APPEAL
FROM THE PULASKI COUNTY CIRCUIT COURT, SIXTH DIVISION [NO.
60CV-15-3840] HONORABLE TIMOTHY DAVIS FOX, JUDGE
Sutter
& Gillham, P.L.L.C., by: Luther Oneal Sutter and Lucien
Gillham, for appellant.
Mitchell, Williams, Selig, Gates & Woodyard, P.L.L.C.,
by: Megan D. Hargraves and David F. Koehler, for separate
appellee Arkansas Children's Hospital.
Pulaski County Attorney's Office, by: Adam B. Fogleman
and William A. Gruber, for separate appellee Pulaski County,
Arkansas.
Barber
Law Firm, PLLC, by: Robert L. Henry III, for separate
appellee Jane Duke.
N.
MARK KLAPPENBACH, Judge
This
case is factually related to Arkansas Children's
Hospital v. Blakely, 2019 Ark.App. 565 (Blakely
II), also handed down today. In this appeal, Dee Blakely
appeals from orders of the Pulaski County Circuit Court
dismissing her claims under the Arkansas Freedom of
Information Act (FOIA) against appellees Arkansas
Children's Hospital (ACH) and Jane Duke, one of ACH's
outside attorneys. Blakely also appeals the dismissal of her
illegal-exaction claim against separate appellee Pulaski
County.[1] We affirm.
I.
Background and Procedural History
Amendment
32 to the Arkansas Constitution authorizes an annual tax on
real and personal property in a county "for the purpose
of maintaining, operating and supporting" a "public
hospital owned by such county . . ., whether such hospital be
operated by such county . . . or by a benevolent association
as the agent or lessee of such county . . . ." According
to Pulaski County Ordinance No. 198 (Nov. 14, 1978), a
one-mill "Hospital Maintenance Tax" was approved by
the voters "to be used for the maintenance, operation
and support of Arkansas Children's Hospital as a public
hospital of the County . . . ." Ordinance No. 198
specifically designated ACH as "a public hospital of the
County." Since 2001, Pulaski County has, at ACH's
request, directed the tax funds to the State of Arkansas for
the State to use to obtain matching Medicaid funds from the
federal government.
On
August 11, 2015, Blakely submitted a written request to ACH
for records under FOIA (First Request). Specifically, Blakely
requested copies of
(1) Records providing the amount of funding received from the
County by the Hospital, including funds received from
hospital revenue bonds, for each of the calendar years
2010-2014; and
(2) Records providing the manner in which the Hospital
expended County funding, including but not limited to, funds
spent on capital improvements, for each of the calendar years
2010-2014.
ACH
responded that it was not an entity subject to FOIA and
declined to produce the requested materials.
Blakely
filed suit on August 17, 2015, to obtain the records. In her
prayer for relief, Blakely sought an order directing ACH to
comply with FOIA and for a declaratory judgment that ACH is
subject to FOIA. Following an August 24, 2015 hearing, the
circuit court issued a written order on August 31, 2015,
finding that ACH "does not have any documents, as
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