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The Arkansas Ethics Commission has dismissed an ethics complaint against Briarcliff Recorder/Treasurer Renee Schmidt-Klika, but the dismissal letter reveals she acknowledged obtaining and distributing court records about a city council member’s wife after the woman publicly questioned how checks were being signed at City Hall.
The Commission voted 4-0 on April 17 to dismiss the complaint, with Commissioner Brannon not present. The dismissal turned on the statute of limitations, not on whether the underlying conduct occurred.
In a letter signed by Interim Director Jill Rogers Barham, the Commission concluded it could not establish a violation of Arkansas Code § 7-1-103(a)(3) because the alleged conduct could not be definitively placed inside the statutory window. The complainant was Debra Hughes, the former Briarcliff Improvement District chairwoman who has filed multiple ethics complaints against current and former city officials.
What Schmidt-Klika admitted
The complaint alleged Schmidt-Klika obtained court records from Craighead County Circuit Court concerning then-Councilman Tommy Webb and his wife Betty Webb. According to the Commission’s letter, the complaint stated Schmidt-Klika used the city’s copy machine to reproduce the records and distributed them to “anyone who would enter the city offices in 2020-21” in an attempt to “publicly humiliate and harass” the Webbs.
The complaint further alleged the records were used to prevent Tommy Webb from running for mayor and to pressure him to resign from city council.
In a sworn statement to the Commission, Schmidt-Klika denied using the city’s copy machine to reproduce or distribute the court records. But she did acknowledge obtaining the records and speaking with Betty Webb about them.
The trigger, according to the Commission’s findings, was Betty Webb’s public questioning of how checks were being signed by City of Briarcliff officials during city council meetings.
“You acknowledged obtaining the court records and speaking to Ms. Webb about them after she made comments about how checks were signed by City of Briarcliff officials during City Council meetings,” the Commission’s letter states.
The records resurfaced last year
Portions of the same court records were distributed publicly in 2025, including to the Observer, in what appeared to be an effort to discredit Betty Webb. The materials arrived through a third party rather than from Schmidt-Klika directly.
The records the Observer received contained only the initial allegations against Webb. They did not include the resolution of the case, which was decided in Webb’s favor.
The selective distribution mirrors the conduct described in the Ethics Commission complaint. In both instances, the records surfaced after Betty Webb raised concerns about financial practices at City Hall, and in both instances, they were circulated without the context that would have shown the original charges did not hold up.
Why the complaint was dismissed
A separate sworn statement from Keith Stokes contradicted Schmidt-Klika’s account on the copy machine question. Stokes told investigators Schmidt-Klika did use the city’s copy machine to make copies of the court records. Stokes said the copying may have occurred in October or November 2021 but could not provide a specific date.
That uncertainty proved decisive. Conduct prior to October 1, 2021, fell outside the statute of limitations the Commission applied to the case. The candidate filing period for the 2022 municipal election cycle ran from August 3 to August 10, 2022. Tommy Webb ran for reelection to city council in 2022 and won.
The Commission determined that even if Schmidt-Klika had used the city copy machine to reproduce the records, the timeline could not establish that the copies were made for campaign purposes as required to find a violation of § 7-1-103(a)(3).
The Commission also addressed a separate allegation regarding § 21-8-304(a), which prohibits public servants from using their official positions to secure special privileges. Schmidt-Klika served as Recorder/Treasurer during 2020 and 2021 and was therefore subject to that provision. The Commission concluded that even if she had used the city copier to make the copies, the conduct did not meet the statute’s definition of obtaining a special privilege for a prohibited recipient.
A final allegation concerned social media posts Schmidt-Klika made in 2025. The Commission found those posts were made during a four-month period beginning in July 2025 when she was not a public servant and were posted on her personal Facebook page using her personal computer.
A familiar pattern
The dismissal closes the formal Ethics Commission case but does not contradict the Observer’s prior reporting on Schmidt-Klika’s pattern of using her position to control information.
The Observer first reported in March 2025 that the Briarcliff Water and Recreational Improvement District had been operating in violation of state law for years. Schmidt-Klika held simultaneous positions as City Treasurer, Recorder, Clerk, Interim Mayor and BID District Assessor, concentrating control over virtually all tax revenue flowing through the community.
She and other officials attributed the violations to ignorance.
Schmidt-Klika promised to hold proper BID elections and to remove herself as BID assessor. Neither happened. After a year of mass resignations, frozen tax accounts and a confirmed Attorney General investigation, Baxter County Judge Kevin Litty appointed new BID commissioners rather than ordering the property owner elections required by the district’s establishing court order.
Schmidt-Klika resigned her city positions on July 8, 2025, citing harassment. Her resignation letter named Deputy Clerk Heather McNally as her successor and warned that any checks bearing her name after that date should be considered fraudulent. She returned to her position later in 2025.
In October, she appeared at a council meeting as a private citizen and presented resolutions demanding the council censure Councilman John Bolding. She threatened legal action against Bolding and the Observer and displayed signs outside the meeting calling for the removal of Bolding and Webb from council. Both men resigned that night.
A February 2026 legislative audit found auditors could not verify $95,139 in expenditures, that $1,999 in credit card purchases lacked supporting documentation and that city council minutes were missing for July through October 2025. Schmidt-Klika called an emergency council meeting and told residents every dollar had been tracked and accounted for. The audit said auditors could not determine whether those funds were properly spent.
The Observer also reported on the city’s practice of pre-signing blank checks. Betty Webb told the Observer she discovered multiple pre-signed checks in the BID checkbook, including one she said had been signed by Ken Kompany on a day he was not present. McNally later confirmed pre-signing was standard practice during “bill day” at City Hall.
What the dismissal does and does not say
The Commission’s letter is a public document. It serves as notice of the Commission’s final action under Ark. Code Ann. § 7-6-218(b)(1)(C), with a copy sent to Hughes as the complainant.
The dismissal does not clear Schmidt-Klika of pulling Betty Webb’s court records. It does not clear her of confronting Betty Webb about those records after Betty Webb raised questions about how checks were being signed at City Hall. The Commission’s own letter records both as admissions Schmidt-Klika made under oath.
What the dismissal does is conclude that the conduct, as the Commission could prove it, did not violate the specific statutes within the Commission’s jurisdiction.
