By David J. Sanders

Suppose you are an elected official – a prosecuting attorney for a particular Arkansas judicial district — and in addition to being prosecutor, you’re a part owner of a building that rents space to the prosecutor’s office.

It’s easy to see how that might constitute an ethical conundrum. After all, it would appear you are using your office to benefit yourself financially.

That’s essentially what Conway’s Marcus Vaden, a Democrat,  is doing. He’s the prosecuting attorney for the 20th Judicial District and the prosecutor’s hot check division leases space in the building of which he is a part owner. This not only looks bad, but according to Arkansas law, the problem exceeds the appearance of impropriety.

Profiting from one’s office was once a time-honored Arkansas tradition. In fact, a little over a decade ago, Arkansas journalists uncovered extensive corruption involving lawmakers and state agencies. And, as a result, people were prosecuted, convicted and sent to jail.

There are a of couple interesting things about Vaden’s situation. One of his business partners is Robbie Wills, who is the speaker of the state House of Representatives. And, about this time last year, Vaden wrote a letter to the bureaucrats in Little Rock seeking a wavier so he could continue his business relationship.

Let’s focus on the letter, dated July 1, 2008, in which Vaden laid out his case to Richard Weiss, the director of the state Department of Finance and Administration. According to Vaden, the hot check division began renting space in his building in 1992, when, as a mere part-time deputy prosecutor, he was in charge of the hot check division.

Vaden argued that there wasn’t room in the Faulkner County Courthouse to house the hot check division back then, and that there still wasn’t room in 2008. But he claimed he needed the waiver because “the location of the hot check division is well known to local merchants as well as the general public.”

In a response, addressed 20 days after Vaden had requested the waiver, Weiss, who isn’t an attorney, pointed out what the law said with respect to conflict of interest. “It is a breach of ethical standards for any employee to participate directly or indirectly in any matter pertaining to any contract or subcontract for which the employee or a member of his immediate family has a financial interest,” Weiss wrote Vaden.

Weiss continued that Vaden had “acknowledged” a “conflict of interest for yourself, the elected official, to rent office space for the prosecutor’s office from a company in which you have a financial interest.”

Weiss didn’t buy Vaden’s arguments and said no to the waiver.

So the story’s over, right?  Nope. Nearly a month after Weiss turned down Vaden’s waiver request, Vaden tried to work out a little fix to his problem.

At Vaden’s request, the Faulkner County Quorum Court passed an ordinance to drag Vaden’s $24,000 worth of rent money through its books to get around the law. Technically, the county would “collect those funds from the Prosecuting Attorney and pay the rent required to maintain the Prosecutor’s Hot Check Division.”

But it doesn’t end there.

This year, the Quorum Court passed another ordinance, which removed the language that required the prosecutor’s office to make direct payment to the county – apparently that was a little too sticky.  Now, the county pays Vaden’s rent from its general fund, which also happens to be supported by funds from the prosecutor’s office.

State auditors are looking into Vaden’s cozy relationship with himself. But for now, albeit a little more convoluted, Prosecutor Vaden is still leasing space from building owner Vaden. I’d say he’s too clever by half.

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David J. Sanders writes twice weekly for the Arkansas News Bureau in Little Rock and is the host of Arkansas Education Television Network’s “Unconventional Wisdom.” His e-mail address is DavidJSanders@aol.com.