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 state Division of Insurance will not publicly disclose a corrective action plan prepared in response to a scathing audit that slammed Division oversight of the insurance industry, according to an e-mailed Division response to The Independent’s Inspection of Public Records Act (IPRA) request for the action plan.
The action plan was prepared for the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) following the national accreditation organization’s audit of Division oversight operations eariler this year.
The Division has disclosed an Aug. 26 letter from the NAIC, placing the Division on probationary status. But other records requested (including the action plan) “are protected from disclosure under section 14-2-1A(12) of the IPRA, as well as NMSA §59A-2-12B, under the terms of which documents submitted to and maintained by the Superintendent as confidential are not subject to inspection as public documents,” according to the Division’s e-mail.
State Superintendent of Insurance John Franchini repeatedly delayed scheduled discussions of the NAIC audit and his Division’s response at Public Regulation Commission (PRC) public meetings — first seeking a closed-session meeting with the Commission and then resorting to separate meetings with individual PRC commissioners rather than discuss the NAIC audit or the Division’s response at a public meeting.
Staffers and one commissioner expressed surprise that the Division would refuse to disclose its plan to address criticisms from the NAIC audit, when the audit itself has already been published by The Independent.
“The draft (of the action plan) is something I’d be proud of,” Commissioner Jason Marks told The Indendent. “It’s well thought-out. I don’t know why they wouldn’t want to release it.”
Marks previously criticized Franchini’s secrecy about the audit at a Sept. 28 Commission meeting.
