In response to a letter to the editor in the April 15 edition of the Sentinel “Why we need the reservoir.”
In 2006, eminent domain legislation was passed that strengthened Iowa’s property rights law. It was initially vetoed by the governor. The veto was later overridden and added to the Iowa Code.
A few weeks later it was discovered that some serious flaws were in that particular legislation that created loopholes for developers to get around some of the eminent domain language. The section called “lakes language” had some serious flaws that needed amended.
In 2007, I contacted State Representative Jeff Kaufmann, one of the sponsors and authors of the new legislation. Since that time up until 2012, when representative Kaufmann retired, hundreds of hours were spent getting the new legislation written, passed through committees and ran through the House and Senate.
In 2012, I began working with Kaufmann’s son Bobby who took over his father’s seat in the house.
State Representative Joel Fry did not take office until 2011, four years after I started working with Representative Jeff Kaufmann to strengthen property rights for all Iowans. So give credit where credit is due.
I’m guessing very little effort was made to verify the facts before making the accusations toward Representative Fry.