Arkansas lawmakers took turns Tuesday afternoon questioning the governor’s staff about a report that shows the governor’s office potentially violated several state laws with its purchase of a $19,000 lectern.
The report, released Monday, said Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders' office may have violated state laws on budgeting, accounting, distribution of state property and tampering with public records after purchasing the lectern in June. Sanders’ office disagreed with the auditors’ conclusions, saying the office did not violate any state laws when it purchased the lectern, with the Republican Party of Arkansas reimbursing the state in September.
Tuesday’s meeting was the first opportunity for legislators to question auditors and the governor’s staff after the report on the lectern’s purchase was published Monday.
The controversy surrounding the lectern began after Matt Campbell, a Little Rock attorney and blogger who is now a reporter with the Arkansas Times, posted an invoice for the lectern on X, formerly known as Twitter, in September showing Sanders’ office had paid $18,475 for the lectern and a traveling case, and was charged an additional 3% credit processing fee of $554.25.
The report has been sent to the 6th Judicial District prosecuting attorney and the Arkansas attorney general’s office.
The committee’s questions delved into a legal discussion about whether the laws in question apply to the governor along with whether Sanders’ office made mistakes in handling the lectern’s purchase. The governor’s office said the parts of state budgeting, accounting and distribution of state property laws that auditors cited do not apply to the governor or other constitutional officers and that they did not make any mistakes.
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“My dad taught me something at a very young age. You cannot correct a mistake until you admit you made one,” Sen. John Payton, R-Wilburn, said during Tuesday meeting. “And what troubles me most about this whole situation is that I don’t really hear the governor’s office or governor’s staff say ‘We should have done it a different way.’ Instead they’re trying to justify how they did it.”
Rep. Robin Lundstrum, R-Elm Springs, asked “Could this just be a simple, honest mistake?”
Responding to Lundstrum’s question, Judd Deere, the governor’s deputy chief of staff, said “This is not a mistake.”
“Again, the podium was a legitimate purchase, one the office identified that we needed,” Deere told the committee. “This body appropriated money that was available to us to use to purchase items, one of them we identified was the podium.”
In his opening remarks to the committee, Deere said “ultimately the audit wasted significant taxpayer resources,” and that it shows no wrongdoing by the governor’s office.
“I just think it’s kind of concerning that we are being accused of wasting taxpayer time when we’re actually doing our job,” said Rep. Stetson Painter, R-Mountain Home, said.
Sen. Mark Johnson, R-Ferndale, defended Sanders, saying he wanted to apologize to the governor and her staff for a process that has “been politicized.”
“It bothers me to no end to see this being used politically,” Johnson said.
According to the report, Sanders’ office likely did not comply with state budgeting and accounting laws when purchasing the lectern, namely the General Accounting and Budgetary Procedures Law, as it did not enter the item into the state’s accounting system and paid for the lectern in advance. The report also stated the governor’s office used expenses not allocated for that type of purchase.
Auditors also said Sanders likely did not comply with Arkansas law on the distribution of state property after the Republican Party reimbursed the state for the lectern. Auditors said the lectern should still be considered state property.
Attorney General Tim Griffin said the relevant parts of those laws do not apply to constitutional officers as the statute’s apply to state agencies.
Deputy Attorney General Ryan Owsley backed up the assertions of the governor’s office that it is not subject to the parts of the laws cited in the audit report. Owsley said parts the General Accounting and Budgetary Procedures Law specifically say constitutional officers are included, while in other portions refer only to state agencies.
“Regarding the Legislative Audit report, I am perplexed to see that a significant portion of Legislative Audit’s analysis rests on the mistaken conclusion that the governor’s office is a ‘state agency’ for the purposes of certain statutes,” Griffin said Monday in a statement.
“As Arkansas law has long held, and as the attorney general has reiterated last week, the governor’s office is not a state agency, rather it is a constitutional office exempt from the majority of agency accounting and budgetary procedures, statutory capitalization requirements and procurement rules for disposing of assets,” Deere told the committee Tuesday. “The auditors misapplication of Arkansas law on this subject underpins most of their allegations against our office.”
Auditors also said the governor’s office failed to complete a business justification statement before the lectern was delivered. Cortney Kennedy, the governor’s chief legal counsel, said the office “now completes that document prior to the approval for purchases.”
Sanders’ office purchased the lectern from Beckett Events, LLC, an Arlington, Va., based events management firm for $19,029. The invoice was for a custom built 39-inch Falcon Podium and travel case.
Rep. Tippi McCullough, D-Little Rock, asks a question to the governor’s staff during the Legislative Joint Auditing Committee meeting on Tuesday, April 16, 2024, at the state Capitol in Little Rock. .(Arkansas Democrat-Gazette/Thomas Metthe)Thomas Metthe
Deere praised Hannah Stone and Virginia Beckett of Beckett Events, who were hired to help organize Sanders’ inauguration, as “two-talented individuals.” Deere said the governor order the Falcon podium because it was similar to the one she used during her inauguration.
While the lectern was custom built to accommodate the governor’s height, auditors found “the height of the podium did not meet order specifications.” Deere said the governor’s office considered sending the lectern back but decided not to return the item.
“We do acknowledge that that height specifications were not exactly met, but I want to be clear we are talking about a matter of inches. It’s not a huge discrepancy,” Deere said.
“Isn’t it naive to have great respect for their ability when they failed to provide the product that was ordered?” Payton said.
Auditors were unable to speak with Stone and Beckett nor Miller’s Presentation Furniture, which manufactured the lectern, even after the governor’s office attempted to contact them on behalf of the legislative audit.
“Is the governor’s office willing to not use these three vendors in the future?” Payton said. “Because I do not appreciate the fact just because they were out of state they were exempted from cooperating with legislative audit.”
Deere said “the governor’s office has no plans to use these three vendors in the future.”
When asked why Sanders declined to speak with auditors for the report, Kennedy said the Republican governor had already made numerous public statements on the matter and had nothing else to add.
Auditors found an invoice breaking down the charge showing the lectern cost $11,575. The state was additionally charged a $2,500 consulting fee, $2,200 for the travel case, $1,225 in freight costs for the lectern, $975 in freight cost for the case and a $554 credit card processing fee.
Senate Minority Leader Greg Leding, D-Fayetteville, asked Deere about what sound components the lectern included after the governor said there were specific audio functions that helped justify the price, which seemingly contrasted with the report that said it did not contain any electronic component.
Deere said the lectern contained a reading light and was built to hide cables “so that it looks clean from a public facing prospective.”
Auditors also found Sanders’ office may have tampered with public records after a staff member wrote “To be Reimbursed” on two versions of the invoice for the lectern. One version of the invoice did not include the handwritten note.
Rep. Carol Dalby, R-Texarkana, quizzed Kennedy about the altered invoice, asking “which one of these documents is accurate?”
Kennedy said all three versions of the invoice were correct and it is “a common government practice to write on receipts and invoices to document certain business procedures within the government.”
FILE - The $19,029.25 lectern purchased by the Sanders administration in June, seen in the Governor’s Conference Room at the state Capitol in Little Rock on Tuesday, Sept. 26, 2023. (Arkansas Democrat-Gazette/Thomas Metthe)