Group gets letter, pays fine to settle ethics filing

The Randolph County Ministerial Alliance has paid a $50 fine and received a public letter of caution in a settlement of a complaint filed with the Arkansas Ethics Commission.

Ethics Commission Director Graham Sloan said in a letter to alliance Chairman Jeff Hamm of Pocahontas that Hamm signed a settlement in which he agreed with the commission finding that the alliance received or spent more than $500 for the purpose of expressly advocating the qualification, disqualification, passage or defeat of a local option ballot question and failed to timely comply with the registration requirements of Arkansas Code Annotated 3-8-703 and the reporting requirements of Arkansas Code Annotated 3-8-705.

The ethics complaint concerned advertisements that the alliance ran in connection with a ballot measure presented to voters on Nov. 6, Sloan said in his letter dated Jan. 10 to Hamm, who is a pastor. On Dec. 5, the alliance reported raising $1,615.13 from eight churches and spending the same amount on advertisements opposing a ballot measure to allow alcohol sales in Randolph County. Voters approved the measure.

In another settlement of an ethics complaint, Craighead County Justice of the Peace Billie Sue Hoggard of Jonesboro will receive a public letter of caution from the Ethics Commission.

Hoggard signed a settlement in which she agreed with the commission finding that she violated Arkansas Code Annotated 7-6-228 as a candidate for justice of the peace during the 2018 election cycle by failing to include the necessary “paid for by” language on campaign signs and other printed materials, Sloan said in a letter dated Jan. 10 to Hoggard.

“The commission recognizes that Arkansas Code Annotated 7-6-228 (c), which requires the ‘paid for by’ language on campaign signs and other printed materials, was added to the law by the General Assembly in 2017 and that 2018 is the first election cycle in which the requirement has been in effect,” Sloan wrote in his letter. That law is Act 787 of 2017, sponsored by Rep. Carol Dalby, R-Texarkana.