The petition campaign to place two open-government measures on the Nov. 5 General Election ballot in Arkansas has less than a month to go. Organizers will send the petitions to Little Rock before the end of June for signature verification.
Arkansas Citizens for Transparency, a bipartisan group supporting the state’s Freedom of Information Act, is circulating the petitions.
The Arkansas Government Disclosure Amendment of 2024 would enshrine the Freedom of Information Act in the state Constitution. The FOIA took effect in 1967 and is considered by advocates of open government to be one of the best in the United States.
The Arkansas Government Disclosure Act of 2024 deals with state laws related to transparency.
The two petitions are available for signing during business hours at the Nashville News-Leader office, 418 N. Main in Nashville and at Southwest Arkansas Radio, 1511 S. 4th St., Suite A, in Nashville.
The Arkansas Press Association, Arkansas Broadcasters Association and other groups are working together on the campaign.
Planning began last fall after a failed attempt by some in the state Legislature to “gut” the Freedom of Information Act. Legislators defeated bills which would have restricted the public’s right to access a number of government documents and would have cut off many sources of information to the news media.
ACT worked with attorneys to write the constitutional amendment and the initiated disclosure act.
More than 90,000 signatures will be needed to place the measures on the November ballot.
The constitutional amendment will accomplish the following:
Establish the right of the citizens of Arkansas to government transparency.
Enshrine in the state constitution the definition of “government transparency” as the government’s obligation to share information with citizens or deliver information to citizens.
Restrict the circumstances under which the General Assembly may make a law concerning government transparency.
Confirm that the state may be sued for failure to comply with the transparency law.
The initiated act will repeal a law concerning the ability of a school board, superintendent and attorney to meet secretly.
It will define the terms “cybersecurity,” “government transparency,” “minority party” and “public notice.”
It will exempt from FOIA any portion of a personnel record and a public record which would “constitute a clearly unwarranted invasion of a person either living or deceased.”
The act also deals with deadlines for access to public records, notifications of public meetings and formation of a commission to deal with government transparency.
