URGENT: Hester and Ballinger’s Anti-FOIA SB 373
This ANTI-FOIA bill could be coming up any time before the 2017 legislative session closes at the Arkansas Capitol, and we need YOUR HELP contacting all the senators and opposing this anti-freedom legislation TODAY — before it’s too late to stop it! This is a bad bill! We need government transparency because we simply cannot afford to be shut out!
This has been a HIDEOUS legislative session, and many people have said it’s the worst one we’ve ever been through! Who or what is behind all of this BAD legislation? We think the sponsor, Senator Bart Hester, may try to bypass the Senate State Agencies committee and try to run this bill on the full Senate floor this week, if not today! Remember, anything could happen at the legislature at this time.
Sponsor of SB 373: Senator Bart Hester (R, Cave Springs), 479-531-4176; bart.hester@senate.ar.gov
The Arkansas Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) is one of the greatest pieces of legislation that has ever been introduced to the public! Arkansas’ Sunshine Law is one of the best in the country.
Secure Arkansas is a BIG PROPONENT OF FREEDOM, and Freedom of Information is no exception. We use it ALL THE TIME!
There has been a total onslaught of offensive bills hurled against us this legislative session to BLOCK INFORMATION so it can be hidden away from the public, from the media, and even from your own attorney! We need transparency in our government! Let the sun shine in…
SB 373:
AN ACT TO EXEMPT ATTORNEY-CLIENT COMMUNICATIONS AND ATTORNEY WORK PRODUCT FROM THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT OF 1967; AND FOR OTHER PURPOSES.
SECTION 1. Arkansas Code § 25-19-105, concerning examination and copying of public records, is amended to add an additional subdivision to read as follows:
(24) A record that constitutes an attorney-client privileged communication or attorney work product.
Note: Secure Arkansas believes SB 373 was written by the University of Arkansas attorneys to avoid transparency. See “Colleges aiding in Less-open FOIA bid”. Emails obtained by the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette show attorneys and other officials for the University of Arkansas and Arkansas State University wrote and sent proposed language for Senate Bill 373.
SB 373 exempts attorney-client communications and attorney work product from FOIA disclosure.
ATTENTION READERS: Sound reasonable? At first glance, it may seem entirely reasonable, but what will ultimately happen is that every document that any agency, board, or commission subject to FOIA does want to be open will just be “copied” to the attorney for the Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) [nongovernmental organization], agency, board, or commission, AND then the open document disappears, and the public can no longer access it! This is a blatant cover up, folks! The document that FOIA previously required to be disclosed will suddenly become an exception to disclosure. All sensitive communications, or documents that a governmental entity wants to keep secret, will simply just be provided to an attorney so that the attorney-client privilege can be claimed. Ha! Thus, SB 373 will prevent open government and public disclosure. What is this bill trying to fix, anyway? If you are trying to prevent communications that are truly privileged, then craft a bill that does just that, but don’t let a bill prevent all public disclosure based solely on copying an attorney for a governmental agency.
In this case, both the attorney and client which this bill would shield from transparency are government employees who feed on taxpayers money. Don’t we have a right to review the records that our government employees are creating with our tax dollars?
Here is an article which does a really good job in describing what our Arkansas legislators are doing in blocking your FOIA access to government created documents: Capitol Calamity “State’s FOIA in Real Danger by Robert Steinbuch. Robert Steinbuch, professor of law at the Bowen Law School, is co-author of “The Arkansas Freedom of Information Act”, now in its sixth edition.
*To check the bill status history of SB 373 click here. This bill was re-referred to Senate Committee on State Agencies and Governmental Affairs on March 20, 2017 by the House.
Another legislator heavily pushing this bad bill is Representative Bob Ballinger (R, Berryville); 479-443-3700; bob.ballinger@arkansashouse.
Contact Rep. Ballinger as well, and tell him to pull his support for this bad bill and to VOTE NO on SB 373!
Here’s an Arkansas Democrat-Gazette online article entitled “No cases identified to verify FOI claims by Arkansas' 2 university systems, highway department” by Lisa Hammersly. Here are a few snippets:
“Yet, in response to requests from the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, not UA nor Arkansas State University systems nor the highway agency could cite a single, documented case in the past two years in which their attorneys were forced under the Freedom of Information Act to hand over legal strategies and other key documents to opposing counsel.”
“The bill could allow state and local governments to withhold vast quantities of records from the public, according to opponents…”
Our Constitutional Republic has been replaced by a bureaucratic oligarchy that is unelected and unaccountable, and they possess a lot of power! Agency heads have been known to govern corruptly.
Help save our ability – and our legal right – to request FOIA’s! The Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) is a law that provides the public the right to request access information from:
- agencies
- county government
- municipal government
- state government
- public schools
Stated in the Arkansas Freedom of Information Handbook 25-19-102 Legislative intent:
“It is vital in a democratic society that public business be performed in an open and public manner so that the electors shall be advised of the performance of public officials and of
the decisions that are reached in public activity and in making public policy. Toward this end, this chapter is adopted, making it possible for them or their representatives to learnand to report fully the activities of their public officials.”
