FAYETTEVILLE -- State House District 84 rivals sparred over ethics Tuesday, with challenger Denise Garner criticizing a loan incumbent Rep. Charlie Collins made to a fellow legislator.
That 2016 loan was fully disclosed in financial records two years ago and never came up until ethics controversies involving other legislators came up this year, Collins replied.
The two candidates met in a forum beginning at 7 p.m. Tuesday, hosted by the Fayetteville Chamber of Commerce and held at the Fayetteville Public Library. A standing-room-only crowd of 100 packed the meeting room. Collins is a Republican and Garner is a Democrat.
On Monday both state Attorney General Leslie Rutledge and her Democratic challenger, Mike Lee, called for a ban on loans from any Arkansas lawmaker to another. This announcement came after the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette disclosed a previously unreported loan from Rep. Joe Jett, R-Success, to the House Speaker at the time, former Rep. Jeremy Gillam, R-Judsonia, of $16,000. Gillam amended his financial disclosure on Friday.
Rutledge and Lee's calls for a ban were reported Tuesday. "Now just today we find that my opponent was skating on thin ethics ice," Garner said at the forum.
"Your own Republican attorney general says the practice should be illegal," Garner said of the loan. "Giving it shows poor judgment and a lack of transparency."
Collins retorted that transparency was complete because he reported the loan to then-state Rep. Nate Bell, an independent from Mena, on his state financial interest disclosure form and never attempted to conceal it. He said the practice only became controversial in the wake of the scandal involving state General Improvement Fund grants and other practices. The federal investigation into those grants, Medicaid fraud, bribery and related issues have resulted in convictions of five former state lawmakers so far. Collins has not been implicated.
Collins reported a loan of more than $12,500 to Nate and Phyllis Bell in 2016, his financial interest statement shows, and receiving more than $1,000 in interest on a loan to the couple. On his report for 2017, Collins reported a loan of more than $1,000 but less than $12,500 to Nate and Phyllis Bell and receiving interest income of more than $1,000 on a loan to the couple. Phyllis Bell is an aide to Gov. Asa Hutchinson.
"She knew about it," Collins said of Garner. "She has people reading my financial interest reports. The loan was common knowledge."
Garner also questioned Collins award of some state General Improvement Fund to Ecclesia College in Springdale. That college's former president was sentenced to three years in federal prison earlier this month for paying kickbacks in returns for grants from two other legislators. Collins was not implicated. However, Garner said it showed bad judgment to make grants to a college outside his district. Collins replied that Ecclesia, a work-study college with low tuition, offered an affordable option for a college degree for students living in his district and elsewhere.
NW News on 09/26/2018