Wade Robinson, DMACC dean of student resources and Ankeny student success, right, spoke during public comment at a Oct. 14 board of trustees meeting. (Photo by Brooklyn Draisey/Iowa Capital Dispatch)
BOONE — A dean at Des Moines Area Community College was told before Monday’s board of trustees meeting that he was not allowed to stand up at the meeting and call for the resignation of the board chairman.
The community college official, Wade Robinson, was prepared to accuse the chairman of improper use of college resources in his 2017 election. But the college president told him he was barred from making the remarks during the board’s public comment period, citing a policy against speaking on the character or motives of college employees.
Robinson stood up at the meeting but he merely asked the board to review policies related to speaking at board meetings and Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests.
He had already made his allegations about improper use of college resources during an email sent to members of the board, college leaders, college council members and others.
Robinson, the dean of Student Resources and Ankeny Student Success, accused board chair Joe Pugel of using DMACC resources to help secure his reelection to the board of trustees in 2017. He also accused President Rob Denson of not seeking reimbursement from Pugel for the college resources and asking Robinson to keep it quiet. The university barred Robinson from speaking on this topic during public comment, so he decided to send an email Friday instead.
“I simply brought it forward because I think it’s the right thing to do,” Robinson said.
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In his comments, Robinson said he would have accused Pugel of improperly using college resources to run for his position in the 2017 election and asked him to resign. He also planned to call for an investigation into the election to find out if anyone else was involved and what actions need to be taken.
Denson said in an emailed statement to Iowa Capital Dispatch that Pugel is not an employee, but the comments Robinson planned to make would have referred to employees, which is against the board’s policy on the basis of confidentiality.
Pugel declined to comment after the meeting.
Denson requested a legal opinion on Robinson’s proposed public comments. Attorneys Michael Galloway and Jeffrey Edgar of Ahlers & Cooney, P.C. said the community college should not allow Robinson to speak on this matter on the basis that it would violate board policy relating to employees. They said there are other forums available for his complaints, like the Iowa Ethics and Campaign Disclosure Board.
Robinson said he instead put in the email everything he planned to say during the meeting, alongside attachments he received through open records requests which included the legal analysis.
2017 board election questions
Right after the 2017 election, Robinson said he was serving as an interim executive dean when someone said Denson had indicated the college should spend more marketing money in Pugel’s district to help him stay on the board. Robinson said he took this to mean the college staff would pool additional resources in Pugel’s district in the 2021 election. Robinson submitted his concerns in a formal complaint process after that year’s election and received a reply that nothing had happened.
Denson, in his email, denied asking any DMACC staff to move resources to a board candidate’s district.
Robinson said he didn’t think the matter should be closed and he continued to submit complaints through the college’s former complaint process and whistleblower policy. This year, he submitted an open records request to the Iowa Ethics and Campaign Disclosure Board executive director in May and a FOIA request to DMACC in June in order to figure out what happened.
Denson said in his email to the Capital Dispatch that DMACC staff helped “a candidate” draft a letter to the editor and “editorial” and brought them to local media, and made social media posts on the candidate race, which “we quickly took down.” According to Robinson’s email to college officials, Denson said the staff member in question confirmed that college staff spent eight or nine hours aiding Pugel’s campaign.
DMACC Board Chair Joe Pugel, second from left, and President Rob Denson, third from left, listen during a Oct. 14 board meeting. (Photo by Brooklyn Draisey/Iowa Capital Dispatch)
“To the best of our knowledge, this was done outside of business hours,” Denson said in the email.
According to an email from Iowa Ethics and Campaign Disclosure Board attorney Andrew Greenberg in December 2021, Denson reached out and asked him questions about the 2017 incident, which Denson said he “recently became aware” of at the time of the email.
Greenberg’s email states that a candidate in the trustee election “may have used DMACC resources for campaign purposes,” and while Denson did not name them, they were elected in 2017 and reelected in 2019.
The college’s marketing department helped the candidate prepare documents, which were later published, and helped set up a radio interview, Greenberg’s email stated. Denson was seeking advice on how to remedy the situation, Greenberg wrote. Greenberg advised Denson to find out what staff time and resources were used and ask the candidate to reimburse the college for a specific amount of money, according to Greenberg’s email.
Greenberg also informed Denson that while instances like these have a three-year statute of limitations for complaints to the ethics board, and that date had already passed for this incident, he should still seek reimbursement “as soon as possible, as this could still come to light through other means.”
After the FOIA
Denson and Robinson met after he filed his FOIA request, Robinson wrote in his email to college officials. Denson revealed the staff member’s identity and asked Robinson to drop it, as “Joe Pugel has raised $300,000 for Legacy Plaza, donated over $75,000 to the DMACC Foundation, and flies in on his own dime for Board meetings,” Robinson said in his email.
During their meeting, Robinson said Denson told him “he and others probably did things prior to the 2017 election that they should not have done and promised it would not happen again.”
The college did not calculate the in-kind contribution or ask Pugel for reimbursement, Denson said in the email, as the marketing jobs were done outside of college work hours so no reimbursement was needed.
After Robinson submitted his request to speak during public comment, Denson met with him again, asking “several times if there was a way to get past this,” Robinson said in his email. He said he would not withdraw his comments, and later received the news that his comments had been determined to be out of order.
Pugel has served on the board continuously since 1997, Denson said in his email.
In his email, Denson said he addressed this issue during the 2017 election, and while the college is reviewing the information and allegations put forth by Robinson, currently they don’t see any changes to the facts of the incident.
“Absent new facts, we consider this matter closed,” Denson said in his email.
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