Dangerous FOI invoice squeezes by Home

A really shut vote of 52-22 within the Arkansas Home gave a thumbs as much as Rep. Mary Bentley’s bid to undercut the state’s Freedom of Info Act. House Bill 1610 would enable members of governing boards to fulfill with out notifying the press so long as it’s with lower than one-third of the physique.

Bentley (R-Perryville) introduced the invoice to the Home, and informed her fellow lawmakers that she’d prayed in regards to the proposal and “God determined” what portion of the governing physique can be OK to fulfill within the new definition of a “public assembly.”

She additionally stated that she met over Zoom with a FOIA process power earlier than the legislature’s spring break, and the members strongly opposed the invoice. Just a few residents tuned into that assembly, and Bentley requested to fulfill with the duty power in particular person to additional talk about a compromise. Absent a compromise, the duty power needed to fulfill with Bentley once more — whereas she was in a committee assembly Monday — however Bentley declined as a result of she stated she knew what was coming.

Regardless of this pushback from the FOIA process power, Bentley moved ahead along with her invoice. She stated it didn’t take away freedom, and elected officers weren’t “depraved” and “evil” individuals attempting to maintain secrets and techniques from the general public. She stated that her invoice would merely let officers get dinner or sit at a baseball sport collectively.

Bentley requested if it was freedom-loving that one justice of the peace couldn’t name up one other to talk in Arkansas. She stated no, that’s communism.

It solely takes 51 members to approve a invoice within the Home, and although nobody obtained as much as converse in opposition to the FOI invoice on Thursday, it was a detailed name. Three representatives, all former justices of the peace, spoke in favor. They acknowledged that it was tough to get native work completed with the prevailing public assembly regulation.

IF YOU’RE CURIOUS: Right here’s how the Arkansas Home voted on Bentley’s FOI invoice.

Bentley stated that the invoice’s impression can be like “untying the palms of the general public officers to actually serve their public constituents.”

The invoice now heads to the Senate, and transparency is a step closer on its way out the window.

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