Bill raising penalty for illegal executive sessions clears panel

Tony Prothro, executive director of the Arkansas School Boards Association, speaks against House Bill 1984 Thursday while the bill's sponsor, Rep. Nate Bell, R-Mena, looks on.
Tony Prothro, executive director of the Arkansas School Boards Association, speaks against House Bill 1984 Thursday while the bill's sponsor, Rep. Nate Bell, R-Mena, looks on.

A bill that would stiffen penalties for knowingly violating part of Arkansas' Freedom of Information Act dealing with executive sessions cleared a state House of Representatives committee Thursday.

The House Judiciary Committee sent an amended version of House Bill 1984 on to the full chamber on a voice vote.

The bill's sponsor, Rep. Nate Bell, R-Mena, said the bill would make it a Class A misdemeanor for a member of a public board to knowingly call an illegal executive session. A conviction of a knowing violation would also make the person ineligible to work for the state, which would mean immediate termination for a current state employee.

The penalty would remain a Class C misdemeanor, as it is currently for all violations, if the illegal executive session was called negligently.

Bell called it "an effort to clean up what is happening in many places with impunity because the penalties are essentially nonexistent and there's no way to get to the actual facts."

Class A misdemeanors in Arkansas are punishable by up to a year in jail and a fine of up to $2,500. Class C misdemeanors are punishable by up to 30 days in jail and a fine of up to $500.

The Arkansas Freedom of Information Act stipulates that executive sessions can only be called "for the purpose of considering employment, appointment, promotion, demotion, disciplining, or resignation of any public officer or employee."

Tony Prothro, executive director of the Arkansas School Boards Association, spoke against the bill, calling the penalty that could result in a state worker losing his job "harsh."

"It is a high bar," he said of the requirement that the illegal meeting be called knowingly for the employment penalty to take effect, "but we would still be concerned someone would make that mistake."

Read Friday’s Arkansas Democrat-Gazette for full details.

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