Arkansas AG: Gov. Sanders not bound by 2 laws
Lectern audit release ahead
Responding to a request for an advisory opinion from Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin said the governor is not subject to two state laws on accounting and the distribution of state property.
The first-term Republican governor did not give a reason for requesting the advisory opinion in her letter to the attorney general, but it comes in anticipation of the expected release of the long-awaited audit of the purchase of a $19,000 lectern by the governor’s office. Republican Rep. Jimmy Gazaway, co-chair of the Legislative Joint Auditing Committee overseeing the report, told the Arkansas Democrat-gazette on Friday the report will be released to the public next week.
Sanders specifically asked the attorney general to review whether she is subject to the General Accounting and Budgetary Procedures Law and to Arkansas Code 25-8-106, which regards the marketing and distribution of state property.
In her letter to Griffin, Sanders asked whether constitutional officers, like herself, were considered “agencies” under the General Accounting and Budgetary Procedures Law and, if not, what sections of that law apply to the state’s top elected officials.
The General Accounting and Budgetary Procedures Law requires all state agencies to “provide adequate accounting for all fiscal transactions.” Responding to Sanders’ questions, Griffin said the governor is not considered a state agency and thus is not subject to that part of the law because “the regulation extends to constitutional offices only if they are specifically named.”
The opinion, which was prepared by Deputy Attorney General Noah P. Watson and approved by Griffin, also states the Arkansas legislature has passed multiple laws stating constitutional officers are not subject to that portion of the General Accounting and Budgetary Procedures Law, and if they were “some of its provisions would likely be unconstitutional.”
Griffin stated the General Accounting and Budgetary Procedures Law would be constitutionally suspect if it were to apply to the governor since the statute requires certain kinds of budget transfers be reported to the secretary of the Department of Finance and Administration. The attorney general said if the governor were subject to that portion of the law, it “would make the Governor subordinate to a legislatively created executive official.”
The Republican attorney general said the only parts of the General Accounting and Budgetary Procedures Law that Sanders’ office is subject to are parts that specifically include “constitutional officers.” For the state law regarding marketing and redistribution of property, Griffin drew a similar conclusion to his other answers, saying the law does not specifically say constitutional officers are subject to it.
Arkansas Code 25-8-106 states “All state agencies, boards, commissions, departments, and colleges and universities are required and county, municipal, or other tax-supported institutions are authorized to utilize the services of the Marketing and Redistribution Section, unless specifically exempted in writing by the State Procurement Director.”
The Marketing Redistribution Section, also known as Arkansas State Surplus, “oversees the redistribution and sale of state surplus property between state agencies, tax-supported entities, not for profit, and to the general public,” according to the website for the Arkansas Department of Transformation and Shared Services.
Alexa Henning, a spokesperson for Sanders, did not respond Friday to a request from the Democrat-gazette for comment.
Many have awaited the release of the audit since legislative auditors finished a draft report in March and gave the governor’s office until March 29 to issue a response. The letter in which Sanders asked Griffin for an advisory opinion is dated April 3.
The controversy surrounding the purchase of the lectern began after Matt Campbell, an attorney and blogger, posted an invoice for the lectern on X, formerly Twitter, in September.
The invoice showed the governor’s office purchased the lectern in June with a state credit card, paying $18,475 for a 39-inch Custom Falcon Podium with a custom podium case, and was charged a $554.25 credit card processing fee.
The lectern was purchased from Beckett Events, LLC, an events management firm based in Arlington, Va., that describes itself as a “full-service events management company” but does not list lecterns or other equipment for sale on the site. Henning has said the governor’s office purchased the lectern from Beckett Events because it was similar to the one Sanders used during her inauguration last year.
In September, the Republican Party of Arkansas wrote a check reimbursing the state for the lectern purchase, something that Sanders said shows that taxpayers ultimately were not responsible for the purchase. However, state Sen. Jimmy Hickey, R-texarkana, requested a legislative audit of the lectern purchase in October as it was purchased with a state credit card.
Attorney general advisory opinions carry only marginal legal weight when compared to a ruling or opinion from a court, but can help boost a defense against possible future litigation, said Robert Steinbuch, a professor at the William H. Bowen School of Law in Little Rock.
“It provides, in this case the governor, a good faith defense even if the court says you got it wrong,” said Steinbuch, who is also a columnist for the Democrat-gazette.
Steinbuch said an advisory opinion also could provide the governor with political cover.
“It offers some political benefit to the extent that the opinion comes out favorably,” he said.
Controversy surrounding the lectern purchase has prompted national media attention and questions about the governor’s office’s purchase of the furnishing.
Sanders has said the purchase is a “manufactured controversy,” as it was ultimately paid for by the Republican Party of Arkansas. Henning said in September it was a mistake that the governor’s office originally purchased the lectern and that the credit card fee was an “accounting error.”
“I think the process wasn’t as clean as it should have been,” Sanders said in October. “Again, it has been reimbursed by private funds. Nothing was paid for by taxpayers, and that was the error on the front end.”
Henning also stated in September that Sanders “welcomes the audit and encourages legislators to complete it without delay.”
When asked previously about the lectern’s features, Sanders said a smaller lectern was needed to accommodate her relative short stature when compared with her predecessors, along with other benefits. “I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but women are traditionally a little bit shorter than most of our male counterparts, and so that makes a little bit of a difference,” Sanders said.
This isn’t the first time the governor’s office has requested an advisory opinion related to the lectern. Responding to a request from Sanders, Griffin said in an advisory opinion released in September that state procurement law does not apply to the governor or other constitutional officers.