The director of Little Rock's Metropolitan Housing Alliance appealed Wednesday his conviction of failing to comply with the Arkansas Freedom of Information Act, a Class C misdemeanor.
The appeal was filed in Pulaski County Circuit Court days before the end of a 30-day appeal period for housing alliance Director Rodney Forte. Hayden Shurgar, an attorney with Wright, Lindsey & Jennings LLP, filed the documents.
Judge Alice Lightle ruled in Little Rock District Court on June 4 that Forte was "negligent" in not responding to requests for records from the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette within three working days, as mandated by state law. Lightle sentenced Forte to pay a $100 fine and another $140 in court costs.
An arrest affidavit was first issued against Forte in October, after the Metropolitan Housing Alliance sent the Democrat-Gazette a cost estimate of $16,378 -- the price, the agency said, of hiring temporary workers and buying extra supplies in order to comply with one of the newspaper's information requests.
Separate from Forte's appeal, the Metropolitan Housing Alliance filed a complaint with Pulaski County Circuit Court on June 24 seeking a declaratory judgment in the ongoing dispute with the Democrat-Gazette over the requests for documents.
The complaint, which names the Democrat-Gazette as the defendant, asks the court to determine what services the state's Freedom of Information Act permits a public agency to bill a requester for in readying documents for release.
It also asks what kind of cost breakdown the law requires in providing the files to a requester.
The housing authority's board of commissioners voted June 18 to move forward with the declaratory judgment.
Metro on 07/03/2015