Rep. Altes may face ethics violation charge

Trouble may be brewing for Rep. Denny Altes, R-Fort Smith, related to his alleged threat to hold up a budget because of a tiff between his son’s sanitation business and a state review board.

According to various published reports, Altes Sanitation Services has a case before the Arkansas Court of Appeals related to an unemployment benefit payment dispute with a former employee.

Altes told Chief Deputy Lynda Boone with the Arkansas Court of Appeals he would attempt to hold up state agency budgets until the unemployment system was fixed. In a story published by the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, Boone said it was “terribly inappropriate” for Altes to make the budget threat after saying he was a member of the Arkansas House of Representatives. (The City Wire would link to the story, but the newspaper hides its content behind a paywall.)

Stephens Media has reported that Altes’ action could violate an Arkansas ethics law that prohibits elected officials from using their position as leverage.

The Arkansas law — Arkansas Code 21-8-304(a) — cited in the report notes that “no public official or state employee shall use or attempt to use his or her official position to secure special privileges or exemptions for himself or herself or his or her spouse, child, parents, or other persons standing in the first degree of a relationship, or for those with whom he or she has a substantial financial relationship that are not available to others except as may be otherwise provided by law.”

During the past several days, The City Wire has left several messages with Altes via phone and e-mail. He has yet to respond to those requests.

Altes, an incumbent seeking re-election to his final term in the Arkansas House of Representatives, will face Mat Pitsch in the GOP primary for the District 76 seat.