Arkansas News Bureau

LITTLE ROCK — The state employees pension system must decide whether it should release the names of elected officials who improperly collect retirement benefits and a paycheck, Attorney General Dustin McDaniel said today.

In an opinion requested by Rep. Allen Kerr, R-Little Rock, McDaniel said it was up to the Arkansas Public Employees Retirement System as the keeper of system records — not his office — to decide if state law allows the information to be made public.

Kerr, who has been pressing to expose so-called double-dipping by elected officeholders, said he sought the attorney general’s opinion because the retirement system is exempt from the state Freedom of Information Act and he was concerned the list may never be released to the public.

APERS Executive Director Gail Stone has suggested the system’s open record law exclusion would compel her to keep individual members’ records confidential.

However, McDaniel said there appeared to be nothing in state law to prevent Kerr from disclosing information provided to him by the Bureau of Legislative Audit, which at the lawmaker’s request is gathering the names of every elected official in the state who draws retirement benefits and a paycheck for the same job.

Auditors are researching records going back 10 years.