Boyce Hamlet, director of the state Alcoholic Beverage Control Enforcement Division, has agreed to pay a $100 fine and receive a public letter of caution in a settlement with the Arkansas Ethics Commission of a complaint filed against him, commission records show.
Hamlet, of Conway, signed a settlement offer in which he agreed that he violated state law as the agency's enforcement director by failing to file in a timely way a personal financial disclosure report for calendar year 2014, Ethics Commission Director Graham Sloan said in a letter dated Monday to Hamlet. The personal financial disclosure report is called a Statement of Financial Interest.
Retired investigator Russ Racop of Little Rock, who writes a blog critical of the agency, filed the complaint against Hamlet.
"I'm thankful I was made aware of this technical issue," Hamlet said Wednesday in a written statement. "After being informed the proper form wasn't filed at the onset of my employment I was happy to work with the commission to resolve it. I appreciate their cooperation." Hamlet's salary is $73,124 a year, according to the Arkansas Transparency website.
Racop said the settlement with Hamlet speaks well of the Ethics Commission.
Appointees to state jobs such as the Alcoholic Beverage Control Enforcement Division director position should disclose the information required on a Statement of Financial Interest promptly by filing the report, Racop said in an interview.
Sloan said in an Aug. 19 letter to Hamlet that evidence showed Hamlet's employment with the agency began on March 29, 2015, and thus the deadline for him to file a Statement of Financial Interest for calendar year 2014 would have been April 28, 2015.
"You filed [an] SFI for calendar year 2014 with the secretary of state on June 13, 2016, which was 412 days after the deadline had passed," Sloan wrote in the commission's settlement offer that Hamlet signed Aug. 30.
Republican Gov. Asa Hutchinson appointed Hamlet as the agency's enforcement director in March 2015. On Sept. 9, 2015, Racop filed a lawsuit in Pulaski County Circuit Court seeking the release of records related to the firing of Hamlet as an Arkansas State Police trooper recruit in 2000. Republican Attorney General Leslie Rutledge had opposed the release of the records.
On Sept. 24, 2015, Circuit Judge Mackie Pierce ordered the Arkansas State Police to provide a copy of the requested records to Racop, after determining the records were subject to disclosure under the Arkansas Freedom of Information Act.
Metro on 09/15/2016