Arkansas lawmakers question governor’s staff about purchase of $19,000 lectern cited by audit

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — Arkansas lawmakers on Tuesday pointedly questioned Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders’ staff over the purchase of a $19,000 lectern, which an audit found may violate procurement, ownership and government administration laws.

During a nearly three-hour hearing before the committee that requested the audit, the first-term Republican governor’s top aides faced skepticism from even some Republican lawmakers over the purchase of the lectern that has drawn national attention.

“I don’t think the lectern is worth $19,000 or $11,500,” said Republican Sen. John Payton. “But I do think the lesson learned could be worth a lot more than that, if we just accepted that it was poor judgment and carelessness.”

The audit released Monday shows the governor’s office may have violated Arkansas laws regarding procurement, state property and the handling of government documents. Sanders’ office has disputed the audit’s findings, calling them deeply flawed.

Judd Deere, Sanders’ deputy chief of staff, blasted the audit as a waste of taxpayer money and said there was no error in the agency’s handling of the purchase. Deere appeared alongside Cortney Kennedy, Sanders’ lead attorney.

“This is not a mistake,” Deere told the panel. “The stage was a legitimate purchase.”

The blue and wood-paneled lectern was purchased in June with a state credit card for $19,029.25 from an events company in Virginia. The Republican Party of Arkansas refunded the state for the purchase on September 14, and Sanders’ office has called the use of the state credit card an accounting error. Sanders’ office said it received the lectern in August.

The total cost includes $11,575 for the lectern, $2,500 for a “consulting fee” and $2,200 for the road case. Costs also include shipping, delivery, and credit card processing fees.

Republican Sen. Mark Johnson defended Sanders, though he said he would have recommended she let the state GOP pay for the lectern from the start.

“This particular procedure should not be politicized,” he said.

Sanders, a Republican who served as press secretary for former President Donald Trump, has dismissed questions about the lectern as a “manufactured controversy,” and the item has not been seen at her public events.

“We can all agree that $19,000 was spent on an item and no one actually saw it,” said Republican Rep. Julie Mayberry, calling the lectern “a complete waste of money if no one uses it.”

Sanders plans to use the lectern now that the audit is complete, but did not do so because she did not want it to be a distraction, Deere said.

Deere initially told Mayberry that the lectern was available for any media outlet to view, even though Sanders’ office has denied requests from multiple media outlets. The only known media photo of the lectern before Tuesday was one that the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette ran on its front page last year after Sanders’ office allowed the newspaper to see it.

When The Associated Press asked to see the lectern last year, the governor’s office sent an official photo of it. When asked about these requests, Deere later said they had not been available to points of sale since the audit began. The AP and other media were able to view the Capitol lectern and take photos after Tuesday’s hearing.

Deere said the governor does not plan to again use the three out-of-state suppliers involved in the lectern purchase. Auditors said the sellers did not respond to repeated requests for answers about the lectern purchase.

The legislative audit found that Sanders’ office may have violated state law by paying for the lectern before it was delivered and by not following steps set out in state law for agencies to dispose of state property. Sanders’ office has argued that the purchasing and property laws the audit cites do not apply to the governor and other constitutional officials.

Two officials from Attorney General Tim Griffin’s office, who issued a non-binding legal opinion days before the audit and reached the same conclusion, also appeared before the panel.

The audit also found that Sanders’ office may have illegally tampered with public records when the words “reimbursable” were added to the original invoice for the lectern only after the state GOP paid for it in September. Sanders has disputed the finding, calling such notes a common accounting practice.

Democratic Rep. Tippi McCullough, the House minority leader, asked Deere why Sanders posted a video shortly after the audit was released Monday showing the lectern, a snippet of a Jay-Z song and the words “Come and Take It ‘.

“It kind of felt like we peaked before we went through the whole process,” McCullough said.

Deere said the video was shot by a Sanders associate on his own time and that no taxpayer money was used to produce the video.

“It’s a tongue-in-cheek video, that’s all it is,” he said.

Legislative Auditor Roger Norman told the panel auditors that they are in the early stages of a second audit requested last year into travel and security data that was retroactively made secret under changes to the state’s open records law that Sanders passed last year signed. Norman did not say when that audit is expected to be completed.