Board hires ex-senator as legal counsel
MOUNTAINBURG — The Crawford County Library Board enlisted a former state legislator to represent it as the county faces two separate legal challenges in the U.S. District Court.
The board voted 3-1 to hire attorney Bob Ballinger as its legal counsel at its meeting Tuesday. Board member Keith Pigg, who represents the Mulberry Public Library, cast the dissenting vote.
Eva White, the county Library System’s interim director, said Ballinger will be able to provide the board counsel as things come up in two federal lawsuits against Crawford County concerning the Library System, as well as help the board conduct its meetings.
Gentry Wahlmeier was the board’s legal counsel before resigning earlier this year, according to White. Wahlmeier currently represents Crawford County.
Ballinger served in the Arkansas House of Representatives as a Republican from 2013-18, then in the state Senate for a four-year term that started in 2019, representing the previous Senate District 5. He lost a primary runoff election to Bryan King for the newly created Senate District 28 in June 2022. The state redraws legislative district boundaries every 10 years based on information from the U.S. census.
Christopher Brockett, attorney for Franklin County, also applied for the legal counsel position. The Library Board decided to hire Ballinger over Brockett after discussing the matter in an executive session lasting more than an hour.
LEGAL CHALLENGES
Crawford County residents Rebecka Virden, Nina Prater and Samantha Rowlett filed a federal lawsuit in May against what they claim is unlawful censorship of material in county libraries, according to court records. Their complaint named Crawford County Judge Chris Keith, members of both the county Quorum Court and Library Board and White as defendants in their official capacities.
The lawsuit accuses the defendants of restricting the residents’ right to receive certain information from the library in violation of the First Amendment and, by extension, federal law. The information consists of children’s books with lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer or questioning subject matter.
The Quorum Court began a series of actions within the past year that led to the stigmatization of the books, according to the lawsuit. The books had a prominent color label placed on them and were moved out of the children’s section of the respective libraries to a separate social section containing books for all ages.
The county filed an answer to the lawsuit June 20 in which it requested the lawsuit be dismissed, according to court records. A bench trial has been set for 9 a.m. April 22 in Fort Smith before Judge P.K. Holmes.
Holmes filed an opinion and order Tuesday denying a motion for a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction Virden, Prater and Rowlett filed against the defendants in July, among other things both sides filed in the case, court records show.
A coalition of 17 plaintiffs filed another lawsuit in federal court June 2 asking a judge to strike down two sections of Act 372 of 2023, a
new state law on library material, as unconstitutional. The lawsuit lists 28 Arkansas prosecuting attorneys as defendants — along with Crawford County and Keith, citing the Crawford County Library’s decision to remove children’s books with LGBTQ themes from the children’s section. It suggests more changes are coming to the Crawford County Library in response to Act 372.
Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders signed Act 372 on March 30. The legislation, in part, exposes library personnel and others to criminal prosecution and up to one year in jail if they “knowingly” furnish an item deemed harmful to minors based on existing obscenity law. It also establishes procedures for people to challenge the appropriateness of physical library material available to the public.
Brooks temporarily blocked enforcement of these two sections of Act 372 pending a final ruling in an order issued July 29. The four other sections of the law not addressed in the lawsuit took effect Aug. 1.
BALLINGER
Ballinger and Brockett attended Tuesday’s meeting to give in-person presentations to the Library Board.
Ballinger — who heads the Oark-based firm Ballinger Law — said he has been practicing law for about 20 years. His experience primarily includes real estate and estate planning, but also covers other things such as constitutional law issues, business organization and corporate governance.
Ballinger said he would charge $275 per hour for his services, which would be presented in an itemized bill. He wouldn’t charge for travel but would be at Library Board meetings in person.
Pigg said he was concerned about a considerable amount of negative “baggage” he found online about Ballinger. He asked Ballinger if he has had to deal with this baggage before and how he would go forward if it were to come up while he was representing the Library Board.
Ballinger said he ran two “nasty campaigns” during his career in politics, with there being “a bunch of stuff out there” about him.
“Some of it’s half-truths, some of it’s just flat-out lies, but the reality is it’s out there, and this position should not be about me,” Ballinger said. “Right? This position should be about representing the board.”
Ballinger said hiring him would have some risk of bringing additional media attention to the Library Board, but he believes his experience of having “weathered the storm” could help the board through the process.
Pigg said after the meeting his concerns pertained to how Ballinger voted on different issues during his time in the state Senate, though he declined to elaborate.
Ballinger sponsored a wide range of bills as a state senator, according to the Legislature’s website.
This included being a lead sponsor of Act 552 of 2021, which required Arkansas schools to notify parents and allow them to inspect material before their children take part in lessons or activities dealing with off-curriculum topics related to sex education, sexual orientation and gender identity; and a co-sponsor of Act 1100 of 2021, which prohibited state entities from teaching, instructing or training employees to adopt or believe certain “divisive concepts,” such as the state of Arkansas or the United States is fundamentally racist or sexist.
Ballinger was also a co-sponsor for Act 626 of 2021, a law banning gender-affirming health care treatments for minors that U.S. District Judge James Moody struck down as unconstitutional in June.
The Library Board’s next regular meeting is set for 5:30 p.m. Nov. 14 at the Mulberry Public Library.