY-VAUGHN COURT REPORTERS, LTD. (515) 288-4910Lo a. 12 13 16 47 18 ag 20 eq (VIDEO DEPO OF JEFFREY ROBERT BOEYINK) _ that iPhone ox Q. Did you have that - some iPhone while you were on the governor's staf: A I did not. I had - I had a state-provided iPhone while I was on the governor's staff. I turned that in when I ceased to work for his office Q. ‘The state-provided iphone, was it capable of r eiving text messages? A. It was. Q. Did you use text messagin A. I don't recall. I'm -- I assume that I believe that I did use text messaging, Q@. How did you preserve that text messaging? A. I don't know that it was preserved. 1 simply turned in my phone at the time that I left the office. 2 Have you told me all of the e-mail addresses from which you can send and rec e-mail? A. Yes 2. Have you told me about the smartphones that you had during your service with the HUNEY-VAUGHN COURT REPORTERS, LTD. (515) 288-491010 cam 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 ig 20 21 22 23 24 25 cq (VIDEO DEPO OF JEFBREY ROBERT BOEYINK) a governor's office? What about during the campaign? During the campaign I had a campaign-issued BlackBerry. Q@. All right. And did that -- was that capable of receiving e-mail? RL Yes. Q. Was that capable of making text messages? It was Did you use it for text messaging and e-mails? A. I believe that I did All right. Now, it's my understanding that the e-mail was destroyed; is that correct? I -- I believe that most of the campaign assets were -~ we did not carry forward with those, we did not keep them. All right. Were you the one who ordered that the e-mail from the campaign be destroyed? A. I don't recall that there was a specific order to destroy campaign e-mail. Q. The -- The information that I have indicates that the e-mail from the campaign was HUNEY-VAUGHN COURT REPORTERS, LTD. (515) 288-491010 a 12 13 14 15 16 a7 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 cq (VIDEO DEPO OF JEFFREY ROBERT BOEYINK) 12 destroyed. Do you know anything about that or what happened to the e-mail during the campaign? A. ALL I know is we had a contract with a provider for those services. That contract ceased when the campaign closed, so those services were no longer provided. And what happened to the e-mails at that point I have no idea. @. Who was your contract provider? It was -~ Internet Solvers was the name of the company. Q. I'm sorry, tell me again. A. Internet Solvers. Internet and then the last word Solvers, S-O-L-V-E-R-S. Q. Where are they located? A. I believe they're located in Urbandale, but I -- I don't know that for sure. But they were a Des Moines-based company. And what services did they provide to the campaign? They provided all of the web services, they -- they hosted our domain, they provided our computers, they networked our computers. They provided -- Basically anything to do with our electronic setup within the office, they HUNEY-VAUGHN COURT REPORTERS, LTD. (515) 288-491010 qt 12 13 14 1s 16 a 18 19 20 al 22 23 24 25 cq (VIDEO DEPO OF JEFFREY ROBERT BOEYINK) 13 were the ones through =~ through which we purchased those services. bid you use any social media sites either during the campaign or during your service as chief of staff to the governor? A. Me personally? Q Yes. aA. I -~ I kept my own Facebook page. I kept my own Twitter account. Q. Did you use those social media sites for anything having to do with your work? I would occasionally post something on my Facebook page or the Twitter account announcing some kind of an event for the governor or promoting an appearance, you know. He was on ~~ If he was on Iowa Press or something, I would occasionally promote that through my network. The Facebook page that you have, is it a fan page or a friend page? It's just a friend -- my own personal friend page. Q. And did you ever post anything about Chris Godfrey or workers’ compensation? A. I did not. HUNEY-VAUGHN COURT REPORTERS, LTD. (515) 288-491010 a 12 13 14 15 16 v7 18 19 20 22 23 24 eq (VIDEO DEPO OF JEFFREY ROBERT BOEYINK) 14 Q. Do you have @ LinkedIn account? AL Ido. Q.. Do you use it? A. I just recently reactivated it -- it after I left the governor's office. It had been dormant for quite a number of years, but yes, it is active. Q. All right. Do all of the electronic communication devices that you used during your service as chief of staff comply with state document retention policies? A. That I don't -- I don't know. @. Were you aware that there was a litigation hold on all communications with respect to Chris Godfrey, workers' compensation, or the claims made in this case? A. Yes, I was Q. And what did you do to comply with that litigation hold? A, Well, per that hold, I didn't throw any documents away. I didn't delete any e-mails. @. What about your calendar? Do you have a paper calendar during your service as as chief of staff to the governor? A. My calendar was an-electronic Outlook HUNEY-VAUGHN COURT REPORTERS, LTD. (515) 288-491010 al 12 13 14 15 16 a7 18 ag 20 a1 22 23 24 25 cq (VIDEO DEPO OF JEFFREY ROBERT BOEYINK) 15 calendar. Q. In the Cloud or server based? That I -- However the state does that. I -- I don't know the specifics of how the state keeps its data, whether it's in the Cloud or whether it's in state-owned servers. That I do not know. Q@. All right. Did you do anything to erase your Outlook calendar? A. I did not. What organizations do you belong to or have you belonged to in the last ten years? A. Such as? I'm particularly interested in any organizations that are business related, like ABI or -- or what used to be -~ what used to be called the Iowa -~ what were they called - Business and Industry or the Manufacturing Association or ~~ or Values Voters or Family Leader or a Hurley's organization, any of those kind of organizations. A. Tam not a member of any of those organizations. I mean, I'm a member of the Anything aside from party HUNEY-VAUGHN COURT REPORTERS, LTD. (515) 288-491010 ul 12 13 a4 16 17 18 19 eq (VIDEO DEPO OF JEFFREY ROBERT BOZYINK) 16 organizations? A. During my service as executive director or president of in the last ten years, I would have been a member of that organization, yes. @. Okay. How long were you the head of -- the executive director of the A. TI became executive director of @. And you were president until when? A. Q A. I resigned Q. why? A. We had a -- had a -~ let's just say a falling out with the leadership of the organization at the time, and I was given the opportunity to resign, and I chose to do so. Q. Did you have a period of unemployment before you became the campaign manager for Branstad's campaign? HUNEY-VAUGHN COURT REPORTERS, LTD. (515) 288-491010 qn 12 13 14 15 16 47 18 19 20 22 22 23 24 25 cq (VIDEO DEPO OF JEFFREY ROBERT BOEYINK) a After I resigned from I immediately took on consulting work. I did some consulting contracting work. So I never had a true period of unemployment. I then went to work for the Republican Party of Towa as its executive director in February of 2009. It was from there that I transitioned in October of 2009 to become the campaign manager for Governor Branstad. Q. All right. Do you believe that being gay is a choice? A. I do not. Q. When did you conclude that being gay was not a lifestyle choice? A. I've never believed being gay was a choice. Q Do you believe that people are born with a particular sexual orientation? b seereer cee @. Do you believe that you can change that sexual orientation by medication, by psychiatric or psychological counseling, or by prayer? A. I don't believe that, no. @. Do you believe that sexual orientation is an immutable characteristic? HUNEY-VAUGHN COURT REPORTERS, LID. (515) 288-491010 a. 12 13 14 15 16 aq 18 a9 20 21 22 23 24 25 eq (VIDEO DEPO OF JEFFREY ROBERT BOEYINK) 18 A. Define "immutable" for me. Q. Unchangeable. AL Yes. @. During the campaign did Governor Branstad take a position with respect to the marriage rights of homosexuals? A. My understanding of Governor Branstad's position on that issue was that he took a more traditional view of marriage and that he believed in a one man, one woman marriage. His belief was Iowans should have the opportunity to make that decision. I mean, that's really where the contention was, whether it should be the courts or Iowans that were making that decision. Q. All right. You He believed that there should be a vote on a constitutional amendment to overrule the Supreme Court's Varnum decision; correct? A. The governor respected the Varnum decision, he respected it as the law of the land, but the governor did believe the Iowa -- that Iowans should have an opportunity to vote on a constitutional amendment. That was the position that HUNEY-VAUGHN COURT REPORTERS, LTD. (515) 288-491010 qt 12 13 14 us 16 7 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 cq (VIDEO DEPO OF JEFFREY ROBERT BOEYINK) 19 understanding of his position at that time during the campaign is that he believed Towans should have a right to vote on.a constitutional amendment and make that decision. @. Okay. He believed that Towans should have the opportunity to vote on a constitutional amendment that limited marriage to one man and one woman; correct? A. That is my understanding of his position, yes. @. Do you know if he had taken a position as to whether or not sexual orientation should be added to the Iowa Civil Rights Act as a protected class? A, I'm not aware of his position on that issue. Q. While you were his campaign manager were there white papers and position papers and things of that sort that were done? A. On policy that we wished to work on, yes. Q@. All right. Were - Was there -- Were any of those white papers or position papers dealing with the -- with issues concerning sexual orientation? HUNEY-VAUGHN COURT REPORTERS, LID. (515) 288-491010 a 12 13 14 16 a7 18 ig 20 21 22 23 24 25 oq (VIDEO DEPO OF JEFFREY ROBERT BOZYINK) 20 AL No. Q@. Have you ever used any pejorative word for homosexuals, such as "queer," "faggot," “fairy,” "pansy," "fruity? A. I don't use that language, no. Q. Have you ever? AEN Q. Do you agree or disagree with the varnum decision? A. I believe that homosexuals should have the right to marry @. did you believe that as of April of 20092 A. I have always held that position. @. Was it of concern to you that the governor's position was different than yours? A. The governor did not require his staff to mirror his positions, you know, 100 percent. The governor has respect and dignity for a lot of different points of view. What he expected me to do was ~~ as his -- you know, in my role as working for him was to -- to follow his positions on issues and to help him promote those positions where there were opportunities to do so. HUNEY-VAUGHN COURT REPORTERS, LID. (515) 288-491010 un 12 13 14 1s 16 17 18 1g 20 21 22 23 24 25 cq (VIDEO DEPO OF JEFFREY ROBERT BOEYINK) aL Q. I'm not sure that answered my question. I asked you about -- about your personal feelings, about your concern, if any, about the fact that you were working for a public official whose position was different than your own onthe issue of gay marriage. A. That’ did not personally concern me, no. Q. Besides Chris Godfrey, during the period of time that you were the chief of staff were there other executive officers who are homosexual? A. The only individual that I was aware of who was homosexual in our office or in the executive branch that I was aware of was who serves as Q@. All right. No department heads that you know of? A I'm not aware. TI wouldn't know. Q. No appointed officials that you know of? A. Not that I'm aware. Q. Do you know of any gay or lesbian person who's been retained by the governor? A. Retained? HUNEY-VAUGHN COURT REPORTERS, LTD. (515) 288-491010 qa 12 13 44 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 ©q (VIDEO DEPO OF JEFFREY ROBERT BOEYINK) 22 Q. Retained in office for a term of years. A oT I wouldn't know that. Q. Do you know Senator Guth? A. Yes. Q. Senator Guth insists that "There are ‘numerous’ health and mental problems associated with homésexuality that ‘ultimately’ shorten the lives of gays and lesbian! Do you agree or disagree? A I do not agree with that statement. Q. All right. He also says that "Phere are health risks that my family incurs because of the increase of sexually transmitted infections that this lifestyle invites Do you agree or disagree with that? A. I do not agree with that statement. Q Senator Guth says "'Many civilizations have fallen’ because the traditional family was not protected." Do you think that's true? A. 1 do not Q. Do you know of any civilizations that have fallen because of the - because the traditional family was not protected? HUNEY-VAUGHN COURT REPORTERS, LID. (515) 288-491010 a. 12 13 14 1s 16 a7 18 19 20 al 22 23 24 25 cq (VIDEO DEPO OF JEFFREY ROBERT BOEYINK) 23 A. I am not aware of any. 2 "He argued that the homosexual lifestyle ‘is a lie.'" Do you agree or disagree with that? I do not agree. He says that "Homosexuality, like secondhand smoke, is a health danger to heterosexuals." Do you agree or disagree with that? I do not agree. Q The Republican platform has a plank that says "We support an amendment to both the U.S. and the Iowa Constitutions defining and supporting the honored institution of marriage as the legal union between one natural man and one natural woman." Do you agree or disagree with that? I do not agree with that. Q. There -- There was an interview -- You might want to get Exhibit 72. There ~- All of the exhibits are right over’ there. It is an article from Bleeding HUNEY-VAUGHN COURT REPORTERS, LTD. (515) 288-491010 a1 12 13 14 15 16 47 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 cq (VIDEO DEPO OF JEFFREY ROBERT BOEYINK) 24 Beartland that reports an interview that Governor Branstad did during the campaign with a radio interviewer named Dorman. on the -- On the first page he says "A lot of people say when other ancient societies have gone this direction, it was the beginning of the end of their society, because the building blocks of really having stable culture is really having one man, one woman marriage." Do you agree or disagree with what the governor said in February of 2010? A. First let me find that. @. I beg your pardon? A. I need to find that here. I'm sorry. @. Oh, I'm sorry. It's -- A. Is it the second page? Q. It's in the little box. The -- The statements from the governor are in little boxes Okay. Q. Do you see that? A. Ido. Yes, I do. Q@. Okay. And I started sort. of in the middle. HUNEY-VAUGHN COURT REPORTERS, LTD. (515) 288-491010 an 12 13 14 15 16 a7 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 cq (VIDEO DEPO OF JEFFREY ROBERT BOEYINK) cae A. Right. "A lot of people say when other ancient societies" and so on. Why don't you take a moment to -- to read that and tell me whether or not you agree or disagree with that. A, This is a quote that is attributed to Governor Branstad; correct? @. Yes, It's something that he said.on the radio so everyone can hear it. AL Okay. I do not agree with that statement. On the next page he is asked “what do you say to a gay people -- to a gay couple with a child who wants the same stability?" In other words, the stability of marriage. Governor Branstad says “I don't have any problem, I just don't think it has to be @ marriage. T just don't. T guess my feeling is marriage is an institution that was and has been recognized for generations as a contract between one man and one female -- one male and one female. 1 think it should stay that way.” You disagree with that? HUNEY-VAUGHN COURT REPORTERS, LTD. (515) 288-491010 a 12 13 44 15 16 17 18 1g 20 21 22 23 24 25 ‘eq (VIDEO DEPO OF JEFFREY ROBERT BOEYINK) 26 As I said, the governor takes a more traditional view of marriage than I do. I do not agree with that statement. @- All right. "I don't" -- He goes on to say "I don't have a problem with people that want to live together and raise a child and things like that. In fact, Grace Copley, who was my clerk for years, or my secretary when I was lieutenant governor and governor, she has a son who's gay, and he and his friend have adopted children and are raising their children. And Grace is a very conservative religious woman. It was a very difficult thing for her to deal with when this became the situation, but they did. And she is still not someone who is supportive of gay marriage, but she is certainly supportive of her children and grandchildren.” Do you agree or disagree with what he says about adopting children and -- A. What -- What do you =- What does he -~ I don't see what he says about adopting children. Does he make a statement about adopting children? Q. Tt might Well, it might go -- it might be just below that. I don't -- He's HUNEY-VAUGHN COURT REPORTERS, LID. (515) 288-491010 i 12 13 14 15 16 a7 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 cq (VIDEO DEPO OF JEFFREY ROBERT BOEYINK) 27 asked -- First of all, let me ask you, do you know Grace Copley? A. I don't know Grace. TI know of her, I've heard of her, but I don't believe I've ever met her. Q. She was not his secretary while you were his chief of staff? AL No. Q. He's asked further “How about civil rights -- civil union rights? Is that something that you're," something, "take the word marriage out of it?” And he says, "Well, I don't think people should be discriminated against. And, you know, certainly 1 recognize the situation as far as the hospital and things like that. 1 don't have a problem with that." Did you -- Do you take that as an endorsement of civil unions? A. [ -- I don't know. I'm not sure how to take that. I mean, I'm not sure how to read that. It's a little confusing to me. Q. After the interview played, according to Bleeding Heartland, Mr. Albrecht issued a statement on behalf of the governor that says at HUNEY-VAUGEN COURT REPORTERS, LID. (545) 288-491010 aL 12 13 14 15 16 47 18 1g 20 21 22 23 24 25 cq (VIDEO DEPO OF JEFFREY ROBERT BOEYINK) 28 page -- well, sort of toward the end, page 4 of CHEE A. Okay. Yep. I have it. Q. Also -- You've got it? AL Yes, I do. @. It says "Any adoption should be in the interest of the family and child and we have provisions within the law that provide for this. rt is vital that every child has only the very best safe, reliable, and nurturing environment that society can provide. The governor believes that only in very rare circumstances could this standard -- standard be met by same-sex adoption." Do you agree or disagree with that? A. I believe that gay couples should have the ability to adopt children. Q. Do you think it's true that in only very rare circumstances could a gay couple provide a best, safe, and reliable and nurturing environment for a child? A. Well, one, I don't think I'm qualified to suggest one way or another, but I do believe that gays have the ability and should have the HUNEY-VAUGHN COURT REPORTERS, LTD. (515) 288-491010 al 12 13 14 15 16 a7 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 cq (VIDEO DEPO OF JEFFREY ROBERT BOEYINK) 29 ability to adopt children. Q. Do you think they can provide a safe, reliable, and nurturing environment for children? A. Yes, I do. Q. "The governor also believes that the professionals within the adoption agencies are best equipped to determine which homes offer the care and support for the child.” I assume you agree with that? A. I would agree with that, yes. Q. And finally, “The governor does not believe in state~sanctioned civil unions." Do you -- Do you agree -~ First of all, is that the governor's position? A. That is the governor's position, as -- as was stated by Tim. I would assume it reflects that accurately at the time. Q. So no marriage, no state-sanctioned civil unions; correct? A. I