Arkansas Senate Ethics Committee calls for sanctioning two senators

Senate panel calls for sanctions against Clark, Johnson

FILE — The state Capitol is shown in this 2019 file photo.
FILE — The state Capitol is shown in this 2019 file photo.

The Arkansas Senate Ethics Committee on Monday found that Sen. Alan Clark, R-Lonsdale, admitted he didn't attend the Senate's Boys State committee meeting June 3, and he knowingly sought reimbursement from public funds by asking another senator to sign in Clark's name on the sign-in sheet for that meeting.

The committee also found that Sen. Mark Johnson, R-Ferndale, signed in the name of another senator on the sign-in sheet at the Senate's Boys State committee meeting June 3 when Johnson knew the senator didn't attend the meeting.

The ethics committee found that Clark and Johnson violated Senate ethics rules.

Clark, who lives more than 50 miles from the state Capitol, is eligible for $215.84 in per diem and mileage for attending legislative meetings, but he wasn't reimbursed for the Senate's Boys State committee meeting June 3, Senate Director/Secretary Ann Cornwell said.

Afterward, Johnson said he signed in Clark for attending the June 3 meeting after he received a text from Clark at the end of the committee meeting that he was feeling ill, and he asked Johnson to sign him in.

"That's the first time I have done anything like that," he said.

Johnson said he made an erroneous assumption that Clark already had attended the Boys State committee meeting. He said he left the committee meeting for 30 to 40 minutes to go to a doctor's appointment before returning to the meeting. He said he later attended a Republican Party of Arkansas lunch hour meeting with Clark, who had a mask on at that event.

Clark declined to comment on the matter late Monday afternoon.

As penalties for the violations of Senate ethics rules, the Senate Ethics Committee on Monday recommended the full 35-member Senate strip Clark and Johnson of committee chairman and vice chairman posts and their eligibility for per diem and mileage reimbursement for the rest of this year.

Clark is chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, vice chairman of the Legislative Council Review Subcommittee, and co-chair of the Legislative Council Occupational Licensing Review Subcommittee.

Johnson is vice chairman of the Joint Energy Committee, the Joint Budget Committee Claims Subcommittee, and the Legislative Council Charitable, Penal and Correctional Institutions Subcommittee.

State lawmakers who live more than 50 miles from the state Capitol are reimbursed at the per diem rate of $155 for attending legislative meetings in Little Rock, according to Bureau of Legislative Research Director Marty Garrity. Lawmakers who live within 50 miles of the state Capitol are paid a lower per diem rate of $59, said Cornwell.

They are reimbursed at a rate of 58.5 cents a mile for their mileage. In addition, state representatives and senators are paid $44,356 a year in salary by the state except for the House speaker and Senate president pro tempore, whose salary is $50,661 a year.

As other penalties for violating Senate ethics rules, the Senate Ethics committee also called for the 35-member Senate to reprimand Clark and Johnson, not to have future Senate president pro tempores consider either senator for appointment to the Senate's Boys State or Girls State or Senate Ethics Committee, and remove Johnson from the Senate Ethics Committee.

Johnson said the Senate Ethics Committee's recommended penalties are "over the top." He said he would accept a public letter of caution as a sanction from the Senate.

He said this matter "is a correctable error" that could have been dealt with short of filing of an ethics complaint.

In response, Hickey said "that's Sen. Johnson's opinion.

"It was done in front of our employees and we have to hold ourselves to a higher standard," he said.

Johnson said he took the sign-in sheet from Senate Deputy Director/Assistant Secretary Sabrina Lewellen and signed in Clark's name as a courtesy for a colleague who was feeling ill.

Clark declined to comment late Monday afternoon about the Senate Ethics Committee's findings and recommended penalties.

He said he hasn't visited with the senators on the Senate Ethics Committee or senators not on the Senate Ethics Committee, and this matter is "in their hands.

"When it is done, I will have a lot to say," Clark said.

Hickey said "I don't take any pleasure" from filing ethics complaints against Clark and Johnson.

With no audible dissenters and committee member Sen. Joyce Elliott, D-Little Rock, not at the meeting, the Senate Ethics Committee voted Monday afternoon to approve its findings and recommended penalties against Clark and Johnson. The action came after the panel convened in a closed-door executive session for more than four hours Monday.

The committee also includes Chairman Sen. Kim Hammer, R-Benton; and Sens. Stephanie Flowers, D-Pine Bluff; Missy Irvin, R-Mountain View; Mat Pitsch, R-Fort Smith; Dan Sullivan, R-Jonesboro; Clarke Tucker, D-Little Rock; and David Wallace, R-Leachville.

Flowers made substitute motions that the Senate committee also recommend the full Senate strip Clark and Johnson of their seniority. But Flowers' substitute motions died because none of the other committee members seconded the motions.

Prior to Monday, the committee met in a private executive session Wednesday for more than five hours on one of the ethics complaints and met in an executive session Thursday for more than seven hours on the other ethics complaint.

Under the Senate's ethics rules, "Unless the Senate Ethics Committee is in executive session, the public shall be allowed to observe the entire proceeding."

Information on how much senators on the ethics committee will be paid in per diem and mileage for attending the three days of meetings wasn't available through the Senate by the close of business Monday.

Hammer said Monday that the committee will meet again to approve a written report that includes the committee's findings and recommendations on the two ethics complaints to submit to the Senate president pro tempore in compliance with the Senate's ethics rules.

He said the committee has 20 calendar days to provide a written report to the Senate president pro tempore under the Senate's ethics rules, and his intention is to complete the report as quickly as possible and to allow the committee to review and approve the final report to send to the Senate president pro tempore by that deadline.

The Senate's rules require the Senate president pro tempore to call a business meeting of the full Senate within 10 business days of receiving the Senate Ethics Committee's final report on the ethics complaints, Hammer said.

On June 16, the Senate Rules Committee appointed Wallace to the Senate Ethics Committee to temporarily replace a senator on the committee who faces an ethics complaint, until the ethics committee's investigation is completed.

Last week, Johnson declined to say whether he was temporarily replaced on the ethics committee because he was advised by Hammer through legislative staff not to answer that question.

Senators' reluctance to talk about the two ethics complaints last week came after the Senate in January 2021 changed its ethics rules to state that "A Senator shall not make an allegation of a violation verbally in a meeting of the Senate or by any other means outside the [ethics complaint] petition and committee process of these rules."

A senator who improperly brings an allegation of a violation may be subject to any of the penalties set forth in the Senate's ethics rules under rule changes adopted in January 2021. These penalties range from a letter of caution to expulsion.

The Senate's action in January 2021 came more than two months after Sen. Trent Garner, R-El Dorado, announced to senators that he was filing an ethics complaint against Sen. Jim Hendren, who is now an independent from Sulphur Springs. Garner's announcement at that time surprised senators, including members of the Senate Ethics Committee.

In November 2020, the state Senate initially dismissed Garner's ethics complaint against Hendren as frivolous. The Senate Ethics Committee later held a closed hearing on Garner's complaint and recommended the Senate dismiss the complaint, before Garner withdrew the complaint.

Hickey's ethics complaints against Clark and Johnson are the second and third ethics complaints filed against senators since the Senate in June of 2018 approved an overhaul of its rules to create a committee on ethics, prohibit senators from certain activities involving conflicts of interest and require more disclosure of other conflicts.

The Senate's overhaul of its ethics rules came after federal investigations in the prior few years led to convictions of five former lawmakers.

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