Fine to settle ethics case of PB legislator

State Rep. Vivian Flowers, D-Pine Bluff, has agreed to pay a $500 fine and receive a public letter of warning from the Arkansas Ethics Commission in a settlement of a complaint filed against her.

She signed the settlement offer Sept. 12, according to a copy of the signed 10-page document. Commission Director Graham Sloan released the document Thursday. The complaint was filed by the Republican Party.

As part of the settlement, Flowers acknowledged that she violated state law by failing to timely file annual financial interest statements for calendar years 2013-16, to timely file 11 campaign-finance reports, to file 13 campaign-finance reports and to file a campaign carryover fund report for 2015.

The Ethics Commission concluded that the “affirmative defense” provided for in state law applied to more than three dozen allegations in the complaint against Flowers and had been met successfully based on amended campaign-finance reports that she filed June 20. Those reports were filed within 30 days of discovering or learning about the alleged violations, Sloan said in his letter to Flowers. Thus, there was no further investigation of those particular allegations, Sloan said.

Within 30 days of her acceptance of the Sept. 12 settlement, Flowers is required to file 13 campaign-finance reports, for the period from November 2015 through a final campaign report for the 2016 election cycle, and a carryover fund report for 2015. The reports are to be filed with the secretary of state’s office.

Flowers has served in the House since 2015 and is chairman of the Legislative Black Caucus.

She said Thursday that she was able to successfully address most of the items in the complaint.

“I acknowledge I was late [in filing reports], so it is a matter of being accountable,” Flowers said. “I never said I was never late.”