believe the governor maintained a rather traditional view on marriage as a one woman, one man marriage, yes. Q. Okay. Do you think that's just a traditional view of marriage, or is that a view HUNEY-VAUGHN COURT REPORTERS, LTD. (515) 288-4910to qa 12 13 14 15 16 47 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 cq. (VIDEO DEPO OF JEFFREY. ROBERT BOEYINK) 30 of marriage that is discriminatory? A I believe that gays ought to be able to marriage -- to marry. I respect the fact that other people have different opinions. Q. Do you think that people should vote on ~~ on basic civil rights? . I do not believe we should have a =~ an election:-- I don't believe we should have a vote on a constitutional amendment to define marriage. Q. Do you think that people can -- I'm sorry. A. I'm sorry. |. Do you think that people can vote to deny others in society a. fundamental right like marriage? A. 1 do not believe they should -- shoulda be able to do that, no. Q:. Take a look at Exhibit 73. ‘This has, to do with the same interview, as I understand it. And I'm looking at page 2 of. the article. A. Where did -- And this article -~ okay. This was Cityview. @. Yeah. Yeah. A. The Civic Skinny. HUNEY-VAUGHN COURT REPORTERS, LTD. (515) 288-491010 1 12 13 14 15 16 Ww 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 cq (VIDEO DEPO OF JEFFREY ROBERT BOEYINK) 32 Q Yes. A. All right. @. And -- And it's the -- the third full paragraph beginning “Children who grow up in a stable relationship where they have both a father and a mother are more likely to succeed. Do you agree or disagree with that? A. I believe children can succeed in a gay family, I think children can succeed in a -- in a family with a wife and a husband. I mean, T-- Q. Tt goes on to say -- I'm sorry. A. No. Go ahead. @. It goes on to say “Not to say single parents can't raise children that -- that end up being successful, but if you look at anything, juvenile delinquency, teenage pregnancy, just about any factor, drug abuse, whatever, is less likely to occur if you have a stable, what we call normal home situation where you have a father and a mother to nurture the children.” First of all, do you know whether or not he's right about these various factors like juvenile and teenage pregnancy being less HUNEY-VAUGHN COURT REPORTERS, LTD. (515) 288-491010 qn 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 cq (VIDEO DEPO OF JEFFREY ROBERT BOEYINK) 32 prevalent in, quote, normal home situations? A. I don't think I'm qualified to answer that question. Q. Do you -- A. I wouldn't know whether that was the truth or not the truth. Q. All right. Do you agree or disagree with his statement that those things are more likely te happen in a gay family? A. I -- I believe that successful children can be raised in a whole host of different environments. Okay. All right. Look at Depo Exhibit ee. 66. Q@. I'm going to give you a copy of that because I'm not sure you have it. It is from Mr. Godfrey's deposition It is Civic Skinny July 21, 2011. It's the second -- Well, let's see. The paragraph that begins "The Iowa Republican Party, after all, isn't exactly gay-friendly." Do you agree with that? I do not agree with that. I think there are many Republicans who hold the same HUNEY-VAUGHN COURT REPORTERS, LTD. (515) 288-491010 un 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 cq (VIDEO DEPO OF JEFFREY ROBERT BOEYINK) 33 views that I do. Q. The -- The party platform, however, and according to this, includes -~ Let's see. "The party's latest platform which, among other things, opposes ‘the teaching of homosexual behavior as @ normal or acceptable lifestyle in our public schools.’" I'm assuming that you were aware of what the Republican party platform provided in that regard; correct? A. You know, do we know what year we're talking? Q@. 2011. A. So the party platform from 2011? I mean, the party puts a platform together every two years as part of its process. Are we referring to the 2010 party platform or some earlier version? I'm not -- It changes every two years. Q. Yes. A. The party -- As you know, you've been involved in politics on your side, the platform changes every two years based on the delegate process. So I just don't know which party platform you are referencing. HUNEY-VAUGHN COURT REPORTERS, LTD. (515) 288-491010 a 12 13 14 15 16 a7 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 cq (VIDEO DEPO OF JEFFREY ROBERT BOEYINK) 34 Q. Well, the one that was -- that was, I'm assuming, on the website in 20 -- on July 21, 2011, I'm -- I'm assuming would have been the party platform adopted by the party in 2010. A. Well, I do know -- I am aware that in the past the party has had a platform plank supporting one man, one woman marriage. Yes, I -- you know, that has been the party's position in the past. T just don't know for a fact, because I don't have that platform in front of me, to know whether it was 2010, 2008, or -- or what platform. That's -- Q. Okay. Well, the current platform has that plank in it, according to the website. A. I don’t have the current platform in front of me. Q. [t's Exhibit 77. AL Okay. Q. If you want to look at it. A. Sure. Q. But we've already talked about that. AL Okay. Q. What I want to talk about now is Deposition Exhibit 66, which says that the party HUNEY-VAUGHN COURT REPORTERS, LTD. (515) 288-491010 1 12 13 14 15 16 a7 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 cq (VIDEO DEPO OF JEFFREY ROBERT BOEYINK) 35 platform says -- opposes the teaching of homosexual behavior as a normal or acceptable lifestyle in our public schools. Do you agree or disagree with that? A. Agree with her statement? Q. Yes A. That we should oppose teaching -~ Q. Yes A. Well, one, I don't know if the schools do teach that. I don't -- I don't know whether they teach that or don't teach that. You know, this would not be a platform plank that I would support personally as a Republican Q. Okay. It also says that the Republican party platform says “Sexual orientation should not be allowed to be a basis for any school clubs, such as the Gay Straight Alliance, at any level of the public school system." Do you agree or disagree with that? A. I would oppose that position. Q. All right. Do you mind giving me that -- that one back? Thank you. A. You bet HUNEY-VAUGHN COURT REPORTERS, LTD. (515) 288-491010 4. 12 43 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 ¢q (VIDEO DEPO OF JEFFREY ROBERT BOEYINK) cae Q. The governor has had traditionally a conference called the antibullying conference. Did you have any role to play in putting that conference together? A. 1 didn't play a day-to-day role in putting that conference together, but any activity of the governor's office, you know, serving as his chief of staff, I was responsible to make sure that, you know, his wishes were carried out, that events that he wished to hold would -- had appropriate staff support. I would monitor that and work with the staff that was in charge of those activities. So I would have an oversight role, a facilitation role to make sure that that would take place. Yes @. Did you ever attend the governor's antibullying conference? A, f did not. @. Did he ever attend his own antibullying conference? I believe he attended all of his own antibullying -- Bullying was a special -- 1 mean, the governor took very seriously the issue of bullying. It was a special emphasis of his, HUNEY-VAUGHN COURT REPORTERS, LTD. (515) 288-491010 4 12 13 4 15 16 47 18 19 20 a1 22 23 24 25 cq (VIDEO DEPO OF JEFFREY ROBERT BOEYINK) 37 wanting to make sure that he would -~ we could spotlight bullying in all its forms against all children for all the various reasons that they might be bullied. And that's why he went to the extra effort to sponsor and -~ and put staff resources internally to make sure that these bullying conferences were -- were carried off. Q. Who -~ What members of the staff of the governor's office attended the antibullying conference -- the governor's antibullying conference? A. I don't know how many attended, because many would -- often for governor's events support staff within the office would go out and help staff those events. But the leader internally for our antibullying efforts was Linda Fandel in the governor's office. She was his senior policy advisor for education policy. she is the one who organized, created the programs, worked directly with the governor on the program and the -- carrying out that -- that conference. She had primary responsibility in our office for facilitating those conferences. HUNEY-VAUGHN COURT REPORTERS, LTD. (515) 288-491010 4 12 13 4 1s 16 17 18 19 20 an 22 23 24 25 cq (VIDEO DEPO OF JEFFREY ROBERT BOEYINK) 38 One of the contentions with respect to the antibullying effort was that people of faith suffer more bullying than gay young people. Do you agree or disagree with that? A. I don't know that to be a true statement. I simply know that that conference -- those conferences covered bullying to all children for all different reasons. And there were a lot of different voices that were brought to that conference. Every voice -- It doesn't mean that every voice is a voice that the governor 100 percent supported whatever position. The idea was to bring a diverse group of people on the bullying issue forward and have a really broad conversation on bullying. And that obviously then led later on down the road towards the governor making legislative priority bullying legislation for the last -- the last two legislative sessions. And it's your contention that he always attended those governor's anti ~~ A. My recollection, and this is my recollection, is that the governor did attend and speak to his own bullying conferences, yes. HUNEY-VAUGHN COURT REPORTERS, LTD. (515) 288-491010 1 12 13 14 48 16 17 18 19 20 a1 22 23 24 25 cq (VIDEO DEPO OF JEFFREY ROBERT BOEYINK) 38 All right. You'd indicated, I believe, that you were not associated with The Family Leader; is that correct? I was not a member of The Family Leader. Q. Did you ever attend their Family Leadership Summit? I'm not aware that I've ever attended their Family Leadership Summit. @. Who in the governor's office was doing scheduling? A. Scheduling was -- Well, the -~ the actual scheduler is a woman named Alicia Freed. Scheduling as a practice was the responsibility of a much larger group of us. We would meet on a periodic basis, go through all the various requests that the governor received, match it up with his existing schedule, and make determinations on what he would attend and what he wouldn't attend. So that was a broader group of people who were involved in that. Q. When did you leave the governor's office? A. I left in September of 2013. All right. Would you look at exhibit HUNEY-VAUGHN COURT REPORTERS, LTD. (515) 288-4910qt 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 eq (VIDEO DEPO OF JEFFREY ROBERT BOEYINK) 40 762 Do you know the name Bill Horn? A. I have heard of Bill Horn, yes. @. Have you ever met him? A. I don't believe I have ever met Bill. @. Were you aware of the governor's association with Mr. Horn back in the '90s? AL No. Q@. Were you aware that the governor helped raise money for Bill Horn in the -- in the - during his service as governor back in the '90s? A 1 I don't have any knowledge of that, no. @. Do you know Jonathan Wilson? A. I -- T've never met Jonathan Wilson. I know of Jonathan Wilson. Q. Were you -- What position were you in, if you remember, when Jonathan Wilson was defeated for the Des Moines School Board because A. What year would that have been? Q. I think it was 196. I'm not ~~ I'm not positive. It was back in the '90s. A. Throughout the '90s I was employed at Iowans For Tax Relief. HUNEY-VAUGHN COURT REPORTERS, LTD. (515) 288-491010 aw 12 13 14 15 16 a7 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 eq (VIDEO DEPO OF JEFFREY ROBERT BOEYINK) a1 Q. All right. Did you have any role to play with respect to Mr. Wilson's campaign for the school board that -- AL No. Q. Do you believe that there are stereotypes that exist in society about people who are gay? A. Do I believe that stereotypes exist? Q. Yes A. I think it's hard to deny that people have certain stereotypes, yes. @. About people who are gay? A Yes. Q@. All right. What -- What are those stereotypes? Do you know? A. Well, I -- I don't personally -- 1 mean, I don't have stereotypes about gay people, so I wouldn't be able to recount to you stereotypes. @. Would you agree that it's a stereotype that only a very few, very rare gay couple could provide a stable home? A. I don't know if that's a stereotype, but I would -- it's @ position that I would disagree with. HUNEY-VAUGHN COURT REPORTERS, LTD. (515) 288-491010 a 12 13 14 15 16 a7 18 19 20 a1 22 23 24 25 eq (VIDEO DEPO OF JEFFREY ROBERT BOEYINK) 42 Q. Okay. Male homosexuals are timid, would that be a stereotype? A. Tt could be a stereotype. It's not necessarily one I would agree with. Q. All right, Do you know Robert Cramer? A I know Robert Cramer, yes. Q@. All right. Do you know his views on gay rights? A. I'm aware of his views. Q. Did you have a discussion ever with Mr. Cramer or with the governor and Mr. Cramer ox with Mr. Cramer and anyone else about gay rights issues? A. No. Our discussions with Mr. Cramer revolved around our appointment, interviewing him for a potential position on the Board of Regents. We -- We believe that his background with the Associated Contractors of Towa -- we needed a construction expert on the Board of Regents. We thought Robert had that background as an Iowa State graduate, as an engineer. We felt he was well qualified with his business background, his construction background. That's where the focus of our HUNEY-VAUGHN COURT REPORTERS, LTD. (515) 288-491010 an 12 13 44 1s 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 cq (VIDEO DEPO OF JEFFREY ROBERT BOEYINK) 43 conversations were with -- with Mr. Cramer during that period. @. You are aware that there are some public officials who are appointed for a term of years; correct? A. Yes. Q. What is your understanding of the purpose why some public officials are appointed for a term of years? A. Well, I mean, it's ~ I mean, that was obviously set up by a previous legislature and a previous governor, to determine that some positions serve at the pleasure of the governor, some for a fixed number of years. I -- I can't go into what their reason ~~ I mean, I don't know what their reason was in terms of why certain positions were set for a specific period of years and why others were not. @. Would -- Would you agree with me that the positions that serve for a term of years generally are intended to be insulated from political changes? A. Certainly the term has the impact of insulating them for -- from political changes to HUNEY-VAUGHN COURT REPORTERS, LTD. (515) 288-491010 a 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 a1 22 23 24 25 eq (VIDEO DEPO OF JEFFREY ROBERT BOEYINK) 44 a certain degree, yes. Q. Okay. You don't think that was the purpose of making some appointees’ service for a term of years? A. I don't want to make an assumption about what a past legislature --~ what their reasoning was for setting things up in particular ways. @. Did you know Chris Godfrey or know of Chris Godfrey before December of 20107 A. No, I did not. Q. Between December of 2010 and September 2013 did you ever ask for or look at a copy of his cv? A. I did not. @ Did you ever ask for or look at his personnel file? AL I did not. @. Before you met with him in December of 2010 what files or materials did you look at? A. ‘The -- The only materials, I mean, I would have had access to at that point would have been the Oregon workers’ compensation study that had been provided to us. Other than that, you know, that was -~ that was the primary HUNEY-VAUGHN COURT REPORTERS, LTD. (515) 288-491010 qt 12 13 14 1s 16 17 18 19 20 a 22 23 24 25 cq (VIDEO DEPO OF JEFFREY ROBERT BOEYINK) 45 document that we had at our disposal at that time. @. Did you have the actual Oregon workers! compensation study? A. I’m not -~ I'm not sure I had the entire study. I had -- I had rankings presented to me from that study, yes. @. Who presented to you those rankings? A. I received those from either Mike Ralston or John Gilliland from the Association of Business and Industry. @. All right. And when would they have made that presentation to you? A. ‘They -- I'm assuming that -- 1 believe that they did that sometime during that transition period, post the election and prior to our time that we met with Mr. Godfrey. Q@. All right. Do you know Tom Iles? I do know Tom Iles. Q@. And how do you know him? I've known Tom iles -- I served -- I lobbied in the legislature for quite a number of years. Tom Iles was an Towa lobbyist for a number of years with -~ I believe with the Association of Business and Industry, then with HUNEY-VAUGHN COURT REPORTERS, LTD. (515) 288-491010 ay 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 eq (VIDEO DEPO OF JEFFREY ROBERT BOEYINK) o John Deere, and some years ago he left and -- and relocated to Washington, D.C., in another capacity. So I've worked with him in the past in the lobby. Q. Are you aware at all of the history of workers’ compensation laws? I am not. Q. Are you aware of any instruction given by the Towa Supreme Court about the manner in which workers' compensation laws are to be interpreted? A. 1 wouldn't have knowledge of that, no. Q@. Are you aware that workers! compensation statutes are to be liberally construed in favor of the employee? But that's based on ~~ I wouldn't know that. Q. 9 That's -- A. And. I -- And I don't know on what that ~~ that statement is based. Q. Case law of the Iowa Supreme Court. A. Okay. I don't have knowledge to know whether that's accurate or not. @. All right. The name of the case is Myers versus FCA Services, Incorporated, HUNEY-VAUGHN COURT REPORTERS, LTD. (515) 288-491010 a 12 13 1a 15 16 az 18 19 20 22 22 23 24 25 cq (VIDEO DEPO OF JEFFREY ROBERT BOEYINK) aT 592 Northwest Second, 354 at 356 Towa 1999. The legislature enacted the workers' compensation statutes primarily for the benefit of the worker and the worker's dependents. Were you aware that that is, in fact, the law of Towa? A, I'm not -- I mean, I don't have any basis to dispute what you're saying. I don't have any basis to support what you're saying. 