University of Arkansas’ Attack on FOIA Record Laws
Once again, Senator Bart Hester’s ANTI-FOIA SB 373 is coming up Wednesday, March 29, 2017 at 1:30 p.m.
Arkansas’ Freedom of Information Act is under attack! Arkansas’ two university systems, University of Arkansas and the University for Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) are pushing for legislation that would limit taxpayer access to public records!
“[The University of Arkansas] has ALWAYS been an enemy of freedom of information. The system and Fayetteville campus will turn out a phalanx of lawyers to defeat the little citizen who dares to challenge them. The Arkansas Times learned that when they filled the courtroom with $300-an-hour lawyers to defeat our effort to find out what promises they'd made to the Walton family in return for a $300 million gift. (A lot, it turned out.)”
(That’s a snippet taken from this Arkansas Times story.)
Remember, it’s our tax dollars (almost $200,000 a year) that fund the General Counsel, Joann Maxey, of the University of Arkansas! And that’s not all. Click here for the College/University Budget Summaries over the years. You have to ask yourself: what are the colleges and universities trying to hide?
Click here for the State of Arkansas Appropriation Summary for Fiscal Year 2017; then go down to page 3 and page 4 under Total Institutions of Higher Education. The breakdown from this chart is:
- General Funds $1,054,585,913
- Special Revenue $7,150,000
- Cash Funds $ 5,286,399,266
- Trust Funds $21,091,571
- Other/Revolving Funds $800,000
- Total Operation Appropriation $6,350,006,750
Folks, this is a lot of taxpayers’ money! No wonder the colleges and universities can run around wasting your money fighting FOIA disclosures. It is time that our legislators start trimming back on appropriations funding to the colleges and universities. Click here for the Arkansas Department of Higher Education Fiscal Year 2015/2016 Annual Operation Budgets. To get the individual operating budget for a college/university, just click on that school.
Secure Arkansas is requesting that the Senate STOP this bad bill — SB 373 — immediately — Wednesday afternoon, March 29, 2017. It is your responsibility, Arkansas senators, to keep our transparency open to the public. We do NOT want bureaucrats hiding huge amounts of OUR public records! This bill CREATES a new attorney-client communication and work-product exemption for both current and future litigation that would allow bureaucrats to hide an infinite quantity of the taxpayers public records!
Senator Bart Hester is the sponsor of this bad bill, SB 373.
Senator Hester, do you REALLY want this ANTI-FOIA bill to be your legacy?
Senator Bart Hester (R, Cave Springs)
479-531-4176; [email protected]
Another legislator heavily pushing this bad bill is Representative Bob Ballinger. (Good grief! Why was he involved in so many bad bills this session?)
Representative Bob Ballinger (R, Berryville)
479-443-3700; [email protected]
The following is the Voting Record from the Senate on 3/28/2013:
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Yeas: 11 |
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Nays: 14 |
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Non Voting: 10 |
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Bill Status History
| Chamber | Date | Action | Vote |
|---|---|---|---|
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Senate |
3/28/2017 2:41:32 PM |
The vote by which SB 373 FAILED was EXPUNGED. |
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Senate |
3/28/2017 2:27:43 PM |
Read the third time and failed. |
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Senate |
3/28/2017 2:26:40 PM |
House Amendment No. 1, 2, & 3 read first time, rule suspended, read second time and concurred in. |
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Senate |
3/27/2017 1:50:44 PM |
Returned by the Committee with the recommendation that it Do Pass concur in House Amendment No. 1, 2, & 3. |
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Senate |
3/20/2017 7:15:42 PM |
Re-referred to Senate Committee on State Agencies and Governmental Affairs |
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Senate |
3/20/2017 7:14:50 PM |
Returned From the House as passed as amended. |
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House |
3/20/2017 5:57:19 PM |
Returned To Senate as passed, as amended # |
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House |
3/20/2017 5:56:15 PM |
Read the third time and passed and ordered transmitted to the Senate. |
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House |
3/17/2017 2:43:06 PM |
REPORTED CORRECTLY ENGROSSED |
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House |
3/17/2017 10:44:27 AM |
Amendment No. 3 read and adopted and the bill ordered engrossed. |
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House |
3/17/2017 10:43:22 AM |
Placed on second reading for the purpose of amendment. |
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House |
3/15/2017 5:37:00 PM |
Returned by the Committee with the recommendation that it do pass as amended 3 |
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House |
3/9/2017 2:41:07 PM |
REPORTED CORRECTLY ENGROSSED |
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House |
3/9/2017 1:42:23 PM |
Amendment No. 2 read and adopted and the bill ordered engrossed. |
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House |
3/9/2017 1:35:31 PM |
Placed on second reading for the purpose of amendment. |
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House |
