FOIA bill heads to Arkansas governor’s desk

Above: Sen. John Payton (left) listens as Sen. Clarke Tucker, D-Little Rock, questions a bill that would abolish the State Library Board and the Educational Television Commission. Photographed Feb. 13, 2025. (Mary Hennigan/Arkansas Advocate)

By Ainsley Platt, Arkansas Advocate

A bill that clarifies aspects of Arkansas’ public meetings law is heading to the governor’s desk after it again passed the Senate by a wide margin on Monday.

The bill specifies what members of city councils, quorum courts or school boards could discuss outside of a public meeting and would also allow a court to nullify any decisions made by a public body if it was in violation of open meetings laws.

Senate Bill 227, sponsored by Sen. Clarke Tucker, D-Little Rock, had already passed the Senate once, but the addition of co-sponsors when it was being considered in the House required another vote by the upper chamber.

Senators voted 34-1 in favor of passage; more senators voted yes in the second vote, including Sen. Alan Clark, who voted against Tucker’s bill when it first passed the Senate last month. Clark introduced his own amendments to the state’s Freedom of Information Act that would have defined a public meeting as “more than two” members of a public body – a change from the current status quo. That bill, Senate Bill 376, has been waiting to be heard in the House State Agencies and Governmental Affairs committee, and Clark voted against Tucker’s bill the first time it went before the chamber.

Only Sen. John Payton, R-Wilburn, voted no during Monday’s vote.

The current FOIA does not define the number of people needed for a meeting to qualify as public, but has generally been interpreted to mean a meeting where at least two members of a governing body get together. Tucker’s bill, if signed into law, would make that more explicit.

Tucker’s bill has support from FOIA advocates around the state. The president of the Arkansas Press Association, Andrew Bagley, called Tucker’s bill “a very good piece of legislation” during a committee meeting March 12.

The Arkansas Freedom of Information Act gives Arkansans broad access to public records, such as emails sent between state officials and documents used in the course of government action. The law also establishes access to public meetings by members of the public, although the vague language governing this access has led to multiple instances of litigation as local governments ran afoul of the sunshine provisions.

The Arkansas Advocate is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization dedicated to tough, fair daily reporting and investigative journalism that holds public officials accountable and focuses on the relationship between the lives of Arkansans and public policy.