Fewer state lawmakers are eating breakfast at the Capitol Cafe in the state Capitol basement in Little Rock since voters approved a constitutional amendment last week.
Traditionally, lobbyists, some state officials and several lawmakers could be found on many mornings seated at a table in the cafe, eating breakfast and talking about a wide variety of topics, from football to legislative business.
But the numbers at the table dwindled in the week since voters approved Issue 3, which included stricter limits on gifts to legislators and other elected officials. The amendment took effect Wednesday, the day after the election.
Since then, the group of lobbyists who covered the cost of state lawmakers' breakfast in the cafe decided to stop paying the tab for now, and lawmakers are paying for breakfast out of their own pockets.
"We decided if we err we are going to err on the side of caution," said lobbyist Ron Harrod of Little Rock, one of several who have split the cost of breakfast for legislators in the past.
"We have to make sure we don't break the law, and it doesn't seem anybody knows what it is right now," Harrod said. "We just decided we would wait on a definite list of rules [from the state Ethics Commission]."
Graham Sloan, executive director of the Arkansas Ethics Commission, said that commission officials have received dozens of phone calls from lawmakers and lobbyists about how to interpret Issue 3.
The amendment still allows for lobbyists to pay for "special events" for lawmakers, but the amendment's language narrowed the allowable events, he said.
Asked what would happen if someone filed an ethics complaint now about a lobbyist purchasing a steak dinner for a state lawmaker during a one-on-one meeting, Sloan said: "The answer would be that they've perhaps run afoul of the constitution, but we don't have jurisdiction to enforce the constitutional provisions."
State Sen. Jon Woods, R-Springdale, co-author of the amendment with state Rep. Warwick Sabin, D-Little Rock, said he has started drafting legislation for the session beginning Jan. 12 to give the ethics commission authority to enforce the amendment's provisions.
"Don't let lobbyists buy your meals or anything between now and the time I pass that bill because you still would be held accountable," Woods advised his fellow lawmakers.
Under the amendment, "a person who knowingly violates this section is guilty of a Class B misdemeanor."
"Whether the prosecutor could bring a criminal action for violating the constitutional provision, that's up to the prosecutors to decide," the ethics commission's Sloan said.
Pulaski County prosecutor Larry Jegley could not be reached for comment Monday.
State Rep. Jeff Wardlaw, D-Hermitage, said he's following the long-time practice of term-limited state Rep. Duncan Baird, R-Lowell, and "I am going to pay for everything I get.
"I am going to keep receipts from everywhere I go with a date and a time just in case there is ever a question," Wardlaw said last week after paying for his own lunch in the Capitol Cafe.
Wardlaw said the constitutional amendment adopted by voters isn't confusing to him and is "pretty plain."
He said he doesn't believe the public understood that the constitutional amendment provides certain exceptions for lobbyists to provide gifts to lawmakers, so "I am not partaking in any exceptions because I am going to live to voters' expectations."
Issue 3 states that state lawmakers, the state's seven constitutional officers such as governor and attorney general, and the members of a new citizens commission that will set salaries for lawmakers, constitutional officers and judges "shall not knowingly or willfully solicit or accept a gift from a lobbyist, a person acting on behalf of a lobbyist, or a person employing or contracting with a lobbyist."
The amendment defines a gift as "any payment, entertainment, advance, services, or anything of value, unless consideration of equal or greater value has been given therefor."
The amendment provides several exemptions for gifts, including "food or drink available at a planned activity to which a specific government body is invited, and "anything of value that is readily available to the general public at no cost."
A governmental body means "an office, department, commission, council, board, committee, legislative body, agency or other establishment of the executive, judicial or legislative branch of the state, municipality, county, school district, improvement district, or any political district or subdivision thereof," according to the amendment.
State law previously defined a special event "as a planned activity to which a specific governmental body or identifiable group of public servants is invited."
