COMMENTARY: Records Accusation Serious, But Unlikely

The University of Arkansas chancellor is accused of destroying public records.

These records were either sought by the press or germane to a state fi nancial review, we’re told.

“Skeptical” is too mild a word to describe my reaction so far. Nobody can accuse me of making excuses for the UA, especially after my Sept. 8 column. As I said then, former UA spokesman John Diamond makes serious allegations. They deserve a serious look. There’s a difference, though, between treating an accusation seriously and believing it.

Diamond made this latest accusation at a Sept. 13 legislative committee meeting. Chancellor David Gearhart didn’t just deny it.

He dared Diamond to prove it. Both men were under oath. Diamond’s allegation is now under review by the local prosecuting attorney’s oft ce.

Gearhart called Diamond “disgruntled.” Diamond was fired in August for “insubordination.” Diamond maintains he was fi red for refusing to quietly go along with a bad-faith response to legal requests by the press for public records.

I’d have to be very disgruntled indeed to perjure myself. I have to give Diamond that.

All this arose from a state auditor’s review - requested by Gearhart - of the UA’s fundraising oftce after a serious defi cit appeared. Reading the report, a layman might wonder if anybody kept enough detailed records to make a deliberate destruction eff ortworthwhile: 765 payment forms “haphazardly placed in boxes,” according to the report. More troubling, worksheets and fi les detailing a whole category of reimbursement requests “could not be located.” Were they destroyed? Only if whoever did it was willing to leave a hole no trained auditor could miss.

Bad as such examples sound, no public entity lives without leaving a paper trail. Records do exist. The state review and the UA System’s check did not fi nd anyone in the fundraising oftce did anything criminal or unethical. The evidence we have shows nothing better or worse than severe sloppiness.

Gearhart, who ran that oftce a few years ago, was so far removed from the day-to-day operations there he was taken by embarrassed surprise when the $4 million deficit appeared last year.

Therefore, if Gearhart really ordered records destroyed, he didn’t do that to hide anything he did. This begs the question of who he’s supposedly sticking his neck out for.

I don’t believe Gearhart would do such a thing for two managers in an oft ce whose contracts he was already allowing to expire after this fiasco. More to the point, Gearhart wouldbe bold to the point of foolhardy to risk personal exposure by creating a document destruction scandal to hide a fi nancial one that doesn’t appear to exist.

Then there’s the matter of Diamond’s fi ring. People in charge of cover-ups rarely fire people who heard the order to destroy records. The apt cliche is, “They know too much.” Such firings do happen, but usually not until the big boss is in survival mode and trying to make people like Diamond into scapegoats.

Gearhart is a long, long way from that.

My skepticism isn’t proof, though. I’m still left with doubts the UA handled its records better than its money. I lack both proof Diamond’s allegation is true in some form and full confidence it’s not.

The best way out of this mess is to look at the real issue concerning public records, which is not - repeat, not - which of these two men, Gearhart or Diamond, is lying or just horribly wrong. The foremost issue: Were UA records destroyed or kept from view? If not, the accusation is groundless. If so, then how, by whom andunder whose orders are the questions to ask next.

That’s for the prosecutor’s oftce and full audits to determine.

Yes, the local prosecuting attorney is related by marriage to the UA’s retired athletic director. Even I brought that up two weeks ago. Two weeks ago, I was trying to prod somebody to action. Now we have a complaint filed. The ball is rolling. I’m more than confident prosecutor John Threet, whom I’ve known for years, will do the right thing. I’m just not close to sure the right thing will be filing a criminalcharge against anyone at the UA. I’m absolutely sure anything Threet or anybody else does is going to get a thorough secondguessing by plenty of people.

Until the prosecutor’s oft ce releases some findings, everybody needs to lighten up. A call for the chancellor to step down, for instance, was absurd.

Nobody should resign because of an unproven allegation made by a fi red employee.

DOUG THOMPSON IS A POLITICAL REPORTER AND COLUMNIST FOR NWA MEDIA.