The Arkansas Ethics Commission recently dismissed a complaint against Grant County Judge Randy Pruitt.
Grant County citizen Brody Channell filed the complaint last fall. The Ethics Commission heard the complaint formally on Feb. 20.
Here is the letter the Commission issued about the complaint.
Channell released the following statement to the Reckoning about his complaint.
"Learning about the Grant County Industrial Development Corporation’s involvement in bringing this [data center] to Grant County, it raised concerns with me and many other people that a private corporation is in charge of determining where an industrial site should be located in Grant County," Channell wrote.
He continued, "Knowing that their are elected officials servicing as directors on the private corporation, I had questions if that is ethical. Elected officials are there to serve the communities best interest and not the interest of a corporation, even if it is a 'non profit.'
"When I looked into the GCIDC board I found that the majority of the there members all had ties the board at local bank. I was sent a video of Judge Pruitt sitting in his office, advertising for this same bank. Being that this was the only advertisement/ promotion I have ever seen the county take part in, it was done in the county court house, and the close proximity being on the corporations board with the other bank members I had concerns about the optics of this. (I didn’t question Mayor Nattin who was actively promoting multiple local business profiles.)
"I filed this ethics complaint back in October of 2025, and I had several other people provide me with information through out this process that they felt should be investigated, so I added these questions to my complaint. Another being that the Judge Pruitt authorized his authority to the Grant County Industrial Development Corporation to be the point of contact for an Arkansas Economic Development Grant for $2 million to run new water and sewer lines to their newly acquired property adjacent to the datas center location. I was raising the question of is it right that a County Judge who is a director of a private corporation, legal to sign his authority/ the counties over to that private corporations. The authorization that was given didn’t seem like much, however like anything at what point would they give too much authority away.
"I am glad Judge Pruitt was cleared of these questions, people’s concerns were laid to rest and we can move forward through this process knowing things have been done properly. Like a lot of people, I don’t want our elected officials to be bombard or accused of false accusations and the way to stop that from happening is unfortunately going through the Ethics Commission process with your concerns. I didn’t do this out of vengeance or malice toward Judge Pruitt, but to seek answers and ensure what was being done was the correct way things should have been handled. I am thankful that we are given the right to question things our government or elected officials are doing, and exercising that right is what I did."
The Reckoning asked Pruitt for a comment. Pruitt declined.
The Reckoning asked Jeff Weber, the county's deputy attorney who also acts as the county attorney and represented Pruitt before the Ethics Commission.
"The only statement is that the complaint was baseless and the Ethics Commission was correct in dismissing it," Weber wrote in an email to the Reckoning.
