FOI You Too

I'm not a public official. I've got only nine followers on this blog. But evidently, full-time Joshua intervener and part-time state representative John Walker considers my windmill tilting worthy of his bully time.

I was recently on the receiving end of one of his fabled speaker phone calls, as he peppered me with questions about my alleged support for adding at-large zones to the Little Rock School District. Had he just been the tenth follower of my blog, he could have read for himself what my position is (and has been), instead of making one up and trying to tie me to it.

Here's the truth: School districts with 10% or more minority population must either be: 1) seven zones, 2) five zones, or 3) five zones and two at-large. Currently, incumbent school boards decide how the people will be represented. With Representative Barry Hyde, I proposed at the legislature that the people, not incumbent school board members, should be empowered to determine how their district will be governed.

Little Rock School District Attorney Chris Heller, evidently with carte blanche board authorization to speak for or against any issue he chooses, signed up to speak against it. Representative Walker actually did, and the Education Committee, despite some members' personal assurances of support, unanimously voted to send the issue to the legislative equivalent of Siberia - interim study. By the way, after a year of interim, where's the study?

Anyway, following my repeated clarifications to the speakerfied representative, the call ended. I immediately followed with an email asking him who else was in the room listening to the call, as I like to know my audience, even if after the fact. I received no response.

Later that day, I was told that Representative Walker - a public official - had submitted an FOIA (Freedom of Information Act) request to all members of the Little Rock School Board for any correspondence from or with me. Understand, he can't FOIA me. I'm not a public official. So he backdoored it. And man, do some of those school board members jump when he says "Howdy."

I found the entire experience amusing until I considered the larger issue. If a state representative, 30-year intervener in the Little Rock School District federal case, and de-facto leader of the district chooses to use FOIA against a citizen parent communicating with his/her board members, imagine the chilling effect on citizen/parent involvement in the governance of their schools.

For the record, anything I write to an elected official I expect to be in the public record. Further, almost all of my exchanges with board members and Representative Walker are posted on this blog. To be fair, I never post private messages, but when a public official, including Mr. Walker, chooses to cc, I consider their communications public.

It does, however, beg the question: Why hasn't a reporter or reporters sent an FOIA request to Representative Walker and members of the board for release of all their communications over the past three decades? At the very least, I would like to see the one he submitted regarding me. I'm sure I'm not alone.

He's a smart and clever man, so I doubt a paper or digital trail exists on his end. Members of the board, however, could be a different story.