Senate sponsor agrees to narrow monument 'look‑back' after municipal objections

Sen. Mark Johnson (Senate District 17) presented Senate Bill 121 as a cleanup to Act 10‑03 of 2021, saying the bill clarifies that courts "shall" — not "may" — order restoration of protected monuments and adds language to preserve written records of waiver denials by the history commission. Johnson said the measure also makes clear that a monument not currently displayed but in an entity's possession remains protected and that successful plaintiffs could seek attorney's fees.

Several senators pressed Johnson on retroactivity and the bill's five‑year look‑back. The sponsor said the staff proposed five years as a compromise to avoid an open‑ended period ("so it's not open ended where someone could say, gosh...in 1923"), but he was open to changing it. Lanny Richmond, legal counsel for the Arkansas Municipal League, testified in opposition, saying the five‑year retroactive look‑back coupled with attorney‑fees would expose municipalities to suits for conduct that was lawful when taken and would be "bad policy."

Johnson told the committee he would revise the bill to use the effective date of Act 10‑03 (April 28, 2021) as the look‑back baseline and return with changes. He described the intent as clarifying enforcement options rather than penalizing good‑faith local actions: "we're not trying to play gotcha...when someone is basically thumbing their nose at a law that passed almost 2 years ago...then we need to have a way to enforce it." The committee did not adopt a final committee passage on SB121 at this hearing; the sponsor said he will return with the revised language.

The exchange recorded multiple questions about the scope of the history commission's authority, how waivers are documented, and whether stored monuments remain protected. Lanny Richmond suggested limiting the look‑back to the 2021 effective date if the committee wanted to address municipal concerns about attorney‑fee exposure.