Senate President Pro Tempore Jimmy Hickey has given Sen. Alan Clark until late Monday afternoon to turn in his Senate license plates, keys to his Senate office and Capitol Hill apartment northeast of the state Capitol, keycards to the state Capitol and the Capitol Hill apartment, and any Senate-issued electronic devices such as a laptop and iPad.
Hickey, R-Texarkana, asked Clark, R-Lonsdale, in a two-page letter dated Tuesday to turn the items and any other Senate items issued to Clark as a state senator into the state Capitol Police office by 4:30 p.m. Monday.
"Understanding that you have personal items that you may want to remove from your Senate office or desk or from your Capitol Hill apartment during your suspension, you will be provided access to the Senate Chamber, your Senate office, and your Capitol Hill apartment until 4:30 p.m. on October, 3, 2022," Hickey wrote in his letter to Clark.
He said Clark will be immediately prohibited from accessing his Senate email and Senate computer accounts; contacting or working with the Senate, Bureau of Legislative Research and Legislative Audit staff except during the Senate orientation and organization meetings; and accessing legislator-only areas within the state Capitol and the Big MAC (Multi-Agency Complex) building west of the Capitol, except during the Senate orientation and organization meetings.
The Senate's temporary suspension of Clark is the first suspension of a state senator since the Senate adopted a code of ethics in the late 1990s, according to Senate officials.
Hickey said Wednesday his letter to Clark was sent to Clark by U.S. mail and email and Clark was notified by text about the letter. Clark said Wednesday in a text to the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette that he has received Hickey's letter. He declined further comment.
Hickey said in his letter that Clark's immediate loss of his seniority means that he has been moved to position 35 for the remainder of the 93rd General Assembly that ends Jan. 8, and the Senate will consider a recommendation that his loss of seniority be sustained as the first order of business during its organization session in November and that he remain at position 35 during the 94th General Assembly, which begins Jan. 9.
He said Clark's suspension for the remainder of the 93rd General Assembly will end at "11:59:59 p.m." Jan. 8, and includes the loss of reimbursement for conference registration fees or travel reimbursements related to in-state or out-of-state travel, and attendance at legislative committee meetings or meetings of the Senate, except for any Senate organizational or orientation meetings of the 94th General Assembly.
Hickey said his letter reflects the Senate's 26-4 vote on Tuesday to find that Clark violated the Senate's ethics rules by filing spurious, frivolous and retaliatory charges of ethics violations against Sen. Stephanie Flowers, D-Pine Bluff, and to suspend Clark and strip him of his seniority until the start of the 2023 regular session Jan. 9, and to recommend the Senate strip him of his seniority during the next two years. He read a copy of the letter to the Senate on Tuesday afternoon. The Bureau of Legislative Research released a copy of a letter Wednesday.
The Senate's 26-4 vote to temporarily suspend Clark required at least 24 votes to be approved under the Senate's ethic rules, so that motion was approved with two votes to spare.
The Senate's votes for finding that Clark violated the Senate's ethics rules, and to temporarily suspend him and strip him of his seniority, included votes from 18 Republican senators, seven Democratic senators and independent Sen. Jim Hendren of Sulphur Springs.
These votes affirmed its eight-member Senate Ethics Committee's findings and recommendations. The Senate Ethics Committee included Republican Sens. Kim Hammer of Benton, Missy Irvin of Mountain View, Mat Pitsch of Fort Smith, Dan Sullivan of Jonesboro, and David Wallace of Leachville, and Democratic Sens. Joyce Elliott of Little Rock, Keith Ingram of West Memphis and Clark Tucker of Little Rock.
Republican Sens. Bob Ballinger of Ozark, Charles Beckham of McNeil, Trent Garner of El Dorado and Mark Johnson of Ferndale dissented on all three votes. Along with Clark, Republican Sens. Ron Caldwell of Wynne, Jason Rapert of Conway, Gary Stubblefield of Branch, and James Sturch of Batesville didn't attend the Senate's meeting Tuesday.
The chamber's actions Tuesday came after almost three hours of wrangling in the Senate without Clark on hand and more than two hours of debate Sept. 16 with Clark and his two attorneys on hand. On Sept. 16, the Senate voted over Clark's objection to recess and resume its deliberations at a meeting called later by Hickey. Last week, Hickey set the Senate's meeting for Tuesday.
In an email dated Sept. 7, Clark advised Sens. Bart Hester, R-Cave Springs, Hammer, Hickey and three legislative staff members that, "Just to let you know that I will be out of state September 23 through October 1 for a trip planned and reservations made and paid months ago."
Clark has said he paid for lodging for the out-of-state trip with family and friends and it's not refundable, and he wasn't going to ruin his family's trip. Even if he could have attended Tuesday's meeting, Clark said he wouldn't appear before the Senate without his attorneys, who he said were out of state this week.
