Baxter County Judge Mickey Pendergrass
The Freedom of Information Act dispute between a blogger and Baxter County Judge Mickey Pendergrass has been resolved.
Little Rock attorney Matt Campbell, who blogs as the Blue Hog Report, filed a FOIA complaint against Pendergrass on June 4 after the two disagreed over how several FOIA requests submitted to the county earlier that week should proceed. That complaint was scheduled to be heard in Baxter County Circuit Court Friday morning, but was canceled Wednesday afternoon.
Court records show that both Pendergrass and Campbell asked the court to dismiss the case Tuesday. Speaking Thursday afternoon, Pendergrass said the two parties reached an agreement over the amount of time required to process the requests, and that copies of the documents had been sent to Campbell.
Blogger/Attorney Matt Campbell
Campbell’s initial FOIA request, dated June 1, asked for electronic copies of the titles to all of the county’s vehicles.
Pendergrass responded later that day that the county’s vehicle titles were not currently available in electronic form. Instead, the titles were available to be viewed by appointment Monday through Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. If any records needed to be scanned and transmitted electronically, Campbell would be charged $15 an hour for the labor involved.
The blogger replied that FOIA does not allow those requesting records to be charged for the time spent scanning records, that the person making the request was not required to first come examine the records and that the county judge could not require someone making an FOIA request to make an appointment before they could view public records.
Campbell then filed several follow-up FOIA requests asking for a slew of county documents.
On June 2, Campbell requested electronic copies of all county credit cards from Jan. 1, 2014, to the present on which Pendergrass was an authorized user or signer; all gas card statements from Jan. 1, 2014, to the present on which the county judge was an authorized user or signer; and all monthly cell phone statements from Jan. 1, 2014, to the present for any cell phone used by Pendergrass that is paid whole or in part by county funds.
On June 3, the blogger asked for electronic copies of all emails to or from Pendergrass’ judge@baxtercounty.org email address from Jan. 1, 2020, to the present.
On June 4, the blogger submitted a fourth FOIA request to the county judge, asking for electronic copies of all non-payroll Baxter County checks signed by Pendergrass from Jan. 1, 2014, to the present. On June 8, Campbell filed another FOIA request seeking electronic copies of all phone records from each and every cell phone paid for with Baxter County funds from Jan. 1, 2019, to the present.
An amended FOIA complaint filed by Campbell on June 9 notes that the blogger had received electronic copies of the county’s vehicle titles.
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