This blog is dedicated to exposing and documenting misdeeds and misadventures of departments and employees of the city of Little Rock, Arkansas. [news@snarkymedia.com/ 501-487-1699]
A Snarky Media Group publication
On August 25th we sent a Freedom of Information request to the Little Rock Housing Authority d/b/a the Metropolitan Housing Alliance for all records regarding the termination of their executive director.
In a response to that request their board chairman Kenyon K. Lowe, Sr. sent this this morning.
If this is all the records they have, perhaps the LR mayor and city board of directors need to replace Lowe and the rest of that sketchy housing authority board.
We fired off another FOI request on August 26th.
We have received nothing in regard to the 2nd request.
Initially Lowe flat out told us he was barred from releasing any records regarding the firing of their executive director because she could appeal her termination.
We fired off a quick email letting him know he was full of shit.
Lowe and his agency have a documented history of failing to comply with the Arkansas Freedom of Information Act.
In fact, a former executive director had criminal charges filed against him for failing to comply with a FOI request.
Lowe and his fellow board members will get a first hand experience in dealing with a AFOIA Denial of Rights action in circuit court here in Pulaski County in the near future.
On Tuesday, August 10, 2021 I received a call from a special agent with the Little Rock field office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation in the Public Corruption Unit.
The individual that called refused to provide his name, and I assumed it was a scam call like one about your Social Security number being disabled or the last call about your car warranty expiring.
The man said "we think you have some information that can help us on one of our cases."
I told him to call an attorney friend of mine and try to schedule the meeting.
I gave them the number of fellow blogger and attorney Matt Campbell.
Matt publishes Blue Hog Report and we often collaborate to expose shady public officials and government corruption.
I called Matt and gave him a heads up. Some time later Matt sent me a text.
I wanted Matt along to be a witness as I felt certain I would not be permitted to record the meeting.
Many of you know before I became an investigative journalist and blogger, I had considerable experience as an investigator (state agency and financial institutions). In those positions I frequently worked with law enforcement agencies including the FBI.
Here are some business cards of the agents I worked with when working in those positions.
Let's take a minute to give some additional background information, back in 2016, after an in-depth investigation and a lawsuitto force release of public records, we found that Cody Hiland, then a prosecuting attorney, had illegally used federal funds to pay for payroll taxes, etc.
Hiland also had some problem with an employee that used her position to obtain sealed court records in another state about her ex-husband's new wife.You can read about that by clicking here.
Hiland also employed an investigator with a questionable background and law enforcement credentials obtained under false pretenses. You can read about that by clicking here and here.
The FBI investigated that matter with Hiland and the drug task force he ran out of his office in Conway.
I worked with a special agent in the Public Corruption Unit and shared records I had obtained via FOI request. Her name was Tonja Sablatura.
The Hiland investigation came to a screeching halt when he was appointed the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Arkansas.
I sent a text message to her about the call from Special Agent Copley to confirm his identity.
So on Wednesday, August 11, 2021 I went to the FBI Field office in WLR.
Matt was going to tag along, but he had to meet with a client so I went by myself.
As I was going through their security checkpoint, I was told I could not take an electronic devices inside., So I had to take my cellphone and digital recorder back to my vehicle.
I met with Copely and his partner in what used to be the receptionist office inside the front door on the right (counter and glass window that looked out on the fourier of the building). A big empty room with three or four old desk chairs and a big ass free standing copier/printer.
After some small talk they got into the reason for the meeting.
They reiterated what they had said to me and Matt about wanting to sit down with me as they believed I might have some information that would assist them in an investigation.
The targets of the investigation? The feckless Little Rock mayor and the troubled, corrupt police chief.
Our discussion lasted almost three hours.
You dear readers, can drawn your own conclusions.
Ours here at Snarky Media Group is that some shit is about to go down.
According to records filed in Pulaski County Circuit Court, Bradley "da Whipper" Tubbs was fired from his position as an engineer with the Little Rock Fire Department on October 16, 2020 after an internal investigation found he spanked firefighter Jason Fuller three times on the buttocks with a leather belt on June 25, 2020 at fire Station #21.
The termination letter given to Tubbs cited departmental violation of harassment and bullying.
Records from administrative procedures revealed that it was not the first time Tubbs had been involved in spanking incidents.
Fuller appears to have been the victim of previous episodes of harassment from his fellow firemen. In one instance he was tickled by his firehouse buddies to the point he shit his pants.
The stuff you can read in the full investigative file is incredible. It appears that LRFD like LRPD is comprised of outsiders being employed by the city.
Tubbs is being represented by former Little Rock mayor Mark Stodola. What a shit show that will be. Hope it's a zoom hearing so we can record it and share it.
Mark Stodola
We have an active AFOIA lawsuit involving the Little Rock Fire Department regarding records they refused to provide and were ordered to provide.
They have yet to follow the orders of the court and produce the records.
For the past 17 years LRPD has subscribed to and utilized a cloud based document storage system.
This cloud based document system could have and can be used to share records with the public, records like those we frequently request from LRPD under the Arkansas Freedom of Freedom of Information Act.
