Break It Open
It's Time to Investigate, Formally
Last Wednesday, July 23rd, several members of Gravel & Grit submitted a formal complaint to the Arkansas Joint Performance Review Committee requesting a full investigation into the Franklin County prison project. This isn’t a step we took lightly—but the facts demand oversight and it’s time this cronyism, secrecy, and incompetence is formally investigated.
Among other functions, the Joint Performance Review Committee specifically:
Conducts investigations into specific problem areas of the administration of state government as may be brought to the attention of the committee;
Conducts hearings on citizen complaints and views regarding the operation of state government;
Serves as a forum for citizens to air their complaints and suggestions regarding the operation of state government; and
Reviews the expenditures of the various agencies, departments, and programs of state government to assure that they are being administered in accordance with legislative intent and are being administered in such manner as to provide the taxpayers with the greatest service at the lowest reasonable cost.
Since the moment the Franklin County site was pushed through with neither local input nor due diligence, there has been a consistent, demonstrable pattern of executive overreach, fiscal irresponsibility, and outright deception.
Just a few highlights:
Contracts were signed before funding was secured, despite constitutional and statutory prohibitions.
Consultants from California have submitted bills for first-class flights, steak dinners, and alcohol, all paid for with Arkansas taxpayer dollars.
The “best site in Arkansas” was under contract just three weeks after the State for the listing, with no feasibility study, no workforce analysis, and water capacity that can’t meet even a fraction of the need.
The state has already burned through $75 million that was reallocated from a far more affordable, shovel-ready expansion in Calico Rock.
Meanwhile, every time lawmakers have been asked to support this project, they’ve refused. Five times.
We’re not filing this complaint as political theater. We’re doing it because everyday Arkansans deserve better accountability. We’re demanding real transparency, legislative oversight, and a return to reasoned process and principle, not partisan posturing. It’s about basic good governance, not grandstanding.
You can read the full complaint linked here.
A public petition has been launched for citizens to add their voices to urge the opening of an investigation, and we hope you’ll join us in making your voice heard. Because the future of Franklin County—and our state—depends on who’s willing to stand up when it counts. And that time is now.
We don’t pay on-line. We may have missed the address to send payment.
Another case of Emperor Sarah decreeing what we must have. She seems as corrupt as they come. I'd have thought the $19,000 rostrum would have been enough to bad publicity to calm her down, but it seems she's only just begun. I suppose you can't expect more from a governor whose first elected job was governor. She's in office because she was DJT's press secretary. For a bright red state, Arkansas has a lot of bright blue tendencies.
Get the investigation done. I believe the people want it.