1 don't know if there is other case law that you know, that would dispute that. I mean, T don't know. I'm not an attorney. @. You think there is? A. No. What I’m telling you is I'm not an attorney, I haven't studied the case law as it relates to the work compensation office or how it's been interpreted. . Tt was my understanding that you made judgments about the performance of Chris Godfrey op the basis of -- of cases that he decided. Is that a correct understanding? A. There was a whole series of issues involved and a whole series of interactions and inputs that resulted in the ~ in the governor's decision regarding Chris Godfrey's - his -- his HUNEY-VAUGHN COURT REPORTERS, LID. (515) 288-491010 41 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 2s cq (VIDEO DEPO OF JEFFREY ROBERT BOEYINK) 48 performance, not just -~ not just the cases that were involved. I can tell you that this -- Governor Branstad is a governor who probably travels his state more than any other governor in the country. And he has a very real feel for what's going on in the state and what people are saying. And in regards to the whole issue of the work comp office, the concerns that were raised about the office, the concerns about an anti -- an antiemployer bias from the office, that all -~ that all organically came to the governor as he was traveling the state when he re-engaged in the political process in 2009 and 2010. He holds hundreds of town meetings, he holds, you know, hundreds of -~ of community celebrations, a lot of one-on-one and small group meetings. And this issue started bubbling up from meeting with employers, both big and small, as he was traveling the state of Towa. He was hearing from them regarding concerns about the work comp office, HUNEY-VAUGHN COURT REPORTERS, LTD. (515) 288-491010 an 12 13 14 15 16 7 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 cq (VIDEO DEPO OF JEFFREY ROBERT BOEYINK) 49 concerns about some bizarre decisions that were being made, concerns that it was antiemployer and it's biased. And people raised these issues with him hoping that at some point he might be able to do something about it, because they were concerned that it was creating an antibusiness environment in the state of Iowa. And as you're probably aware, the one of our governor set forth in his campaign primary goals was to create 200,000 new jobs. And to create 200,000 new jobs, he needed to do some extraordinary work in order to create an environment in Iowa to make that happen. And so, you know, this would have been an issue that resonated with him as he was hearing it from people. and then = you know, then, of course, we - we saw the study. We - We got input from people respected people representing organizations like ABI, people that the governor would respect, that would mean something to him. And so it was -- And then, of course, we did have an opportunity later in the process, prior to the meeting with Mr. Godfrey in July, to review a number of the cases that HUNEY-VAUGHN COURT REPORTERS, LID. (515) 288-491010 a 12 13 14 as 16 a7 18 19 20 2a 22 23 24 2s cq (VIDEO DEPO OF JEFFREY ROBERT BOEYINK) 50 were put forward and summaries of those cases, all ‘of which validated what he had been hearing on the road. So no, it wasn't just one case or it wasn't just one decision that brought the governor to a conclusion that he wanted to make a change and that he was not satisfied with Mr. Godfrey's performance. It was a whole broad breadth of inputs that the governor had received over a fairly substantial period of time that led to the decisions that he made. @. All right. And all of the inputs that he got were from businesses, large and small; correct? AL All of the inputs he got would have been from businesses, business owners, representatives of organizations who -~ who promote business climate issues in the state of Towa. I -- I think that is a fair -- a fair assessment of the folks who would have -~ who would have made statements to him regarding the office. Q. Let's look at Exhibit 91. That is an article from Leader's Edge in 2014 and quotes the governor on page 3 of 9, third full HUNEY-VAUGHN COURT REPORTERS, LTD. (515) 288-491020 an 12 13 14 15 16 17 1B 1s 20 24 22 23 24 25 cq (VIDEO DEPO OF JEFFREY ROBERT BOEYINK) SL paragraph. Quote -- This is from a radio show on WHO radio. According to the transcript, he said "So the business groups in Iowa are the ones that told me in no uncertain terms that they were not happy with the direction under Mr. Godfrey. And I feel that what we've done is appropriate. And I would like to have a new direction in that agency.” Did you hear him say that? A. I did not listen to the program that night, but I believe this quote reflects what he said that evening. @. So it was the business groups that he was listening to; correct? A. Well, business group is broadly defined. I mean, the governor -- I mean, a lot of the people that the governor would have spoken to on the campaign trail and since would have been members of business groups. They could have been members of NFIB, they could have been members of ABI. You know, so business groups broadly defined is I think what the governor was referring to here, not just their representatives HUNEY-VAUGHN COURT REPORTERS, LID. (515) 288-491010 1a 12 13 14 15 16 ay 18 ig 20 21 22 23 24 25 cq (VIDEO DEPO OF JEFFREY ROBERT BOEYINK) 52 @. Were you under the impression that the cost of workers’ compensation insurance was going up? A. What I was under the impression is that in Iowa the perception is that the workers’ compensation office and its commissioner were antiemployer, that they had a bias against the employer, and that creates a perception when we're competing with other states for business. I was also under the understanding that work comp, as it compares to other states, that our rates over the time of Mr. Godfrey's employment as the work comp commissioner -- that our positioning vis-a-vis other states had - had gone in the wrong directions. In other words, we had been positioned as one of the lowest cost work comp states, and we were now moving closer to the middle of the pack. And so it was that trend line that we found most concerning, because we are in a very aggressive competition with states all the time for various economic development investments. We try to have all the tools that HUNEY-VAUGHN COURT REPORTERS, LTD. (515) 288-491010 1 12 13 14 18 16 17 18 1g 20 21 22 23 24 25 cq (VIDEO DEPO OF JEFFREY ROBERT ROEYINK) 53 we can to be successful in recruiting business and capital investment into this state. And this was an issue that the governor saw as a potential impediment, and so it was our role to try to ~~ to make that better And And, of course -~ so we were not satisfied with his performance as a result of where that trend was going. Q. Did you do any research into the reasons why Iowa was not keeping up, as you say, with the other states? A, Well, the research that the governor does is the research that he does with Towans I mean, he's going to take the word of Iowans, and their personal experiences working with that office is going to mean a lot more to him than any individual studies. In this case obviously the Oregon workers -- the study validated his concerns about this. You know, I can't speak to any other studies on the matter. Q. Okay. It was only the Oregon study that you looked at. Is that a correct understanding? That was the only one that ABT gave to you? HUNEY-VAUGHN COURT REPORTERS, LTD. (515) 288-491010 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 eq (VIDEO DEFO OF JEFFREY ROBERT BOEYINK) 54 A. That is the only one that we were provided, yes. All right. And were you aware that Godfrey is both well liked and highly regarded for his work ethic and diligence among peers in the close-knit workers' comp community? A. I can't speak to other people's perceptions of him. Q. According to this article -- Do you know Chris Scheldrup? I do not. Q@. Okay. Page S of 9. Mr. Scheldrup is a lawyer in Cedar Rapids who represents exclusively employers and says in this article "Godfrey has made decisions that are inconsistent with the view of employers and insurance companies." Is it correct that: that is also your view? A. My -- Well, I don't have a personai view. My view is the governor's view. I mean, at all times I'm working as the governor's agent, representing his point of view, carrying out his decisions. So the governor made @ decision HUNEY-VAUGHN COURT REPORTERS, LTD. (515) 288-491010 aL 12 13 14 15 16 7 18 1g 20 2. 22 23 24 25 cq (VIDEO DEPO OF JEFFREY ROBERT BOEYINK) 55 that he didn't believe Mr. Godfrey's performance was -~ was where it needed to be, and -- and then he made -- so he made the decisions that followed that. @. Okay. Well, did - did as it it the governor's view during the time that you worked for him that Godfrey made decisions inconsistent with the view of employers and insurance companies? A. I believe the governor came to the conclusion that Mr. Godfrey's performance suggested that he had an antiemployer bias and that it was creating problems perceptionwise amongst the -~ as we're competing for economic development, and that being his number one priority, he sound he found that performance to be problematic. Q. What percentage of the cost of doing business are workers’ compensation premiums? Do you know? A. I don't know what percentage that is, no. @. Mr. Scheldrup goes on to say “He's been an advocate for one side before he came into the position.” HUNEY-VAUGHN COURT REPORTERS, LID. (515) 288-491010 a 12 13 14 15 16 a7 18 a9 20 21 22 23 24 25 ca (VIDEO DEPO OF JEFFREY ROBERT BOEYINK) 56 Was that your understanding of his background, Godfrey's background? A. Based on the information that we reviewed, based on the governor's assessment, he believed that Mr. Godfrey was antiemployer in his bias. Q. Did you believe that he was an advocate for one side before he came into the position of workers’ compensation commissioner? A. I couldn't speak to whether the governor believed that or not. @. "And since he got into’ that position, the cost of workers’ comp for Iowa businesses has gone up dramatically." Do you believe that was true? A. I don't know whether that's true or not. = - What I do know is that the trend line as we compare ourselves to other states, which is what's important at all times when we're doing economic development, how does our tax code compare, how does our regulatory environment compare, and in this case how does our trend line compare on workers' comp costs. And we were clearly losing ground to other states with whom we were competing. HUNEY-VAUGHN COURT REPORTERS, LTD. (515) 288-491010 un 12 13 14 15 16 a7 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 cq (VIDEO DEPO OF JEFFREY ROBERT BOEYINK) s7 So yes, that was ~~ that was an issue and a concern. Q Well, what about health insurance? Wasn't that also going up at the same time? A. I think that depends on a business-by-business -- I mean -~ @. You don't think that all health insurance costs went up in every single year, the cost to employers went up every single year for health insurance? A. I think overall health insurance costs have gone up, yes. On a business-by-business decision, depending on your own personal experiences, your own - you know, your small group's experiences and rankings, you know, there can be ups and downs throughout, you know, different businesses. They don't all experience the exact same thing. Q. All right. So wasn't that a matter that was brought to the governor's attention over the course of his campaign and throughout his service in office - A. Well - @. -- that the cost of health insurance was going up? HUNEY-VAUGHN COURT REPORTERS, LID. (515) 288-491010 ql 12 13 44 1s 16 wy 18 ag 20 21 22 23 24 25 cq (VIDEO DEPO OF JEFFREY ROBERT BORYINK) 58 A. I would expect and -- and thus you see initiatives like the healthiest state initiative and the governor trying to respond to healthcare costs in the state of Iowa by making Iowans healthier. So he initiated a public-private partnership with Wellmark, with Hy-Vee, and others to initiate the Blue Zones Project throughout the state, recognizing that if we can make Iowans healthier, we can reduce the cost of health insurance in the state. So I think he took that - he took that issue very seriously. Q. Did he fire anybody over the cost of health insurance? A. There wasn't one particular office that was focused in regards to health insurance costs, where a change in personnel would make that kind of difference, as opposed to in a situation like the work comp office, where the director there's only one work comp commissioner in the state of Towa, and there's one person who is responsible for that office. They ‘set the tone in terms of how that office is going to operate. If the governor wanted to focus HUNEY-VAUGHN COURT REPORTERS, LTD. (515) 288-491010 1 12 13 14 1s 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 cq (VIDEO DEPO OF JEFFREY ROBERT BOEYINK) 59 on work comp issues, that was the office he was going to need to focus on. Q. There's also only one insurance commissioner for the state of Iowa; correct? There is one insurance commissioner, yes. Q. All right. I'm going to hand you Exhibit 10. I don't think you have that. Okay. Let me hand you Exhibit 10 and ask you whether or not that seems to be anything that you have seen before. I don't -~ I don't recall ever seeing this document. I don't know where -- I don't know where it came from. Q. Okay. THE VIDEOGRAPHER: Off the record ending Tape 1 at 10:21. (A recess was taken.) THE VIDEOGRAPHER: On the record beginning Tape 2 at 10:27. Q. Mr. Boeyink, when did you first discuss Chris Godfrey or workers' compensation with the governor? A. That would have been sometime after the election and prior to the time that we met with HUNEY-VAUGHN COURT REPORTERS, LTD. (515) 288-491010 1. 12 13 14 15 16 a7 1g 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 cq (VIDEO DEPO OF JEFFREY ROBERY BOEYINK) 60 Mr. Godfrey. The governor and I went through -- So we're talking sometime between November - whatever the election day was, I should remember that -- and December 29th. I was cochair of the transition effort on behalf of the governor. My focus was primarily personnel. As you know, this was relatively new territory, even for Governor Branstad, because when he became governor the first time, that transition was from a Republican administration to another Republican administration and there wasn't necessarily the wholesale kind of change that comes when you move from in this case a Democratic administration to a Republican administration. So we had a lot of work to do. We didn't specifically talk about Mr. Godfrey early in that process. We made a decision in terms of which members of the administration that we wished to seek resignations from. We went over a list of those. We wouldn't have discussed Mr. Godfrey specifically until the time -- at some point during that process when I received HUNEY-VAUGHN COURT REPORTERS, LTD. (515) 288-491010 an 12 13 14 1s 16 17 18 19 20 a. 23 24 25 cq (VIDEO DEPO OF JEFFREY ROBERT BOEYINK) 61 the letter back from him declining our request for resignation and then us beginning to talk about how we were going to -- how we were going te respond to that. @. All right. Did you discuss workers’ compensation with the governor during the campaign? A, The -- During the campaign? Q. Yes. A. It could have come up in conversation. We - you know, we talked about a lot of issues regarding economic development. You know, in the same way that the issue of concerns with the work comp commissioner came to the governor during the campaign, he also received a lot of input regarding commercial property taxes as another impediment to being able to do business development in the state of Iowa. You know, it wasn't something that was initially on our radar, but it became very clear in the same way organically that it became an issue. And that ended up resulting in our -~ in our policy that we -- we eventually passed in 2013. So I don't know if I can HUNEY-VAUGHN COURT REPORTERS, LID. (515) 288-491010 1 12 13 14 15 16 aq 18 19 20 a1 22 23 24 25 cq (VIDEO DEPO OF JEFFREY ROBERT BOEYINK) 62 specifically reference a time when he and I talked epecifically about work comp issues during the campaign, but clearly during the transition as we were looking at the office that -- that issue came front and center. @. Do you recall any conversations with the governor about workers’ compensation or Chris Godfrey or any issue having to do with workers’ compensation during the campaign? A. 1 don't recall any specific conversations with the governor regarding that, no. @. All right. So the first recollection that you have of a conversation with the governor came during your discussion of who you wanted to send letters to? A. Right. We went through office by office who the governor wanted to send letters to seeking resignations. And when it came to this office, it was at that point that the governor said "Absolutely T want to send a resignation letter to Chris Godfrey. I've heard a lot of concerns about the office, about an antiemployer bias, and this is going to be important to my economic development efforts." HUNEY-VAUGHN COURT REPORTERS, LTD. (515) 288-491010 qa 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 1g 20 21 22 23 24 25 cq (VIDEO DEPO OF JEFFREY ROBERT BOEYINK) od And so yes, he made a decision to send that letter. Q@. All right. Who -- Excuse me. Who -- Sorry. Who was present during the meeting? Between? Q. The -- The meeting that you described between the governor and you. A, It very likely could have been ~~ And I don't recall specifically, but it would -- very likely could have been just the governor and myself going through that list at that time. @. Where did you get the list? A. That was an interesting process, because the state doesn't really have a definitive list of who are department heads and agency heads and who are all the direct appointments of the governor. Because as you know, some serve at the pleasure of the governor, others serve for fixed terms. And we need to make a determination regarding that. So assembling the list was a -- was a fairly labor-intensive process because, in HUNEY-VAUGHN COURT REPORTERS, LID. (515) 288-491010 a 12 13 14 15 16 ay 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 cq (VIDEO DEPO OF JEFFREY ROBERT BOEYINK) 64 all candor, the Culver administration was very reluctant to be helpful to us early in the transition. ‘They didn't provide us access to staff, particularly budget staff. They were not helpful in putting together a list, so we had to develop that ourselves, going through the code and looking at organizational charts on the state website So we did the best we could in assembling a list of those that were at the pleasure of the governor and those that were fixed terms. And the other thing we followed at that time is we looked at what the last two governors had done, because as I said, when the governor came in in 1982, '83, he was following Bob Ray, and so there wasn't the same kind of turnover. So he wanted to look at what the previous governors had done when they had similar situations. And they had asked blanketwide -~ I mean, our research indicated that they had asked broadly for letters of resignation both for at the pleasure of the governor and for fixed terms. HUNEY-VAUGHN COURT REPORTERS, LTD. (515) 288-491010 a 12 13 14 15 16 a7 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 cq (VIDEO DEPO OF JEFFREY ROBERT BOEYINK) Be and we really believed that we were following common practice, that we were simply following the practice of the previous two governors in regard to how we were going about that. $o we created our own list. and we hoped we hadn't missed anybody, but that was ~- that was something we assembled ourselves. @. Where is that list? A. Well, the list would be -- you would have the list based on the copies of the letters that you have, And I think those are included in my -~ in my interrogatory, you know, in terms of who got letters and who didn't get letters. Q. I'm asking about the actual list that you and the governor were looking at at the time that you were discussing sending out -~ A. I don't know where that list would be at this point. Q. All right. A. I mean, that would have been part of the campaign property at that -- you know -~ Q. That was destroyed? A. I don't know if it was destroyed. I HUNEY-VAUGHN COURT REPORTERS, LTD. (515) 288-491010 qa 12 13 14 is 16 a7 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 cq (VIDEO DEPO OF JEFFREY ROBERT BOEYINK) 66 mean, let's remember, this is private property. We were a privately, you know, financed campaign. And s0, you know -- you know, disposition of that property was certainly up to us how we wanted to dispose of it, but I don't recall specifically if we've ever -- if those documents have ever been destroyed. Q. Where would they be? A. I don't know where they would be