Here are excerpts from recent editorials in Arkansas newspapers:
Southwest Times Record. April 10, 2017.
Most legislative sessions in most states probably are seen as a mix of good and bad, of highlights and lowlights. Arkansas’ 2017 session was no different.
There weren’t a tremendous amount of hot topic items this time around, but the medical marijuana issue and online sales tax collection stirred much debate around the state.
Decisions have been made, but there are issues still unresolved.
That tax cuts and exemptions targeting low-income resident and military veterans were approved certainly can be called a highlight, as is a funding boost for foster care, which will benefit Sebastian County tremendously.
Lawmakers finally moved forward with a proposal to change the holiday that honors Martin Luther King Jr. The plan, supported by Gov. Asa Hutchinson for several years, removes a celebration of Robert E. Lee from the January holiday, leaving the federal holiday honoring King intact. Now, Lee will be honored on a separate day in October, known as Robert E. Lee Day, which will celebrate Southern heritage.
Hutchinson announced before the session began that the proposal was at the top of his agenda, and we’re pleased it was signed into law. Only two states (Mississippi and Alabama) will continue to honor King and Lee on the same day.
Medical marijuana, as expected, was a major topic throughout the session. Gov. Hutchinson signed a dozen marijuana-related bills into law, including several targeting the whens and wheres marijuana can be smoked (think Arkansas’ current tobacco laws), as well as laws on who can sell marijuana and how it is to be transported.
The medical marijuana issue promised to be complex, and it remains that way. We are pleased that the Legislature appears to be doing a thorough job with the thought process required when making such a big change to public law. Creating the regulations should take time, and it has.
An effort was made to help military members a little as a state law was amended to extend the expiration date for a driver’s license belonging to a member of the military. The idea for the law came from Fort Smith native SSgt. Dynesha Smith, so kudos to her, and to the representatives who supported the bill.
One disappointment from the session is the failure of a bill that would require online shoppers to pay sales tax on their purchases, even if the business does not have a physical presence in the state. We’ve used this space before to voice support for such a law. The sales taxes Arkansas is missing out on could be a great boon to the state’s treasury, but sadly, the bill stalled again during this session. Amazon, meanwhile, began collecting sales taxes in Arkansas voluntarily in March and began collecting taxes in most other states on April 1. The bill attempted to make the playing field fair for smaller, brick-and-mortar businesses that can’t compete with larger online stores and their discounts.
We think that issue is far from resolved.
A number of lawmakers cited highway needs as the one of the biggest issues that remain unresolved. It’s a complex issue that will require a complex solution. As House Speaker Jeremy Gillam, R-Judsonia, said, “there are plenty of great minds that are still going to be working on that issue.” The Legislature approved the creation of a task force on tax reform that can study the issue of highway needs.
We appreciate a job well done by our governor and especially by our local lawmakers. Fort Smith was well-represented in leadership roles during the session, which makes us proud. Whether you agree with their votes or not, they deserve our thanks.
“In my judgment, this is one of the most pro-growth, pro-jobs General Assemblies … in recent memory,” Gov. Hutchinson told reporters after the adjournment.
The governor says he plans to call a special session in May, mostly to discuss Medicaid, but other agenda items are possible. Until then, we say thank you for a solid 2017 session.
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Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. April 11, 2017.
April is indeed the cruelest month, certainly here in Arkansas, mixing the early buds of spring on every hillside with the orgy of executions to take place as the occupants of death row meet their fate one by one. Or two by two. The very thought should be enough to send a shiver through every God-fearing citizen of the state. That it won’t only adds to the whole sad saga of Justice, Mercy et al. vs. the State of Arkansas.
He who takes a single life, a Talmudic sage warned long ago, it is as if he had destroyed a whole world. For that’s the effect of blotting out one man’s life with all its memories of the past and resolves for the future. We the People are then left to wash the blood off our hands or come up with rationalizations for taking human life. But vengeance is mine, sayeth the State of Arkansas as it does its worst to empty death row before its precious supply of fatal drugs runs out. Which explains why these fatal proceedings had to be such a rush job- complete with all the sloppiness that goes with hurried work.
To quote the federal judge who presided over this hurry-up-and-kill spectacle, the Hon. D. Price Marshall, the whole bloody business he’d been called on to cloak in legality was “beyond imperfect; it was shoddy.” The judge noted that state law requires the public be allowed sufficient time to comment on any decision to grant clemency to one of the condemned, Jason McGehee by name, and that his rights would be violated if he were put to death in so hurried a manner. It took His Honor more than an hour to cite all the errors the almighty State of Arkansas had made in its haste to kill these men. Yet he concluded that despite all those errors, each of the condemned in this long parade had had sufficient time to prepare his case, years of it, while they contemplated their duly scheduled demise. How would you like to spend your time cooped up with little to do but try to find some way, any way, to avoid your appointment with death?
“The inmates and their counsel knew this train was coming,” Judge Marshall concluded. Which might only have added to the pain of their every waking and even sleeping hour. “Even in our sleep,” the Greek poet Aeschylus wrote long ago, “pain that cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart, until in our own despair, against our will, comes wisdom through the awful grace of God.” But this heaven-sent wisdom is now to be wiped out by the sovereign State of Arkansas in its own faux wisdom, which knows no mercy.
