Drip, Drip, Drip (Editorial)

People again are chipping away at Arkansas’ Freedom of Information Act. Does that mean that the Legislature is in session? Why, yes. Yes, it does.

Arkansas is known for having a robust FOI Act. Now come legislators who think it could be improved by making it less robust.

In requiring public boards to make audio recordings of executive sessions of public boards, House Bill 1054 by state Rep. Nate Bell also would allow the board’s lawyer to sit in on executive — read, secret — sessions. Currently, public entities can hold executive sessions to discuss employee issues but must seek legal counsel in public, a situation that gives insight into a board’s thinking. In addition, it is simply not fair to allow the board’s lawyer, but not the employee’s lawyer, to sit in on an executive session.

House Bill 1080, an odd little proposal by Rep. Dan Douglas, would exempt from the FOI preliminary academic research, such as analyses and data collected by universities but not yet published.

House Bill 1284, by Rep. David Whitaker, would exempt from the FOI almost all information about people younger than 18.

And a couple of other bills erode the FOI in more subtle ways.

Tom Larimer, executive director of the Arkansas Press Association, says the state’s FOI Act currently has 19 active exemptions. The Open Records Act of Tennessee, whose lawmakers have been even more active than those in Arkansas, has 300, rendering it almost toothless.

An Arkansas Business story last week illustrated the usefulness of the FOI, which Russellville Alderwoman Freddie Harris employed to get information about the local economic development alliance, the Arkansas Valley Alliance for Economic Development Inc., which receives taxpayers’ money.

The FOI Act doesn’t serve just the press; it serves the public. It even serves public servants. Arkansas’ must be protected.