Why are our Arkansas Legislators, the University of Arkansas, and Arkansas State University attempting to block the electors from obtaining FOIA-type information? What do they have to hide?
IMMEDIATE ACTION REQUIRED!
- Call the Senate State Agencies and Governmental Affairs Committee Members (even if they are NOT your home legislator) and tell them to VOTE NO on SB 373. Their contact info is shown below — keep scrolling. Names listed below in red are known ALEC members (American Legislative Exchange Council). [We suspect that more of them are with ALEC].
- Below is information for the Senate State Agencies Committee and all 35 senators — their contact information is below the committee info (scroll further down). Send emails to ALL of them respectfully asking that they VOTE NO on SB 373.
- Call the sponsor of SB 373, Senator Bart Hester (even if he is NOT your home legislator, but absolutely for sure if he is!) at 479-531-4176 and tell him to PULL the bill
- Call the Senate switchboard at 501-682-2902 and leave a message for the Senate State Agencies Committee Chair, Senator Eddie Joe Williams, to PULL this bad bill out of committee and/or VOTE NO on SB 373!
- We especially need to hear from the two newly elected Senators Trent Garner (R, El Dorado) 870-818-9219 and David Wallace (R, Leachville) 870-919-8046 and how they plan to vote on this Anti-Freedom of Information legislation. Can you help contact them, too?
EMAIL ACTION: Readers, PLEASE copy/paste the email addresses below, and send an email to these senators telling them respectfully that you want them to VOTE NO on SB 373.
EddieJoe.Williams@senate.ar.
gary.stubblefield@senate.ar.
|
Title |
Name |
Phone |
|
District |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Senator |
Eddie Joe Williams, Chair |
29 |
||
|
Senator |
Gary Stubblefield, Vice Chair |
6 |
||
|
Senator |
Trent Garner |
27 |
||
|
Senator |
Bart Hester |
1 |
||
|
Senator |
Missy Irvin |
18 |
||
|
Senator |
Bryan King |
5 |
||
|
Senator |
Terry Rice |
9 |
||
|
Senator |
David Wallace |
22 |
All 35 Senators’ contact information:
Linda.Collins-Smith@senate.ar.
Stephanie.Flowers@senate.ar.
Jeremy.Hutchinson@senate.ar.
gary.stubblefield@senate.ar.
EddieJoe.Williams@senate.ar.
|
Title |
Name |
Phone |
|
District |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Senator |
Cecile Bledsoe |
3 |
||
|
Senator |
Will Bond |
32 |
||
|
Senator |
Ronald Caldwell |
23 |
||
|
Senator |
Eddie Cheatham |
26 |
||
|
Senator |
Linda Chesterfield |
30 |
||
|
Senator |
Alan Clark |
13 |
||
|
Senator |
Linda Collins-Smith |
19 |
||
|
Senator |
John Cooper |
21 |
||
|
Senator |
Jonathan Dismang |
28 |
||
|
Senator |
Lance Eads |
7 |
||
|
Senator |
Joyce Elliott |
31 |
||
|
Senator |
Jane English |
34 |
||
|
Senator |
Jake Files |
8 |
||
|
Senator |
Scott Flippo |
17 |
||
|
Senator |
Stephanie Flowers |
25 |
||
|
Senator |
Trent Garner |
27 |
||
|
Senator |
Jim Hendren |
2 |
||
|
Senator |
Bart Hester |
1 |
||
|
Senator |
Jimmy Hickey, Jr |
11 |
||
|
Senator |
Jeremy Hutchinson |
33 |
||
|
Senator |
Keith Ingram |
24 |
||
|
Senator |
Missy Irvin |
18 |
||
|
Senator |
Blake Johnson |
20 |
||
|
Senator |
Bryan King |
5 |
||
|
Senator |
Uvalde Lindsey |
4 |
||
|
Senator |
Bruce Maloch |
12 |
||
|
Senator |
Jason Rapert |
35 |
||
|
Senator |
Terry Rice |
9 |
||
|
Senator |
Bill Sample |
14 |
||
|
Senator |
David J. Sanders |
15 |
||
|
Senator |
Greg Standridge |
16 |
||
|
Senator |
Gary Stubblefield |
6 |
||
|
Senator |
Larry Teague |
10 |
||
|
Senator |
David Wallace |
22 |
||
|
Senator |
Eddie Joe Williams |
29 |
Take action to make sure that your legislator is representing YOU and not representing some other entity or non-government organization! (Shadow government would not want transparency!)
NOTE concerning the timeline of the 2017 session: Here’s a snippet from an article written by Mike Wickline with the Arkansas Democrat Gazette:
Under House Concurrent Resolution 1010, adopted in February, lawmakers must recess by April 7 and adjourn by May 5. During that interval, they can reconvene to consider vetoes, correct errors and oversights, complete work on constitutional amendments and consider an extension of the regular session.
House Speaker Jeremy Gillam, R-Judsonia, said Friday that he would like lawmakers to wrap up action on policy measures by the end of this week, and return April 3-4 for final votes on the state's Revenue Stabilization Act, which distributes general revenue to state agencies and programs.
STAY TUNED!
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And remember:
Securing the blessings of liberty,
Secure Arkansas
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