"Here politics is purged of all menace, all sinister quality, all genuine significance, and stuffed with such gorgeous humors, such inordinate farce that one comes to the end of a campaign with one's ribs loose, and ready for 'King Lear,' or a hanging, or a course of medical journals."
--H.L. Mencken,
"On Being an American."
The next time the board for the Metropolitan Housing Alliance meets in Little Rock, the television stations, should they even be notified aforehand, should tape the goings-on and dub the Benny Hill theme song over everything. "Yakety Sax" would be the perfect background music. Their viewers might finally be entertained by a government-meeting story. Imagine all those board members sneaking into non-meeting meetings, bouncing off closing elevator doors, running down fire escapes and generally dodging reporters.
Fire escapes! When the housing authority in this city wants to avoid reporters, man, they aren't kidding.
Instead of sending out notifications to dozens of email addresses for media types, and not just media types, the latest advisory for Tuesday's candidate interview was sent to five people, not including anybody at The Associated Press. And instead of the usual notification in the subject line, the email only said "Memo"--the better to throw nosy reporters off the scent. But eventually the press heard about a meeting. And closed in.
The reporter for this paper said the housing board met behind closed doors for seven hours, with members drifting in and out, giving the media various runs-around. At the end of the day, they did meet in public, at last. For 40 seconds.
The whole point of the secret meeting--which wasn't so secret once reporters found out about it--was to interview one of the finalists for executive director of the Metropolitan, the city's largest rental subsidy provider. But the secret meeting wasn't really a public meeting, board members insisted, because it was a, well, something other than a meeting. Call it a gathering. Or a conference. Oh, aren't "summits" the thing nowadays? Or maybe this latest FOI dodge could be called a council of war. Anything to break the law.
And breaking the law, this was. The news reports called it "skirting" the Freedom of Information Act, but that's just the diplomatic way to put it. A good opinion editor would call it crime.
This has nothing to do--yet--with the candidate interviewed. Should Kimberly Adams make the final cut and be appointed executive director, there might be another editorial in there somewhere. Especially considering her résumé. And how she was fired from the city's Housing and Neighborhood Programs last year.
But we ain't there yet. Not by a long shot. First, let's figure out why this particular board conducts the public's business by telling the public to mind its own. For this isn't the first time this housing board has ignored the state's public meetings law.
Professors and experts will tell you that the board didn't comply with the law, but who are you going to believe? The housing authority or your lyin' eyes? The Arkansas FOI Act defines a public meeting as any gathering of two or more members of a governing body to discuss public business. The law requires certain notifications. These folks, when they aren't using fire escapes, tell reporters that a meeting isn't a meeting because there's not a quorum.
Here's the FOI law's kicker:
"25-19-104. Penalty. Any person who negligently violates any of the provisions of this chapter shall be guilty of a Class C misdemeanor."
Maybe more board members for the Metropolitan Housing Alliance should read the law, and its penalties, and realize that there's a difference between legal requirements and parliamentary procedure, a difference between Robert's Rules of Order (Newly Revised) and the state's legal code. And if they don't understand that, a person like Frank Scott could explain it.
Frank Scott, the newly elected mayor of Little Rock, has often said his administration would be a transparent one, keeping the theme of gaining trust among his constituents. That would be great, if We the People actually get it.
If he really wants a transparent administration, a good place to start is the housing authority. Mayor Scott has a certain authority over the authority. If he still believes in his late campaign, he should use it. Before the Metropolitan Housing Authority goes from just being a laughingstock to being a litigant.
Until then, we'll keep an eye on those fire escapes. And keep "Yakety Sax" in the queue.
Editorial on 04/12/2019