Ruling lets lawyer off hook

Manila City Attorney Wes Wagner does not have to repay the Mississippi County city the $26,231 he earned while simultaneously serving as the region’s state representative, a judge has ruled after considering further arguments.

Pulaski County Circuit Judge Wendell Griffen concluded in November that Wagner illegally held the city job. Article 5 of the Arkansas Constitution restricts representatives and senators from holding other state government jobs while they are in office.

The judge initially ruled Wagner’s earnings from the city of 3,000 to be an illegal expenditure of tax dollars and ordered him to reimburse the city, where his father is mayor. Wagner and Wayne Wagner also share a legal practice.

But Griffen reconsidered his position after further arguments from Wagner’s attorney, Ralph “Win” Winston III.

The judge cited 40 years of Arkansas Supreme Court precedent “that a state representative acting in good faith with no fraud committed is not required to pay back funds received in violation of a constitutional prohibition.”

There is no evidence that Wagner intentionally did anything wrong or that he knew that holding both jobs was prohibited by the state constitution, the judge wrote in his two-page ruling on Wednesday. Wagner also did not unduly profit from his city job, the judge stated.

“Wagner was not paid above market value for his services; in fact, he was paid below market value,” Griffen’s ruling states. “Wagner performed all job duties as city attorney to the satisfaction of the Council of Manila, Arkansas and continues to serve in that capacity to date.”

Wagner, 38, was appointed city attorney in 2011, then elected to the state House of Representatives in 2012.