University of Arkansas' Attack on FOIA Record Laws - Secure Arkansas

University of Arkansas’ Attack on FOIA Record Laws

March 29, 2017 Featured, FOIA, Freedom of Information Act

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]org

The following is the Voting Record from the Senate on 3/28/2013:

Yeas: 11
Bledsoe	L. Eads	S. Flowers	J. Hendren	Hester	J. Hutchinson
K. Ingram	Irvin	Rapert	B. Sample	E. Williams

Nays: 14
Bond	L. Chesterfield	A. Clark	Collins-Smith	Elliott	Files
Flippo	T. Garner	Hickey	B. King	Rice	G. Stubblefield
Teague	D. Wallace

Non Voting: 10
Caldwell	E. Cheatham	J. Cooper	J. Dismang	J. English	B. Johnson
U. Lindsey	Maloch	D. Sanders	Standridge

Bill Status History

Chamber	Date	Action	Vote
Senate	3/28/2017 2:41:32 PM	The vote by which SB 373 FAILED was EXPUNGED.
Senate	3/28/2017 2:27:43 PM	Read the third time and failed.	Senate Votes
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.
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.
Senate	3/20/2017 7:15:42 PM	Re-referred to Senate Committee on State Agencies and Governmental Affairs
Senate	3/20/2017 7:14:50 PM	Returned From the House as passed as amended.
House	3/20/2017 5:57:19 PM	Returned To Senate as passed, as amended #
House	3/20/2017 5:56:15 PM	Read the third time and passed and ordered transmitted to the Senate.	House Votes
House	3/17/2017 2:43:06 PM	REPORTED CORRECTLY ENGROSSED
House	3/17/2017 10:44:27 AM	Amendment No. 3 read and adopted and the bill ordered engrossed.
House	3/17/2017 10:43:22 AM	Placed on second reading for the purpose of amendment.
House	3/15/2017 5:37:00 PM	Returned by the Committee with the recommendation that it do pass as amended 3
House	3/9/2017 2:41:07 PM	REPORTED CORRECTLY ENGROSSED
House	3/9/2017 1:42:23 PM	Amendment No. 2 read and adopted and the bill ordered engrossed.
House	3/9/2017 1:35:31 PM	Placed on second reading for the purpose of amendment.
House	3/6/2017 3:25:25 PM	Re-referred to the Committee on STATE AGENCIES & GOVT'L AFFAIRS- HOUSE
House	3/2/2017 10:49:27 AM	REPORTED CORRECTLY ENGROSSED
House	3/2/2017 8:40:23 AM	Amendment No. 1 read and adopted and the bill ordered engrossed.
House	3/2/2017 8:40:07 AM	Placed on second reading for the purpose of amendment.
House	3/1/2017 4:53:06 PM	Returned by the Committee with the recommendation that it do pass as amended 1
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
House	2/27/2017 4:36:01 PM	RECEIVED FROM THE SENATE
Senate	2/27/2017 3:35:16 PM	Ordered immediately transmitted to the House.
Senate	2/27/2017 3:34:59 PM	Read the third time and passed.	Senate Votes
Senate	2/23/2017 1:57:17 PM	Returned by the Committee, with the recommendation that it Do Pass
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
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.

Title	Name	Phone	email	District
Senator	Cecile Bledsoe	479-636-2115	[email protected]	3
Senator	Will Bond	501-396-5400	[email protected]	32
Senator	Ronald Caldwell	501-682-6107	[email protected]	23
Senator	Eddie Cheatham	870-364-5659	[email protected]	26
Senator	Linda Chesterfield	501-888-1859	[email protected]	30
Senator	Alan Clark	501-262-3360	[email protected]	13
Senator	Linda Collins-Smith	870-378-1434	[email protected]gov	19
Senator	John Cooper	870-761-0130	[email protected]	21
Senator	Jonathan Dismang	501-766-8220	[email protected]	28
Senator	Lance Eads	479-435-5139	[email protected]	7
Senator	Joyce Elliott	501-603-9546	[email protected]	31
Senator	Jane English	501-257-7670	[email protected]	34
Senator	Jake Files	479-648-9216	[email protected]	8
Senator	Scott Flippo	870-421-3420	[email protected]	17
Senator	Stephanie Flowers	870-535-1032	[email protected]gov	25
Senator	Trent Garner	870-818-9219	[email protected]	27
Senator	Jim Hendren	479-787-6222	[email protected]	2
Senator	Bart Hester	479-531-4176	[email protected]	1
Senator	Jimmy Hickey, Jr	903-824-8861	[email protected]	11
Senator	Jeremy Hutchinson	501-773-3760	[email protected]gov	33
Senator	Keith Ingram	870-735-9580	[email protected]	24
Senator	Missy Irvin	870-269-2703	[email protected]	18
Senator	Blake Johnson	870-323-1766	[email protected]	20
Senator	Bryan King	870-438-4565	[email protected]	5
Senator	Uvalde Lindsey	479-444-6752	[email protected]	4
Senator	Bruce Maloch	870-235-7041	[email protected]	12
Senator	Jason Rapert	501-336-0918	[email protected]	35
Senator	Terry Rice	479-637-3100	[email protected]	9
Senator	Bill Sample	501-624-3445	[email protected]	14
Senator	David J. Sanders	501-682-6107	[email protected]	15
Senator	Greg Standridge	479-968-1562	[email protected]	16
Senator	Gary Stubblefield	479-635-4314	[email protected]gov	6
Senator	Larry Teague	870-845-5303	[email protected]	10
Senator	David Wallace	870-919-8046	[email protected]	22
Senator	Eddie Joe Williams	501-286-9366	Edd[email protected]gov	29

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