HOT SPRINGS -- An attorney general's opinion issued earlier this year bears on a Garland County justice of the peace who also serves on the Lake Hamilton School Board.
Dr. Brian Peters, R-District 9, represents the area west of Lake Hamilton, between Airport and Albert Pike roads, on the Garland County Quorum Court. He is serving his first two-year term after running unopposed for the vacant seat last year. He ran unopposed for a second term on the Lake Hamilton School Board in the May school elections.
Three months prior to the school board election, the attorney general said holding both offices appeared to violate the state Constitution and was clearly prohibited by statute. State Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-District 20, of Jonesboro, requested the advisory opinion.
"If the JP's term of office would overlap with the term of office on the school board, then the JP would be ineligible to serve on the school board," the Feb. 24 opinion said.
Peters, a veterinarian, said he's aware of the opinion.
"My comment is right now we are working on an official statement, and we're going to keep the board intact like it is until we actually get an official opinion with that," he said after Monday's school board meeting. "So I don't have an official comment yet, but we're very aware of it, and we're working on it."
Peters said it's unclear when a resolution will be reached.
"Ask all the lawyers," he said. "I haven't talked to this many lawyers in my entire life. So they're working on it, but we're definitely making sure that we're staying within the guidelines. We've been in contact with both the county and the school district and the state's school boards association attorney as well."
The opinion cited the constitutional prohibition on county officeholders being elected or appointed to civil office. The Constitution doesn't define civil office, but the opinion referenced a 1971 state Supreme Court ruling on a senator serving as a school board member.
"The court collected several cases from other states showing that the general rule is that school board directors are public officers, which led the court to hold that there was 'no merit' in the assertion the school board seat was not a civil office," the opinion said.
The attorney general's office said a justice of the peace's resignation wouldn't make them eligible to serve on the school board during the term they were elected to on the quorum court.
"The restriction applies not merely to simultaneous service, but 'during the term for which he or she has been elected' to serve in the county role," the opinion said.
Peters was first elected to the school board in 2018, outpolling longtime incumbent Don Smith by more than 20 percentage points.
Information for this article was contributed by Brandon Smith of The Sentinel-Record.