FAYETTEVILLE -- Two groups advocating for and against repeal of the city's Civil Rights Administration ordinance spent more than $65,000 combined on their campaigns, according to filings this week with the Arkansas Ethics Commission.
State law requires all "ballot question committees" to file financial reports once their committees spend or receive more than $500. Final reports were due Thursday, 30 days after the Dec. 9 special election.
At A Glance
Financial Reports
Go to the online version of this story at nwaonline.com to view copies of final financial reports filed by Keep Fayetteville Fair and Repeal 119.
Financial reports from throughout the campaigns for and against the city’s Civil Rights Administration ordinance can also be found online at arkansasethics.com.
Source: Staff Report
"If you have a question that's going to be put to voters in an election and you have someone out there advocating for passage or defeat of the measure, the public has the right to know how that money's being spent," Graham Sloan, director of the Ethics Commission, said.
Fifty-two percent of the more than 14,000 voters who cast ballots in the Dec. 9 special election voted for repeal of the controversial ordinance. Forty-eight percent voted against repeal.
The ordinance, had it been upheld, would have prohibited discrimination in employment, housing and places of public accommodation based on someone's sexual orientation, gender identity and a number of other traits. It also would have created a municipal civil rights administrator position to field and investigate complaints of discrimination. Violators would have been subject to fines of up to $500.
Repeal 119, a ballot question committee that formed after Fayetteville aldermen approved the ordinance Aug. 20, reported $33,288 in contributions and $33,227 in expenses.
More than three-quarters of the group's contributions came in the seven days leading up to the Dec. 9 referendum. The group's top contributor during that period was WallBuilders, an Aledo, Texas-based company that gave $6,000 to the repeal campaign. WallBuilders' website describes the company as "an organization dedicated to presenting America's forgotten history and heroes, with an emphasis on the moral, religious and constitutional foundation on which America was built."
Twenty-seven other contributors included Jim Bob Duggar of Springdale ($5,000), Baldwin Christian Church ($1,000), Fayetteville Alderman John La Tour ($1,000), Maribelle Williams of Farmington ($1,000) and Peter Tonnessen of Fayetteville ($1,000).
The group spent $26,674 between Dec. 3 and Jan. 7 on advertising, bookkeeping services, phones and a watch party held Dec. 9 at the Hilton Garden Inn off of Wedington Drive.
Advertising expenses included $10,000 to the Cox Media Group in Atlanta; $5,025 to Axis83 of Fayetteville; $2,584 to KHBS/KHOG-TV; $2,007 to iHeartMedia Inc.; $1,870 to KFSM/KXNW; $1,520 to KNWA; $500 to KBVA radio; and $375 to KURM radio.
Keep Fayetteville Fair, the group opposing the ordinance's repeal listed $32,534 in total contributions and $32,244 in expenses.
Nearly 120 contributors gave $22,829 between Nov. 4 and Nov. 29, according to the group's financial report. Top contributors were the NWA Center for Equality ($1,500); Kyle Smith of Fayetteville ($1,500); the Markham Group, a business management consulting company in Little Rock ($1,000); and Henrik Thostrup of Little Rock ($1,000). The report did not detail individual contributions for Nov. 30 through Thursday.
Keep Fayetteville Fair also reported $166,080 in "nonmoney contributions" from the Human Rights Campaign, the Washington-based LGBT advocacy group that provided model language for Fayetteville's Civil Rights Administration ordinance.
Anne Shelley, president of Keep Fayetteville Fair, has said several of the people who helped organize the group's campaign were on the Human Rights Campaign's payroll.
Repeal 119 reported $6,000 worth of nonmoney contributions from Total Document Solutions, an office equipment, technology and software service provider in Fayetteville.
Keep Fayetteville Fair reported $32,234 in spending during the months of November and December. More than $14,133 went to Chism Enterprises of Ridgeland, Miss., for telephone calls. Another $14,251 was paid to the Markham Group for mailing expenses. Other expenses included $2,655 to Birdeye Printing in Rogers for signage and $604 to Ironside Photography in Fayetteville for photos. Expenditures of less than $100 do not have to be reported.
NW News on 01/10/2015