at this point. Q. What are the possibilities about where they would be? A. I wouldn't want to speculate on that. @. Would they be with the Republican party, for example? A. I don't know that. @. All right. You said that you thought you were following precedent. On what basis did you make that. determination? A. Well, we looked at -- we went through old news clips, we looked at the transition, we talked -- I mean, saw the news clips in regard to when -- the Vilsack transition from Governor Branstad, the Culver transition from Governor Vilsack. And it was pretty clear based on those HUNEY-VAUGHN COURT REPORTERS, LTD. (515) 288-491010 a 12 13 14 15 16 WwW 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 cq (VIDEO DEPO OF JEFFREY ROBERT BOEYINK) 67 that there was wholesale resignation letters that were submitted to ~~ to the current people in those positions. Q. All right. Did you make a determination as to how many of the gubernatorial appointees had a fixed term? A. fle believed we were aware of which ones were fixed terms and which ones were serving at the pleasure of the governor, yes. @. Okay. And how many such persons were there? A. Oh, I mean, I -~ I think there's -- I mean, I hate to speculate. Less than 30 total, I think. Two-thirds/one-third to fixed -- to -- you know, somewhere in that neighborhood. I'm -- I'm trying to ballpark for you. I don't know specifically that number, but there were more in the serve at the pleasure of the governor than there were with fixed terms. @. Did you try to ascertain where the appointee was in his or her term if that appointee had a fixed term? A. At that point we weren't as concerned with how long they were yet scheduled to serve. Our concern was, our desire in those cases, in HUNEY-VAUGHN COURT REPORTERS, LTD. (515) 288-491010 a 12 13 44 15 16 a7 18 1g 20 21 22 23 24 25 cq (VIDEO DEPO OF JEFFREY ROBERT BOEYINK) bd those positions, to have the opportunity to appoint somebody who, you know, more broadly speaking would be part of the governor's team. @. You indicated that you'd done -- that you did some research with respect to what other governors had done in terms of those serving fixed terms. Have you told me what you did? A, What we did? Well, that research primarily consisted of research of past news clips, you know, as those stories were reported during those transition periods. The media is always very aggressive in terms of wanting to know who have you asked to resign, you know, what is your process. They asked the same questions of us. And so went back and looked at the -- the archives of those reports that came through the news media. That was primarily here we -- where we learned about the process that other governors had engaged in. Q. All right. Did you -- Did you look at the letters of resignation requested by other governors? A. We did not. Q. What you relied on, as I understand it, HUNEY-VAUGHN COURT REPORTERS, LTD. (515) 288-491010 aL 12 13 14 1s 16 a7 18 1g 20 a cq (VIDEO DEPO OF JEFFREY ROBERT BOEYINK) eo were newspaper articles. Is that a correct understanding? A, We researched newspaper archives as ~~ you know, the coverage of those transition teams, and we found that it was relatively thorough and it was instructive in terms of what the other governors had done. Q. Okay. And in your discussion with Mr. Branstad, did that take place over a series of meetings or was there one meeting at which you had a list and went through that list with respect to who he wanted to ask resignations from? A. Through that transition period we had -- we were -- we were meeting all the time, I'm assuming -~ I'm not assuming anything. at some point we would have decided on a final list before I sent out those letters. Q@. All right. Exhibit 57 is the letter that Governor Branstad sent to Mr. Godfrey. And as I understand it, you discussed Mr. Godfrey with Governor-Blect Branstad before you sent the letter out. Is that a =~ Is that correct? A. We discussed all of the positions before we sent the letter out to make sure that HUNEY-VAUGHN COURT REPORTERS, LTD. (515) 288-491010 qi 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 cq (VIDEO DEPO OF JEFFREY ROBERT BOEYINK) 70 the governor wanted to seek a resignation of each individual. So yes. Q. Was there anyone serving at the pleasure of the governor or in an appointive office to whom you did not send a letter seeking resignation? A. Yes. We did not send a letter to Nancy Richardson, who was the head of the Towa Dor. We did not -~ And she serves at the pleasure of the governor. We did not send a letter to Susan Voss, who was the Iowa insurance commissioner, and she was serving a fixed term. @. And why, I'm sorry, did you not send letters to those two individuals? A. The governor had already made a determination that he wanted both those people to carry on. And during the transition we had conversations with both of them to let them know that we wished them to carry on and that we would not be sending them a letter. Q. In the letter -- Did you -- Did you draft Exhibit $7? A. Yes, I did. Q. It says “As part of our preparation for HUNEY-VAUGHN COURT REPORTERS, LID. (515) 288-491010 qa. 42 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 a1 22 23 24 25 eq (VIDEO DEPO OF JEFFREY ROBERT BOEYINK) a the incoming administration, we are doing a top-to-bottom review of all key decision-making positions in state government." How — How is the workers! compensation commissioner a key decision-maker? A. We believe that the workers’ compensation commissioner and that office and the way they go about their business has an impact on the state's business climate, has an impact on the governor's ability to create jobs. It was his number one priority coming out of the election. He won a very big victory, and we believed that the people of Iowa were electing him to follow through on his promises. And so yes, absolutely, any position that was going to have an impact on our ability to create jobs is something we were going to look at very se jously. Q. Is Chris Godfrey a member of the administration? A. Well, Chris Godfrey, I mean -- Chris Godfrey, the way it's set up in the code, his -- his office does -- while he's appointed by a governor every six years or less, depending HUNEY-VAUGEN COURT REPORTERS, LID. (515) 288-491010 a 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 1g 20 2a 22 23 24 25 cq (VIDEO DEPO OF JEFFREY ROBERT BOEYINK) 2 on how long they serve, once they are appointed, they they basically run that office independently. And so, I mean, Governor Branstad was not Chris Godfrey's supervisor. He did not attempt to micromanage his office. He did not attempt to influence decisions in the office. The reality is Mr. Godfrey and his office operate relatively independent of all the other efforts that we were trying to do to make Iowa more business friendly to create jobs. Q. Exhibit 58 is the letter that Mr. Godfrey sent back after he received the governor's letter. Did you see that? AL Yes, I did. And he points out that he serves for a term of years and that he plans to fulfill his term of office; correct? That is correct. All right. What -~ After this letter arrived, when next did you discuss Chris Godfrey with Governor Branstad? His was not the only letter that we received similarly. And the governor and I did updates periodically. So sometime after this HUNEY-VAUGHN COURT REPORTERS, LTD. (515) 288-491010 a. 12 13 14 15 16 a7 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 cq (VIDEO DEPO OF JEFFREY ROBERT BOEYINK) 3 letter was received, I cannot tell you the exact date, we would have done a review of all the responses to the governor's letter. So we received numerous letters of resignation which came to us. We had a few situations like Mr. Godfrey's where they declined to resign because they had a fixed term. And so we would have discussed that in its entirety at some point following the 6th of December. So, you know, whether it was the next week - you know, I can't tell you the exact date that it occurred, but sometime between this date and the 29th, when we actually met with Mr. Godfrey, we would have had that discussion. Q. Well, what was the nature of the discussion? What was the content of the discussion that you had with the governor concerning the individuals who served fixed terms -- Let me start again. Was -- Were there any people who served at the pleasure of the governor who would not resign? AL No. HUNEY-VAUGHN COURT REPORTERS, LTD. (515) 288-491010 1 12 13 14 a5 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 cq (VIDEO DEPO OF JEFFREY ROBERT BOEYINK) a @. Okay. So we're talking only about the fixed-term people; right? A. Right. @. And in terms of those individuals who were appointed to serve fixed terms, how many of such people refused to resign? A. Of the number, three specifically refused to resign -- four, ultimately. And others -~ So we had -~ For example, we had Terry Rich, the director of the lottery, fixed term. He did submit a letter of resignation. Donna Harvey, the director of IPERS, she did submit @ letter of resignation. Chris Godfrey, submit -- did not. Stephen Larson, the head of the Alcoholic Beverages Division, did not. And David Neil, the labor commissioner ~~ All three of those responded that they intended to serve out their terms. We also received a letter from Jim Forney, who was the head of both the commerce department and the Iowa Credit Union Division. He resigned as the head of the commerce, which is -- doesn't really have any power. It's more of a ceremonial role, as you HUNEY-VAUGHN COURT REPORTERS, LTD. (515) 288-491010 4 12 13 14 as 16 a7 18 19 20 au 22 23 24 25 cq (VIDEO DEPO OF JEFFREY ROBERT BOEYINK) ies probably know. But he did not resign from the Credit Union Division. @. Okay. So there were ~~ A. ‘There were four. 2. Four. All right. And in your discussion with the governor about what to do about those four, what considerations were there? A. The governor's decision ultimately is he wanted to meet with these individuals, that he thought the next best course of action was to meet with the individuals and discuss their individual circumstances and their individual positions on a ~~ on a one-on-one basis. And so we facilitated a series of meetings with three of the individuals on the 29th. The fourth we could not even get ahold of. Mr. Forney was kind of AWOL, out of the state. And it -~ it actually took us a number of months to actually get ahold of him to have a conversation with him. So at the time we -- we made a decision -- the governor made a decision that he thought our best interests would be served if he met with all three of them and discussed their HUNEY-VAUGHN COURT REPORTERS, LTD. (515) 288-491010 qa 12 13 14 1s 16 17 18 19 20 au 22 23 24 25 cq (VIDEO DEPO OF JEFFREY ROBERT BOEYINK) 76 refusal to resign and the circumstances around it. Q. All right. Exhibit 59 is a -~ We're not exactly sure what it is. Do you see it there? AL I do. Q. It -- It appears to me to be a press release; is that correct? A. This -- This -- I -- I do remember this document. This was an option that we considered that -- to do a press release alerting people -- There was a lot of public interest in who was resigning and who wasn't. And one of the options was to go public with a -- you know, the three in this case that refused to resign. And upon discussion with the governor, it was his determination that this would not be the best course of action, that rather than to hold these people out publicly, he would rather meet with them individually. And so that was the decision that was made. All right. So the letters that are attached dated December 21, 2010, to Mr. Neil, Mr. Larson, and Mr. Godfrey were not actually sent? HUNEY-VAUGHN COURT REPORTERS, LTD. (515) 288-491010 a 12 13 14 15 16 uy 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 cq (VIDEO DEPO OF JEFFREY ROBERT BOEYINK) an A. They were never sent, no. Q. All right. The letter -- The paragraph of the letter that was not sent says "Please be assured I am exploring all available options for ensuring those doing work on behalf of my administration have my full confidence and your decision to temporarily deny me this opportunity regarding your current position clearly indicates the need for a change. Is that language with which the governor agreed? A. That was my language. I wrote that letter. The governor never agreed to this letter. @. All right. And decided not to send out the press release either? A. Yes, he did. Q. What options were there available for you in terms of those who refused to resign? A. At the time I was not aware of what other options might exist. Q. You say the -- “While Mr. Larson, Mr. Neil, and Mr. Godfrey may feel they have the legal right to refuse Governor Branstad's request, we will continue to explore other HUNEY-VAUGHN COURT REPORTERS, LTD. (515) 288-491010 1 12 13 14 15 16 aq 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 cq (VIDEO DEPO OF JEFFREY ROBERT BOEYINK) 78 options that ensure Governor Branstad has members of his team fulfilling these duties moving forward." When you wrote that sentence, Mr. Boeyink, what options were you exploring? A. I didn't At the time I didn't know of any other additional options that were available to us, and so the statement is that we are going to explore whether any other options exist. And so it was simply leaving the door open. Please understand, at this time it was my goal, my job to help the governor assemble a team that would help him fulfill his promises to the people of Towa. And that meant having people in positions that would make those things happen in whom he had confidence. And so it was my role to try to identify good people to bring to him to hire for these positions. It was my role to try to provide the option for him to have -- to make those -- those choices. But at all times -- at all times we respected the law, we respected the fact that these individuals had fixed terms and that we could only request resignations. We had HUNEY-VAUGHN COURT REPORTERS, LID. (515) 288-491010 at 12 13 a4 1s 16 17 18 19 20 aL 22 23 24 25 cq (VIDEO DEPO OF JEFFREY ROBERT BOEYINK) a7 no ability to -~ to force those resignations. Q. All right. (Bxhibit 105 was marked for identification.) Q. Exhibit 105 is your answer to our Interrogatory Number 4. Would you review that and make sure that I have given you what is, in fact, your answer? I believe this is it. Q. Okay. Look at the very last page. I may have inadvertently left off the -- Yeah. Did you, in fact, swear under oath that that answer was true and correct? MR. LaMARCA: Do you have a copy? MS. CONLI : For you? You don't have a copy of this? MR. LaMARCA: Well, not -- not in the form you're making it an exhibit, no. Did you, in fact, swear that Exhibit 105 is true and correct under oath? A. The copy that I saw, yes. Q. Okay. MS. CONLIN: Mr. LaMarca, I would like to add to Exhibit 105 that page which I inadvertently left out when I created this HUNEY-VAUGHN COURT REPORTERS, LTD (515) 288-491010 aL 12 13 14 15 16 7 1g 19 20 21 22 23 24 cq (VIDEO DEPO OF JEFFREY ROBERT BOEYINK) 80 exhibit, if T may do so MR. LaMARCA: You're talking about his verification? MS. CONLIN: I am. MR. LaMARCA: Yeah. No, I have no problem with that. And this looks like it's -- without studying it, it certainly looks like the individual portion of his affidavit. And he did, in fact, sign that, so it would have come after page 105. MS. CONLIN: Okay. MR. LaMARCA: Is that what you show? MS. CONLIN: Yes. Yes. MR. LaMARCA: Okay. I'm fine with that. MS. CONLIN: All right Q. Let me ask you about the December 29th meeting. Have you told me everything you recall about any discussions you had with the governor about Chris Godfrey or the Workers’ Compensation Division prior to December 29th? A. We would have prior to those meetings discussed all three of those individuals, all three of those positions, in terms of ~- just to HUNEY-VAUGHN COURT REPORTERS, LTD. (515) 288-491010 qt 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 eq (VIDEO DEPO OF JEFFREY ROBERT BOEYINK) tia prepare for the meeting. So, you know, we -- we would have discussed how we wanted to handle the meetings and -~ and what it is that =~ that the governor wanted to say during those meetings. Q@. What can you remember about those discussions you had with the governor specifically with respect to Chris Godfrey? A. The governor simply made it clear that -- that he did not like the direction that the office was going in. He intended to raise those issues with Mr. Godfrey during the during that discussion, talk to him about the concerns that he heard on the campaign trail and from different groups and organizations about Mr. Godfrey's decision-making and how it had created an antiemployer bias. He intended to raise those issues with Mr. Godfrey during that meeting. Q. Okay. Anything else that you can recall that you discussed with the governor prior to the meeting of December 29th, 20107 A. 1 think -- I believe that I've been thorough. Q. Did you review any documents, aside from the Oregon workers’ compensation report? HUNEY-VAUGHN COURT REPORTERS, LID. (515) 288-491010 aL 12 13 14 15 16 47 18 1g 20 aL 22 23 24 25 cq (VIDEO DEPO OF JEFFREY ROBERT BOEYINK) 82 AL No. No. Q. All right. and as -- And do you know whether or not you had the full report or whether you just had some pages from the report? A. What I recall is we had the rankings from the report. TI don't recall if we had the entire report. Q. Just one page of rankings? A. Or multiple pages to show over the years where the rankings had changed. But 1 don't specifically recall. I don't know that we had the full report at the time that we had the meeting. And the reality is, that report was not in and of itself. You know, it's not -- it’s not -- it was part of a decision. All right? It was part of a.