Pope County, Arkansas commissioners recently endorsed Cherokee Nation Businesses to receive a casino license, but soon after, the Arkansas Racing Commission opened a second 90-day window for accepting applications. At the urging of two other applicants—Warner Gaming and Choctaw Nation—the Russellville City Council established the Community Gaming Evaluation Committee in order to conduct its own “open and transparent” vetting process.
Members of the Community Gaming Evaluation Committee recently signed non-disclosure agreements for each of the five applicants. Russellville Mayor Richard Harris said, “I would prefer all of the information to be transparent, however, that is not realistic. Companies want to keep their financial information proprietary and away from competitors.”
On October 7, each operator will give a 30-minute presentation, according to City Attorney Trey Smith. These will be held privately, but a page will be added to the city’s website to “make all information that is public” available for review. “It is the intent of everyone involved that this process be as open and transparent as possible. I know that the committee is committed to this position,” Harris said.
Harris added that an email group will be set up in which operators and committee members can converse privately. “It is a clearinghouse for operators to provide questions or comments to the committee,” he said. Setting up the private email server is not in and of itself a violation of the state Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), as long as the emails are provided to the public when they are requested, said Arkansas Press Association General Counsel John Tull. He added that the FOIA applies to the committee’s records—including the applications, emails and other correspondence—”as it is composed in part by public paid officials and may receive other funding as well as potentially expending public funds.”
Smith said individual casino operators will determine what information should be considered confidential. “The vast majority of the information will be open to the public. They will have to justify to the committee why they feel certain details should be exempt,” he said.
The committee’s final report will be due to the Russellville city council by October 14. City Council will review the committee’s final selection by November 18, the closing date of the Racing Commission’s second application window.
The committee members are city Councilman Eric Westcott; Russellville School District Superintendent Mark Gotcher; Arkansas Tech University Chief of Staff Mary Gunter; Pope County Justice of the Peace Bill Sparks; businessman Bart Langley; and banker Nathan George.
