Sarah gets her hand slapped

Sarah Huckabee Sanders didn’t get exactly what she wanted.

That’s news these days in Arkansas, where the governor had grown accustomed to state legislators doing her bidding without question.

But she overstepped in the eyes of the public at large and even some members of her own party when she attempted to make wholesale changes to the Arkansas Freedom of Information Act during a special legislative session last week.

The effort wasn’t a complete failure for Sanders. Legislators did approve lesser changes to the open-records law. Sanders, of course, immediately went into spin mode to declare that she’d emerged victorious against “bad actors weaponizing FOIA to attack our heroes in law enforcement … ” What actually happened was this: Sanders grew aggravated over a blogger digging into records related to her travel as governor and then posting what he’d found online. So, she called the special session for two purposes: to cut the top individual and corporate income tax rates and to dramatically weaken the Freedom of Information Act.

Rather than seeking an exemption for gubernatorial travel records, Sanders sought to exempt records related to the Arkansas State Police, which provides security when she travels — for instance when she and her family fly to Paris on the taxpayers’ dime as they did in June. That way, she could spin her efforts as being necessary to keep her family safe and have the added political benefit of “backing the blue.” While she was at it, Sanders also proposed creating exemptions in the freedom of information law for information related to the “deliberative process” involved in state officials’ decision-making — she didn’t want any of us pesky citizens seeing how the sausage is made. She also wanted to make it next to impossible for plaintiffs who sue when government officials don’t comply with FOIA requests to recover their attorneys’ fees.

Sanders’ legislative minions — most notably state Sens. Bart Hester and Blake Johnson — dutifully did as instructed and tried to push the changes through a special legislative session.

All those well-laid plans went up in a cloud of smoke, however, when some Republicans – most notably Carroll County’s own, state Sen. Bryan King — stood up for the public’s right to know what its government is doing. At one point, Hester got so flustered when King objected to his spin job that he literally walked out of the room.

Later, Johnson presided over what he likely expected to be a perfunctory meeting of the Senate State Agencies and Governmental Affairs Committee. The purpose of the meeting to discuss the governor’s proposal was to then be able to see that the meeting was held. More than fours later, after hearing speaker after speaker blast the proposed changes to FOIA, Johnson adjourned the meeting without calling for a vote of the committee. He didn’t call for the vote because he couldn’t be certain it would turn out the way he hoped.

Ultimately, a pareddown FOIA bill, SB 10, was approved by the House and Senate and signed into law by Sanders.

The Arkansas Press Association, which opposed the original FOIA bill in the special session, issued a statement regarding the revised bill.

“The Arkansas Press Association is pleased this process has led to bills (HB1012 and SB10) that give our elected officials and their families a level of safety they deserve.

“We have stated we support reasonable safety provisions, and these bills offer that while also maintaining the strength of Arkansas’ Freedom of Information Act.”

Clearly, that’s not a statement opposing the bill, but I wouldn’t describe it as a ringing endorsement, either. Full disclosure, I am a member of the APA’s board of directors, and I voted yes on the statement. I held my nose as I voted.

The press association’s stance has been criticized in some circles, most notably by the blogger whose reporting first got under the governor’s skin and by at least one liberal- leaning news organization.

The fact of the matter, however, is that the end result was far more easy to stomach than the absolute disaster that could have been — especially in the present political environment.

This was a case where the press association and other proponents of the public’s right to know clearly could not afford to let perfect be the enemy of good. Sometimes, pragmatism is essential to effective politics.

As for our governor, she’ll keep spinning and she’ll keep looking for ways to keep us all in the dark about how she’s spending our money. It’s our money, you see, but it’s none of our business.

••• Scott Loftis is editor and publisher of the Carroll County News. His email address is SLoftis@CarrollCoNews. com