During the Senate's meeting Tuesday, Hickey said Clark authorized Garner to represent him in the Senate before the Senate voted to give Garner time to make a presentation for Clark.
After Garner walked away from the Senate's podium, state Sen. Jonathan Dismang, R-Searcy, said that "I believe that this is being made a mockery of our processes and it is time to end it."
Then, the Senate voted 26-4 to approve Dismang's motion for the Senate to find that Clark violated the Senate's ethics rules by filing a frivolous, spurious and retaliatory ethics complaint against Flowers.
Gun range owner Jan Morgan of Hot Springs said Wednesday in a text message that "What Republicans did yesterday to Senator Clark was a political hit job.
"THE PEOPLE NEED RECALL POWER FOR BAD POLITICIANS like other states," said Morgan, who has made unsuccessful bids for the Republican nomination for governor in 2018 and for the U.S. Senate earlier this year.
"What some fellow Republicans did to him yesterday reminds me of the scripture 'straining on gnats while swallowing camels, ' " she said.
Irvin told her fellow senators Tuesday that "I, for one, am not going to wear the Republican lens" in considering Clark's case.
"That's not ethical for me," she said. "I can't put on Republican glasses and say this is a partisan issue. That would be unethical for me and below my standard as a person. I can't do that."
Irvin said "I have to maintain my own personal standard of honor, and integrity, and honesty. That was not maintained by Senator Clark through this process with the Ethics Committee, which led us to where we are today."
Clark has served in the Senate since 2013. He is unopposed in Senate District 7 in the Nov. 8 general election.
On Sept. 16, the Senate voted 29-0 to concur with its Ethics Committee's finding that Flowers didn't violate the Senate's ethics rules with Garner abstaining. Clark and Flowers voted with 27 other senators.
On Aug. 18, Clark filed an ethics complaint against Flowers alleging she violated the Senate's code of ethics by accepting legislative per diem payments for participating by Zoom in the Senate's regular session meetings in 2021.
The Ethics Committee found that Flowers had not violated any provisions of the Senate's ethics rules and recommended the Senate uphold the committee's finding and not impose any penalties against Flowers because the committee found the issue at hand to be "clerical only."
The committee said Flowers contacted the Senate staff as soon as she became aware in the 2021 regular session of the deposits in her bank account that she felt had been made in error, and she was assured by Senate staff that she was entitled to the payments she received. Flowers reimbursed the state Senate $2,714 on Aug. 11 and $217.60 on Aug. 22 that was erroneously paid to her during the 2021 regular session, the committee said.
Hickey has said he learned from the Senate staff as a result of Clark's inquiries about legislative expense reimbursements that Garner and Flowers, who participated in the Senate's meetings through Zoom during the 2021 regular session, were each incorrectly paid per diem. In a check dated Sept. 1, Garner reimbursed the Senate $906, according to Senate records. "Zoom" was written on the check.
In its report to the Senate, the Ethics Committee said "the only purpose to the filing of the [complaint] and any that he has plans to file going forward, seems to be to fulfill his promise on July 3 to 'burn the house down.'"
"These frivolous and and spurious allegations only serve to create a divisive environment within the Senate and bring dishonor to the institution of the Senate."
Clark said Tuesday that "Time will reveal the truth.
"We all have a right to our own opinions, but not to our own facts," he said. "Close to $4,000 has been paid back to the state as a result of my investigation. More should have been.
"How can we be expected to fight corruption and wrongdoing in government if we can't reveal and stand against our own questionable behavior?"
"I am saddened for this body that I love, more than anything else," Clark said. "I will continue to stand for right and fight corruption shoulder to shoulder with whomever will stand with me."
On June 15, Hickey filed an ethics complaint against Sen. Mark Johnson for Johnson signing Clark's name on the sign-in sheet for reimbursement at the Senate Boys State committee meeting June 3 that Clark didn't attend. Hickey also filed a complaint against Clark for asking Johnson to seek reimbursement from public funds for Clark for that meeting. The Senate didn't pay the $155 per diem to Clark for that meeting at the behest of Senate leaders.
On July 21, the Senate approved the Ethics Committee's findings that Clark and Johnson violated the Senate's ethics rules as well as the committee's recommended punishments.
For violating the Senate's ethics rule, the Senate's punishment for Clark on July 21 was to strip him of his committee chairman and vice chairman posts and block his eligibility for per diem and mileage reimbursement for the rest of this year. He also was reprimanded by the Senate, and any future Senate president pro tempores are not to consider Clark for appointment to serve on Boys State, Girls State or the Senate Ethics Committee.
Clark had been chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, vice chairman of the Legislative Council Review Subcommittee, co-chairman of the Legislative Council Occupational Licensing Review Subcommittee, and chairman of the Child Maltreatment Investigations Oversight Committee.