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Game, Fish chief contrite over FOI flap
Studying record-shield proposal was ‘bad judgment,’ Campbell tells panel
By Seth Blomeley

Friday, November 19, 2010

The chairman of the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission apologized to lawmakers Thursday for having considered a proposal that would have exempted the agency from requirements of the state Freedom of Information Act.

“I exercised bad judgment in questioning any part of the FOI,” Craig Campbell of Little Rock told the legislative Game and Fish Oversight Committee.

But Campbell did say he saw a potential need to provide an exemption in the law for information regarding endangered species.

On Oct. 25, the commission dumped its plan to make more public records confidential, just days after Gov. Mike Beebe called the Freedom of Information Act a “good law” and said the commission “better” abide by it.

Campbell said that although others at the commission had worked on the proposal he took “full responsibility” for it as chairman.

“I apologize to you, thegovernor, and the people of Arkansas for the turmoil I’ve caused regarding FOI,” he told legislators. “It’s the law of our state and that’s that. I ask that you don’t blame the other commissioners or our wonderful staff of dedicated people.”

Legislators said they appreciated Campbell’s handling of the matter.

Sen. Randy Laverty, D-Jasper, described Campbell as “very contrite.” He said that the “openness” the commission demonstrates with legislators is better now than at any time during his morethan 10 years in the Legislature.

“Ain’t no way I’m going to touch FOI,” Campbell said. “I’m going to have them issue an FOI release whenever I go to the restroom from now on.”

Sen. Ruth Whitaker, R-Cedarville, said, “It takes a real man to man up, and I appreciate that. I am convinced there was no malice. I just want to defend you. Sometimes we make mistakes.”

Among other things, the commission’s FOI proposal would have shielded recordsdeemed by the agency director to be embarrassing to Game and Fish Commission personnel, as well as working papers, unpublished memorandums and commission correspondence, and records related to ongoing investigations conducted by the commission’s law enforcement personnel.

It would also extend the amount of time required for the agency to retrieve documents in storage from three days to 10.

When the commission dropped the plan, Commissioner Emon Mahony of El Dorado and commission chief counsel Jim Goodhart answered most of the questions from the media and Campbell said little. Mahony was the chairman of the commission subcommittee that came up with the proposal.

Mahony, who was in the audience Thursday, told reporters after the meeting that he would have addressed legislators, if legislators had made that request.

Campbell said he previously said little about the proposal publicly because he trusted Mahony and Goodhart to explain it because they are lawyers and he’s not.

“I’m through with it,” Mahony said. “I’m not having anything to do with the Freedom of Information Act. I’m totally in agreement with Mr. Campbell.”

He said he didn’t have any thought about Campbell’s saying that endangered-species information needs to be confidential.

Regarding endangeredspecies information, Campbell said, “If you disclose that than you start having people show up.”

He brought up the ivorybilled woodpecker, a species thought to have been extinct that was reported sighted in eastern Arkansas several years ago.

“That was a circus over there,” Campbell said. “People were coming in by boats and from Europe and from all over the place. Scientists have to have the protection to keep the endangered species from becoming more endangered. It’s a serious matter. You can’t protect them if you have people wading up the creek trying to find them.”

Campbell said he hasn’t decided whether the commission would ask the Legislature for an exemption in the law on endangered-species information.

“I’m just passing along a message from our scientists,” he said.

Northwest Arkansas, Pages 10 on 11/19/2010