The city administrator privately polled Fort Smith's Board of Directors via telephone to get approval to bid on real estate being publicly auctioned. City officials contend that if the matter had been discussed publicly, the city would have paid more as knowledge of their top price would have driven up bids. Therefore, the secrecy served the taxpayers' interest.
A private citizen, upset with the secret discussions, filed a lawsuit against the city claiming that the calls violated public meeting provisions in the Arkansas FOIA law, which does not allow public boards, officials or commissions to meet privately for any reason. A lower circuit court dismissed the case but the Arkansas Court of Appeals reversed the decision and upheld the citizen's claims that the calls were illegal. The City of Fort Smith officials are appealing the case to the Arkansas Supreme Court, which could rule this fall.
The case also moved FOI legislation to the top of the Fort Smith's legislative agenda. Officials are working now to build legislative support for exempting secret meetings of city councils when negotiating property purchases, litigation and labor relations -- some other state FOIA laws do exempt these types of meetings from disclosure. Information access advocates assert that weakening the FOIA would encourage further abuse by officials, who already disregard the law too often. Those opposing the changes have also raised concerns that efforts may invite wholesale gutting of the law.