LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — Arkansas lawmakers pointedly questioned the governor Tuesday. Sarah Huckabee Sanders‘ team about purchasing $19,000 of a pulpit that a audit says it potentially violated purchasing, property and government records 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 about purchasing the lectern that caught national attention.
“I don’t think the lectern is worth $19,000 or $11,500,” said Republican Senator John Payton. “But I think the lesson learned could be worth a lot more than that if we just accepted the fact that it was bad judgment and an oversight.”
The audit released Monday said the governor’s office potentially violated Arkansas laws on procurement, state-owned property and the handling of government records. Sanders’ office disputed the audit’s findings, calling it deeply flawed.
Judd Deere, Sanders’ deputy chief of staff, characterized the audit as a waste of taxpayer resources and said there was no error in the office’s handling of the purchase. Deere appeared alongside Cortney Kennedy, Sanders’ chief legal advisor.
“This is not a mistake,” Deere told the panel. “The podium was a legitimate purchase.”
The blue and wood-paneled pulpit was purchased in June with a state credit card for $19,029.25 from an events company in Virginia. The Arkansas Republican Party reimbursed the state for the purchase on September 14, and Sanders’ office called the use of the state credit card an accounting error. Sanders’ office said he received the lectern in August.
The total cost included $11,575 for the pulpit, $2,500 for a “consulting fee” and $2,200 for the road bag. The cost also included shipping, delivery, and a credit card processing fee.
Republican Sen. Mark Johnson defended Sanders, although he said he would have recommended she make the state Republican Party pay for the pulpit from the start.
“This particular procedure should not be politicized,” he said.
Sanders, a Republican who served as former President Donald Trump’s press secretary, dismissed questions about the lectern as a “manufactured controversy,” and the item has not been seen at his public events.
“We can all agree that $19,000 was spent on one item, and no one actually saw it,” said Republican Rep. Julie Mayberry, calling the lectern “a complete waste of money if no one is using it.”
Sanders intends to start using the lectern now that the audit is complete and hasn’t done so because he doesn’t want it to be a distraction, Deere said.
Deere initially told Mayberry that the lectern was available for any media outlet to view, although Sanders’ office denied requests from several media outlets. The only image known to the media of the lectern before Tuesday was a photo that the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette published on its front page last year, after Sanders’ office allowed the paper 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 for media viewing since the audit began. The AP and other media outlets were able to view and take photos of the lectern at the Capitol after Tuesday’s hearing.
Deere said the governor does not plan to again use the three out-of-state vendors involved in purchasing the pulpit. Auditors said suppliers did not respond to repeated requests for answers about the pulpit purchase.
The legislative audit said Sanders’ office potentially violated state law by paying for the lectern before it was delivered and by failing to follow steps laid out in state law for agencies to divest from state property. Sanders’ office argued that the purchasing and property laws cited by the audit do not apply to the governor and other constitutional officials.
Two officials from Attorney General Tim Griffin’s office, which issued a non-binding legal opinion days before the audit reaching the same conclusion, also appeared before the panel.
The audit also said Sanders’ office potentially illegally tampered with public records when the words “to be reimbursed” were added to the original invoice to the lectern only after the state Republican Party paid for him in September. Sanders disputed the conclusion and called these notes common accounting practice.
Democratic Rep. Tippi McCullough, the House minority leader, asked Deere why Sanders posted a video shortly after the release of the audit on Monday, which featured the lectern, a snippet of a Jay-Z song and the words “Come and Take It.”
“It was like raising football before we went through the whole process,” McCullough said.
Deere said the video was filmed by a member of Sanders’ staff on his own time and that no taxpayer money was used to produce the video.
“It’s an ironic video, that’s all,” he said.
Legislative Auditor Roger Norman told the panel that auditors are in the early stages of a second audit requested last year into travel and security records that were retroactively made secret under changes to the state’s open records law that Sanders signed into law last year. Norman did not say when the audit is expected to be completed.
