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Amy Sherrill, FOIArkansas Project

A surveyor for the FOIArkansas Project was in and out of Heber Springs City Hall in two minutes, public record in hand.

The experience was not typical on Aug. 23, however, when 75 surveyors fanned out to the state’s 75 counties to test four offices each for compliance to citizen requests under the Arkansas Freedom of Information Act.

The other extreme occurred in southern Lafayette County, near the Louisiana border.

Superintendent Darrell Porter of the Bradley School District allowed the surveyor to look at his employment contract, but getting a copy of it wasn’t as easy. And, definitely not fast.

The surveyor waited 45 minutes in Porter’s office for a copy as the superintendent awaited legal advice from the attorney for the Arkansas School Boards Association.

Porter finally gave in and provided a copy of the contract before the call was returned.

When surveyors stopped at city halls, they asked to see the latest report on the amount of state revenue the city had received from the state.

“Anytime you ask for information, I try to get it,” said Norma Martin, the Heber Springs city clerk.

Of the 75 cities visited, all but 10 allowed surveyors to see the requested document. At most city hall stops, there were few, if any, questions asked.

In the 75 school districts surveyed, project participants were allowed access to the employment contracts of 54 superintendents.

“This is new to me; nobody’s ever asked for that before,” Porter told the surveyor.

Kristen Gould, the attorney Porter was trying to reach, was swamped with calls from school districts that day, all wanting to be clear on what the law required. She finally left a message on her voice mail telling school districts to grant the request if anyone asked to see the superintendent’s contract.

Cities and school districts tested in the survey were chosen at random — one each per county. Surveyors also went to 75 county jails asking to see jail logs, or the list of the people incarcerated, and to the 75 county health units of the state Health Department to request the most recent restaurant inspection report.

At jails, surveyors saw the logs 46 times; at health units, 38 complied with the request to see a restaurant inspection report.

Of the 300 stops that day, 203 resulted in access to the document before the surveyor left. Another 13 complied during a second visit, and 31 mailed the requested items within three days. However, 53 agencies made no attempt to comply.

“We comply with the Freedom of Information Act because it’s the law,” Woodruff County Sheriff Jack Caperton said. “We’re a small county but we’re not backwoods. Everything we do here, we do right.”

Officials at the Woodruff County jail handed over a jail log without questions to the surveyor; there was no charge for the copy.

In Perry County, a surveyor was about to copy the names from the jail log when Sheriff Ray Byrd stopped the process and said the information being requested was confidential.

He eventually allowed her to copy the information, but said in an interview later that he had checked the surveyor’s drivers license and knew within 15 minutes of her visit who she was.

A sheriff’s deputy in Phillips County told a surveyor that the jail log was government property and she could not see it.

In Jackson County, however, the jail staff produced the log book when the surveyor asked to see it.

“We try to get along with everyone,” Jackson County Sheriff Jim Bishop said later. “If it falls under the Freedom of Information Act, we’ve got to do it.”

Larry Nipper, environmental sanitarian for Lonoke and Prairie counties, was at the Lonoke office the day of the survey and handed over a restaurant inspection report when it was requested. But in his Prairie County office, his staff wouldn’t hand any documents out.

“I’ve been familiar with the Freedom of Information Act for years,” said Nipper, who has worked as a sanitarian since 1968.

The Prairie County surveyor left a stamped envelope with a request for Nipper to mail him a copy of the most recent restaurant inspection, but Nipper did not comply.

“I don’t think I’m allowed to do that” under the law, Nipper said later. The law is silent on whether mail compliance is required.

Environmental sanitarian Daniel Smith of Jefferson County said his administrative staff keeps employees informed about the FOI Act. A surveyor was referred to a supervisor, then was shown the document and given a copy at no charge.

“It’s old hat to me, but you have people who aren’t aware” of the FOI law, Smith said.

Paul Cree, sanitarian for Conway and Perry counties, said restaurant inspection reports were between the Department of health and the eating establishment.

“Sometimes if I write somebody up pretty hard and it's made public, it could hurt their business,” he said in an interview.

While the surveyor at the Bradley School District had difficulty obtaining a copy of the superintendent’s contract, Plainview-Rover school superintendent Jimmy Cunningham was anxious to comply, but mistakenly gave the surveyor a copy of an old contract.

He followed the surveyor to her car in the parking lot and tapped on her window to hand her the correct version.

“It’s just a matter of training and abiding by the law,” Cunningham said.

Superintendent John Moore at Magnolia said administrative training at his schools keeps staff up to date on issues such as the FOI Act.

“It’s just very plain and simple — we’re familiar with the law,” Moore said. “The staff around here knows what it is. It’s not any big deal. There’s no secrets; we’re just trying to educate kids.”

A similar refrain was echoed by Norphlet-Union school Superintendent Eddie Miller.

“Nothing we do in a public school is secret unless we go into executive session and then you don’t vote (in private),” Miller said.

He said his staff knows what the Freedom of Information Act is.

Miller said he lived in the Middle East for 12 years, where people have no appreciation for freedom of information.

Most teachers in his district are aware of the FOIA, he said.

“It’s just never been problem,” Miller said. “Certainly in my office I tell people, ‘We don’t have any secrets.’”

The quickest stop of the day for a surveyor may have been at Heber Springs City Hall, but perhaps the most open record was in Little River County in Ashdown — of all places, at the county jail.

The jail log is kept in a public waiting area.

Sheriff Danny Russell, a second-term sheriff, said all his officers understand the law. They even do their own news releases, he said.

“We tell them (employees) that’s our procedure and that’s the way we do it,” Russell said. “People have a right to know. Any reports we have are open – that’s all public record.

“That’s my understanding of the law.”