LITTLE ROCK — State Treasurer Martha Shoffner has paid more than $850 in state funds for birthday cards for lawmakers and constitutional officers.
Shoffner said her office designed the cards and she contracted through CAMCO of Sherwood to get them printed in a nonpolitical transaction. CAMCO works for campaigns and private businesses. The treasurer's office is "a commercial client," said CAMCO owner Linda Napper. The firm also has worked for Shoffner's campaign.
A member of Shoffner's staff asked the firm to get quotes from printing companies and Shoffner's office chose the lowest bidder, Napper said.
Shoffner said she thought it was a tradition for the office to send cards to current and former officials, although she didn't know whether her predecessors did so. She has done this for the past year and a half. The aim is to recognize others, not to promote herself, she said.
She wasn't trying to engender better relations with lawmakers, Shoffner said.
"Everybody's birthday is real important. I just want to recognize them on their birthdays and I'll put a little note there, 'Have a great day' or something," Shoffner said.
She served in the House of Representatives from 1997-2003. She has been treasurer since January 2007. She has announced that she plans to seek re-election next year to a four-year term.
When the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette asked whether sending birthday cards, with taxpayer dollars, to officials was appropriate, Shoffner said she would "cease and desist."
"I just never consciously thought I shouldn't be sending birthday cards," she said. "It was an error, I guess, to do that. ... I thought everybody would be pleased to get a card."
SHUFFLING THE CARDS
Shoffner's office paid CAMCO $443.88 in April 2008 and $418.40 in March 2009 for the cards, according to state records and officials. Chief Deputy Treasurer Karla Shepard said the office got 515 cards for the $443.88 and 510 cards for the $418.40.
The newspaper requested a list of officials Shoffner sent birthday cards to, and her office produced a list of lawmakers from the 84th, 85th, 86th and 87th General Assemblies, as well as constitutional officers.
The list included former Sen. Nick Wilson, D-Pocahontas. But Shoffner said she intended to send cards to the names on the list but didn't actually send one to Wilson.
"That [list] was probably just taken from the book, my littlelegislative book," she said. "I don't even know where [Wilson] lives now."
On Nov. 4, 1999, Wilson was convicted by a U.S. District Court jury in Little Rock of two counts of tax evasion and one count of conspiracy. He resigned from the Senate effective Dec. 31, 1999. He later pleaded guilty to directing three schemes to defraud Arkansas taxpayers of more than $1.9 million.
The birthday-card list also includes lobbyists Paul Berry, Sammie Cox, Ricky Cross and Don Tilton, as well as Napper of CAMCO.
Shoffner's predecessor, Gus Wingfield of Delight, was treasurer from 2003-2007. He said he didn't send birthday cards to lawmakers.
But Jimmie Lou Fisher of Little Rock, treasurer from 1981-2003, said she sent them to lawmakers, initially out of her office's public-relations fund, then later from campaign funds after the state-financed public relations fund was abolished.
Amendment 70, adopted by voters in 1992, did away with public-relations funds that once were provided to the governor's office and other state officers, some of whom simply treated it as a salary supplement.
After that, Fisher said, her office printed the cards on its own desktop printer. Campaign funds paid for stamps and the paper for the cards.
"It was something I started in the '80s," Fisher said. "I thought it was good public relations and it was a good way for me to connect with legislators with new legislators coming on."
'CONSTANT REQUESTS'
Shoffner is not the only elected official to note various birthdays. Gov. Mike Beebe's spokesman, Matt DeCample, said the governor's office sends out roughly 1,000 "birthday greetings" a year on the governor's regular stationery.
"There are no special cards or envelopes used for birthdays," he said.
The governor's office receives "constant requests" for "birthday greetings," especially from nursing homes and senior citizens, DeCample said.
He declined to provide a list of people the office has sent such letters to, saying such information is exempt from public-disclosure requirements under the working papers exemption the governor has in the Arkansas Freedom of Information Act.
DeCample said the number of birthday greetings letters has increased significantly with each office Beebe has held. He was a state senator from 1983-2003, attorney general from 2003-2007 and governor since January 2007.
"The vast majority of them are requests from family members or, with some of the seniors, it's the nursing homes and living communities and obviously he has friends that he will always send birthday greetings, and that's how it has always been," he said.