The constitutional amendment only allows for a planned activity for "a specific governmental body," Sloan said.
The ethics commission previously concluded that the General Assembly, state House of Representatives and Senate and their committees are "a specific governmental body," while the House and Senate Republican and Democratic party caucuses are "an identifiable group," he said.
During the House's organizational session, Entergy Corp. lobbyist Paul Means paid for dinner on Thursday night, the Arkansas Society of Professional Lobbyists and Arkansas Beverage Association paid for breakfast Friday morning, and AT&T paid for lunch on Friday, said House spokesman Cecillea Pond-Mayo.
All House members were invited to each event -- dinner at Cajuns Wharf restaurant and the breakfast and lunch at the Capitol Hill Apartments near the state Capitol, she said.
Asked whether the amendment still would allow the lobbyists to purchase breakfast for lawmakers in the Capitol Cafe if they invited the entire General Assembly to breakfast each morning, Woods said, "The intent was to do away with that.
"Having any open tab at any restaurant or a buffet line or in any cafeteria and calling it a community event or a governmental body get-together is not OK," Woods said.
Sabin said his intent with the constitutional amendment is "to eliminate the reality or appearance of a quid pro quo" between a lawmaker and a lobbyist purchasing a lawmaker's meal.
The amendment will make it difficult to "extract concessions and quid pro quo deals" from lawmakers representing different parts of the state and different ideologies on a legislative committee, he said, because one-on-one meetings are no longer permitted.
Lobbyist Bruce Hawkins of Morrilton, a former Democratic state representative, said the amendment is going to "drastically change" lobbyists' dealings with lawmakers based on lawmakers' time constraints.
"It's a shame we'll spend less time before lawmakers" in educating them about the various legislation that they are considering, he said, adding lobbying "just became more of a local grassroots scenario than before.
"It will be a level playing field [among lobbyists]. Everybody plays by the same rules," Hawkins said.
Lobbyist Julie Mullenix of Hot Springs, who is a partner with former Republican state representative Ted Mullenix of Hot Springs in their lobbying firm, said that sometimes lawmakers say they are only available to lobbyists when they are eating meals, so the amendment "in that respect makes [lobbying] a little more difficult."
Issue 3 not only restricts lawmakers' ability to accept gifts, it also increases the length of time that lawmakers are allowed to serve in the General Assembly to a maximum of 16 years in the state House of Representatives, the state Senate or a combination of terms in both.
Lawmakers had been limited to six years in the House and eight years in the Senate. Some senators were able to serve 10 years if they drew a two-year term after winning in the election after once-per-decade redistricting.
Issue 3 also prohibits direct political contributions from corporations and unions and delays lawmakers' eligibility to register as lobbyists until two years after their legislative terms have ended. The waiting period had been one year.
It also creates a citizens commission to set salaries for lawmakers and other elected officials and make recommendations for per diem and other reimbursements for lawmakers. The Legislature had set salaries for the state's elected officials.
The seven-member commission would include two appointees each by the House speaker, Senate president pro tempore and governor, and one by the chief justice of the state Supreme Court.
Democratic Gov. Mike Beebe doesn't have any preconceived notion about what salary levels his two appointees to the commission should set for state lawmakers and other state elected officials, said Beebe spokesman Matt DeCample.
House Speaker Davy Carter, R-Cabot, said Monday that he'll make two appointments to the commission in the next few weeks. He also said he had no preconceptions about what legislators' and other officials' salaries should be.
"I don't know what the sweet spot is," he said. "There is not going to be a single magic answer. It is going to be under a lot of public scrutiny, as it should be."
Legislators' annual salaries now are $15,869 each except for the House speaker and Senate president pro tempore, who get $17,771 each.
Lawmakers also receive per diem (a daily allowance for lodging, meals and incidentals), mileage and expense payments. Last year, per diem payments totaled $4.77 million, or an average of about $35,333.
A Section on 11/11/2014