Icon (Close Menu)

Logout

Lawmakers Consider Bills to Shed Light on Contracts, Spending

3 min read

LITTLE ROCK – Members of a legislative panel on Wednesday looked at ways to expand Arkansas’ open records law so taxpayers can find out more about spending in government contracts and possibly get access to other financial records now held in secret.

The athletic and academic foundations at the University of Arkansas are regarded as private entities and much of how they spend millions of dollars is kept from the public eye. Likewise, the Arkansas Economic Development Commission doesn’t have to fully reveal details about state money paid to employers.

Rep. Jim Nickels, D-Sherwood, has drafted a bill to address problems in getting financial information from private entities that do business with state government.

Nickels, an attorney, won’t be around for the regular session that starts in January because of term limits, but he said he hopes legislators that follow him will take up the issue.

Max Brantley, senior editor of the Arkansas Times, said he doesn’t accept that the UA’s foundations are legitimately keeping financial information from disclosure under the argument that they’re private groups.

“I think it’s bull,” Brantley told the State Agencies Committee.

Robert Steinbuch, a professor at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock’s law school and open-records specialist, said the foundations use state employees to raise money for academics and athletics. In the case of athletics, the foundation draws revenue from premiums on tickets to games played at state-owned venues.

“The public has a right to know how the money is raised, misspent … or spent,” Steinbuch said.

Steinbuch said he believes it is common for government boards to go into closed session to discuss matters that should be aired in public.

Rep. Nate Bell, R-Mena, said he drafted a bill that would require recording of closed sessions of otherwise public meetings. The measure would have a prosecutor or his or her designate review the recording to ensure there wasn’t discussion of matters that should have been held in open session.

If there’s a finding that all or part of the meeting should have been conducted in public, the information would have to be “immediately disclosed” to the public, he said.

Bell said that local newspaper editors could serve as prosecutors’ agents but would have to sign a confidentiality agreement. He also said he wants a judge to review any findings and that he’s still trying to develop a way for the process to work.

Dan Greenberg, an attorney and former legislator who spoke on behalf of the nonprofit policy group Advance Arkansas Institute, said the state’s repository of criminal records, the Arkansas Crime Information Center, should be accessible to the public.

Those records are restricted to law enforcement use but Greenburg said it would be helpful for the public to be able to at least learn whether public officials and political candidates have criminal records.

Greenberg and Brantley said they want private companies to be obligated to provide financial information related to contracts they have with the state.

“There is no way we can figure out how these services are being run without (greater) transparency,” Greenberg said.

Greenberg noted that the Legislature passed a bill that requires the Arkansas Economic Development Commission to develop annual reports on money it gives to corporate interests but he said taxpayers still don’t have enough information to decide whether they’re getting a good deal.

No one from AEDC was at the meeting, but spokesman Scott Hardin said Wednesday afternoon that the report is posted online.

Sen. Robert Thompson, D-Paragould, said he wants more transparency but said he’s heard positive reports at times about government contracting out work. He cited school districts that hire private firms to run their cafeterias.

Brantley said being able to request a breakdown of how a food service company spends public money is a prime example of transparency that benefits school patrons. He said the public would want to know how much food is being bought for the students and what kind.

(Copyright 2014 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, rewritten, broadcast or distributed.)
Send this to a friend