Copeland defends massage policy

It's a pain that Des Moines County officials believe can be massaged away.

Since August, some county employees have had the option of paying for chair massages offered at the county board's meeting room at the downtown Burlington courthouse.

The practice has been criticized by a Burlington blog.

Des Moines County Auditor Carol Copeland defended her decision to arrange the massages with Style by Design in Burlington and lashed out at the blog.

"I just want all of this nonsense to go away. I have theoretically been accused of misappropriating county mone and county employees under my direction were misappropriating time. I'm a crack whore and a pimp (according to the blog). I don't appreciate being call those names by people posting on some blog," Copeland said.

Des Moines County Board Chairman Jeff Heland said the chair massages took place in the board's meeting room without their knowledge.

Regardless, he said he backs Copeland's decision.

He said employees who received massages paid for the service out of their own pocket and they were performed during assigned breaks. He called it an unnecessary distraction.

"It's time to move on to something else. If you ask me, this is a good example of Carol being a progressive boss and helping her people feel better," he said. "As for it going on in our meeting room, so what? A lot of things go on in that room that I don't need to be aware of."

Supervisor Dan Cahill agreed. "Hell, I think it's a great idea," he said.

Supervisor Bob Beck could not be reached for comment.

During a weeklong inquiry by The Hawk Eye, it was determined that massage therapist Leslie Gray was approached by Copeland to provide services for interested county employees.

For the past three months, Gray gave massages in the board's meeting room. The massages were fully clothed with the employee seated in a special chair.

Chair massages also were offered in September and earlier this month. About four years ago, similar massages were offered at the courthouse, according to Copeland.

Employees from the auditor's, treasurer's and re-corder's offices had the option of paying $15 to receive a 15-minute chair massage.

In a Sept. 11 e-mail, the invitation was extended to employees in other offices, including city/county assessor, county attorney, sheriff's office and information technology, according to Copeland.

The offer was not extended to supervisors.

The reason, Copeland said: "We sit in front of computers all day and they don't. Besides, they're guys and I didn't think they would be interested."

The September e-mail written by Copeland said that Gray would be giving massages on Oct. 7 beginning at 9 a.m. and concluding at 11 a.m. It further said: "Get a massage for only $15. Sign up in the auditor's office."

On the Oct. 7 signup sheet,

beijing massage

and

shanghai massage

were given to seven employees from the recorder's, treasurer's and auditor's office, including Copeland.

At a meeting Tuesday, Des Moines County Attorney Pat Jackson had expected to be asked by the board to provide an opinion on the matter. That didn't happen.

"I think we don't need to involve Pat in this. There was nothing illegal here, and we can't control perception," Heland said.