Arkansas FOI forecast: partly sunny

By: Jason Williams Newspapers' freedom-of-information survey results cut both ways in razorback state

In an effort to ensure the sun shines on the buckle of the Bible Belt, a group of Arkansas newspapers, organized by the Donrey Media Group, tested the effectiveness of the state's Freedom of Information (FOI) Act, joining the growing list of states where attempts have been made to measure the success of "Sunshine Laws."
Newspapers in six other states ? Illinois, Indiana, New Jersey, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Virginia ? have attempted to acquire public records covered under their respective states' FOI laws with varying degrees of success. The FOIArkansas project is the latest endeavor, set up by Dennis Byrd, chief of the Donrey group's news bureau in Little Rock, to test the state's 32-year-old law.
Three methods were used in making the document requests: a one-day, walk-in survey, traditional mail, and e-mail.
Regarding walk-in requests made for public records in each of 75 counties across the state, immediate access was granted in:
38 cases for the most recent restaurant inspection reports ? a 50.66% compliance rate ? by county units of the state's Health Department;
46 cases for jail logs ? a 61.33% compliance rate ? by county jails;
54 cases for superintendents' employment contracts ? a 72% compliance rate ? by school district offices; and
65 cases for state revenue documents ? a project-high 86.66% compliance rate ? by randomly selected city government offices (one in each county).
Snail-mail requests for county judges' campaign contribution reports from the latest election were sent to all 75 county clerks, and 58 responded, a 77.33% compliance rate. E-mail requests for breakdowns, by race and sex, of faculty and students, based on this spring's figures, were sent to 12 public universities, and one responded, a project-low 8.3% compliance rate. A complete list of the findings is posted on the project's Web site at http://www.FOIArkansas.com.
Although the compliance rates are comparatively higher in some study areas than the rates recorded in other states, Byrd echoes state Attorney General Mark Pryor's sentiments that "anything less than 100% compliance is unacceptable."
"In Arkansas, we, as journalists, have always been told that we have one of the strongest FOI laws. But, while we have been told that, it has never been tested," said Byrd.
Particularly troubling for Byrd was the low compliance rate for county jails, given the fact that two newspapers have gone to court to make jail logs available 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
In Garland County, for example, the office clerk refused the request, telling the surveyor that the information was not a public record, according to the report.
"That will be corrected," said Garland County Sheriff Larry Selig, who checked with attorneys and confirmed that the information was covered under the FOI law. Selig assured E&P that it would not happen in the future, but said he didn't think that jail logs should be public information.
"I'm not really happy with that law," Selig said. "I don't think the public has a right to know who's in jail every day." Selig added that county jail inmates may be found innocent after spending a short time in jail, and then endure wrongful, public condemnation because their names are listed in the jail logs.
Concerning the low compliance rate for requests made for the most recent restaurant inspection reports, the results may be somewhat misleading. In 21 offices, the custodian of records was "not available" to comply with the request, because, in a number of cases, the keeper of records covers more than one county and may have been at another office at the time of the survey. This, Byrd acknowledged, could have affected the survey results.
Public universities received the lowest compliance rate in the survey, for e-mail requests of their race and sex demographics. Only one university returned the information on the first attempt.
But Byrd admitted the e-mail portion of the study is problematic, because of the unreliability of e-mail and because the receiver has no way of verifying the sender's residence. The Arkansas FOI law requires that requests be from state residents.
"E-mail is a quick-time response. ? It's not a survey tool. It's a message tool," said Arkansas State University President J. Leslie Wyatt, whose school was the only one that responded to the e-mail survey.
All surveyors were to gather the information as citizens, said Byrd, but were not to be untruthful if pressed for credentials.
"Regrettably," writes Byrd on the project's Web site, "a handful of surveyors unintentionally misrepresented themselves by saying such things as 'I am a citizen' or by saying they were not asking for the document for the newspaper." Byrd told E&P that he believed that only a few offices knew that the people making the requests were reporters.
Staff from Donrey's three daily newspapers in Arkansas ? the Pine Bluff Commercial, the Southwest Times Record in Fort Smith, and The Morning News in Springdale ? along with two newspaper partners ? the Log Cabin Democrat in Conway and The Jonesboro Sun ? aided in the collection of data for the survey.

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(copyright: Editor & Publisher October 16, 1999) [Caption]