Inspection of Public Records Act

The Democratic Party of New Mexico is accusing Republican gubernatorial candidate Susana Martinez, Doña Ana County’s district attorney, of “hiding” public records. The party has been allowed to inspect the records, but it was not allowed to scan any records and has not yet received requested copies. The director of the Foundation for Open Government says it sounds like the Democrats have “run into problems with attitude more than legal compliance” from the DA’s office.

The office of Lt. Gov. Diane Denish says it inadvertently violated the state’s Inspection of Public Records Act late last year when it failed to forward two requests from Republican gubernatorial candidate Allen Weh to another agency that maintained some of the records that were sought.

The New Mexico Independent, with experts from the New Mexico Foundation for Open Government, hosted a free web seminar on the Inspection of Public Records Act (IPRA) and how to obtain government information. Click the headline to read a transcript and watch a video of the seminar.

So you’re looking for some information that can only be found the public records of a government agency or office–but when you request those records, you hit a brick wall. What do you do? The New Mexico Independent is teaming up with the New Mexico Foundation for Open Government and KNME-TV to present a free [...]

A bill that would require government agencies in New Mexico to accept requests for public records via e-mail and fax cleared its first hurdle on Tuesday.

The New Mexico Finance Authority is refusing to release any subpoenas it has received as part of a federal corruption investigation looking into the Richardson administration. But Richardson’s office is releasing such documents in response to requests made under the state’s Inspection of Public Records Act.

Though at least two other state agencies have publicly released similar documents, the New Mexico Finance Authority is refusing to hand over subpoenas it has been issued in the federal investigation into allegations of pay-to-play in the Richardson administration.