Scott Loftis, managing editor for Carroll County Newspapers, lodged a formal criminal complaint with Carroll County prosecuting attorney Tony Rogers on Sept. 21, the day after the Eureka Springs Parks and Recreation Commission appeared to violate the Arkansas Freedom of Information Act by holding an executive session to discuss the parameters of its search for a new executive director.
Commission chair Ruth Hager recommended that the commission go into executive session at its Sept. 20 meeting.
Hager referred to the pending retirement of parks director Scott Miskiel, who has announced his plans to step down possibly as early as late December.
“Second item of new business is to talk about the search committee for the executive director of the position,” Hager said at the Sept. 20 meeting. “We do know that Scott is retiring at the end of the year. We will be searching for a new executive director and we’re going to start with a search committee. And in order to have discussions about hiring someone, I think we should go into executive session.”
The commission returned to open session after meeting in executive session for approximately 24 minutes, with commissioner Laurie Crammond announcing that a committee had been formed and that the commission would begin advertising for a director.
“And we will just let the public know that they can, there will be a timeline that will be announced and we’ll make sure everybody’s informed,” Hager said.
“Do we want to say who is on the hiring committee?” asked commission secretary Sue Hubbard.
“We can,” Hager replied. “At this moment it’s Laurie Crammond, Mark Ingram, Sue Hubbard. And the hiring committee does meet in closed meetings. They will keep us informed as to what’s going on and we will keep you informed.”
TheArkansas Freedom of InformationAct outlines specific guidelines for public bodies meeting in executive session.
“(E)xecutive sessions will be permitted only for the purpose of considering employment, appointment, promotion, demotion, disciplining, or resignation of any public officer or employee,” the act says, with narrow, clearly defined exceptions. “The specific purpose of the executive session shall be announced in public before going into executive session.”
The parks commission did not vote in open session to appoint a search committee. The FOIA requires that decisions reached in executive session be ratified by vote in public.
“No resolution, ordinance, rule, contract, regulation, or motion considered or arrived at in executive session will be legal unless, following the executive session, the public body reconvenes in public session and presents and votes on the resolution, ordinance, rule, contract, regulation, or motion,” the act says.
In his formal complaint, Loftis refers to the FOIA’s guidelines for executive session.
“The executive session held by the Eureka Springs Parks and Recreation Commission satisfied none of those requirements and in fact continued a long and repeated pattern of FOIA violations by Eureka Springs city commissions,” says Loftis’ complaint, which was carbon copied to Mayor Butch Berry.
After the complaint was filed, Hager sent a group email to recipients including the commissioners, Berry and Loftis.
“At our regular Parks meeting 9/20/22 , I made an error in Parliamentary Procedure,” Hager writes. “Our executive session, that was used to discuss hiring of a new director, was subject to closed meeting/Executive session because it concerned when and how to replace Scott Miskiel as Director.
“When we came out of Session, I should have announced that no action was taken as a result of our closed discussion.
“We should have re-opened the meeting, and then we could have discussed the Hiring Search Committee, which was a separate issue from the Exec Session. The Hiring Search committee is still formatting, and we should have made that clear when we opened up after executive session.
“As a reminder: Items that were discussed about Scott Miskiel’s departure details as Director are not subject to open meeting. Also, they are not to be discussed outside of the Executive Session.
“Thanks and I apologize for not making an immediate Point of Order at the time.”
Loftis said it was clear that the committee was appointed during the executive session.
“It’s pretty obvious that they went into executive session to discuss the search committee,” Loftis said. “They didn’t just pull those names out of a hat once they got back to the table. And even if they were discussing details of Mr. Miskiel’s departure, unless they were considering terminating him before he intends to retire, that’s not a valid reason for an executive session. The FOIA is intended to be interpreted broadly in the interest of open government. That’s clearly not what’s happening here, and this is just the latest incident of a Eureka Springs city commission not acting in accordance with the law. We are now at zero tolerance, and I will file a complaint every single time.”
Loftis has filed two previous complaints over apparent FOIA violations committed by the Eureka Springs City Advertising and Promotion Commission. Both of those complaints have been turned over to a special prosecutor, Little Rock-based Jack McQuary.
Rogers said by email on Sept. 21 that he had forwarded Loftis’ complaint against the parks commission to McQuary as well.
