MADD to close Arkansas operation

LITTLE ROCK — The nonprofit organization Mothers Against Drunk Driving will exit Arkansas, citing the financial impossibility of operating in a state that only requires impaired-driving offenders to pay a $10 fee in order to participate in MADD programming.

MADD’s work in Arkansas will cease at the end of this month, according to officials with the organization. The nonprofit group founded in 1980 is dedicated to combating impaired driving and underage drinking.

Officials with the organization attributed the decision to the low fee of $10 imposed under Arkansas law on people who are required to participate in victim impact panels, a MADD program for those who have been convicted of a DUI offense, among other alcohol-related offenses.

Attending a victim impact panel is a common sentencing requirement for offenders convicted of

a DWI or DUI offense, according to the American Automobile Association.

Victim impact panels offered by MADD are billed as an opportunity for offenders to hear from people affected by drunk driving, such as relatives of those who lost their lives because of a collision, as motivation to hopefully change their behavior in the future.

An Arkansas state law says drivers whose privileges are suspended or revoked for violating DUI or similar laws must attend a victim impact panel run by an authorized organization. The law also says the organization may collect a $10 fee from each participant.

Doug Scoles, MADD’s national director of field operations, said the organization could no longer afford to maintain operations in Arkansas and has been operating at a loss in the state over the past 10 years. MADD has incurred a loss of more than $150,000 since 2012 in the state, Scoles said.

“In simple terms, we can’t afford to keep operations going there right now,” Scoles said Thursday.

Scoles said the organization has tried several times to obtain legislative approval in Arkansas to increase the fee.

“We’ve been unable to get past $10,” he said.

Also contributing to MADD’s financial problems is venues such as courthouses and libraries in Arkansas, normally used for the victim impact panels, have been closed during the covid-19 outbreak, according to Scoles.

Five MADD employees in Arkansas will lose their jobs as a result of the decision to pull out, Scoles said.

In a May 28 email to Bridget White, administrator of the Arkansas Highway Safety Office, Scoles wrote the organization would discontinue operations in the state effective June 30.

“This pertains directly to all of MADD paid employees in Arkansas and our MADD Arkansas office,” Scoles wrote.

The organization’s decision to leave closely follows a dust-up with state officials over a $65 fee applied to Arkansans who participated in an online version of the victim impact panel offered by MADD during the covid-19 pandemic.

However, a MADD official said Thursday the online-program issue didn’t contribute to the organization’s departure from Arkansas.

According to Kirk Lane, the Arkansas state drug director, in late May state officials confronted MADD’s national office about the “improperly imposed” $65 fee on residents seeking to get their certificate for attending the online version of a victim impact panel.

Lane, in a statement, said officials rejected MADD’s $65 fee for two reasons: “the fee change had to be made through the legislative process” and “the cost of the online program should have been less than the face-toface program that was in place.”

“MADD said it was a computer glitch and promised to correct it and refund the additional money to the people who took the online course,” Lane said. “We are still having issues with the course being accessible and have yet to receive a list of those Arkansans who took the online course and were refunded the improper fee expense.”

Lane said partners with the Arkansas Department of Health Services’ Drug and Alcohol Safety Education Program will continue to provide alcohol and drug education to the same audience of DWI and DUI offenders. Officials are working to get that program up and running as soon as possible, he said.

The limited number of Arkansans who completed MADD’s online program in good faith will have their certificates accepted by the state, Lane said.

In a letter to White, Scoles said MADD will de-obligate more than $88,000 in grant money that would have been given to the organization by the Arkansas Highway Safety Office, had MADD had fulfilled its obligations.

“This decision is primarily the result of business forecasts and planning pertaining to the operations of MADD Arkansas, which has been impacted negatively from the effects (both economic and operational) of the COVID 19 pandemic,” Scoles wrote.

MADD’s general counsel D.J. Merino said Thursday nearby states such as Tennessee and Oklahoma allow the organization to charge participants in victim impact panels a lot more compared to Arkansas. Merino said Oklahoma, for instance, recently passed a law that allows MADD to charge $75. Tennessee allows the group to charge $50, he said.

Recent bills in the Arkansas Legislature have sought to amend state law to adjust the amount of compensation for an organization sponsoring victim impact panels. Those efforts have been unsuccessful.

A 2019 bill sponsored by Sen. Linda Chesterfield, D-Little Rock, would have allowed a sponsoring organization to charge victim impact panel participants $10 if they currently reside in a community correction facility and $20 if they are not in such a facility. The bill passed in the Senate but failed to clear the House.

At the time, Chesterfield said the bill would give more resources to MADD to conduct the panels, but Republican lawmakers expressed reservations about sending money derived from fees to a private group.

When asked if the organization may return to Arkansas in the future, MADD’s vice president of field operations Kelly Bryant said “absolutely.”

Given the opportunity to operate in the state at a breakeven level, Bryant said, “We would revisit that. We’ve just not been able to do that so far.”

“In simple terms, we can’t afford to keep operations going there right now.” — Doug Scoles, MADD’s national director of field operations