Strengthen law
Acoalition of Arkansas transparency advocates from different political affiliations have been working to strengthen, clarify and protect the Arkansas Freedom of Information Act with a ballot initiative for a constitutional amendment.
The Arkansas Citizens for Transparency has spent weeks hammering out a draft of what its members believe is a strong and suitable amendment to the FOIA to hopefully present to voters. And now they are seeking public feedback to their efforts in hopes of collecting 90,704 signatures (10 percent of the voters in the previous election).
“Arkansas has had one of the strongest Freedom of Information Acts in the country for 56 years,” said Sen. Clarke Tucker, chair of the drafting committee. “Taking this vote to the people, who we know value government transparency, will ensure the law remains strong for years to come.”
This proposed amendment is very good news for “we the people” for whom the 1967 FOIA was crafted and approved under GOP Gov. Winthrop Rockefeller, since it takes endless tinkering by our state elected officials out of self-interested reach.
It also finally defines what constitutes a legal meeting by those who serve on public boards, which has continually been a foggy and confusing point in the original law. A public meeting is one at which two or more voting or nonvoting members of a governing body communicate for the purpose of exercising the responsibilities, authority, power, or duties delegated to that body on any matter on which official action will foreseeably be taken.
That definition also applies to a series of two or more formal or informal one-on-one communications between an agent or employee of a voting or nonvoting member of the body and more than one member of that body and to discuss any matter on which official action will likely be taken by the governing body. However, two or more employees of a voting or non-voting member of a governing body may communicate for the purpose of exercising the responsibilities authority, power, or duties delegated to the employee.
Communication is any communication made in person, by telephone, electronically, or by other means.
In a letter, Arkansas Citizens for Transparency said they “believe strongly that Arkansas should maintain, and even strengthen, our position of leadership on [FOIA]. We further believe that having an open and transparent government is a right, and rights belong in the constitution. For that reason, this group has come together—in spite of our varied, and in some cases fundamentally opposed, political perspectives—to propose the Arkansas Government Transparency Amendment.”
The group’s goals, according to the letter, are to “enshrine the Arkansas Freedom of Information Act, as it existed on Sept. 1, 2023 (before the September 2023 special session), into the state constitution; ensure any further changes to the Arkansas Freedom of Information Act that reduce government transparency may only be approved by a vote of the people of Arkansas, while providing that laws that increase government transparency may be passed by the General Assembly; change as little as possible in the existing Arkansas Freedom of Information Act, with the primary exception being to provide a definition for ‘public meeting,’ which has been a hole in the Arkansas Freedom of Information Act for some time; safeguard the ability of any citizen of Arkansas to enforce the Arkansas Freedom of Information Act by protecting their ability to recover attorney’s fees in the event that a Freedom of Information Act request is wrongfully denied; create a penalty for bad actors who knowingly violate the Arkansas Freedom of Information Act; account appropriately for the security of public officials and their minor children, balanced with the public’s right to know how our tax dollars are spent; and keep the amendment language as simple as possible, while taking into account the vast number of laws existing in the Arkansas Code affecting government transparency.”
Members of the drafting committee include Tucker, Nate Bell, David Couch, Jen Standerfer, Robert Steinbuch, John E. Tull III, and Ashley Wimberley.
You can view a copy of the full proposed amendment or volunteer at the group’s website, arcitizens4transparency.org.
THANKS TO APA
My gratitude to the Arkansas Press Association and Director Ashley Wimberly for the formal recognition of my 52 years in journalism during an awards banquet last week in Little Rock. 1971 seems like last week when, fresh out of UCA with a journalism degree, I was sitting behind a Royal typewriter five mornings a week producing all the local news for a fully local front page while also taking and processing all the photographs for the Newport Daily Independent. It was ideal basic training for this craft and for all that was to come.
This ceremony also provided the opportunity to express my deepest gratitude for an entire career of support from retired Democrat-Gazette Publisher Walter Hussman Jr., who ranks among the nation’s finest and most courageous.
Now go out into the world and treat everyone you meet exactly like you want them to treat you.