-- of a process that the governor went through to make a decision to seek Mr. Godfrey's resignation. It wasn't the only factor. It was one of, you know, many factors, the most important of which being the individual meetings that the governor had with business owners and those who have been impacted by those decisions over time. I would say that would weigh more -- HUNEY-VAUGHN COURT REPORTERS, LTD. (515) 288-491010 iL 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 ca (VIDEO DEPO OF JEFFREY ROBERT BOEYINK) 83 you know, for him, those weigh very heavily for him in terms of what Iowans are telling him. Q. All right. As I understand it, present at the meeting were you, Lieutenant Governor Kim Reynolds, and the governor and the governor-elect at that time? A. Correct. Q. Did you take notes? A, I did not take notes. Q. Did anyone take notes? A. I'm not aware of anybody taking notes. Q. Do you have any notes of any of the meetings that you had with the governor prior to December 29th? A I do not. Q. Do you have any notes of any meeting that he may have had or =~ with any business leader or anyone concerning Mr. Godfrey? A I can't speak to what notes he has or doesn't have. 1 know I don't have any notes. Q. But you met -- as I understand it, you met with him on more than one occasion in which you discussed Chris Godfrey prior to December 29th. A. Not just Chris Godfrey, but all of the HUNEY-VAUGHN COURT REPORTERS, LTD. (515) 288-491010 a. 12 13 14 15 16 qT 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 cq (VIDEO DEPO OF JEFFREY ROBERT BOEYINK) Ba various people with whom we had - you know, we had multiple meetings on personnel issues. Not just on Chris Godfrey, but on all the people with whom we were seeking resignations. @. Did you take notes during any of those meetings? A. Ne, I didn't take notes. @. Tell me what you recall about the meeting of December 29th. A, On December 29th we had a series of three meetings. They were back to back to back, as I remember. I think they were all less than a half-hour in duration. I don't remember where Mr. Godfrey's meeting stacks in terms of the other three, whether it was before or after. It was a -- It was a cordial meeting. It was There was no animosity. we introduced ourselves to Mr. Godfrey. The governor started the conversation. In fact, the governor was the conversation. Indicated - Reminded him that he had requested a letter of resignation, reminded him also said, of course, "You now have -~ You have refused to resign, and you wish to continue to serve." And then the governor raised the HUNEY-VAUGHN COURT REPORTERS, LTD. (515) 288-491010 qn 42 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 aa 22 23 24 25 cq (VIDEO DEPO OF JEFFREY ROBERT BOEYINK) 85 issues that we have talked about here today, things that he had heard on the road, his concern about our ranking changing over time, and that the office had an antiemployer bias. He also made it clear that, you know, in -- you know, that as the elected -- new governor-elect and soon to be CEO of the state of Iowa, he had some very specific promises he needed to keep in regard to job creation, and he was concerned about this office being an impediment to that. So he raised those issues with Mr. Godfrey Mr. Godfrey in his response rejected all of the governor's arguments. He suggested that the governor was wrong about our work comp system, He was dismissive of the Oregon study. He was generally dismissive of the complaints that employers had -- had made to the governor. He also indicated that he had every intention to serve his full term. And he said he also wanted -- he also mentioned a computer system. I believe it was called the PERFECT system. It was something important to him, that they were in the midst of an HUNEY-VAUGHN COURT REPORTERS, LTD. (515) 288-491010 ql 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 cq (VIDEO DEPO OF JEFFREY ROBERT BOEYINK) 86 implementation process and that he wanted to serve his term so he could successfully get that implemented. The governor -~ T don't remember the exact words, but the governor said -- you know, recognized -- listened to what he had to say. There wasn't a lot -- There wasn't arguments back and forth. The governor expressed his disappointment. And. I think that was basically the end of the meeting. They -~ We parted company, and -- and that was the end of the meeting. @. At the beginning of the meeting is it correct that the governor asked Mr. Godfrey again if he would resign? A. I would -- I think that would be -- that would not be out of character for that meeting, no. @. All right. And he -- And Mr. Godfrey said no, he was.not going to resign; right? A. That's correct. @. And then -~ And is it correct that Mr. Godfrey explained why he was not going to resign? He -= He discussed he. believed he had HUNEY-VAUGHN COURT REPORTERS, LTD. (515) 288-491010 qn 12 13 44 15 16 a7 18 1g 20 21 22 23 24 25 cq (VIDEO DEPO OF JEFFREY ROBERT BOEYINK) 87 a - I think a duty to -- to maintain the office for the term that he was elected -- that he was appointed, but the gist of his comments to the governor were his refutation of the governor's assertation that the -- the work comp office was in any way a detriment to job creation. He - He was very dismissive of the governor's concerns, and he did not express an attitude that even recognized that the - the current operation of that office could have any detrimental effect on the - our ability to create jobs or the business climate in the state of Towa. Q. Did he, in fact, tell you that he believed that the Workers’ Compensation Division did not have an antiemployer bias? A. Yes, he did say that. @. And did he also tell you that the that the Workers’ Compensation Division was bound by law to do the things that precedent established? A. I don't recall his exact words. What I recall in their -- generally is that he did not acknowledge that the governor -- he did not acknowledge the governor's concerns that the HUNEY-VAUGHN COURT REPORTERS, LTD. (515) 288-491010 ql 12 13 14 18 16 17 18 19 20 2. 22 23 24 25 eq (VIDEO DEPO OF JEFFREY ROBERT BOEYINK) A office was antiemployer. He -- He dismissed that as - as not true from his perspective, 80 -- but ~~ Q. Did you -- A. Some of the other specifies -- Q@. Mr. Boeyink, did you expect him to admit that he had an antiemployer bias or that his office had an antiemployer bias? A, I didn't have. any particular expectations for his response. Q. Would it surprise you if he had said Yes, indeed, I am biased against employers"? A. No, but it would have been -- it would have been -- it would have been helpful if Mr. Godfrey had suggested that he was interested in working with the governor's office and that he -- @. Didn't he say that? A, -- that he was -- that he would recognize that -- that his office could be a part of the governor's solution on creating jobs and creating a probusiness environment, but he -- but he offered none of that in our -- in our meeting. @. Are you telling me that you do not HUNEY-VAUGHN COURT REPORTERS, LID. (515) 288-491010 a. 12 13 14 4s 16 a7 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 cq (VIDEO DEPO OF JEFFREY ROBERT BOEYINK) recall that he, in fact, said that he would conform his conduct insofar as possible to any of the governor's priorities? AL I do not recall him embracing any of the governor's priorities during that meeting. ©. Po you vecall that he said that -- that he had limitations as to what he might be able to do or not do in terms of employer concerns because of the law? A, I don't recall that. @. All right. Did the governor tell him that what he wanted -- Let me start again. Did the governor say that he wanted a member of his own team in that position? A The governor made clear he would like to have the opportunity to appoint a member of his own team to that position, yes. @. And a member of his own team would differ from My. Godfrey? A He didn't structure how it would differ, He simply generally said he wanted to have somebody that was more closely aligned to his view of job creation, more closely aligned to his priorities. HUNEY-VAUGHN COURT REPORTERS, LID. (515) 288-491010 at 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 1g 20 al 22 23 24 25 cq (VIDEO DEPO OF JEFFREY ROBERT BOEYINK) 90 Q. Okay. He wanted someone who would decide more cases for the employer; correct? A, No, he has never stated that. @. I didn't say he said that, but that -- AL He -- @. In fact, in order to be more pro job creation, a workers’ compensation commissioner would need to decide more cases for the employer; correct? A. All the governor wants out of that office is to have an individual that he trusts will bring an unbiased and objective point of view to the decision-making that goes on in that office. He doesn't want it to be pro-employer, he doesn't want it to be antiemployer. He wants an unbiased, objective individual to serve in that office. He believed Mr. Godfrey was biased and antiemployer. And thus by having the opportunity to appoint someone new to that position, he would have the opportunity to appoint somebody who would be an unbiased, objective decision-maker. And that in and of itself would make things better within that office. That HUNEY-VAUGHN COURT REPORTERS, LTD. (515) 288-491010 1 12 13 a4 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 cq (VIDEO DEPO OF JEFFREY ROBERT BOEYINK) s1 would be a big improvement in that office from the governor's perspective. Q. That, of course, assumes that Mr. Godfrey was biased against employers; correct? A It - What it assumes is that Governor Branstad is the CEO of the state and that it is his determination regarding those decisions to decide whether he believed Mr. Godfrey was biased or not biased. He had come to the conclusion, as I've said before, based on the conversations that he'd had with people all across the state who had interactions with that office that it was an antiemployer bias in that office. The governor came to that conclusion, yes. Q. All right. Is it your position that the governor can make decisions on the basis of what he thinks, regardless of what the facts are? A. The governor will make decisions based on what the Iowa Code empowers him to make those decisions. I mean, the governor is always going to live by the law. He's always going to take actions that are within the law. HUNEY-VAUGHN COURT REPORTERS, LTD. (515) 288-491010 at 12 13 14 15 16 7 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 cq (VIDEO DEPO OF JEFFREY ROBERT BOEYINK) 92 Q. You believe that you had a mandate after the election; correct? A. I believe that the governor was elected to -~ based -- based on our priorities to create jobs, to restore education to number one, to increase family incomes, and to make Iowa the healthiest state in the nation. We had a series of -~ of priorities, and the governor won a significant victory, and we -- and he believed he had a responsibility to the people to follow through on those promises. @. Did the lieutenant governor say anything that you recall? A. I do not recall her saying anything. Q. Did you say anything? A. I don't recall saying anything. @. Turn, if you would, to -- I believe it's the first page with respect to "Request to Resign." You say "Prior to the claims made by Mr. Godfrey in this case, I have never been accused of any type of harassment or discrimination, subject of any type of complaint or any lawsuit"; correct? A. Which -- Which page? HUNEY-VAUGHN COURT REPORTERS, LTD. (515), 288-491010 qn 12 13 14 1s 16 17 18 19 20 a1 22 23 24 25 eq (VIDEO DEPO OF JEFFREY ROBERT BOEYINK) 93 Q. I think it is -- A. The first request - 2. - ac(1). A. Oh, so right on top. Yes. Okay. @. Okay. Is that ~~ Are you with me? A. Yes. @. All right. In any of your prior employment positions have you ever had any harassment complaints made against you in any form? A. I have not. @. With respect to your past employment with the taxpayers association, were you ever accused of misconduct? A I was not. @. Were you ever disciplined during your time of employment with the taxpayers association? A. No, I was not @. As I understand it, you did not voluntarily leave your work at the taxpayers association. You were given the opportunity to resign; correct? A. That is correct. @. And was that resignation in lieu of HUNEY-VAUGEN COURT REPORTERS, LTD. (515) 288-4910ql 12 13 14 1s 16 23 24 25 cq (VIDEO DEPO OF JEFFREY ROBERT BOEYINK) 4 being discharged? A. I believed I would have been discharged, yes. Q. A. why? HUNEY-VAUGHN COURT REPORTERS, LTD. (515) 288-491010 ql 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 cq (VIDEO DEPO OF JEFFREY ROBERT BOEYINK) 95 All right. Tt goes on to say "In particular, during the interview of Mr. Godfrey, the governor shared that he had received a number of concerns from business leaders and employers concerning Mr. Godfrey's performance. Mr. Godfrey denied that he was antiemployer; however, he never gave any specifics.” Was Commissioner Godfrey under any obligation to meet with the three of you on December 29th, 2010? HUNEY-VAUGHN COURT REPORTERS, LTD. (515) 288-4910190 qn 12 13 14 15 16 7 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 cq (VIDEO DEPO OF JEFFREY ROBERT BOEYINK) 36 A. Obligation? Q. Yes. A I don't believe he was under any obligation. Q. He could have said "I'm not going to meet with you"? Certainly. @. And he could have kept on doing his job? A. Certainly. Q. What would have been the consequence of ignoring your request for a meeting? A I can't contemplate on what consequence for something that didn't occur. Q. What was his demeanor during the meeting? A, Well, he was professional. He was nervous, but he was professional. He was polite, He was not overly combative, but he was =~ @. Overly combative? A. Well, he was not combative. @. All right. A. He was dismissive. He didn't take seriously the governor's complaints or concerns. HUNEY-VAUGHN COURT REPORTERS, LTD. (515) 288-491010 ql 12 13 14 1s 16 ay 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 cq (VIDEO DEPO OF JEFFREY ROBERT BOEYINK) 97 Q. What part of his demeanor caused you to conclude that he was dismissive? A. He just ~- It was -- It was a very -- It was a -- Well, he did not acknowledge that there were any concerns. He did not acknowledge that the governor had -- his complaints had any legitimacy. He just simply said, "Well, that's just not true. I'm not antiemployer," and that was the end of it. I mean, his -- his comments were very curt. There was no depth or breadth to them. And it was just simply "Governor, you're wrong. I don't have office is not a problem." Q. If Mr. Godfrey believed the meeting was productive and mutually helpful, he would be wrong? A. TI wouldn't say that. I can't -~ I cannot speak to his perception of the meeting. Q. Well, but your perception would not be that it was productive and mutually helpful; correct? It -- It didn't lead to any outcomes that we were desiring, no. All right. What did Commissioner HUNEY-VAUGHN COURT REPORTERS, LID. (515) 288-491010 qt 12 13 14 15 16 47 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 cq (VIDEO DEPO OF JEFFREY ROBERT BOEYINK) 98 Godfrey say to you were the biggest challenges of the Iowa workers’ compensation system? I don't recall. Q. Did he explain legal -- Did he explain to you what legal reforms had taken place in other states? AL TI don't recall that he did. Did he mention the stability of the Towa workers' compensation insurance premiums? I don't recall that. @. Are you aware of what a -~ Well, let me ask you this. Did he discuss with you the problem of medical care costs? A, The reference -- The only reference that I recall to a medical issue was the governor raising the concern about Mr. Godfrey's position on choice of doctor. And he again refuted that he was an advocate for choice of doctor. @. Do you know ~~ A. That's what I -- That's what I recall as it relates to anything involving medical care or insurance. @ Do you += You don't remember any HUNEY-VAUGHN COURT REPORTERS, LTD. (515) 288-491010 qa 12 13 14 15 16 47 18 19 20 a1 22 23 24 25 eq (VIDEO DEPO OF JEFFREY ROBERT BOEYINK) 99 discussion of a medical fee schedule? A I do not. 2 You don't remember that Mr. Godfrey explained to the governor that two-thirds of the costs of workers' compensation are -- are, in fact, medical costs? A. I don't recall that. Q. Do you recall that he told the governor that Iowa was one of only four states that did not have a medical fee schedule? A. I don't recall that. Q. Did Commissioner Godfrey make the suggestion that leadership needed to be exercised to cut medical care costs in Iowa? A. I don't recall that. Q. Did Commissioner Godfrey try to correct misconceptions or errors in the factual allegations made by Governor Branstad? A. Mr. Godfrey generally denied that he was antiemployer. 2 Did - Do you recall Governor Branstad -- Do you recall that Governor Branstad did not know of Commissioner Godfrey's representation of businesses during his prior HUNEY-VAUGHN COURT REPORTERS, LTD (515) 288-491010 a. 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 29 20 21 22 23 24 25 eq (VIDEO DEPO OF JEFFREY ROBERT BOEYINK) 200 A. I don't know if the governor was aware of that. @. Do you ~~ De you know whether or not the governor was aware of Commissioner Godfrey's prior involvement in ABI? I do not know if the governor was aware of that. Q. Was there -- that any part of the discussion on -- A. No. I'm not sure why it would be. None of that is relevant to his performance as the insurance -- as the workers' comp commissioner. All the governor was focused on in this process was his perception of Mr. Godfrey's performance as the work comp commissioner and creating an antiemployer environment that was going to impede his ability to fulfill his promise to Iowans in terms of job creation. That was the focus of Mr. -- of Mr. Branstad's desire to -~ to make a change in that office. Q. Well, what specifics did you think that Commissioner Godfrey could provide to you HUNEY-VAUGHN COURT REPORTERS, LTD. (515) 288-491010 aL 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 1g 20 21 22 23 24 25 cq (VIDEO DEPO OF JEFFREY ROBERT BOEYINK) 101 regarding the assertion that he had an antibusiness bias? ALT cantt ~~ @. What specifics could he have given you that would have changed your mind or influenced you in any way? A. Well, one, he didn't provide any specifics. He made no attempt to change our minds, other than to suggest to us that we were wrong. Q. Well, in fact, he did discuss the medical fee schedule and the costs of medical care with you. You -- A. I don't recall that. Q. And it's possible that you do not recall that. And it's possible that the reason you do not recall that is because you went into the meeting with expectations about what Commissioner Godfrey would and would not say; correct? A. I had no expectations about what he would say. @. Do you deny that he discussed with the governor the problem of medical costs in connection with workers! compensation? HUNEY-VAUGHN COURT REPORTERS, LTD. (515) 288-491010 a 12 13 14 1s 16 ay 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 cq (VIDEO DEPO OF JEFFREY ROBERT BOEYINK) 102 A. I don't recall that discussion. Q. Okay. Do you deny that discussion occurred? A, How can I deny it if I don't recall it? Q. Well, there are two kinds of don't recall. One is I don't recall it and it didn't happen. And one is I don't recall it, it might have happened or it might not have happened. Is it correct that what you're saying is I don't recall it, it might have happened or it might not have happened? A, I think that's a fair statement, yes. @. All right. Do you consider the Iowa workers’ compensation law antibusiness in 2011? A. We -- We didn't have any problems with the law. We never sought changes with the law. we ~ We didn't want to fix the work comp program on the backs of workers. What we wanted was a work comp commissioner who fairly and objectively applied the law to the decisions that they made, and we didn't believe that's what was occurring. @. Are you aware that business interests were attempting to pass reforms to the workers’ compensation statutes in 2011 due to their HUNEY-VAUGHN COURT REPORTERS, LTD. (515) 288-491010 a 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 1s 20 21 22 23 24 25 cq (VIDEO DEPO OF JEFFREY ROBERT BOEYINK) 103 belief that the workers' compensation law was antibusiness? A. I'm not aware of those. And none of those made it to the governor's desk. @. Do you -- Do you understand that a workers’ compensation commissioner has to apply the law as written? A. As does every -- every official that serves in the executive branch. Q. Do you agree that it's difficult -- Well, look at Exhibit 61, if you would. AL Yes. You received that at 9:35 a.m. on December 29th, 2010; correct? A. Yes, I did. That was from Mike Ralston, who was then and may be still the president of ABI; correct? AL Yes. Q. It encloses an e-mail from Mr. John Gilliland sent a few minutes before, at 9:27, to Mr. Ralston; correct? A. That's correct. Q. All right. The issues that Mr. Gilliland mentions are, number 1, HUNEY-VAUGHN COURT REPORTERS, LTD. (515) 288-491010 at 12 13 a4 15 16 17 18 19 20 2. 