E-Mail Review Leads to Ethics Complaint Against Judge Baker
On November 9, 2018 we filed a complaint with the Arkansas Ethics Commission against Faulkner County Judge Jim Baker for electioneering, after our email review discovered several instances where he used his government-provided email for campaigning in the recently concluded election.
Faulkner County Reports filed suit when Judge Baker refused to hand over copies of all his government email from August 1 to October 25 per our October 25 FOIA, despite readily providing similar emails to the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
As a result of the Court Order in that suit, we received emails dated September 1 through mid-October. After we again reminded Faulkner County of the FOIA dates, we finally received all emails as in the original FOIA.
We then reviewed hundreds of emails. We discovered the 10/24/18 email that caused our original concern, along with two replies (Documents 2, 3, and 4 in the ethics complaint). We also found several other items related to electioneering for the 2018 campaign:
♦ Conversation between Judge Baker and Betty Pickett from the local Democrat party about additional party funds awarded to local candidates (Document 6 in the ethics complaint).
♦ Email of ongoing conversation between Judge Baker and the Log Cabin Democrat on campaign advertising (Document 7 in the ethics complaint).
♦ Email of ongoing conversation between Judge Baker and Conway Corporation on campaign advertising (Document 8 in the ethics complaint).
♦ Email of ongoing conversation between Judge Baker and 501 Magazine on campaign advertising (Document 9a/9b in the ethics complaint).
♦ Conversation between Judge Baker and Faulkner Board of Realtors about the “160 roads” the Judge has taken in for the county to maintain “for the benefit of the public that live on those roads.” (Document 10 in the ethics complaint).
♦ Conversation discussing a League of Women Voter’s Meet and Greet event where Judge Baker complains about Scott Kelly and tells Jamie Gates (VP, Conway Chamber of Commerce): “I know I need help, Time is hear. Any help would be appreciated !!!!” (Document 11 in the ethics complaint).
The County Judge obstructed the release of this information and had to be compelled in court to produce it to us. By filing an ethics complaint, Faulkner County Reports is taking action to report on — and put a stop to — the Judge’s personal use of taxpayer-provided resources for electioneering.
Judge Baker’s comment about taking in “160 roads” is also curious and deserves more scrutiny because, up to now, Faulkner County has been unable to provide any such information in response to our previous FOIA requests regarding the operations of the Roads Department.
Next Steps
The Ethics Commission may or may not ask for testimony from Faulkner County Reports and/or Judge Baker and they will rule on the complaint as part of their normal investigatory timelines and process. We will post updates as they occur.
