Coe College Wrongly Accused

I am writing to defend myself from the false statements made in the Gazettes
Editorial, Commit to Clear Boundaries.
On June 1 I made a presentation to the Hiawatha City Council meeting in an effort
to secure the councils support of a $4.5 million tax-exempt revenue bond issue for Coe
College. All the money from this bond will be used in various renovation projects across
Coes campus. None of the money from this bond will be used for property acquisition
related to the Coe campus expansion project.
The Gazettes editorial states I have withheld a map of Coes expansions plans,
which was presented at the City Council meeting, from the public. This is a false
statement. The Iowa Open Records Law provides the public access to public records of
government bodies at all levels. Thus, once any form of information is presented at a City
Council meeting, it is immediately considered public information and is therefore readily
available to any newspaper or reporter in the state. If I had presented a map at the
Hiawatha City Council meeting on June 1, it would be freely available to the Gazette, just
as all other presented information.
Coe has defined our expansion borders, as stated in the editorial, as 14th and 15th
Street (NE) between A, B and C avenues and we are not, nor will we, withhold any
information from the public.
- Rod Pritchard, Coe College