Sen. Mark Johnson, R-Little Rock, is shown at the capitol in Little Rock.

The Arkansas Senate on Wednesday narrowly approved legislation that would protect certain monuments on public property, including those honoring the Civil War.

The Senate voted 19-10 to approve Senate Bill 515 by Mark Johnson, R-Little Rock -- a day after the Senate's 16-9 vote on the bill fell two short of the 18 required for approval in the 35-member Senate.

Nineteen Republican senators voted for the bill, while nine Democrats and Sen. Terry Rice, R-Waldron, voted against it. Six other Republicans didn't vote.

The measure now goes to the full House for a vote.

"Simply put, it protects monuments from vandalism and acts of people who want to tear them down," Johnson told the Senate.

"It recognizes there is some places where there may be a need to move or place a monument," and the Arkansas History Commission would be allowed to grant waivers from these changes, Johnson said.

[RELATED: Complete Democrat-Gazette coverage of the Arkansas Legislature]

But Sen. Linda Chesterfield, D-Little Rock, said she worried about a young person removing a flag who could be charged with a misdemeanor or a felony crime under the bill.

"We need to be very careful with what we are doing with this because it does take away the local control," she said. "We got ourselves on a slippery slope ... because we want to enshrine something that may have changed tomorrow."

Johnson told senators that "this came to me" from the Arkansas chapter of the United States Daughters of 1812, a nonprofit organization open to direct descendants of people who served the U.S. government in civilian and military posts between 1784 and 1815.

The bill would define a monument as including "historic flags," but not all flags, he said.

The legislation would define a monument as "a statue, memorial, gravestone plate, name plate, plaque, historic flag display, school, street, bridge, building, preserve or reserve" that is on public property and has been erected for, or named or dedicated in honor of a historical person, event, military, military organization or military unit and has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places."

The bill lists 17 military operations, including the French and Indian War, the American Revolution, the War of 1812, the Mexican-American War, the American Civil War, the Spanish-American War, the Border War, World War I and World War II, among more modern conflicts.

"A monument shall not be relocated, removed, altered, renamed, rededicated, vandalized, damaged, destroyed or otherwise disturbed," SB515 states.

The bill doesn't prohibit a governmental entity with responsibility for maintaining a monument from taking steps to protect, preserve, care for, repair or restore a monument.

The bill allows an entity that has control of a public monument or property on which a monument is situated to petition the Arkansas History Commission for a waiver from prohibition against relocation, removal or renaming the monument. A majority of those present at a regular commission meeting can vote to grant a waiver.

A person who knowingly violates the bill's provisions would be guilty of a Class A misdemeanor if the property is valued at more than $500 and the damage or repair cost is more than $100. A person who removes or damages a monument would be guilty of a Class D felony if the value of the property is more than $1,000, the damage or repair cost is more than $1,000, and the person has been previously convicted of a Class A misdemeanor under the bill.

Metro on 04/04/2019