UPDATED: Arkansas lawmakers approve audit into Corrections Board’s hiring of outside counsel

Little Rock attorney Abtin Mehdizadegan responds to legislators' questions about his contract with the Arkansas Board of Corrections during a Joint Performance Review Committee hearing on Thursday, April 4, 2024. (Screenshot from Arkansas Legislature live feed)

This story was updated Friday, June 14, 2024 at 10:52 a.m.

An Arkansas legislative panel has asked the state’s nonpartisan auditing body to look into a contract between the Board of Corrections and attorney Abtin Mehdizadegan.

The Legislative Joint Auditing Committee’s executive committee approved the proposal from Rep. Jeff Wardlaw, R-Hermitage, on Thursday with no dissent. The full committee approved it Friday with no dissent or discussion.

The board hired Mehdizadegan in a three-minute public meeting after a half-hour executive session in December.

Lawmakers have taken issue with the lack of a formal bid process for the contract and the board’s lack of public discussion and votes on the agreement. The board has argued that its constitutional independence may exempt it from state procurement law.

Mehdizadegan has been representing the Board of Corrections in both its legal challenge against two 2023 state laws and Attorney General Tim Griffin’s suit against the board for allegedly violating the Freedom of Information Act in Mehdizadegan’s hiring.

In March , the board asked the Arkansas Legislative Council for an emergency, retroactive appropriation of $207,000 to pay Mehdizadegan for his work on both cases.

The Joint Performance Review Committee spent three April meetings questioning Mehdizadegan, several board members and Department of Corrections staff about Mehdizadegan’s hiring and contract. The committee voted to recommend that the Legislative Council not review the contract.

Joint Performance Review also voted to make the following statements to the council that:

• The Board of Corrections disregarded government transparency laws, including the Arkansas Freedom of Information Act.
• The board did not have the financial or statutory authority to hire Mehdizadegan.
• Board members acknowledged to the committee their “lack of process” for board meetings and procurement.
• The committee’s investigation yielded “perceived and discussed violations of law.”

The Department of Corrections pulled Mehdizadegan’s contract from the Legislative Council’s agenda in March, so the council has not taken any action on the contract or JPR’s recommendation, said Wardlaw, the council’s House chair.

The Legislative Joint Auditing Executive Committee tailored Thursday’s audit request to exclude anything pertaining to ongoing litigation at the advice of Emily White, Arkansas Legislative Audit’s legal counsel.

“There are some things we can look at … such as the facts, how the contract was filed and things of that nature, but issuing those ultimate opinions about whether or not it was lawful and whether or not the board had the authority to hire the lawyer — that’s ultimately a decision for the appellate court,” White said.

Legislative panels to probe Arkansas Board of Corrections contract, practices

Griffin’s office usually represents state agencies in legal cases, but Arkansas law allows special counsel to be appointed in disputes between the attorney general and constitutional officers.

The Board of Corrections has been embroiled in a dispute since November with Griffin, Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders and former Corrections Secretary Joe Profiri over who has ultimate authority over Arkansas’ prison system.

The two 2023 laws in question in one of the lawsuits — Act 185 and Sections 79 and 89 of Act 659 — removed the corrections secretary, director of correction and director of community corrections from the board’s purview. The board took the stance that these laws violate Amendment 33 of the Arkansas Constitution, which grants some independence to the boards of state universities and corrections.

Board Chairman Benny Magness wrote a letter to Sanders in November stating that he believed Profiri was violating the amendment. Sanders did not respond, and she directed Profiri in December to move ahead with parts of a temporary prison expansion without board approval, which made the need to hire outside counsel “an emergency,” board Secretary Lee Watson told lawmakers on April 4 .

Sanders’ order to Profiri gave the board no time to go through the state’s procurement process, which includes requests for qualifications and bids from multiple candidates, Watson and Mehdizadegan both testified.

Pulaski County Circuit Judge Patricia James blocked the two laws in January, and Pulaski County Circuit Judge Tim Fox dismissed the FOIA suit later that month. Both decisions have been appealed.

The post UPDATED: Arkansas lawmakers approve audit into Corrections Board’s hiring of outside counsel appeared first on Arkansas Advocate .