No one ever came away with clean hands after exercising power in the name of the almighty state, but seldom have so many in so short a time come away with hands so drenched in blood, Lord have mercy on their souls. It’s enough to make one wonder just who is being condemned in this court—the prisoner or We the People in whose name these sentences are to be carried out in this modern danse macabre?
There is a way out of this bloody dead end for both the condemned and those in whose name they are sentenced to death. And it is neither complicated nor burdensome. Just strike the death penalty from the books and sleep better o’night. Winthrop Rockefeller never did a better day’s work when he simply commuted the death sentences of every man on death row, leaving an example that shines to this day. Wasn’t there a time when his name was applauded in Republican circles? Who will applaud the name of this state’s Republican governor in the future? It’s a question all thinking - and feeling - citizens would do well to ponder. Before it is too late.
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The Jonesboro Sun
Prosecutors need to investigate audit of public defenders
Revelations that the public defender’s office in Jonesboro has been routinely abusing annual sick and vacation leave should have taxpayers on the warpath and prosecutors looking into possible criminal charges.
The Sun recently obtained a recent audit of the 2nd Judicial District’s public defender office by the Arkansas Department of Finance and Administration that revealed the potential abuse in Jonesboro and statewide. Yes, statewide.
Let’s just say its findings should make you livid.
The first move taken by Gregg Parrish, executive director of the Arkansas Public Defender Commission, was to fire longtime chief public defender William Howard.
The audit report included two major findings from Howard’s office in Jonesboro:
- Improper documentation of annual sick and vacation leave.
- A contract between Howard and Craighead County that leased office space from the Louise B. Howard Trust was improper. The trust, which is operated by Howard and his sister, paid Howard $400 a month for office space that served as his law firm prior to 1998 when he joined the public defender staff. Information provided to auditors suggested at least 13 conflict of interest cases were worked each year by Howard from his office, the audit states.
That’s a huge ethical no-no.
However, the potential abuse of annual sick and vacation leave is mountainous in comparison and may reach the level of criminal activity.
In Jonesboro, the audit says two of the three full-time attorneys exhibited signs of potential, historical leave abuse. Howard had not recorded annual sick or vacation leave for 12 of the 15 years reviewed. (Yes, we said years.) Of the eight part-time attorneys in the Jonesboro office, two had only been employed for about one year and were excluded from the audit review. Three of the remaining six part-time attorneys had not recorded annual sick or vacation leave during their tenure at the Jonesboro office. Part-time attorneys receive benefits based on their years in office.
Apparently, no one was minding the store. Abuse of sick and vacation leave has become part of the commission’s culture.
Multiple attempts by The Sun to reach Howard went unanswered.
Let’s just call it what it is: a massive taxpayer rip-off by bureaucrats with law degrees. Attorneys across the state should be outraged the most. That their colleagues in public defender offices across the state were banking bogus vacation and sick days on the taxpayers’ dime for years leaves a huge black eye on the public defender system. According to the audit, up to 50 percent of the part-time employees in the state potentially abused annual sick and vacation leave.
According to the commission’s policy, employees can only carry over 30 days of vacation and 120 days of sick leave. All additional hours are donated into a catastrophic leave fund. At retirement, an employee can receive 30 days pay for accrued vacation time and up to a $7,500 payout for accumulated sick leave. However, commission policy states an employee must have accumulated 400 sick leave hours to receive any payout.
So why is this such a taxpayer rip-off?
First of all, it’s not known exactly how many sick and vacation days these public defenders took each year.
Secondly - and more importantly - employees’ failure to record leave is resulting in large payouts at termination or retirement. About 31 percent of part-time employees at the commission never recorded sick or vacation leave, the audit states.
We’re talking beaucoup taxpayer bucks.
“The commission has been combating the large payouts by keeping positions vacant until the amount of the payout is recuperated, which minimizes the impact to the budget and puts a greater workload on a judicial district,” the audit states.
What about the taxpayers?
Other obvious questions need to be answered.
- How deep does this go and why was it never questioned by those who were making these large payouts when employees resigned, retired or were terminated?
- After at least 15 years, why are we just now discovering this? Were those in charge at the state level simply asleep at the wheel? Shouldn’t they also be held accountable?
- If absence days aren’t even being monitored, who’s to say that even more days were taken than actually earned?
- Are these criminal acts? Wouldn’t this be consider theft?
Most employers have a use-it-or-lose-it vacation and sick leave policy. We would strongly suggest public entities move to this type of policy to avoid a debacle like this in the future.
Obviously, 2nd Judicial District Prosecuting Attorney Scott Ellington needs to review the audit and take appropriate action. Taxpayers can’t let this simply be swept under the rug and shrugged off as if the public defenders’ office has learned its lesson and will play fair from now on.
No, somebody - maybe a lot of somebodys - need to be held accountable for this fiasco.
Regardless, The Sun is putting all public entities on notice to clean up shop. We’re going to be checking and writing about what we find.
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