Veterans panel commits to FOI

Senator’s father leads meeting; Fayetteville home hits capacity Veterans Affairs

FAYETTEVILLE — The chairman of the Arkansas Veterans Commission hosted a refresher course on the state’s Freedom of Information Act at his first commission meeting Tuesday and pledged to follow the law’s requirements. Len Cotton of Dardanelle, U.S. Sen. Tom Cotton’s father, took over as chairman at a quarterly meeting of the 15-member commission. The panel oversees the Arkansas Department of Veterans Affairs. The meeting was at the Arkansas State Veterans Home at Fayetteville, which is run by the department. Gregory Brown of Osceola, then-chairman and current commission member, The Arkansas Department of Veterans Affairs operates two state-owned veterans nursing homes. It also oversees veterans cemeteries and provides training for local officials who advise veterans on benefit programs. disclosed at their January meeting some commissioners had exchanged email and met by a conference call. This appeared to violate the public meeting notice requirement of the FOI Act, according to the Arkansas Press Association. Also Tuesday, the commission learned the Fayetteville home had reached capacity. All 87 available beds

are filled, department staff said. The occupancy rate is considered a key indicator of a nursing home’s financial viability.

The department expects to get its veterans home in North Little Rock certified to accept Medicare and Medicaid patients soon, department Director Nate Todd told the commission. The home opened in February and is expected to grow at a rate of eight patients a month.

Daniel Faulkner, an attorney for the state attorney general’s office, gave the presentation to the commission Tuesday on the FOI law’s requirements and distributed handbooks and other material.

In general, “the law assumes everything is public and then carves out exceptions,” Faulkner told the commission members. If commission business is discussed, assume that any discussion of it is a public meeting and any record of it is a public record, he said. Exceptions such as personnel records are spelled out in the literature he provided, Faulkner said.

“I don’t think there’s anyone here who does not follow the ‘ do right’ rule,” Cotton said after Faulkner’s presentation. Brown said he never intended to either skirt the law or discredit the commission. He also denied ever saying his intent was to save the state money by emailing or having a conference call.

The department also will open a new district office in Hope on May 30, Todd said. The eight outlying district offices and a central office location in North Little Rock provide training and support to “county veteran services officers,” said Gina Chandler, director of veterans services for the department.

Those service officers are employees of the county government in which they serve, Chandler said after the meeting. They assist veterans applying for benefits and navigate the complexities of veteran benefit programs, she said. Accounting for temporary vacancies and reassignments, almost all of the state’s 75 counties have a services officer, with more than 70 counties operating an office at any one time, she said.

The state department has one district office in Fayetteville. Others are in Jonesboro, Mountain Home, Forrest City, Fort Smith, Monticello and Russellville.