The Freedom of Information Act works on behalf of 3 million Arkansans

I accepted a temporary assignment from Gov. Mike Beebe in 2007 to become his interim communications director, and to this day, I remember the only thing he said when he hired me: “If you violate ‘FOYAH,’ you’re on your own.”

If you’ve worked in government, journalism, public or government relations in Arkansas, you know “FOYAH” is shorthand for the Arkansas Freedom of Information Act (AFOIA) and can be used as a noun, adjective or verb:

“That six-page ‘FOYAH’ that arrived after 3 p.m on Friday pretty much ruined everybody’s weekend.”

“Can you just email me the data, or do you need a ‘FOYAH’ request?”

“He kept dodging questions until the reporter ‘FOYAHED’ six-month’s worth of his emails.”

Beebe’s uncompromising stand on our state’s sunshine law, and insistence that any staffer who violated it would be fed to the lions, was consistent with the attitude of virtually every Arkansas elected official I’ve known in my nearly 30-year career in and around Arkansas politics. I say “virtually,” because some were averse to the transparency guaranteed by the law. Many of those resigned in disgrace, were arrested or went to prison. Some were Democrats, and some were Republicans.

Last Friday, when Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders announced she would be seeking a radical rewrite of the AFOIA, many Arkansans immediately recalled dark days not so long ago when elected officials took bribes, stole money or lied about their activities. We know that “FOYAH” catches crooks because the FBI reads the newspapers, too, and we worry what will happen when the press and public’s ability to closely monitor our government’s actions is destroyed.

The governor and her apologists are trying to convince us that shutting off the bright lights will make Arkansas a safer and more efficient place. They are gravely mistaken. In fact, they are touting changes to the law that are totally unnecessary.

The Arkansas State Police have been protecting the state’s Governors and their families, by law, since 1973. They have protected First Families with small children, and they have protected First Families with no children in the Mansion. They have done it all while operating under the constraints of the AFOIA. ASP’s exemptions to the AFOIA prevent them from disclosing any details that might violate their security plans or endanger those they are protecting.

In my career, I have planned and staffed gubernatorial trips in Arkansas, around the U.S. and overseas. I have spent countless hours in the company of ASP personnel with a job to do. Not one of them was ever looking to borrow trouble by publicizing security information or diverting from the security plan unnecessarily. More importantly, I never heard a single Trooper complain that the people’s right to know made their job more difficult.

Scrapping the AFOIA won’t make the Governor or her family any safer than they are today. It won’t improve Arkansas’ business climate or help us land more jobs, either.

The Arkansas Economic Development Commission (AEDC) has an existing exemption to the AFOIA that protects from public view records “related to any business entity’s planning, site location, expansion, operations, or product development and marketing, unless approval for release of those records is granted by the business entity.” Critically, the exemption does not extend to any money spent or administered by the commission on any economic-development project. I’m thoroughly familiar with this exemption as well because I served as the executive director of the AEDC from 2011-2014.

While I was at the agency, our team spent two years negotiating for a new steel mill in Mississippi County. We were competing against two border states, and our prospects were very concerned with privacy. Somehow, we managed to negotiate and land what was then the state’s largest-ever industrial project without any of the details leaking. My successor, a Republican, repeated the feat a few years later, again under the watchful eye of one of the nation’s strongest government transparency laws.

Is it easy? No. The AFOIA requires agents of our government to be more cautious and mindful of the things they say and do than folks in other businesses. Sometimes, it takes more time to stay compliant. Sometimes, it takes more steps than it should. Often, it’s inconvenient because you can’t use the communications channels that are second nature to all of us now.

None of that matters though, because when you work for the government – elected, appointed or just employed – you are working for three million Arkansans. You are making decisions that affect their lives and spending money out of their pockets. Arkansans have a right to know everything you are doing in their name. Democracy demands it.

In the years after I went to work for Gov. Beebe, we saw our share of frivolous “FOYAHs,” and I remember standing in his office, late one afternoon, complaining about one that I thought was particularly egregious.

“This is ridiculous,” I said. “Someone should open the law back up and stop this.”

My boss knew better.

“These are the rules,” Beebe said. “If you don’t want to play by the rules, you don’t have to work here.”

And in the end, that’s the answer:

The AFOIA doesn’t exist for the convenience of the government. It exists for the protection of the governed.

If you don’t want to play by the rules, you don’t have to work here.

Editor’s note: Grant Tennille is chairman of the Democratic Party of Arkansas and is the former executive director of the Arkansas Economic Development Commission during Gov. Mike Beebe’s administration. The opinions expressed are those of the author.