gary-king-picSince Jan. 1, 2007, there have been approximately 20 occasions when Attorney General Gary King’s office determined an agency had violated the state’s public records or open meetings laws.

It’s unclear from the story how many of those were open meetings violations, for which King could file criminal charges, as his predecessor, former AG Patsy Madrid did in 2001 against the Las Cruces School Board. In the case of public records violations, the harmed parties must sue.

SFR staff writer Dave Maass points out that King came into office Jan. 1, 2007 promising a more vigorous stance on violations of the two laws. Some people say that King hasn’t kept his promise. Others say he is much more aggressive than Madrid. But even some of those folks leaven praise with nuance.

Here’s an excerpt from the SFR story:

Leonard DeLayo, the executive director of the New Mexico Foundation for Open Government (FOG), says for the most part King has held true to his promise to champion open government.

“I think the King administration is a lot more aggressive than the Madrid administration was in dealing with matters,” DeLayo tells SFR. “Gary does seem to believe in IPRA and OMA far more than Patsy did…”

Nonetheless, DeLayo agrees with critics that the attorney general “is very slow in coming to determinations.”

Of course FOG hasn’t been as aggressive as it had been since the passing of its leading light — Bob Johnson — in August 2007. A legendary newsman, Johnson sent out Associated Press’ first bulletin in November 1963 that President Kennedy had been shot in Dallas. He also managed the Associated Press’ coverage of the terrorist attack at the 1972 Munich Olympics.

Johnson had a newsman’s skepticism of power and was aggressive in his pursuit of open government.

FOG has been less high-profile since Johnson’s death. DeLayo tells Maass that he has taken a different approach to pursuing the goal of open, transparent government.

DeLayo, who took over at the foundation after the 2007 death of its founder and executive director, Robert Johnson, says he’s less litigious than Johnson was.

“We’ve tried to become more of an educational institution in advising people in advance so that they don’t violate the law,” he says.

DeLayo adds that FOG hasn’t filed suit since he was appointed its director in 2007.