Carroll County Newspapers, publisher of the Lovely County Citizen, filed an official complaint with Carroll County prosecuting attorney Tony Rogers about a recent meeting of the Eureka Springs Cemetery Commission.

The cemetery commission held a special meeting June 1 at the Route 62 General Store, going into executive session before returning to open session and voting to hire Pat Lujan as the cemetery sexton. The commission then voted to adjourn the meeting, but continued to meet and discuss business while mistakenly believing that a recording device had been turned off.

Carroll County Newspapers managing editor Scott Loftis said the commissioners violated the Arkansas Freedom of Information Act by continuing to discuss official business after the meeting had been adjourned.

“Believing they were no longer being recorded, the commissioners continued to meet and discuss public business in blatant violation of the law,” Loftis wrote in his complaint, which was emailed to Rogers and copied to Mayor Butch Berry and his assistant, Kim Stryker. “The recording device was still on and captured audio for approximately 27 more minutes.”

Loftis noted that this is the third complaint he has filed regarding FOIA violations by Eureka Springs city commissions.

The two previous complaints cited violations by the City Advertising and Promotion Commission. Both were referred to Little Rock-based special prosecutor Jack McQuary. No action apparently was taken in regard to the first complaint. After the second complaint was filed in October 2021, McQuary said he believed some city officials were “ignorant to the FOIA law.” A virtual training session presented by the Arkansas Attorney General’s Office was held in February 2022. City officials were invited to attend, but were not required to do so.

“As you are aware, this is the third official complaint I have filed regarding violations of the Freedom of Information Act by the Eureka Springs city government since early 2020,” Loftis writes in his email to Rogers. “I’m sure you are also aware that there have been multiple violations, both procedural and practical, that I have observed and noted without lodging an official complaint.

“As yet, the only consequence for the Eureka Springs city government’s blatant disregard for state law has been a video training session presented by the Arkansas Attorney General’s Office, at which attendance by city officials was optional.

“I’m respectfully asking again that the Eureka Springs city government be compelled to comply with state law.”

Rogers said Tuesday that he had forwarded the most recent complaint to Mc-Quary.

McQuary said Tuesday afternoon that was in the middle of preparing to prosecute an upcoming murder trial in Eureka Springs. He said Rogers’ request for a special prosecutor would need to go “through channels” with the state prosecutor coordinator’s office in Little Rock, which would appoint a special prosecutor to the case.