News
	Opinion
	Project '99
	Charts / Data
	Related graphic
	Links

Send us your comments

Larry Fugate, FOIArkansas Project

Arkansas municipal officials apparently have been paying attention at annu

Photo by beau Rogers / FOIArkansas Project Paula Caudle, president of the Arkansas Municipal Clerks, Recorders and Treasurers Association, said she was not surprised most cities provided immediate access to requested documents.

al seminars on the state Freedom of Information Act.

Sixty-five of 75 city officials complied with initial requests made during an FOIA survey — the highest compliance rate among four different government offices tested in a statewide survey.

The FOIArkansas Project sent 75 people to the state’s 75 counties on Aug. 23 to survey four offices — the county jail, the county unit of the state Health Department, a school district selected at random and a city selected at random. At the cities, none smaller than 1,500 population, surveyors sought documentation showing how much money the cities had received from the state in the most recent reporting period.

Municipal offices complied with 87 percent of the requests; school districts with 72 percent; and jails with 61 percent. State Health Department offices had the lowest response rate with 51 percent.

Five other cities sent the documentation to surveyors by mail within three days or complied on a second visit to the office.

Barling, Clarendon, De Queen, Hughes and Helena were the cities that failed to provide a copy of the requested document.

“I’m surprised it wasn’t 100 percent compliance,” said Don Zimmerman, executive director of the Arkansas Municipal League. “I’m surprised about a couple of them (the five).”

“I would have expected a high degree of compliance,” said Paula Caudle, city clerk-treasurer at West Fork and president of the Arkansas Municipal Clerks, Recorders and Treasurers Association.

Caudle said her association conducts at least one seminar annually on the FOIA, while the Municipal League usually has an annual workshop on the law that provides for public access to government records and meetings.

“We try to convince them (elected officials) that they need to comply,” Caudle added. “I think most of us who have been in (office) for any length of time realize it works better if we cooperate.”

Zimmerman said the league conducts FOIA seminars “at just about all of our meetings and conferences,” and schedules one for recently elected officials every two years.

Acting City Administrator Phil Stewart at Barling in Sebastian County acknowledged he mailed a copy of the requested information late. “It was a simple oversight on my part,” he said.

Sharon Stockton, then the Barling city clerk, was not available the day of the survey.

Clarendon City Clerk Billie Hasty in Monroe County was out of the office Aug. 23 because of an illness in her family and said she didn’t fill the written FOIA request for information on state turnback monies because she needed more specific information.

In Sevier County, De Queen City Clerk Ethel Wommack said she had been out of her office for three months for major surgery prior to the Aug. 23 request and her “general ledger was not up to date.” She said FOIA requests are normally fulfilled quickly in the office.

“I just forgot about it,” said City Clerk Rick Overturf of Hughes in St. Francis County when asked why he had not complied with the request. “Let me look. It seems like I’ve ... I found it in a stack of papers. I forgot about it.”

Helena City Clerk Louise Galloway said she referred the surveyor to the office of the mayor because state turnback records are maintained on computers in the mayor’s office.

Sandy Ramsey, administrative assistant to the Helena mayor, said she was still awaiting estimates for state turnback funds in 2000 from the Municipal League before answering the FOIA request.

“She (the surveyor) didn’t tell me what it was for,” Ramsey added.

Surveyors said municipal officials who quickly responded to requests for information were in the majority. A number of officials did ask questions about the FOIA request.

At Heber Springs the surveyor was in and out of the municipal building with the requested information in an estimated two minutes.

“I couldn’t have gotten it easier if it had been posted on a bulletin board,” the surveyor at Mountain View noted.

In a number of instances city officials volunteered information on municipal finances and explained the turnback reports in detail.

Many didn’t even charge for copies of the requested documents.

At Star City they offered the surveyor a cup of coffee and a soft drink for his daughter.

Sheridan Mayor Joe Wise went so far as to explain the formula used for determining the amount of turnback each city receives, gave a brief history of the tax and noted the importance of obtaining an accurate census count so each municipality receives its fair share.

“I believe where accountability is concerned, cities and counties are more accessible to the public than the state and federal (governments),” Wise said. When the surveyor left the office, Wise encouraged her to call if she had any questions.