CONWAY -- Former state Sen. Gilbert Baker -- who arranged a July 8 donation of $100,000 to the University of Central Arkansas from businessman Michael Morton -- has given at least one interview to UCA's internal auditors, and they have not ruled out further questions for him, information released Monday shows.
Last week, Baker said he "had a great meeting with auditors and they indicated a clean audit and all good."
Asked if Baker's statement was accurate, Pam Massey, director of the office of internal audit, said in an email Monday, "We had no further questions at the time of his interview. Might still have questions this week."
The UCA board of trustees' Internal Audit Committee next meets at 9 a.m. Friday.
Baker resigned from his $132,000-a-year position as executive assistant to the UCA president on April 2. Baker, who had tenure, now makes $50,000 a year as an assistant professor of music.
The FBI and two state agencies are investigating contributions Morton made July 8 to eight political action committees, seven of which later gave money to Circuit Judge Michael Maggio's now-halted appeals court campaign.
Three days later, Maggio cut a Faulkner County jury's $5.2 million judgment against a Morton-owned nursing home to $1 million. The Arkansas Supreme Court has stripped Maggio of all of his cases pending further notification. He is also under review over contentious online comments.
Previously released UCA documents show that Baker had hand-delivered a $100,000 donation from Morton to UCA -- in the form of a check that was dated July 8. On March 24, after news of the PAC contributions and questions arose about Baker's ties to Morton, the UCA Foundation returned Morton's money.
Notes from Baker's interview last week with auditors are brief and reflect that they discussed his affiliation -- or lack thereof -- with the Arkansas Faith and Freedom Coalition and LRM Consulting, a company that he founded and that has been linked to Morton's support of Maggio's campaign.
The notes, which the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette obtained under the Arkansas Freedom of Information Act, indicate that Baker apparently told auditors that he no longer is affiliated with conservative political activist Ralph Reed's Faith and Family Coalition.
The handwritten internal-audit notes refer to "F&F" for Faith and Family and say in part, "Nothing to do with organization."
Internal Revenue Service records show that the tax-exempt coalition's Arkansas affiliate paid $59,576 to Baker as a "past executive director" in 2012, the most recent year for which the group's 990 tax form is available. The affiliate's gross receipts that year are listed as $256,000.
Baker, 57, joined UCA as executive assistant to President Tom Courtway in mid-January 2013, shortly after his tenure in the state Senate ended.
At another point in the notes, an auditor referred to LRM Consulting and noted that Baker's 2013 statement of financial interest lists his income from the company as more than $12,500. The notes then say "LRM -- share exchange L. [Flanagin] (Feb 2014)."
Baker has said previously that Linda Leigh Flanagin was the only employee of LRM, which he said was a political consulting and fundraising business.
Morton, who owns 32 nursing homes, told the Democrat-Gazette in March that Flanagin asked him to support Maggio's campaign while Maggio was presiding over the trial of a negligence lawsuit last year against Morton's Greenbrier Nursing and Rehabilitation Center. Morton called her "that girl that works with Gilbert -- Flanagin, I think is her name."
Baker has previously said he did not ask Flanagin to seek Morton's support.
Baker told the auditors that LRM Consulting was a "grassroots company," the notes indicate. Baker, a Conway Republican, formed LRM on Dec. 5, 2012, just more than a month after Courtway announced that Baker would join UCA on Jan. 10, 2013.
The notes also point out that Baker did not mention LRM on his UCA conflict-of-interest form. They also refer to Baker's 2013 form and say "vetted through Warren," a reference to Warren Readnour, UCA's general counsel.
On March 11, at Courtway's instruction, Baker had his name removed as president, secretary and treasurer from LRM's incorporation document.
Internal audit documents also include a chart with Baker's name in a small block at the top, followed by the names of various others, most of them political activists who have appeared in recent news articles about Baker.
They include Republican strategist Reed, Flanagin and Morton, along with notes about Morton's donations to the PACs and to UCA. Others are Little Rock attorney Chris Stewart, who created the PACs on behalf of one or more clients he has not identified, and Don Thomas, a former Baker campaign consultant who has said he didn't know anything about the PACs, even though one was named for him and he was listed as an officer on two of them.
The chart also lists Ancil Lea, a Conway Republican and former UCA employee, and Cheryl Loetscher. Lea and Loetscher also said they had been unaware that their names were on the PACs and asked for their removal.
The chart includes Eddie Joe Williams, a Republican state senator from Cabot, and notes that his GoEddieJoePAC has received contributions from Morton. Campaign-finance records show that Morton gave the PAC $5,000 on May 27, 2013, and that Baker gave Williams' campaign $2,000 on Feb. 18, 2014.
The chart shows those who are or have been affiliated with the Arkansas Faith and Family Coalition, including Stewart, Thomas and Donnie Copeland. All three men were listed as directors on the organization's incorporation document, dated July 15, 2010. Baker was its incorporator and organizer. Stewart's law firm also was listed as the registered agent.
Baker did not return a phone message or a text seeking further comment Monday. His cellphone's voice mail said he was traveling in an area with poor cellphone service. Flanagin has not returned numerous phone messages seeking comment.
However, Baker said in a text message Saturday to the Democrat-Gazette that he was alone in a Buenos Aires, Argentina, hotel room during a UCA recruiting trip there in November 2013 and hadn't even wanted to make the trip.
The hotel receipt had indicated that he had a room for two people, but UCA spokesman Christina Madsen said the hotel's online reservation system defaults to two people. The internal audit office's Massey said Monday that auditors have tested the system and found that to be the case.
And in a text message to Madsen, Baker said, "No one. Ever stayed in my room with me on any uca trip including Argentina."
In an emailed statement after UCA released the audit documents, Massey said, "Documentation is work product that has not been subjected to audit review process. No assurance of the completeness, comprehensiveness, correctness, or currency of the information is given. Any notations reflecting an auditor's impressions or opinions resulting from brainstorming may not have any bearing on conclusions reached that are expressed in the final audit report.
"The audit becomes final when the audit report is presented to the UCA Audit Committee," Massey added.
It was not immediately clear if that would happen this week.
A Section on 05/28/2014