22 23 24 25 cq (VIDEO DEPO OF JEFFREY ROBERT BOEYINK) 104 "Instituted a system of round robin appeals reviewed by work comp deputies." Do you know whether or not that was a fact? AL I do not. Q. “Godfrey hears very few appeals himself, setting no precedent or consistency for the impacted stakeholders to follow.” Do you know whether or not that is a fact? A, I do not. Q. “Deputies reverse each others! decisions out of spite, rather than following any consistent precedent. Do you know whether or not that is a fact? A. I do not. @. Did you pass on Exhibit 61 to the governor? A. . The governor would have had this prior to that meeting, yes. Q@. All right. He -- You gave him this e-mail? A. He would have had a copy of this e-mail. HUNEY-VAUGHN COURT REPORTERS, LTD. (515) 288-491010 an 12 13 14 15 16 ay 18 19 20 aL 22 23 24 25 cq (VIDEO DEPO OF JEFFREY ROBERT BOEYINK) 105 Q. All right. A. Mike Ralston, John Gilliland are highly respected by myself and by the governor as -- as good representatives of the business industry We would have no reason to believe that they would supply us with false information. But I cannot -~ I cannot speak to the specifics of what they had provided us, whether or not I know personally these are based in fact, but again, we put -- you know, we all put trust in different people. The governor and myself, we have great trust in Mr. Ralston and Mr. Gilliland that they understand what's going on out there. And so this -- we would have taken this document seriously. @. In the body of the e-mail from Mr. Gilliland he cites the case of BPI versus Rizvic, 11-18-10. Did you look at that decision? A. At that time certainly not. we may have had an opportunity -- We reviewed a number of cases in 2011 prior to our meeting with Mr. Godfrey in July where we -- where Ms. Findley provided an overview of 2 number of the cases. This could very well have been one HUNEY-VAUGHN COURT REPORTERS, LID. (515) 288-491010 aL 12 13 14 1s 16 7 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 cq (VIDEO DEPO OF JEFFREY ROBERT BOEYINK) 16 of them. I don't recall it specifically. Q. Okay. Did you understand at the time that you received this what the duty of Deputy Walshire was? AL No. @. Okay. Did you under -- Did you know at the time what Commissioner Godfrey could or could not do with respect to the decision of Deputy Walshire? A. I'm not aware of that, no. Q. Number 2 says “By administrative rule, disregarded the latest version of the AMA Guides to be used in work comp for determining pain and disability ratings. Towa still uses the fifth edition, Did you make any inquiry of Mr. Gilliland, Mr, Godfrey, or anyone else with respect to the feason that the Towa Workers!’ Compensation Division did not use the sixth edition of the AMA Guides? A. I did not. @. Do you know what process was used by the Workers’ Compensation Division to decide which of the AMA Guides should be used in Iowa? A. I do not. HUNEY-VAUGHN COURT REPORTERS, LTD. (515) 288-491010 a 12 13 a4 15 16 7 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 eq (VIDEO DEPO OF JEFFREY ROBERT BOEYINK) 107 Q. Did you ask anybody? AL No. (exhibit 106 was marked for identification.) @. Here is Exhibit 106, which is a report of the AMA Guides Task Force. Have you ever seen that before? A. T don’t believe that I have, no. Q. Are you aware that Commissioner Godfrey asked a task force to review and compare the AMI -- AMA Guides Fifth and Sixth Edition? A. I was not aware. Q. Were you aware that that task force included representatives of business, of industry -- actually, you can say -- you can see right at the top it says “The task force was comprised of eight voting members intended to represent a broad spectrum of the Iowa workers! compensation commission," including doctors, attorneys who represent employees, attorneys who represent employers, administrative law judges. I think there were two of everything. And Helenjean Walleser was the task force moderator but did not vote. They met periodically and came HUNEY-VAUGHN COURT REPORTERS, LID. (515) 288-491010 oe 12 13 14 18 16 47 18 19 20, 21 22 23 24 25 cq (VIDEO DEPO OF JEFFREY ROBERT BOEYINK) 108 out with a seven to one decision not to adopt the sixth edition. Were you aware of that? AL T was not. Q. Would that have been helpful information to you to have? A. As I've indicated throughout this process, there wasn’t one determining factor that resulted in the governor desiring to make a change in that office. There were many different factors. So this -- you know, whether or not that would have been helpful, I can't -- I can't say. Q. All right. Mr. Gilliland goes on to say "Completely disregards counsel and resources of the Iowa Workers' Compensation Advisory Committee." Do you know whether that was factual -or not? A. TI do not. @. Do you have any idea what the basis is for Mr. Gilliland's assertion that he disregards the counsel and resources of the Iowa Workers’ Compensation Advisory Committee? A. I do not. HUNEY-VAUGHN COURT REPORTERS, LTD. (515) 288-491010 al 12 13 a4 1s 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 cq (VIDEO DEPO OF JEFFREY ROBERT BOEYINK) 109 Q. "Towa work" -- Number 4, “Towa work comp rates will rise again on January Ist - a key driving factor cited by NCCI is the increase in ‘permanent total disability’ decisions by the commissioner's office under Godfrey. In a number of those cases, the claimant was still working or able to work." Do you know whether or not any part of that statement is factual? A. Once again, Mr. Godfrey -- Mr. Ralston and Mr. Gilliland are people we trust, are people whe do this work for a living, who represent business. They are trusted to us. And so when they brought this kind of material to us, it would -- it would be meaningful to us. But no, I did not make any attempt to individually verify any of the statements that he provided me @. Okay. So the entirety of Mr. Gilliland's statements to you of December 29th, 2010 ~~ none of those were checked by you; correct? A. No. @. All of them were given to the governor; correct? HUNEY-VAUGHN COURT REPORTERS, LTD. (515) 288-491010 aa 12 13 14 15 16 a7 18 1g 20 21 22 23 24 25 cq (VIDEO DEPO OF JEFFREY ROBERT BOEYINK) 110 A. | Absolutely Q. And as well as Mr. Ralston's e-mail above that one of Mr. Gilliland; correct? A. I believe so, yes. Q. Mr. Ralston writes -- Mr. Ralston writes to you and says "In addition to the items below, Commissioner Godfrey has actively advocated for employee choice of doctor." That is something that the governor did, in fact, bring up with Mr. Godfrey during the meeting of December 29th; correct? A. He did. Yes, he did. Q. And Mr. Godfrey said that was false; correct? A. He -- That's correct. He denied that he had that position or he had taken that position. Q. Did you ever investigate whether or not he had taken that position as commissioner? Q. Did you ever determine whether or not he had taken that position at any time before -~ Q. => he became commissioner? "We should argue that is HUNEY-VAUGHN COURT REPORTERS, LID. (515) 288-491010 wd 12 13 14 15 16 ay 18 19 20 2a 22 23 24 25 cq (VIDEO DEPO OF JEFFREY ROBERT BOEYINK) aii definitely not his role That is to say the advocating for employee choice of doctors. "Finally, the code was changed to allow him to return to private practice immediately upon leaving state government. That could be changed back (actions have consequences) ." That's what Mr. Ralston telis you; correct? A. Correct. Q@. "Actions have consequences." That was personal to Mr. Godfrey; correct? A. I can't speak to -- to Mike's motivation there. Q. Well, Z must tell you, it looks like it would be vindictive and punishment to Mr. Godfrey directly if the law was changed in order to affect him directly; correct? MR. LaMARCA: Well, I'm going to -- Excuse me. I'm going to have to object to counsel's statement. And it's not a proper question. It's an argument at best and - and not a proper item to inject into this deposition. I think he's done a good job of answering your questions. I've not made any HUNEY-VAUGHN COURT REPORTERS, LTD. (515) 288-491010 iL 12 13 14 1s 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 cq (VIDEO DEPO OF JEFFREY ROBERT BOEYINK) 112 objections, but to assert this type of material is improper. So the form of the question is improper, it's compound, it's argumentative. Do you agree that "That could be changed back {actions have consequences)" would be vindictive? I -- We never took any -- I mean, we never proposed any laws to change anything to do with the work comp office from the governor's office. So, you know, the motivations for changing this, I can't necessarily agree that that's a motivation of vindictiveness. There might be other good policy reasons to make this change. There was obviously a policy reason to change it beforehand. I can't speak to that. I'm not a law maker. I'm not making that policy. Q. Okay. He goes on to say "Hope this helps. See you at 11:30." Did you, in fact, see him at 11:30? I -- I don't know. I would assume maybe we had a lunch that day. But I can't -- I don't have that calendar any longer, so I can't HUNEY-VAUGHN COURT REPORTERS, LID. (515) 288-491010 qa 12 13 14 15 16 7 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 cq (VIDEO DEPO OF JEFFREY ROBERT BOHYINK) 113 verify whether or not I met with Mike Ralston that day. @. All xight. That would be after you met with the three individuals? A. I believe all those three meetings were conducted in the morning. So that would have been post. @. Would you have reported to him what was the content of those meetings? A. No. That was not my role. That was ~~ That was something I would have kept. Q. What would you have discussed with him? A. Well, Mike was very helpful to me in a number of areas during the transition. In particular, he suggested, at my request, names for potential placement with the Department of Revenue. He -- He had worked, you know, as a former ~~ he was the former director of the Iowa Department of Revenue, and I sought his advice in terms of people with whom he was acquainted that could potentially serve in that capacity. And I was looking for his expertise at that time. T know we were having conversations like that at that time. HUNEY-VAUGHN COURT REPORTERS, LTD. (515) 288-491010 i 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 cq (VIDEO DEPO OF JEFFREY ROBERT BORYINK) = 114 Q. All right. There was another meeting with Chris Godfrey on July llth. After the December 29th, 2010 meeting, when next did you talk with the governor or with Brenna Findley about Chris Godfrey? A. The -- So the period of time after we met with Mr. Godfrey, he went back to do his work, we -- you know, we -- we were not -- we did not interfere with his office in any way. There.was no --.There was no attempt to -- to micromanage his. office. You know, the governor continues to. travel the state, he continues to meet with business owners, he does -- he does a meeting -~ you know, if you looked at his schedule, he does hundreds of meetings every single year. And during that period of time he continued to hear concerns about Mr. Godfrey, about his office, about his antiemployer bias. T would suggest to you that that was ongoing all during that time. When: -- When we refocused on these issues, it would have been sometime likely in the month of June. or early July. You know, if you might recall, we HUNEY-VAUGHN COURT REPORTERS, LTD. (515) 288-491010 un 12 13 14 15 16 a7 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 cq (VIDEO DEPO OF JEFFREY ROBERT BOEYINK) 115 went through a very contentious budget debate We didn't get the budget done until very near the end of the fiscal year. So we were very focused on a lot of those activities at that point. But when we were near the completion of -- that budget process, we wanted to revisit a number of issues that we had carried over from the transition. Mr. Godfrey's position was one of those issues we wanted to revisit. So I would suggest to you, you know, at some point during that period of time the governor asked Brenna to assemble a summary of the various cases that had been referenced by people. He wanted to corroborate whether or not there was validity in what people were saying about some of the - what they characterized as bizarre decisions. So during that period Brenna would have -- would have started that process and we would have had a meeting or two to discuss that prior to the meeting that we had with Mr. Godfrey. 2 Did you have any contact with HUNEY-VAUGHN COURT REPORTERS, LTD (515) 288-491010 an 12 13 14 15 16 7 18 19 20 a. 22 23 24 25 ca (VIDEO DEPO OF JEFFREY ROBERT BORYINK) 116 Mr. Godfrey himself between December 23th, 2010, and July 11th, 2011? A. I'm not aware of any contact. @. Did you ever ask any questions or did anyone from the governor's office ever ask any questions of Mr. Godfrey, to your knowledge? A. I don't believe that we did. Q. Did you ever ask or did anyone on behalf of the governor ever ask him about the cases that were referenced? A, We did not. I don't believe that we did. Q. Never -- Never asked him for any explanation? Never asked him what the law was? Nothing Like that; correct? A. No, we did not. Q. Okay. Where are any documents about the many things that the governor was hearing throughout the state between December 29th -- actually, before -- at any time? Well, those weren't documents. Those were conversations. Those were conversations that the governor had with individuals. Q. But no documentation was ever made of any of those discussions; is that correct? HUNEY-VAUGHN COURT REPORTERS, LTD. (515) 288-491010 qt 12 13 14 1s 16 17 18 19 20 at 22 23 24 25 cq (VIDEO DEPO OF JEFFREY ROBERT BOEYINK) 117 A. No. No. Q. There are no existing papers, to your knowledge, that say anything about Chris Godfrey? A. No. I believe we complied completely with the request for documents. MS. CONLIN: Why don't we take a moment. THE VIDEOGRAPHER: Off the record ending Tape 2 at 11:28. (A recess was taken.) (Wr. Godfrey present via telephone. } THE VIDEOGRAPHER: On the record beginning Tape 3 at 11:39. Mr. Boeyink, did you as part of your duties as chief of staff meet with department and division heads on an annual basis? A. Not on an annual basis. We met with department heads on a frequent -- a relatively frequent basis, cluster meetings set up once every six weeks, you know, two months we would meet with our groups in smaller groups. Altogether, that didn't happen very often. Q. Did you have individual meetings with HUNEY-VAUGHN COURT REPORTERS, LTD. (515) 288-491010 uw 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 cq {VIDEO DEPO OF JEFFREY ROBERT BOEYINK) 118 department and division heads to assess their performance or did -- did you arrange those meetings for the governor? A. I would I mean, I would personally quite frequently have lunch or breakfast with different department heads over the course of my employment as the governor's chief of staff. Then we would organize -- through the Department of Management would organize what we called our cluster meetings, which is at a time where we would have like - we would have a group of department heads who served the governor in a particular subject matter area would meet with him on a periodic basis to discuss what was going on in their agencies. Q. Okay. But you do not recall at least in 2011 sending an e-mail to department and division heads setting up meetings over a period of a day or two? I'm unclear whether it was for you or for the governor, but for someone to assess the performance of those department and division heads. A, We were doing performance reviews of our department heads all the time. I mean, we were -- I mean, that's an ongoing activity. HUNEY-VAUGHN COURT REPORTERS, LTD (515) 288-491010 a 12 13 14 15 16 a7 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 cq (VIDEO DEPO OF JEFFREY ROBERT BOEYINK) 119 We did have a period of time where we met with some of our department heads to meet with them individually. Sometimes we met with people individually to talk about performance issues, sometimes it was the governor and myself, maybe the director of the Department of Management would be discussing a specific department head's performance. Q. When I took Teresa Wahlert's deposition, she indicated that she met with you and/or the governor annually for the purpose of having her performance assessed. Is that correct or incorrect? A. Certainly. I remember she was one of our department heads who we did have specific meetings to talk about her performance, yes. @. All right. Anyone else with whom you had those annual meetings? A. Again, I'm not going to characterize them as annual, because they are not necessarily annual. Performance review is an ongoing process in the governor's office. At specific times the governor may want to meet with an individual to talk about their performance HUNEY-VAUGHN COURT REPORTERS, LTD. (515) 288-491010 al 12 13 14 15 16 a7 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 cq (VIDEO DEPO OF JEFFREY ROBERT BOEYINK) 120 specifically. That was a case where he met with Director Wahlert. Yes, there were others. Tcan't recall. I can't give you a list right now in terms of who might have had individual meetings with the governor over the course of that period of time, but there would have been more than just ~~ than Director Wahlert. Q. Was Labor Commissioner Mauro one of the people with whom the governor and/or you met? A. I don't believe so, no. And he was not an individual who was part of our cluster meetings either. He was not considered to be at that department head level. Q@. All right. Tell me what you recall of any meeting or meetings you had with Brenna Findley prior to July 11th, 2011 A. Regarding? I mean, I meet with Brenna all the time. Q. Regarding A. I mean, as the governor's legal counsel, she and I would have met every day multiple times a day. Anything specific? @. Yes. With respect to workers" compensation, workers’ compensation insurer, HUNEY-VAUGHN COURT REPORTERS, LTD. (515) 288-491010 aL 12 13 14 1s 16 17 18 19 20 ai 22 23 24 25 ca (VIDEO DEPO OF JEFFREY ROBERT BOEYINK) iat commissioner, premiums, anything having to de with workers’ compensation. A. Well, Brenna and I would have met, as both of us working for the governor, when he asked Brenna to put together some of the case history in terms of some of the decisions that were made that were decided by -- by individuals who brought those to the governor's attention. We would have met post that to talk about, okay, what's the process for getting that done. I can't -- I can't tell you specific dates or times that Brenna and I would have met, but she and 1 communicated quite frequently on all matters relating to the governor and his request to us, you know, for information, for follow-up. So it's very likely that she and I had a meeting or a series of meetings leading up to our conversations with the governor when he made his decisions regarding Mr. Godfrey, but I can't tell you how many or on what dates those actually occurred. Q@. All right. Did you participate in any way in researching the cases? A I did not. HUNEY-VAUGHN COURT REPORTERS, LTD. (515) 288-491010 1 12 13 14 4s 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 eq (VIDEO DEPO OF JEFFREY ROBERT BOEYINK) ad 2. Did you participate with Ms. Findley when she met with the governor to discuss any cases? A. TI would have been present at the time that she sat with him. I believe I was present at the time that we met and she gave him an oral overview of the -- of the cases. Q@. All right. Were those cases that she specified by name? A. She would have specified I believe Brenna would have specified those by name. 1 cannot recall those -- I don't have that recall in terms of what specific cases that she referenced. Q. All right. Was she talking from memory about individual cases? A. I don't recall if she was talking from memory. Most of our conversations were -- we did not have agendas, we did not share written documents in that regard.. We -- What we preferred to do in the governor's office is to speak with one another, have conversations. I don't recall her handing anything out at that meeting to either the governor or myself HUNEY-VAUGHN COURT REPORTERS, LTD. (515) 288-491010 iL 12 13 14 15 16 a7 18 19 20 24 22 23 24 25 cq (VIDEO DEPO OF JEFFREY ROBERT BOEYINK) 123 Q. Did she have ~~ Did she give the governor a briefing with respect to specific cases from memory? A. I believe she gave -- I don't recall her giving the governor any specific piece of paper in regard to the cases or her summary. Q. Did she -- A. It was an oral summary. 