A bill intended to shield attorney-client communications in government agencies from the state's open-records law failed to pass in the Senate on Tuesday.
Senate Bill 373 by Sen. Bart Hester, R-Cave Springs, failed in an 11-14 vote. The vote was then expunged to make way for a possible future vote.
"This is not about hiding, this is about allowing our agencies to have a fair day in court should they need that," he said. "This is not about a lack of transparency."
SB373 would exempt from public disclosure "a record related to pending or threatened litigation that, if kept by a private attorney for a nongovernmental entity, would be privileged from disclosure as an attorney-client communication or attorney work product record" under the Arkansas Rules of Civil Procedure, Arkansas Rules of Evidence or Arkansas Rules of Professional Conduct.
The exemption under the Freedom of Information Act would expire either 90 days after the closure of litigation and any associated appeal, or a year after the date of the threat of litigation if no litigation were initiated.
Sen. Bryan King, R-Green Forest, who argued against the bill, said the language would exempt from disclosure -- even to lawmakers -- wrongdoing by the state.
"We are supposed to be about transparency and sometimes that transparency causes problems -- there's no question about it," he said. "But what has happened to the FOI and transparency this legislative session should be of concern to all citizens."
Lt. Gov. Tim Griffin, who presided over the Senate on Tuesday, said he was glad the bill failed.
"Senate Bill 373 undermines the critical check on government by creating a so-called attorney-client exemption, which would gut FOIA by allowing significant wrongdoing to be hidden from the public," he said. "We need more sunshine in Arkansas state government, not less."
The bill has been pushed -- and written in part -- by state universities who claim opposing lawyers can request litigation strategies.
An Arkansas Democrat-Gazette Freedom of Information Act request found that no such request has occurred in the past two years.
University of Arkansas System spokesman Nate Hinkel said the mere possibility that opposing counsel might ask for strategic information creates a chilling effect on staff attorneys and forces them to not write things down.
A Section on 03/29/2017