Attorney General Tim Griffin again rejected proposed ballot language for an initiated act to strengthen the Arkansas Freedom of Information Act.
The opinion released Tuesday by the attorney general's office is the latest rejection of ballot language for the proposal to fortify Arkansas' sunshine law authored by Arkansas Citizens for Transparency. In response, the group said it refiled its ballot language Tuesday, saying it deleted the two sections of its proposal with which the attorney general's office found fault.
The rejection comes a day after Griffin's office rejected ballot language for a related constitutional amendment to strengthen the Freedom of Information Act, which has prompted a threat to sue to get it on the amendment ballot, David Couch, vice chair of Arkansas Citizens for Transparency, told the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
The group submitted four separate versions of its proposal to the attorney general's office, all four of which were rejected Tuesday.
Under the Arkansas Constitution, citizens can create laws through a statewide vote, which is referred to as an initiated act. Before a group can begin collecting the 72,563 signatures needed to get an initiated act on the ballot, the attorney general's office has to sign off on the language of the proposal. Under Arkansas law, the attorney general has the authority to accept, reject or rewrite ballot language for any proposed initiated act or constitutional amendment.
In a letter to group, Griffin's office said changes made to the initiated act's ballot title do not accurately summarize the language of the initiated act.
Deputy Ryan Owsley, who prepared the opinion, wrote that Arkansas Citizens for Transparency's proposal would rewrite state law to remove requirements that public employees be notified when someone puts in record requests for their information, something that comes into conflict with one of the group's stated goals "To Protect the Privacy of Personal Information Contained Within Public Records in Which an Individual has a Substantial Personal Privacy Interest." The proposal also would notify private citizens that a request has been made of a government recording containing personal information only when they are the ones making the request, Owsley said.
In response to the rejection letter, the group removed the sections of their proposed initiated act that the attorney general's office said conflicted with their stated goals of transparency.
"Given these sections were the only noted concerns, there is now no legitimate reason for the Attorney General to take any action but to approve, and to do so quickly, the ballot measure that now sits in his office," Arkansas Citizens for Transparency said in a news release.
The resubmission of the initiated act proposal mirrors the tactic the group took Monday after Griffin's office rejected ballot language for its constitutional amendment, which quickly sent back an updated version of its amendment Monday evening.
"He's making the people change their proposal to make it say what he wants it to say instead of what we want it to say," Couch said.
The proposed amendment would make it difficult for the Legislature to change the Freedom of Information Act. If the General Assembly wanted to make the law less transparent, two-thirds of lawmakers in both chambers would need to approve the change, which would not take effect until after voters signed off through a referendum in the next general election.
If an immediate change to the Freedom of Information Act were needed, nine-tenths of legislators in both chambers would have to approve the change, which would take effect immediately upon passage. However, voters would get a chance to veto and overturn the law through a referendum at the next general election.
Arkansas Citizens for Transparency, chaired by former state representative Nate Bell of Mena, was formed in response to a special session called in September by Republican Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders to overhaul the state' Freedom of Information Act. The proposed amendment also would clarify the state of Arkansas can be a defendant in its own courts if it does not comply with transparency laws.
In addition to Bell and Couch, Arkansas Citizens for Transparency includes attorney John E. Tull III of Little Rock; state Sen. Clarke Tucker, D-Little Rock, attorney Robert Steinbuch, Arkansas Press Association Executive Director Ashley Kemp Wimberley and Jennifer Standerfer, an attorney from Bentonville.
Sanders called the session after attorney and blogger Matt Campbell requested Arkansas State Police communications and records related to governor's security detail.
Sanders said the 1967 Arkansas Freedom of Information Act -- considered by many as one of the more liberal transparent open records and meetings laws in the country -- needed to be amended to better shield records related to her security and to facilitate the workings of state government, which the governor said are often slowed because of the sunshine law.
To protect the state's Freedom of Information Act from future intervention, the proposed initiated act would create an Arkansas Transparency Commission to help citizens obtain public documents. The proposal also would create a long-sought definition for a public meeting and allow judges to assess civil penalties against government bodies that don't comply with records request.
While Sanders originally proposed a bill that would have exempted large classes of government records from disclosure, including communications between her and cabinet secretaries, after public pushback Sanders and the General Assembly agreed to a scaled down bill that exempts only "records that reflect the planning or provision of security services provided" to the state's constitutional officers.
Additionally the initiated act would:
— Repeal Act 883 of 2023, which allows school boards to meet in closed sessions to discuss legal affairs.
— Allow litigants to recoup legal fees if a court finds they "substantially prevailed" in a legal challenge over the a records request.
— Allow public bodies to meet in closed session to discuss cyber security.