2. Did she have a piece of paper or pieces of paper with her when she gave the governor the briefing on the specific cases? A. [I wouldn't know if the paper -- if she had a paper specific to that request or if she simply had a legal pad to take notes in a meeting. But I don't -- I can't tell you, for Q. Was there A. But I -- I wouldn't know what Brenna had in her possession. Q. Was there one meeting at which she briefed the governor on cases that you were present for, or -- or were there more than one such meeting? A. My recollection is there was one primary meeting -- there was a meeting to HUNEY-VAUGHN COURT REPORTERS, LTD. (515) 288-491010 a 12 13 14 15 16 47 18 1g 20 21 22 23 24 25 cq (VIDEO DEPO OF JEFFREY ROBERT BOEYINK) 12a discuss whether or not we wanted to continue to look at this issue, and the governor made a determination that he wanted to continue to look at this issue and asked Brenna to put together a summary and that we would revisit it. He wanted to ensure that he had the legal authority, you know, for whatever actions that he took, and so he wanted to make sure that that was thoroughly researched and that whatever actions that he took were within his legal authority as governor. Those were, I believe, the instructions that we were under. We came back to him at a later date, and it was at that meeting when this was laid out. And the governor made the decision at that time to lower Mr. Godfrey's salary. @. As I understand it, there was a meeting at which you took up the issue of whether or not you wanted to pursue any efforts with respect to Mr. Godfrey; correct? A, Right. Q. Tell me about that meeting. A. That was a more general meeting, where the governor indicated that he had continued to hear problems in regards to Mr. Godfrey's BUNEY-VAUGHN COURT REPORTERS, LTD. (515) 288-491010 ql 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 cq (VIDEO DEPO OF JEFFREY ROBERT BOEYINK) 125 performance in the office based on the travels that he was engaged in around the state and that he was of the belief that nothing - you know, that it wasn’t -- the situation wasn't getting any better and -- and that he was dissatisfied - in his - with Mr. Godfrey's performance in the way he was conducting that office and that he wanted us to pursue, you know, what were his legal options in terms of being the governor, what were his responsibilities as far as being governor in — in regards to setting Mr. Godfrey's salary. So that was a discussion that was had. Research was done, cases were summarized. We came back together, we had a discussion, and at the end of that meeting the governor made his decision. Q. All right. what Were the cases provided at the same meeting at which the governor made his decision to cut Mr. Godfrey's salary? A I can't recall specifically, but I - but I'm certain -~ but there certainly would have been a discussion that the cases corroborate what you've been hearing, Governor, HUNEY-VAUGHN COURT REPORTERS, LID. (515) 288-491010 aL 12 13 14 15 16 7 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 cq (VIDEO DEPO OF JEFFREY ROBERT BOEYINK) 126 in regards to, you know, your travels and the meetings that you're having with employers across the state. These cases suggest some bizarre -- that was some of their words -~ bizarre decision-making in the office. And the governor was continued -- was -- continued to believe that Mr. Godfrey's office, the -- the way he was conducting it, was, again, antiemployer biased and was potentially inhibiting his ability to follow through on his commitment to the people of Iowa to create jobs. Q. Did the -- Who said that the decisions were, quote, bizarre? A. This is just words that people used in regard to referencing those decisions, I can't tell you the specific individual who used the word "bizarre," but that was a word that frequently came up in regard to Mr. Godfrey's decisions. Q. Is that a word that the governor passed on to you? I don't know if he passed that on to me or if it came to us through other people. I can't ~~ I don't know particularly. HUNEY-VAUGHN COURT REPORTERS, LTD. (515) 288-491010 qa 12 13 a4 15 16 47 18 1s 20 21 22 23 24 25 ca (VIDEO DEPO OF JEFFREY ROBERT BOEYINK) 127 Q. Would either/or -- Are we talking about -- I know we're talking about two meetings at least; correct? A. Probably a couple of meetings, yes. Q. All right. Could there have been three or four? A. No. I mean, I don't think this would have -- I don't know that this would have required three or four meetings. Q@. All right. Would those meetings be on your calendar? A. They may or may not be on my calendar. Q. How long did the meetings last? A. That kind of meeting, as long as it took for us to get through it wouldn't -- I couldn't speculate, but it certainly could have been 30 minutes to an hour. @. Okay. Would that be both the meeting at which the cases were discussed -- I'ma little confused, frankly. I know there were two meetings. One meeting as you explained it to me, T believe, was that -- that was a meeting at which the question of whether or not to pursue anything with respect to Mr. Godfrey was HUNEY-VAUGHN COURT REPORTERS, LTD. (515) 288-491010 1 12 13 14 45 16 a7 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 cq (VIDEO DEPO OF JEFFREY ROBERT BOEYINK) a discussed; correct? A, ~ And -- And it wasn't just Mr. Godfrey. We wanted to revisit the issue of -- you know, we had a situation with Steve Larson where he also had refused to resign. We wanted to discuss how that relationship had worked out. And we also wanted to -~ Dave Neil had left his position because his term -~ so we wanted to revisit those issues, those three situations. Dave Neil had left. Mr. Mauro was in that position. Steve Larson still continued to serve the governor as the alcoholic beverages commissioner. We discussed that. We discussed his situation, and we came to the conclusion we were very pleased with the work that Mr. Larson was doing and that we didn't want to take any further action in regard to him. Then we discussed Mr. Godfrey's situation, the work comp commissioner's office. We continued to -- The governor continued to express concerns about that office. And that's when he instructed us to do the research in the code to do some of the research on the cases and HUNEY-VAUGHN COURT REPORTERS, LID. (515) 288-491010 a 32 13 14 15 16 7 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 cq (VIDEO DEPO OF JEFFREY ROBERT BOEYINK) 129 to come back to him so that we could have a final discussion in regards to anything we wished to do in regard to that matter. 2. Okay. $0 the first meeting had to do not only with Mr. Godfrey but with other people as well? A. That's right. We were -- I wanted to revisit the three individuals who had not resigned and where we were with those folks and whether or not there was anything more that we needed to do. We wanted to -- to revisit that. You know, in the example - so with Mr. Larson, in his individual case, he had -- when we met with him in December of 2010, he made it clear to us that he did not wish to resign. He made it clear to us that he had implemented a significant number of -- of reforms within his office specifically to respond to a report from the state auditor that was very critical of his predecessor and led to his predecessor feeling compelied to resign. He was proud of the work that he was doing. He asked us to check on that. And he made it very clear to us that he wanted to -- he wanted to be a very active member of our HUNEY-VAUGHN COURT REPORTERS, LTD. (515) 288-491010 a 12 13 14 15 16 uy 18 19 20 a1 22 23 24 25 cq (VIDEO DEPO OF JEFFREY ROBERT BOEYINK) a team, that he shared our priorities, and that -~ that we could count on him to be very supportive of the governor's efforts. We reviewed all of that. At that same time Auditor Vaudt had made it very clear that he had followed through on these issues. Everything that Mr. Larson promised us he would do he had done. And so from that perspective, we didn't want to pursue anything additional with him. Different story in regards to Mr. Godfrey's case and a different decision. @. okay. I'm looking -- here it is ~- for the material that you may have made in connection with your meeting with Mr. Godfrey, Mr. Larson, and Mr. Neil. Would you please look at Exhibit 60? A. Yes. Okay. This -~ Was this piece of paper something that you took into the meetings with you? This would have been notes that I provided the governor prior to those meetings. @. All right. The notes ~ A, This would have been the meeting in HUNEY-VAUGHN COURT REPORTERS, LTD (515) 288-491010 an 12 13 14 15 16 a7 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 cq (VIDEO DEPO OF JEFFREY ROBERT BOEYINK) a December of 2010. Q. All right. My question is this typewritten part, did everybody have this typewritten part? A. Everybody would have had this typewritten part, yes. Q. ALL righ And who prepared the typewritten part? A. I prepared it. @. All right. And on -~ you include for Mr. Larson what his position is, when his term expires, his experience, and an option for him correct? A. Yes. That's correct @. All right. For Mr. Godfrey you say what his position is, when his term -- term expires. You say "There are concerns about his previous decisions that could be interpreted by employers as impediments -- impediments to business development and job growth. Getting information from ABI." And you say “Put him on notice as to the goals of the new Branstad administration." What did you mean by "put him on notice"? HUNEY-VAUGHN COURT REPORTERS, LID. (515) 288-491010 qi 12 13 14 1s 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 cq (VIDEO DEPO OF JEFFREY ROBERT BOEYINK) 132 A. We wanted to make very clear to Mr. Godfrey that the governor's priorities, particularly as it related to job creation, were significant and would be a high priority for the administration. And we wanted to share with him our concerns that his office, its decision-making, the perceived antiemployer bias that had been brought forward to us by business owners all across the state would be an impediment to that job creation. We wanted to be -- We wanted to be very clear about that. Q. All right. You didn't give him any options as you gave to Mr. Larson; correct? AL No. Q. All right. And then David Neil, you say he's the Iowa labor commissioner with a term expiring at the end of April and you want to name Mr. Mauro. Does -- Is there any particular reason he feels the need to serve the next four months and appeal to common sense and fairness; correct? A. Yes. Q. Are you the person who made the notes that appear on this document? HUNEY-VAUGHN COURT REPORTERS, LTD (515) 288-491010 1 12 13 14 15 16 a7 18 1s 20 21 22 23 24 25 cq (VIDEO DEO OF JEFFREY ROBERT BOoEYINK) 123 A. Yes. That is my attempt at handwriting. Q Okay. Well, let's start at the top. If you would read to me first the note on the left-hand side with respect to Mr. Larson. A. It's my note to myself to call Auditor vaudt. Q. Call who? A. Auditor Vaudt. Q. Okay. Did you do that? Afi Q. And what did you discuss with Auditor vaudt? A. I wanted to verify with Auditor vaudt Mr. Larson's claims that he had -- in his capacity had taken steps to not overcome but taken the steps that the auditor had recommended as part of his audit of Mr. Larson's predecessor and that he was moving forward appropriately, cooperating with the office, and that he was making the changes that he indicated to us that he was making. I spoke to Auditor Vaudt. He was very complimentary of Mr. Larson. He said absolutely he had made the changes that he HUNEY-VAUGHN COURT REPORTERS, LTD. (515) 288-491010 1 12 13 14 15 16 ay 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 cq (VIDEO DEPO OF JEFFREY ROBERT BOEYINK) 134 suggested he had made and that they were moving they were moving in a good direction. Q. Okay. A. Se I did that follow-up. @. All right. And then there is a note on the right-hand side that I believe begins with "i984." A. I believe that references how long he has served in state government. I think that's what that is, is that he -- 1984 to present that he has been in state government. 1 think that's what that means. Q. Okay. And then I believe that the notes at the bottom —- it says "Larson." Can you read those notes to me? A. Tt says "Larson - Audit for last two fiscal years I made a note that I needed to talk to Vaudt, checking to see if he implemented the Vaudt audit report procedural changes, whether he dealt with the -- when the audit was done, they encountered a lack of discipline within the organization, whether Auditor Vaudt believed that had been taken care of. Q. Okay. Wait a minute. It says -- I don't understand the first word. Is that HUNEY-VAUGHN COURT REPORTERS, LTD. (515) 288-491010 a 12 13 14 15 16 a7 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 cq (VIDEO DEPO OF JEFFREY ROBERT BOEYINK) 135 "incompetent"? A. No. “Encountered.” Q@. Oh, "encountered"? A. “Encountered a lack of discipline within the organization" was one of the complaints about the organization. Q. Okay. "Within the" -- A. "organization 2 oh, really? All right. And then "Liquor," and what does that say? A. That was a note "Liquor - no longer distributed by private contractors." That was important in that meeting because when the governor had been governor before, they had privatized liquor delivery as part of the -- and then it had -~ since his return it had gone back to where it was being delivered by state employees again. That was just an issue of note that the governor was interested in that I took notes. Q. Okay. "Was" maybe? "Was" -- what does that say? A. "Liquor - no longer distributed by HUNEY-VAUGHN COURT REPORTERS, LTD. (515) 288-491010 a 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 cq (VIDEO DEPO OF JEFFREY ROBERT BOEYINK) a private -- by private contractors - has reverted to having state employees provide the service." Q. "20 truckdrivers"? A. "20 truckdrivers." Q. Okay. A. You can see why I started typing up my homework in junior high. @. Oh, yes, T can. okay. Now, Commissioner Godfrey, the note says "Horbach"? A. “Horbach." That's represents -- referencing Representative Horbach, who is head of == @. And ~~ A. And "Ward" would have been Representative Pat Ward. ‘Those would have been two Republicans on the committee that deals with the work comp commissioner's office. Q. Was Horbach a senator or a rep? A. He was a state representative. Q. Okay. He was chair of that committee at the time, I believe. Or he was the incoming chair, because they had just taken control in the election of 2017 -- or 2010. HUNEY-VAUGHN COURT REPORTERS, LID. (515) 288-491010 a 12 13 a4 16 17 18 1g 20 21 22 23 24 25 cq (VIDEO DEPO OF JEFFREY ROBERT BOEYINK) ao @. And over on the right -- the right side it says "January 2006." That's when he started; correct? A. I believe that must be what that references. @. Okay. And then tell me what the other writing says on the right side of the page. A. The bottom one, I believe, says “Problems with reimbursement policy (too many steps)." Honestly, I do not recall what that is referencing. The other one has something to do with appeals, but I cannot recall -~ I'm having trouble deciphering my own handwriting on that one. Q. Could it be "Tries to" something "appeals"? Could that first word be “tries”? Is that a 1? A. I believe that is aT. The last word I can definitely tell is "appeals." @. Right. A. But it -- it's going to be hard for me to speculate what I meant by that. @. All yight. All right. And then with respect to Mr. Neil, underneath his typewritten HUNEY-VAUGHN COURT REPORTERS, LTD. (515) 288-491010 a 12 13 14 15 16 7 18 19 20 a1 22 23 24 25 ©q (VIDEO DEPO OF JEFFREY ROBERT BOEYINK) 138 thing I think it says "Have Mike start working with Dave to" -- A. "Smooth the transition.” Q. Okay. And then what is the box? A. That -~ That one, “CF Utilities." I'm having I don't recall exactly what that one references. CF -- This might even be unrelated to this conversation. "CF Utilities have gone down the road of health risk assessments. And that has cut work comp costs by 40 percent," I believe is what that says. Q. Okay. Well, that would not have to do with Mr. Neil, would it? A. No. @. All right. What -~ what is cF Utilities? A Probably Cedar Falls Utilities. They have a municipal utility there, and that could be what I'm referencing there. And I'm not sure where in the conversation that would have come up. Q@. Okay. "CF Utilities have gone down" ~~ A. "Down the road." Q@. -- "the road" -- A. “On health risk assessments," which HUNEY-VAUGEN COURT REPORTERS, LTD. (515) 288-491010 at 12 13 14 1s 16 a7 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 cq (VIDEO DEPO OF JEFFREY ROBERT BOEYINK) 139 was -— Q. oh. A. And I suspect this was important to the governor because he is such a strong advocate of health risk assessments as part of his healthiest state initiative. So this would have been something that -- if there was a conversation on that, I would have likely taken a note on it. @. All right. "Cut work comp" -- AL “Costs.” Q. == “costs by 40 percent"? A. “By 40 percent.” Okay. Would that have been something mentioned to you by Mr. Godfrey? A. I don't know. I don't recall. Q. Do you think Mr. Neil would have talked to you about the cuts in work comp costs? That would have been unlikely. @. All right. And then look at Exhibit 62 to see whether or not that is the table that you were provided by ABI from the Oregon workers! comp. A I'm not sure. Is that -~ Is that where this came from? HUNEY-VAUGHN COURT REPORTERS, LTD. (515) 288-491010 ww 12 13 14 15 16 ay 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 cq (VIDEO DEPO OF JEFFREY ROBERT BOZYINK) 140 Q. Yes, it is. A. Because at the bottom it says "National Academy of Social Insurance,"-so I'm not -- I want to be clear in terms of what I'm seeing here. Q. Okay. Let me just -- I assure you it is from there. Well, maybe it is -- Maybe -- T think it is. It might not be, though. I'm just wondering if this is something that you have seen before. It is not from the Oregon workers' compensation commission, now that I look at it. A. I would not have seen this. 1 have not seen this before. @. Okay. This gives the rate of workers’ compensation as far as costs per $100 of payroll by state for 2006 to 2010. And it says that Towa started in 2006 with a rate of $1.52 per $100 of payroll and has gone down in those four years to one hundred =~ (Phone interruption.) THE VIDEOGRAPHER: Off the record at 12:04. (An off-the-record discussion was held.) HUNEY-VAUGHN COURT REPORTERS, LTD. (515) 288-491010 1 32 13 14 16 ay 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 cq (VIDEO DEPO OF JEFFREY ROBERT BOEYINK) 24h THE VIDEOGRAPHER: On the record at 12:04. A. Okay. Q. Okay. We were looking at Exhibit 62. MS. CONLIN: And would you read him the question back, please? (Requested portion of the record was