For some time now we at Snarky Media Group (Ean Lee Bordeaux and myself) along with attorney and fellow blogger Matt Campbell have led the battle to force the city of Little Rock and the Little Rock Police Department to comply with the Arkansas Freedom of Information Act 9"AFOIA") and provide requested public records.
More often than not they do not want to comply and we have to file lawsuits to force them to provide the requested public records.
For example, in 2018 we had to sue the city and LRPD to force them to comply with the AFOIA and provide photographs of all uniformed and plain clothed non under cover cops.
That same year we had to sue them again to force them to comply with the AFOIA and provide documents maintained by LRPD to record and track AFOIA requests submitted to LRPD and documents regarding cops asking for and receiving permission to post photos on their social media pages in uniform or showing them working as a LRPD cop (at that time they had a police that prohibited such unless permission had been obtained from the LRPD chief).
As expected, the courts ruled that these were public records and ordered the city and LRPD to provide them to us.
Back in 2018, LRPD decided to charge for providing responses to FOI requests like the one we made.
As mentioned in the Arkansas Times article, Matt Campbell was getting the same push back from the city and LRPD that we were.
Campbell found that LRPD was actually paying less that $.50 for the CD's they were charging $3.00 to citizens. A clear violation of the AFOIA.
Well, LRPD has never made us pay for any of the CD's or DVD's they used to provide requested public records to us.
LRPD simply wanted to erect a barrier to keep public records of our hands. Public records that exposed how corrupt and inept LRPD was and continues to be.
The next barrier shortly the city and LRPD attempted to erect was this one:
Pulaski County and many state agencies have provided responses to FOI requests by uploaded records and audio/video files to a cloud based system (Dropbox or SharePoint) prior to 2018.
Attempts to get the city of Little Rock and LRPD to follow suit has proved fruitless.
However the law is clear (Pulaski County Special School District v. Delaney, 2019 Ark. App. 210), if an individual makes a request for records under the AFOIA and asks for them to be provided in electronic format (PDF, MS Word or Excel, etc.) and emailed to the requestor, and the public agency has the capability to scan the records and has email, they must provide the records in that manner.
So we were surprised to have obtained records that revealed that LRPD has had the capability to upload records to the cloud and provide them at no charge to individuals for the last 17 years.
This information will no doubt be used by Campbell in a pending lawsuit against the city of LR/LRPD.
While we are on the topic of FOI lawsuits involving the city of LR/LRPD, we must point out another one that opened up access to public records. That case is Ben Motal v. City of Little Rock, 2020 Ark. App. 308.
LRPD like every other law enforcement agency in the state can charge $10.00 for a copy of an accident report Ark. Code Ann. 27-53-210).
The Motal case resulted in the Arkansas Supreme Court ruling that an individual can copy public records, even accident reports, at no cost by using their own devices.
Another recent action that bolsters free access to public records in Arkansas is an update to the AFOIA that occurred this year.
Act 310 amended the AFOIA to allow a citizen to inspect and copy a public record, thorough image capture, including still and moving photography and video and digital recording.
The legislature has made it crystal clear that a citizen can use their own devices or equipment to copy public records.
Any agency that denies a citizen that right does so at its on risk for civil and criminal penalties.
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The PowerDMS system can easily be used by LRPD to share documents.
By fully utilizing the system that LRPD has utilized the last 17 years, they can easily comply with the AFOIA and provide records in electronic format and email links to the requestor for viewing and downloading.
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LRPD
says they can't provide videos directly to citizens making FOI requests
via the cloud or links. Records reveal that they have been doing
exactly that to criminal defense attorneys.
LRPD uses the WatchGuard system for MVR - mobile video recorder- in vehicles and for body cameras.
Anyone can download the WatchGuard player from their website or use VLC media player to view videos created with that system.
On July 23rd, a local paper ran a story about the "Rebuild the Rock" sales tax initiative and quoted the feckless Little Rock mayor about members of the group pushing the tax and funding efforts to promote it.
The mayor told the paper that there were five members of that group.
That was a lie. There are actually six members listed on the required form submitted to the Arkansas Ethics Commission, and the mayor is the sixth member.
Why would he lie about something like that?
Perhaps it's a conflict of interest and possibly illegal.
You can see that a flyer the group has mailed out looks exactly like the city of Little Rock's own web page.
You will notice that the URL for the group is listed as www.RebuildTheRock21.com.
They have to use that URL because WE own the domains named RebuildTheRock.
The use of the phrase RebuildTheRock is problematic for several reasons (more on that in another post) as the city uses the same graphics as the LQC group does.
The city and the LQC using the same phrase and graphics is extremely problematic.
Generally, a local government is prohibited from expending funds in support or against a ballot measure.
According the the Arkansas Ethics Commission, the LQC is required to file a contribution and expenditure report by August 15th. We will be thoroughly examining that report.
We have sent a FOI request to the city to obtain records regarding any document that reflects, mentions or concerns the phrase or term Rebuild the Rock.
