I am writing today to announce the closure of the New Mexico Independent. After three and a half years of operation in New Mexico, the board of the American Independent News Network, has decided to shift publication of its news…
While environmental activists played their part yesterday during demonstrations at the capitol building, going so far as to dress up as solar panels and to sing the tune of “You Are My Sunshine,” their counterparts, the anti-cap-and-trade contingency who has…
Roughly one quarter of University of New Mexico students are unimpressed with the state’s flagship public school, according to a survey that questioned college students about their higher education experiences.
The Office of Attorney General Gary King told the governor’s office that it believes the names of 59 exempt employees who were laid off are subject to New Mexico’s Inspection of Public Records Act (IPRA). The attempts to find the names of exempt employees has been a major struggle between news organizations and the governor’s office.
The letter from the attorney general’s office, provided by the New Mexico Foundation for Open Government (NM-FOG), is embedded below.
Governor Bill Richardson’s office has claimed that it has no written-down records of the 59 exempt employees who were laid off.
“It seems implausible that your office would make a formal announcement when it had no set of records to support its numerical assertion,” Chief Deputy Attorney General Albert Lama and Assistant Attorney General Zachary Shandler wrote in the April 12 letter. “It creates the impression that some staff member in Governor’s Office possesses, contrary to your response letter’s assertions, records pertaining to the 59 exempt employees requested by Ms. Welsh.”
That’s Sarah Welsh, the executive director of NM-FOG.
“The AG’s office is essentially echoing the public’s gut reaction, which was – seriously? You can’t really expect us to believe that you don’t have any documents and you don’t know who does,” Welsh said in a statement. “The attorneys are much more diplomatic than that, certainly, but the upshot is that the Governor’s staff isn’t telling the truth and is illegally stonewalling the public. This information should have been released six months ago.”
The governor’s office disputed the claims by NM-FOG and the Attorney General’s office in a statement on Friday afternoon.
“We respectfully, but strongly disagree with the opinion,” said Gilbert Gallegos, the Governor’s deputy chief of staff, in a statement. “The Governor’s Office complied with the law and the Attorney General’s Compliance Guide when it turned over 98 pages of responsive records. The fact that the requestor was not satisfied with those records doesn’t mean the Governor’s Office must create new records or act as a clearinghouse for all of state government.”
The press has attempted to identify the 59 exempt employees who were laid off, but so far only a handful have been identified.
Here is the letter from the Attorney General’s office:
