CONWAY — University of Central Arkansas police officers have chauffeured President Allen Meadors’ wife and his elderly parents to campus events. A state ethics rule calls the practice into question.
University spokesman Jeff Pitchford said the “practice has been done at UCA for some time, at least over the past decade” - a statement one former president’s wife disputed.
Told of the practice, state Sen. Sue Madison, a member of the legislative Joint Auditing Committee, said, “I don’t care if it’s been going on for centuries, it’s wrong. That’s totally inappropriate. If you take [officers] away from their jobs to run errands for the chancellor, they’re not there to do their job.”
The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette learned of the police chauffeurs through UCA e-mails obtained under the Arkansas Freedom of Information Act. The news follows complaints in recent years by some state legislators and state surveys of higher-education executives’ compensation packages and perks.
UCA Police Capt. John Merguie said such transportation “is certainly the acceptable practice at most universities.”
“The few times we have provided transport for Dr. Meadors’ family, in some cases we used golf carts,” Merguie added in an email.
The Meadors’ UCA-owned home is across the street from the campus. The president’s parents live in a nearby UCA owned home.
Spokesmen for Arkansas’ nine other four-year public universities said their chief executives and their families do not use police chauffeurs to travel to football games or other events.
“Not ever,” said Steve Voorhies, spokesman for the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville.
“Not to be snide, but that’s not what [police] were hired to do. They were hired to keep the campus safe,” University of Arkansas at Little Rock spokesman Judy Williams said in an e-mail.
University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff spokesman Tisha D. Arnold said in an e-mail, “This is not common practice for UAPB.” She did not reply to a request for clarification late Friday afternoon on whether it ever took place. UAPB said earlier that campus police did not escort the chancellor or his family to football games.
UCA officials were not available for phone interviews, responding to questions only by e-mail.
Madison, D-Fayetteville, said she supposed a president’s spouse was considered “a representative of the university,” but thought “parents and children and aunts and uncles” definitely shouldn’t be chauffeured by campus police.
Pitchford said the police transports, conducted by onduty officers, took place “occasionally” and said Meadors had indicated they were “for football games and graduations.”
One recent UCA e-mail sent to police Maj. Glenn Stacks by Susan Lilly, associate for administration in the president’s office, said, “Please pick Mrs. Meadors up for the tailgate/game at 5:00 p.m., Saturday, September 18 and pick the President’s parents up at 5:30 p.m.” In an earlier e-mail, Lilly asked the president what time to have the police pick up his parents and his wife, Barbara Meadors.
Arkansas Ethics Commission Director Graham Sloan, speaking about such a situation in general and not specifically about UCA, pointed to the commission’s “Rules on Conflicts,” available at www.arkansasethics.com. The section at issue says, “No public official or state employee shall use or attempt to use his or her official position to secure special privileges or exemption for himself or herself or his or her spouse, child, parents, or other persons standing in the first degree of relationship, or for those with whom he or she has a substantial financial relationship that is not available to others except as may be otherwise provided by law.”
Sloan said, “So, for instance, if the university president had the campus police chauffeurhis mom around to do her shopping, he’s using his position. ... You couldn’t call down there and say, ‘I need a ride to Wal-Mart, come get me.’ So, that’s [something] not available to everybody.”
A football game would be a similar situation, Sloan said.
“I don’t think the fact that [whether] it’s a university function versus going to Wal-Mart, I don’t know that it’s a different standard,” Sloan said. “If you’re giving them rides to football games, unless everybody could all go down there and say, ‘Come pick me up. I’ve got tickets. ...’ If they’re running a shuttle service for relatives” and not the public at large, “that would be fair game for analysis” under the conflict rules.
Penalties for such offenses, if they come before the commission and are ruled a violation, include a public letter, a fine of $50 to $2,000 or both, Sloan said.
Pitchford said Meadors “has from time to time requested [that] Mrs. Meadors and his parents be picked up as he usually goes to the events ahead of time in his own private vehicle. Due to limited parking at these venues, this allows for them to only take up one parking space and not two or three.”
Asked if a cab would be an appropriate alternative, Meadors said in an e-mail, “It seems like an unnecessary cost.We have numerous university vehicles driving around campus during these events.”
Madison also questioned liability implications of police chauffeurs. “Suppose that car gets in a wreck,” she said. If it’s the police’s fault, “There we are with an insurance claim.”
Carmen Thompson, the wife of former UCA President Winfred Thompson, who was in office April 1988-Dec. 21, 2001, said her husband’s family never benefited from police chauffeuring.
“Of course not,” Carmen Thompson said Friday. “My husband [was] so careful; there [was] no question between personal and UCA. He wouldn’t even let UCA buy a wreath for the door” of the president’s university-owned home.
Winfred Thompson was out of town and could not be reached for comment.
Former President Lu Hardin did not return e-mail requests for comment. Hardin, now president at Palm Beach Atlantic University in Florida, resigned from UCA in August 2008 amid contention that led to allegations of wrongdoing now under state and federal investigation.
Meadors said in an e-mail sent by spokesman Venita Jenkins that he has always driven himself but that UCA police have often asked him if he needed a ride. “There may be a time when I would accept their offer,” he said.
Asked whether the police offered the transportation for his family or if he and his relatives requested it first, Meadors said, “I remember being asked if I wanted to be picked up.”
Arkansas, Pages 9 on 09/25/2010