LITTLE ROCK — The Arkansas State Police is conducting an audit of gratuities troopers receive for providing security for the Arkansas Razorbacks and former Coach Bobby Petrino.
State officials say all gratuities, regardless of value, must be reported as income, although gifts are exempt. Public servants are generally prohibited from receiving gifts for performing their official duties.
The Arkansas Ethics Commission defines a public servant as “all public officials, public employees and public appointees.”
The April 1 motorcycle crash that led to Petrino’s firing Tuesday prompted a review of the actions taken by state police Capt. Lance King, who drove Petrino to Physicians Specialty Hospital in Fayetteville.
King, who coordinated security for Petrino, issued a detailed report on what happened after he learned about the accident and met an injured Petrino in a southeast Fayetteville parking lot.
Petrino had been taken there after being picked up by passers-by at the crash site.
State police spokesman Bill Sadler said the agency expects to know more about the gratuities matter in a week and is looking into whether other troopers assigned to providing security for the team received gratuities. Once the audit is complete, Sadler said, the agency will contact the appropriate experts to determine the practice’s propriety.
Sadler said the agency also will determine whether there was any violation of its ethics policy, which states that employees must not accept “entertainment, gifts, personal favors or preferential treatment that could influence, or appear to influence, their decisions in performing their job functions.”
The state police maintains its position that King was never subject to an internalinvestigation and did not violate agency policy or state law in his response to the crash, Sadler said. He said the agency needs to have an accounting of what was given toKing and the other troopers, and how much the items were worth to determine whether and how the troopers should have reported the items.
King has not received any pay from the University of Arkansas fo r p rov i d - ing security, Sadler said. He said King was on duty while providing team security and so received his state salary.
Sadler said the Arkansas State Police provides security for Razorbacks athletics pursuant to Arkansas Code 12-8-109, titled “Police protection for statewide functions.” Sadler said that only one trooper travels with the football team, but as many as a dozen may participate in game-day stadium security.
UA pays for the troopers’ travel expenses, said Kevin Trainor, associate athletic director for public relations.
Trainor said a trooper flies with the team and has his lodging paid for, and eitherreceives a fixed cash payment for expenses or has his meals provided. He said the trooper occasionally is given “gear,” such as apparel.
He said he will have to research the amounts paid for travel and specific gifts.
Arkansas Code 21-8-801 prohibits public servants from receiving gifts or other income for performing their duties, said Graham Sloan, executive director of the Arkansas Ethics Commission.
Sloan said the law also prohibits people from giving gifts to public servants for performing their duties. He said gifts are generally considered anything of value, though there are several exemptions under the law, the first being items valued at under $100.
“If it’s not worth more than 100 bucks, it’s not a gift and not prohibited,” Sloan said.
Sloan said that if the item is valued at more than $100, it still could be exempt from the law. He said travel, lodging and food are exempt if they are provided to a public servant who is acting in his official capacity.
Whether a gift must reported depends also on how it is received, Sloan said. For instance, if a person is given a book of season tickets worth more than $100, that gift must be reported. However, he said, if a person receives two tickets whose combined value is under $100 and then on a separate occasion receives two more such tickets, those are not considered gifts that must be reported.
Under state tax law, an item of value given to someone as a reward for doing a good job is considered a gratuity and must be reported on income taxes, said John Theis, assistant commissioner of state revenue.
Theis said if the item is given to someone and is unrelated to his job, it is considered a gift, and therefore doesn’t have to be reported.
“The simple answer is - gift, no income tax,” Theis said. “If it’s gratuity or tip, income tax is required.”
Theis said the difference between a gift and a gratuity is intent. “I don’t walk into a restaurant having not eaten in it and say, ‘I just want to give you a gift.”
Gratuities also are taxable under federal law, said David Stell, spokesman for the Internal Revenue Service.
“In a nutshell, any compensation received for services rendered is taxable income for the recipient, but I’m not commenting on any particular taxpayer or tax circumstance,” Stell said.
Each law enforcement agency has some latitude in determining whether its officers are allowed to receive gifts, said Brian Marshall, deputy director of Law Enforcement Standards, which is part of the state Commission on Law Enforcement Standards and Training.
Marshall said the commission doesn’t specifically address gifts, but if an officer were terminated because he accepted gifts, his agency could request that the commission revoke his certification. Each law enforcement officer in the state signs the same code of ethics, he said.
If an officer is found to have violated the code of ethics, Marshall said, the commission could revoke his certification.
Front Section, Pages 6 on 04/12/2012