3/6/2017 3:25:25 PM |
Re-referred to the Committee on STATE AGENCIES & GOVT'L AFFAIRS- HOUSE |
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House |
3/2/2017 10:49:27 AM |
REPORTED CORRECTLY ENGROSSED |
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House |
3/2/2017 8:40:23 AM |
Amendment No. 1 read and adopted and the bill ordered engrossed. |
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House |
3/2/2017 8:40:07 AM |
Placed on second reading for the purpose of amendment. |
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House |
3/1/2017 4:53:06 PM |
Returned by the Committee with the recommendation that it do pass as amended 1 |
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House |
2/27/2017 5:11:37 PM |
Read the first time, rules suspended, read the second time and referred to the Committee on STATE AGENCIES & GOVT'L AFFAIRS- HOUSE |
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House |
2/27/2017 4:36:01 PM |
RECEIVED FROM THE SENATE |
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Senate |
2/27/2017 3:35:16 PM |
Ordered immediately transmitted to the House. |
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Senate |
2/27/2017 3:34:59 PM |
Read the third time and passed. |
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Senate |
2/23/2017 1:57:17 PM |
Returned by the Committee, with the recommendation that it Do Pass |
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Senate |
2/20/2017 4:36:50 PM |
Read first time, rules suspended, read second time, referred to Senate Committee on State Agencies and Governmental Affairs |
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Senate |
2/20/2017 2:07:00 PM |
Filed |
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
IMMEDIATE ACTION NEEDED: Contact ALL 35 Arkansas State Senators by phone and email, and tell them respectfully to VOTE NO on SB 373, the ANTI-FOIA bill.
Especially get with the 10 non-voting senators (highlighted in yellow above in the chart of votes) and tell them to be sure to VOTE NO on SB 373.
Make sure those senators who voted “no” stay voting “no”.
Readers, you may copy and paste these 35 email addresses into your email to send ONE email to all of them. Remember to include your name, address, and county in which you vote.
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Title |
Name |
Phone |
|
District |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Senator |
Cecile Bledsoe |
3 |
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Senator |
Will Bond |
32 |
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Senator |
Ronald Caldwell |
23 |
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Senator |
Eddie Cheatham |
26 |
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Senator |
Linda Chesterfield |
30 |
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Senator |
Alan Clark |
13 |
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Senator |
Linda Collins-Smith |
19 |
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Senator |
John Cooper |
21 |
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Senator |
Jonathan Dismang |
28 |
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Senator |
Lance Eads |
7 |
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Senator |
Joyce Elliott |
31 |
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Senator |
Jane English |
34 |
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Senator |
Jake Files |
8 |
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Senator |
Scott Flippo |
17 |
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Senator |
Stephanie Flowers |
25 |
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Senator |
Trent Garner |
27 |
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Senator |
Jim Hendren |
2 |
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Senator |
Bart Hester |
1 |
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Senator |
Jimmy Hickey, Jr |
11 |
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Senator |
Jeremy Hutchinson |
33 |
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Senator |
Keith Ingram |
24 |
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Senator |
Missy Irvin |
18 |
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Senator |
Blake Johnson |
20 |
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Senator |
Bryan King |
5 |
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Senator |
Uvalde Lindsey |
4 |
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Senator |
Bruce Maloch |
12 |
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Senator |
Jason Rapert |
35 |
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Senator |
Terry Rice |
9 |
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Senator |
Bill Sample |
14 |
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Senator |
David J. Sanders |
15 |
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Senator |
Greg Standridge |
16 |
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Senator |
Gary Stubblefield |
6 |
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Senator |
Larry Teague |
10 |
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Senator |
David Wallace |
22 |
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Senator |
Eddie Joe Williams |
29 |
As always, you can find our email articles posted on our website: SecureArkansas.com. The Search box is a handy tool. For more information about a topic, just type it into the Search box on our website, and click Enter!
And remember:
Securing the blessings of liberty,
Secure Arkansas
securetherepublic.com/arkansas
[email protected]
