State Auditor Rob Sand Delivers Pie as Storm Lake Ties Fort Madison

Iowa State Auditor Rob Sand visited Storm Lake City Hall to present the city with a 2026 Public Innovations & Efficiencies award, declaring Storm Lake a Best Performing City in the category for communities over 10,000 residents and handing city staff a strawberry rhubarb pie. Sand tied the honor for Storm Lake with Fort Madison and delivered a certificate that officials said will hang in City Hall.

The visit took place on March 3, 2026 at Storm Lake City Hall, where Mayor Meg McKeon accepted the award on the city’s behalf. NorthwestIowaNow reported Mayor McKeon saying the city would have pursued many of the efficiency measures regardless of the PIE recognition; the certificate from the Auditor’s Office is slated for display in City Hall as a record of the award.

Storm Lake’s PIE submission highlighted a long list of specific measures city staff emphasized in their entry: modernized downtown and municipal lighting, a shift to digital plans to reduce paper use, energy-saving shutdown procedures for equipment, water-smart conservation practices, expanded recycling, participation in utility rebate programs, tree-planting initiatives, food-rescue partnerships, and collaboration through 28E intergovernmental agreements. The city also noted transparency improvements such as posting meeting agendas and elected-official contact information online, new digital tools for residents to report concerns electronically, strengthened cybersecurity protocols, and documentation of recovery fund dollars as examples of fiscal responsibility.

Auditor Rob Sand launched the PIE program in 2019 as a voluntary checklist for cities, counties, and school districts to submit annual entries called “PIE Recipes.” Sources describe the program’s scale with slightly different figures: an Auditor’s Office summary states nearly 500 participating entities each year, KJAN reports approximately 500 counties, cities, and school districts submit entries, and a Norwalk Community School District press release says the program has more than 500 participants and has been copied by other state auditors, including the Mississippi State Auditor, a Republican.

Sand has continued his practice of hand-delivering pies and awards across Iowa. KJAN reported he delivered PIE awards to eight government entities across Western Iowa in recent days. The West Lyon Herald documented an earlier stop in Inwood on Feb. 23 where Sand presented an apple pie and award with city clerk Carol Vander Kolk, deputy clerk Travis Mullinix, and Mayor Becca Bixler present; that photo was credited to Tristan Taylor. Rob Sand said, “Congratulations to this year’s PIE winners, and a big thanks to all the participants. You’ve shown that saving taxpayers money can be sweet. Recognizing community leaders for their efforts with a pie is just the cherry on top. Taxpayers are the real winners.”

For media or records requests about the PIE program, Auditor’s Office press contact C.J. Petersen can be reached at cj.petersen@aos.iowa.gov or 515-388-0698. One local outlet spelled Storm Lake’s tie partner as “Fort Maidson,” but other sources identify the tie partner as Fort Madison. The strawberry rhubarb pie served at City Hall completes the ceremonial presentation that accompanies Storm Lake’s documented efficiency efforts.