OPINION

No graft worth it

Several have asked for my thoughts about the two Republican former legislators and a pair of businessmen recently indicted on federal corruption charges as part of a lucrative kickback scheme using our tax dollars.

The bottom line is simple: The indictment is what it is. So let the chips fall where they may. Regardless of how one might try to avoid them, and regardless of one's politics, actions invariably result in consequences.

Most adults with common sense understand this basic life principle.

Yet it's always been a source of amazement to realize how seemingly endless numbers of adults in elected and appointed positions of high public trust are willing to throw away hard-won reputations and quality of life for a fleeting fistful of graft.

Nowhere is my ignorance of the phenomenon more pronounced than this latest saga of these two former state legislators and two businessmen indicted in a scheme involving the state General Improvement Fund.

At the risk of boring you by rehashing the many grimy details already extensively covered in news stories, suffice it to say Springdale restaurateur Micah Neal, also a former state representative, already pleaded guilty to public-corruption charges back in January. He awaits sentencing.

And now former state senator Jon Woods, 39, also from Springdale, stands indicted along with Ecclesia College President Oren Paris III, 49, of Springdale and businessman Randell G. Shelton Jr., 37, of Alma in the alleged kickback scheme.

The 12 counts of fraud and one of money-laundering stemmed from the manner in which $600,000 in GIF grants was allocated. The indictment says the former legislators facilitated and shepherded the acquisition and distribution of the money.

GIF funds arise from state tax money at the end of each fiscal year that have not been specifically allocated, as well as interest earned on state deposits. Sort of like a good-ol'-boys slush fund politicos can receive and distribute like Easter candy to their favorite nonprofit endeavors back home.

There's no real effort involved in this lagniappe. The GIF is formally distributed not directly by each legislator but through one of the state's eight nonprofit economic development districts.

In this instance, the Northwest Arkansas Economic Development District in Harrison managed the distribution for these former lawmakers and isn't accused of wrongdoing.

The college benefiting from the grants involved in the indictment is never actually named in the indictment, but Paris is identified as the institution's president, which naturally would make it Ecclesia College in Springdale.

I know, I promised I wouldn't wade too deep into the many thorns of this overgrown bramble patch, so let's just leave it at the bottom line.

Expressing concerns

I'm told the 200 or so people who gathered at Jasper's school auditorium to express their opinions to the Department of Environmental Quality over the controversial hog factory in the Buffalo National River watershed ranged from Farm Bureau supporters to those opposed to having such a mega-waste-producing swine factory upstream of our country's first national river.

Some supporters displayed placards and buttons proclaiming "I Farm, I Vote." Another countered with a hastily scribbled note displayed in his shirt pocket that read "I canoe, I vote."

The room was set with 25 tables. Each speaker had two minutes to make their points. One man said he counted 25 who spoke, with nine favoring keeping the factory with 6,200 swine and their waste-spray fields within the sacred watershed.

Supporters have tried clouding the issue by characterizing C&H Hog Farms as simply a "farm" managed by farmers. The reality is this facility is anything but a conventional Ozarks farm. It's a corporate-sponsored, privately owned and managed factory that keeps an enormous number of sows and piglets for the sole purpose of raising a lot of pork.

The factory's two holding lagoons hold more than 2 million gallons of waste which is regularly spread across nearby fields, most of which border or are near Big Creek, a major Buffalo tributary.

While the tone of this week's gathering in Jasper was mainly civil, there was obvious displeasure with the way the state has mishandled this fiasco from the time this permit was issued in 2012. There also are concerns over who is responsible for cleanup in the event of a natural disaster like the tornado that struck nearby Parthenon.

Many Arkansans continue to wonder why our state's agency that ensures environmental quality would ever have considered approving a hog factory in such a sacred and controversial location, especially so quickly and quietly.

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Mike Masterson's column appears regularly in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. Email him at [email protected].

Editorial on 03/11/2017

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