# 2026-05 Second FOIA Escalation Round On 2026-05-28, [[Joshua Dunlap]] sent second-escalation letters to four Arkansas state agencies — the [[Arkansas Economic Development Commission]] (AEDC), the [[Arkansas Public Service Commission]] (APSC), the Arkansas Department of Energy and Environment / Division of Environmental Quality (DEE/DEQ), and the Arkansas Department of Finance and Administration (DFA) — after each agency failed to respond to the 2026-05-19 Arkansas FOIA requests or the 2026-05-22 first follow-ups within the three-working-day statutory window under Ark. Code § 25-19-105(e). All four escalations set a single common administrative deadline (close of business **Wednesday, 2026-06-03**) and signal that the requester remedy under Ark. Code § 25-19-107 (circuit-court appeal with statutory attorneys' fees for the prevailing requester) is teed up if neither production nor a written extension notice is delivered by that date. ## Sources This is a FOIA-correspondence event; its record lives in Gmail, not in `raw/`. The four threads, each anchored to the agency's original 2026-05-19 FOIA request and the 2026-05-22 first follow-up: - **AEDC** — second escalation 2026-05-28 14:36 UTC ([thread](https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#all/19e41bc7e951e23f), msg `19e6f043bb1b186b`); To: `[email protected]`. The original cc to `[email protected]` bounced on the first send and was dropped on subsequent correspondence. - **APSC** — second escalation 2026-05-28 14:40 UTC ([thread](https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#all/19e41bcd75a00e1b), msg `19e6f07568ccae25`); To: `[email protected]`. - **DEE/DEQ** — second escalation 2026-05-28 14:39:50 UTC ([thread](https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#all/19e41bd2047a9cc8), msg `19e6f0700a116d79`); To: `[email protected]`, cc `[email protected]`. - **DFA** — second escalation 2026-05-28 14:39:34 UTC ([thread](https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#all/19e41be03d84c3f0), msg `19e6f06c0996630d`); To: `[email protected]`. ## What happened Each escalation follows a common structural template, with the per-agency scope language carried over verbatim from the 2026-05-19 originating request: 1. **Recap of the procedural posture.** The 2026-05-19 request was delivered; the 2026-05-22 first follow-up acknowledged the § 25-19-105(e) deadline had passed; six working days have since elapsed with no response, no production, and no written time-extension notice. 2. **Constructive-denial framing.** Under Arkansas FOIA practice, continuing agency silence is constructively a denial, and the § 25-19-107 circuit-court remedy (with statutory attorneys' fees on prevailing) is now available. 3. **Two off-ramps with a single deadline.** Each agency is asked, no later than close of business **Wednesday, 2026-06-03**, to either (a) produce all responsive records accompanied by a written § 25-19-105(f)(3) log itemizing any record withheld in whole or in part with the specific statutory exemption claimed and the factual basis for its application, or (b) provide a § 25-19-105(e) written time-extension notice specifying a date certain (not more than ten working days out) by which responsive records will be produced. 4. **Consequence.** Absent either by close of business 2026-06-03, the request will be treated as denied and § 25-19-107 enforcement will be pursued. 5. **Scope reaffirmation.** Each letter restates that the originating-letter scope is unchanged and offers a phone conference if the agency would prefer to confer on scope. **DFA's letter additionally** pre-argues, in good faith, against a blanket Ark. Code § 26-18-303 (tax-record confidentiality) withholding — noting that the 2026-05-19 request was drafted to limit itself to administrative records, eligibility certifications, qualification correspondence, eligible-equipment lists, and program-level audit / monitoring documentation, none of which require disclosure of individual-taxpayer return information protected by § 26-18-303 — and offers to resubmit through DFA's electronic FOIA portal if required. ## Significance This is the second escalation round of this FOIA effort; four agencies remain non-responsive nine working days after the originating requests and six working days after the first follow-ups. The 2026-06-03 deadline functions as a single coordinated administrative window across all four matters; if it passes without production or extension notice, the enforcement posture shifts from administrative correspondence to litigation preparation under § 25-19-107. The four agencies cover the four most-leveraged remaining custodians for the investigation's central questions: - **AEDC** — hyperscale-developer correspondence and Act 548 qualification certifications, which speak directly to community-benefit / PILOT structuring and to the shell-LLC principal identification questions in [[T003 - Shell-LLC Principal Attribution for Forgelight and Willowbend]]. - **APSC** — Commission Staff internal records on Docket 26-001-U, the class-cost-of-service study, and the GAJA rider analyses; load-bearing for [[Who Pays for Entergy's New Generation]] and for [[T001 - CIAC Classification of Google Generation Payments|T001]] / [[T002 - Ironwood Strategic Investment Designation Requirement|T002]]. - **DEE/DEQ** — air, water, NPDES, and stormwater permits for the six hyperscale sites; the cooling-water and emissions questions that condition site siting and operation. - **DFA** — Act 548 of 2025 qualified-data-center sales/use-tax exemption administration; the post-§ 26-18-303 records that quantify the public-fisc cost of the Act 548 framework.