Does Beebe send such letters to former legislators and current legislators?
"I don't think there is any set group of elected officials or anyone else who we send them to," DeCample said. "It's pretty strictly people who request it from us or people who he would send greetings to anyway."
Former Gov. Mike Huckabee sent personal notes for birthdays on his personal stationeryat private expense, said Huckabee spokesman Sarah Huckabee.
"However, we often got requests from a constituent when it was their mother's 90th birthday or something like that and we tried to honor all of those type requests," she said. Such requests were likely put on official letterhead, she said.
Secretary of State Charlie Daniels sends birthday cards only to his 150 or so employees in the secretary of state's office through interoffice mail, said a spokesman for Daniels, Natasha Naragon.
Naragon said the cards are printed on his executive card stock, which he uses in his official capacity, and the printing is done by the secretary of state's office. The cost of cards for 152 employees is $193 a year, she said.
Lt. Gov. Bill Halter, Land Commissioner Mark Wilcox, State Auditor Jim Wood and Attorney General Dustin Mc-Daniel don't send birthday cards to lawmakers, according to spokesmen for their offices.
SEASONAL SALUTATIONS
Shoffner also sends out holiday/Christmas cards at state expense.
Shepard, the deputy treasurer, said the treasurer's office paid $750 to CAMCO in December 2007 for 900 Christmas cards and $1,261.18 to CAMCO in February 2009 for 1,350 Christmas/holiday cards.
A list of recipients for those cards was also requested. Shoffner's office provided a list that included current and former lawmakers and constitutional officers and others.
But the list also includes former President and Gov. Bill Clinton, Game and Fish Commissioner Craig Campbell, former Game and Fish Commissioner Sheffield Nelson, and lobbyists such as Camie Boggess, Andy Crawford, Carmie Henry, Ruth Whitney, and Berry, Cross, Tilton and Cox, as well as Napper.
"I do a nice card for each Christmas rather than just sending out a printed card," Shoffner said. "It was personal. I would like to continue to do Christmas cards. But I won't if this becomes an issue."
Fisher and Wingfield said they didn't send out Christmas cards as state treasurer. Fisher said she didn't because she "didn't want to leave anybody out."
DeCample said Beebe has sent Christmas cards financed from campaign carryover funds the past two years.
Daniels sends Christmas cards at state expense, said Naragon. He sends about 2,500 at a cost of roughly $3,700 a year for printing and postage. The printer was Twin City Printing in North Little Rock last year, she said.
McDaniel sends Christmas cards at his campaign's expense, said McDaniel chief of staff Melissa Moody.
Halter and Wood said they don't use state or campaign funds to send Christmas cards. Halter said he uses personal funds to send those cards.
Wilcox's office spent $1,548.28 in 2007 for 850 Christmas cards and $1,620.48 in 2008 for 1,050 Christmas cards, said Bentley Hovis, chief deputy in the land commissioner's office. The office paid Conway Printing for the cards, he said.
Shoffner isn't the only constitutional officer who has done state business with a company that worked for her campaign.
DeCample said the software and support for the governor office's news-release distribution system is provided by Emma Inc. of Nashville, Tenn., through a contract through the Department of Information Systems. That has cost $2,800 over 2 1 /2 years, he said.
The governor's office has paid $200 a month to Corporate Video Inc. of Nashville, Tenn., to compile clips and transcripts of television coverage of the governor and his office since January 2007, he said.
Both companies worked for Beebe's gubernatorial campaign in 2006, and Beebe's former campaign spokesman and gubernatorial communications director Zac Wright used the firm's services prior to that campaign, DeCample said.
In 2002, Wood paid Paschall & Associates to produce and place television and radio ads for his campaign for state auditor, said chief deputy auditor Larry Crane.
Since that time, the auditor's office has used Paschall & Associates to produce and place several radio and television spots, in conjunction with the annual statewide advertising program of the Great Arkansas Treasure Hunt, Crane said. The firm has been paid $160,000 by the auditor's office since 2005 and that includes the cost of running television and radio spots, he said.
He said there is no connection between the firm's work for Woods' campaign and work for the state auditor's office. Paschall & Associates does good, creative writing and production, and places the ads like any other media agency, he said.
Front Section, Pages 1, 10 on 08/29/2009