read.) Q. $1.42 per $100 of payroll. Were you aware of that? A. Well, what this also says -- Yes, it looks -~ it looks like the rate went down slightly. What this also says is when you look at the national average -- @. Wait a minute. Wait a minute. A. Hold on one second. What this also says is that in 2006 Iowa was at the national average. And in 2010 Iowa, even though its rate went down slightly, was now way above the national average, meaning that vis-a-vis other states, our trend was in the wrong direction. That's what this chart would tell me. Q. Okay. Would this chart tell you what laws other states have changed in order to HUNEY-VAUGHN COURT REPORTERS, LID. (515) 288-491010 1 12 13 14 15 16 Wy 1g 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 eq (VIDEO DEPO OF JEFFREY ROBERT BOEYINK) 142 reduce their workers' compensation insurance premiums? MR. LaMARC: Object to that as no proper foundation and a statement of Counsel unsupported by any evidence. @. Do you =~ Will you answer the question, please? A. Well, what -~ I don't know the basis for why people's changed.. And-when it comes to our competition with other states, it's not really a factor. The simple fact is vis-a-vis other states, our work comp insurance costs were trending in the wrong direction. People were becoming more competitive while we were almost staying static. Now, that ~ that becomes a problem. Those rankings: mean something when employers are looking at the state of Iowa. so that's what this chart will tell me, is the -- many, many states obviously took great steps to lower their work comp costs while we -- we just hung around where we were, And as a result, we are now less competitive. Q. Does the workers' compensation commissioner have any power to change the law on HUNEY-VAUGHN COURT REPORTERS, LTD. (515) 288-491010 ey 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 cq (VIDEO DEPO OF JEFFREY ROBERT BOEYINK) 143 his own? A. No, not on his own. Q. And you indicated to me that the governor's office did not make any proposals to change the workers' compensation laws correct? A. I would suggest to you it's not just legal changes that would make the difference in terms of our work comp costs. It's going to be the experience that employers have with the office, it's going to be the judgments that the work comp commissioner makes in terms of decisions that he makes. All those things are going to factor into what work comp costs are in the state of Towa. You know, we never proposed making work comp less expensive in Iowa on the backs of workers. All we've ever asked for is to have a work comp commissioner who applied our laws fairly, objectively, and impartially. we didn't believe that Mr. Godfrey was doing that. And part of that reason was where our trend line was going, it was clear that vis-a-vis other states our costs were becoming more and more less competitive. Q. You just told me that considerations of HUNEY-VAUGHN COURT REPORTERS, LTD. (515) 288-491010 a 12 13 44 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 eq (VIDEO DEPO OF JEFFREY ROBERT BOEYINK) 144 how decisions are made and the like figure into this rate. What proof do you have of that? A. Well -- @. Do you have any proof? A. What I have is a governor who travels the state of Iowa like no other governor in this country, who listens to what they have to say. When employers, large and small, bring issues to his attention, he takes them very seriously. And that is going to be the overwhelming driver of his -- of his agenda, is what he's hearing from Iowans. When it came to workmen's comp costs, workers’ comp costs in the state of Iowa, he was being told repeatedly that we were not competitive, that the office was biased against employers, and that was concerning to him. So you might not call that proof, but the governor is the elected CEO of the state of Iowa, and he is empowered by the people to make decisions based on the factors that are important to him, For him, the voices of Iowans, the voices of employers, the voices of the associations that represent business carried a HUNEY-VAUGHN COURT REPORTERS, LTD. (515) 288-491010 a 12 13 14 15 16 47 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 cq (VIDEO DEPO OF JEFFREY ROBERT BOEYINK) 14s great deal of weight. @. And he based his decision on what they said; correct? A. He based his decision on a whole variety of issues. One, based on what he was hearing from people in the field, people who are living this stuff every day, people who employ people and talking about their personal experiences with work comp costs and what it costs them and how it potentially impacts their business. He also met with individuals who represent businesses, you know, and, you know, he heard from a lot of those folks. We did a review of the case law. Brenna provided a solid review of the case law and ~ Q. A solid review of the case law? A. Brenna does great work. And we believe she did a very nice, thorough job in regards to reviewing the case law. We took all of that into consideration, and then the governor made a decision that he didn't ~ that he concluded that there was clearly an antiemployer bias and that Mr. Godfrey's performance did not justify HUNEY-VAUGHN COURT REPORTERS, LTD. (515) 288-491010 qa. 12 13 14 18 16 ay 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 cq (VIDEO DEPO OF JEFFREY ROBERT BOEYINK) 146 him being paid at the highest level of the -- of the range. So that was why the decision was made. There was a whole variety of factors. And as the state's CEO, he ~~ he did what he was asked to do. I mean, the code asks him to -- to -- to review salaries and to take certain factors into consideration. He did that. He applied the law. He made that decision. Q. Okay. In terms of Brenna Findley's review of the cases, as I understand it, she reviewed only the cases that the governor told her that someone had brought to his attention; is that correct? A. That I -- That I don't know. Q. All right. And you say that he heard from people all over the state of Towa, but there is not a single piece of paper that we have been provided that says anything about that. Do you know that to be true? A. ‘These are conversations that the governor has wherever he goes. Q@. All right. And with respect to Table 12, Bxhibit 62, the fact that workers" compensation premiums in Iowa went down 7 HUNEY-VAUGHN COURT REPORTERS, LTD. (515) 288-491010 a 12 13 14 15 16 a7 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 ca (VIDEO DEPO OF JEFFREY ROBERT BOEYINK) a7 Percent was not a factor considered by the governor in connection with establishing Commissioner Godfrey's pay; correct? A. What the governor considered was the trend and Iowa's competitiveness vis-a-vis other states. And under the - you can look at it here and come to the same conclusion, but the Oregon workers’ comp study also showed that we were trending in the wrong direction. ‘That was -- That was a persuasive piece of the -- of the decision, @. And -- And you don't know, for example, that Kansas changed its workers’ compensation law significantly to establish a more difficult causation requirement; right? AL No. @. You don't - A. I'm not aware that Kansas -- Kansas changed its ~~ Q. You don't know that most states have jaws that specifically exclude recreational activities; correct? A. T was not aware of that Q. Would you think that would have some impact on the workers’ compensation rates of HUNEY-VAUGHN COURT REPORTERS, LTD. (515) 288-491010 a 12 13 14 15 16 aq 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 cq (VIDEO DEPO OF JEFFREY ROBERT BoEYINK) 148 those states that made those changes? AL I'm - I'm not an expert on work comp. I can't speak to what impact that would have. @. So the costs, at least as far as we can tell, and there are other documents as well, but the actual things, the costs of what employers were paying went down between 2006 and 2010; correct? A. Assuming this chart is correct. And our position vis-a-vis other states got more negative. Q. But workers' compensation premiums decreased by 7 percent; correct? A. If what is in this document is true, then it looks like Iowa has seen a slight decrease in their overall rate but now are substantially above the national average, where just in 2006 we were virtually at the national average. I would suggest to you that's a trend going in the wrong direction. Q. But you did nothing whatsoever. to research the issue of why the -- the so-called trend was going in the national direction; correct? A. Well, the voices of individual Towa HUNEY-VAUGHN COURT REPORTERS, LTD. (515) 288-491010 4 12 13 14 18 16 17 1s 19 20 aL 22 23 24 25 cq (VIDEO DEPO OF JEFFREY ROBERT BOEYINK) 149 business owners was very compelling to the governor. Q. You did nothing to research the question of fact as to whether or not there were reasons for the trend to go in the national -- in the wrong direction having nothing whatsoever to do with the commissioner? A. We believe we had ample access to what we needed to make this decision. We didn't believe that we needed to go further than what we brought to the table for the governor. @. The governor based his opinion on what you've told me; correct? A. The governor based his decision on what he had heard from individual Iowans, coupled with what he had heard from the associations that represent business in Iowa, coupled with a review of the case law that -- that people have found problematic. Wrap that all up with the Oregon study, those four entities -~ those four facts were certainly a big part of his decision-making process, yes. Q. All right. In your meeting of December 29th do you recall whether or not Chris Godfrey agreed to support the governor's goals HUNEY-VAUGHN COURT REPORTERS, LID. (515) 288-491010 qn 12 13 a4 15 16 17 24 2s eq (VIDEO DEPO OF JEFFREY ROBERT BOEYINK) 150 insofar as they were consistent with his statutory and ethical obligations? A. I don't recall that @. Could that have happened? RHEE: I said I don't recall that. Q. After that meeting do you know whether or not legislation was introduced consistent with what Mr. Ralston had threatened in his e-mail of December 29th? A I'm not aware. (Exhibit 107 was marked for identification.) Q. Exhibit 107, have you seen that bill? Were you familiar with that bill? A. I'm not -- I'm not familiar with t bill. Q You mentioned Mr. Horbach. He introduced the bill on February 23rd, 2011. Were you aware of that? A. I was no @. Do you know what happened to the bill? A. The only thing I do know is this bill never made it to the governor's office. So it never came into our purview. Q. Under what circumstances can HUNEY-VAUGHN COURT REPORTERS, LTD. (515) 288-491010 a az 13 14 15 16 a7 18 1g 20 21 22 23 24 25 cq (VIDEO DEPO OF JEFFREY ROBERT BOEYINK) 151 Commissioner Godfrey be terminated from his job before the end of his term? A. I don't recall those specifically. 1 think we reviewed them at the time, but we didn't believe that any of Mr. Godfrey's actions warranted that we pursue a termination. Q@ Okay. In other words, there was nothing that -- that rose to the level of cause; correct? A. What IT recall is that -- and I can't recall the specific -~ and if you have a copy of that, I would ~~ of what lays out the =~ the issues that the governor considered for termination, I don't recall those specifically. I do recall they're a very high bar. They have to do with malfeasance, they have -~ they have to do with some very egregious ethical or legal behavior. That's what I - That's what I recall. I remember the bar was really high, and it -- you know, and that we clearly did not believe that Mr. Godfrey engaged in any illegal behavior. But I don't - I don't have that list, but I do remember there were three or four or five reasons in the code that you could HUNEY-VAUGHN COURT REPORTERS, LTD. (515) 288-491010 it 12 13 14 15 16 a7 18 19 20 24 22 23 24 25 cq (VIDEO DEPO OF JEFFREY ROBERT BOEYINK) 152 seek termination. And we made the determination that we didn't believe that Mr. Godfrey -- you know, that he had committed any of those ~~ that we didn't pursue any of those -- we didn’t think that he was guilty of any of that activity. Q. If the workers! compensation commissioner was displaying an antibusiness bias, under the law he would havé committed both ethical violations and malfeasance; correct? A. [~~ I can't speak to that. I mean, I -- what we believed is he had an antiemployer bias, yes, but we did not believe that what -~ Do we have a copy of what the code says about -- Can I request a copy of that? @. I don't have -- Yeah. Maybe you can find it when we have a break, but I don't think Ihave it with me. I happen to be quite familiar with it because I had the duty of removing public officials. No. All I can simply say is that when it came to Mr. Godfrey, we didn't -- those were some really high bars. We didn't believe that he had engaged in conduct that would suggest that he should be terminated. Q@. Okay. Even though you have told me HUNEY-VAUGHN COURT REPORTERS, LTD. (515) 288-491010 qn 12 13 14 1s 16 47 18 19 20 a1 22 23 24 25 cq (VIDEO DEPO OF JEFFREY ROBERT BOEYINK) 153 repeatedly that you and the governor believed that he displayed antiemployer bias; correct? A. We do believe he displayed antiemployer bias. Q. In your answer to Interrogatory 4c, Subsection 4 MR. LaMARCA: Page 76? MS. CONLIN: Yeah, 76. Q. You say "The problems being reported concerning Mr. Godfrey continued unabated and were growing during the first half of 2011." Why do you say that? A. Simply hearing more and more from employers who were expressing concerns about -~ about his office. Q. 9 What -- A. mean, it's -~ Q Sorry. A. It's -- you know, it's a subjective term. It's not quantitative. But that we -- we were hearing more and more voices as the governor was on the road. Q. What proof do you have that there were any problems being reported concerning the commissioner in the first half of 2011 beyond HUNEY-VAUGHN COURT REPORTERS, LTD (515) 288-491010 aL 12 13 14 15 16 17 1s 19 20 21 22 23 24 28 cq (VIDEO DEPO OF JEFFREY ROBERT BOEYINK) 154 those expressed to you by ABI, Ralston, and Gilliland? A. That -- Those are only -- The reality is the governor hears these very personal stories when he goes on the road. TI mean, we send the governor -- if you look at the governor's schedule, he does hundreds of town halls every year, hundreds of community celebrations, hundreds of small group meetings. That's where this report is coming from, is the governor as he is traveling the state of Iowa. He has individuals come to him and express concerns about the cost of doing business in Iowa and often specifically related to their work comp costs. Q. How many such complaints did the governor get in the first half - We didn't -- We didn't quantify them. @. Do you have any documentation to support the statement that you made under oath? A. I believe Governor Branstad when he tells me that these are things he's hearing on the road. Absolutely. I consider that to be -- From my perspective, when -- when he comes to me and tells me this is what he's hearing, I have HUNEY-VAUGHN COURT REPORTERS, LTD. (515) 288-491010 a. 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 cq (VIDEO DEPO OF JEFFREY ROBERT BOEYINK) aoe every reason to believe him. Q. Okay. Do you -- Are you saying that the statement “The problems being reported concerning Mr. Godfrey continued unabated and were growing during the first half of 2011" is a statement made to you by Governor Branstad? A Tt would be a statement made on his -- on reports of his travel around the state and the feedback that he was receiving from employers, both large and small. Q. Okay. When did he tell you that? A. Oh, that could have been an ongoing conversation, but clearly we had that conversation when we sat down to review whether or not we wanted to continue to pursue anything in regard to Commissioner Godfrey. Q. Do you know whether or not the governor invited such comments? A I don't know that. Q. Do you know whether or not there was one such comment or 20 such comments or 100 such comments? A. I mean, we don't ~~ we didn't =~ there was no running tally. There was no quantitative. This was the governor relaying to HUNEY-VAUGHN COURT REPORTERS, LTD. (515) 288-491010 a 12 13 14 15 16 Ww 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 eq (VIDEO DEPO OF JEFFREY ROBERT BOEYINK) 156 us his experiences on the road. @. One of the things that the governor did in this first half of 2011 was attend meetings of the -~ what was it called -- the -- I'm going to get to it, but it was a rules and regulations tour. Do you recall that? A. The -- T do recall that, yes. Q. Okay. Did you ever attend any of those meetings? . I did not. Q. Well, when we get to it, I'11 ask you questions about it. "In" -- You go on to say "In going over the statute, it was obvious that the governor had absolute discretion with respect to setting Mr. Godfrey's salary.” Is that your understanding? AL It 4s. Q@. Okay, “I was also personally comfortable with the governor's assessment -~ assessment of Mr. Godfrey's performance and in full accord with lowering Mr. Godfrey's salary due to his poor -- poor performance.” How many factors are you aware of in setting the salary of the commissioner? HUNEY-VAUGHN COURT REPORTERS, LTD (515) 288-491010 al 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 cq (VIDEO DEPO OF JEFFREY ROBERT BOBYINK) 187 A, Well, there are a broad number of factors, and -- and I also believe it's rather open-ended in regards to the governor can add any factor to it other than -- you know, T don't think he was limited to just what the code required. I don't have that list in front of me, I can't -- I can't speak to it. @. Do you know how many factors the governor considered in setting Mr. Godfrey's salary? A. Governor Branstad made the decision, as I've stated often, regarding Mr. Godfrey's salary he measured his performance based on the real world conversations that he was having throughout the state of Iowa, the reports that he was receiving from respected leaders of business organizations, a review of the case -- the cases that Mr. Godfrey had decided, and the -- the Oregon work comp study. All of those were factors in his decision. I think they're more than adequate to give the governor the -- they were more than adequate for him to make a determination that Mr, Godfrey should not be paid at the highest level of the range any HUNEY-VAUGHN COURT REPORTERS, LTD. (515) 288-491010 aL 12 13 14 15 16 a7 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 cq (VIDEO DEPO OF JEFFREY ROBERT BOEYINK) 158 longer. @. How did -~ Each of the things. that you've mentioned, how did they impact, the governor's decision? Do you know? A. They -- It was -- They impacted them as a whole, I don't think you can separate one out or the other as being more or less persuasive. They were taken in their entirety. @. Are the factors that the governor considered in setting Mr. Godfrey's salary factors he considered in setting the salary of any other state employee, state appointee? A. The governor is -- I mean, the work comp commissioner's office is unique. There isn't one other like it in the state government. And so as he's judging the performance of any particular individual in their job, it's going to be based on how well are they doing in implementing their particular area of business, the code sections that they're supposed to implement . And so to suggest that you could carry over the same factors from the work comp decision to any other individual decision in state government just isn't the case. These are HUNEY-VAUGEN COURT REPORTERS, LTD. (515) 288-4910