Last week, we opined about the appearance of “jackpot justice” in some recent Pope County Circuit Court decisions.
This week, it’s the behavior of the Pope County Quorum Court that we find appalling, even potentially illegal.
The indispensable Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reported last week that Russellville School District Superintendent Mark Gotcher said he’d attended a private meeting with elected Pope County officials, including three Quorum Court members. These elected officials “told him about the benefits a casino would bring to the school district and the River Valley.” This was a week before the Quorum Court voted to endorse Cherokee Nation Businesses of Oklahoma for a casino license.
After the newspaper filed a Freedom of Information Act request, Gotcher provided the newspaper with documentary evidence of the meeting.
All of which sounds much like what Pope County Justice of the Peace Joseph Pearson and seven other residents have alleged in a complaint to the prosecutor’s office, that County Judge Ben Cross and several members of the Quorum Court violated the FOIA because they held private meetings in which they discussed potential casino operators.
Doug Skelton, a JP who was present at the meeting attended by Gotcher, told the D-G he didn’t consider it “an actual meeting” — even though he said even more JPs attended than Gotcher had listed — and denied that anything improper or illegal took place.
Sorry, JP Skelton, but what Gotcher described and what you acknowledged attending was a meeting, a meeting that violates the FOI.
The citizens of Pope County rejected the casino amendment. They also approved an initiated ordinance requiring officials to get voters’ OK before supporting a casino proposal. And not even a $38.8 million “economic development fee” pledged by Cherokee Nation Businesses can whitewash illegal meetings and a willingness to disregard the citizens’ wishes.
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