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 New Mexico Foundation for Open Government (FOG) has called on state and local governments to end excessive copying fees for public records — fees that violate the state public records law, according to FOG director Sarah Welsh.…
State Insurance Superintendent John Franchini has said he plans to meet individually with members of the Public Regulation Commission to discuss how the division plans to fix serious problems pointed out in a recent national audit. “They may think they’ve figured out a ‘loophole’ [in the Open Meetings Act], but they’ll lose the public’s trust and confidence in the process. So what have you really gained?” says Sarah Welsh of the Foundation for Open Government.
Public Regulation Commission (PRC) Commissioner Sandy Jones’s quest to identify and fire the employee he believed leaked an audit report that was published Friday by The Independent is legally dubious, according to New Mexico…
More members of San Miguel County’s oil and gas drilling regulations-writing task force have industry ties than the public was led to believe — and the group may meet secretly, the Las Vegas Optic reports.
The 10-member…
The New Mexico Attorney General’s office has failed to confirm the Clovis News Journal’s contention that three Curry County commissioners held an illegal meeting in November, but did warn commissioners to be more cautious in the future.
The New Mexico Foundation for Open Government (FOG) has posted Public Regulation Commission (PRC) ethics survey responses disclosed to the group earlier this month.
The University of New Mexico Board of Regents has scheduled a closed-to-the-public executive session for its May 25 meeting, to discuss UNM President David J. Schmidly‘s annual performance evaluation.
According to a public notice, “determination” and actions…
This week, The Independent, KNME and KUNM teamed up for a live event with New Mexico mayors, and we talked about what they’re doing to shore up local economies and how they’re trying to create and retain jobs. So this week our online panelists are talking about what innovative steps can local governments take to bring good jobs to New Mexico—and keep them here?
Over the weekend, the state Attorney General’s Office and Insurance Division struck a deal with Blue Cross Blue Shield that will allow the company to raise its rates by an average of 21 percent. Some are saying the public was shut out of the process. This week our panelists discuss whether the process of setting insurance rates should be more transparent to the public.
New Mexico’s Open Meetings Act is meant to help ensure public involvement and to prevent backroom deals in state and local government, but violations of the law are widespread, an investigation by The Independent has found. School boards, universities, town councils, county and state commissions, and boards across the state have broken the law, casting a shroud of secrecy over government officials’ deliberations and bargaining.
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…
Rep. Janice Arnold Jones and APS Superintendent Winston Brooks are among the recipients of the 2010 William S. Dixon First Amendment Freedom Awards given by New Mexico Foundation for Open Government (NM-FOG).
Jemez Mountain School District must disclose embezzlement-related financial records to the Rio Grande SUN by Saturday, District Court Judge Sheri Raphaelson has ruled, rejecting the District’s contention that disclosure would interfere with law enforcement.
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.
On Wednesday night, NMI hosted our third Independent Forum event with Sen. Dede Feldman, Rep. Dennis Roch and Sarah Welsh of the New Mexico Foundation for Open Government. We had a lively discussion that ranged from taxes…
Sen. Keller
On Tuesday Senator Tim Keller (D-Albuquerque) introduced a motion to revive SB 531, a transparency bill that was unanimously passed by the Legislature last year only to be pocket-vetoed by Governor Bill Richardson.
Keller’s recall motion passed with unanimous consent. It was the first step toward a legislative override of Richardson’s veto.
“This was just the first step in a two-step process – recalling the bill to the Senate floor,” Keller explained. “It’s a totally arcane process. You can’t just move for an override. Vetoed bills go to the Secretary of State’s for a year in case they are recalled to the Senate for an override.”
Another motion will be required for an up-or-down vote by the full senate. A two-thirds majority in both houses is necessary for a veto override.
SB 531, which would have forced state agencies to share Medicaid spending and other financial data with the Legislative Finance Committee, unanimously passed both houses of the Legislature last year.
“We definitely have an issue with investigating Medicaid fraud,” Keller told The Independent, referring to allegations by the Attorney General’s Medicaid Fraud and Elder Abuse Division that the state Human Services Department (HSD) and Health Department have repeatedly “interfered” with investigations by not sharing data with investigators.
“This is not glamorous stuff, but it’s very important,” Keller said. “We cannot address the budget crisis without getting to the bottom of this. This year’s budget has $1 to $2 billion going through these Medicaid providers – 20 percent of our budget.”
SB 531 was intended to address state agencies’ failures to share several types of data with the Legislature, Keller said.
In a March 26, 2009 letter, Attorney General Gary King urged Gov. Richardson to sign the bill, saying it “resolves an ambiguity regarding whether existing law allows the Legislative Finance Committee to keep confidential non-public records it receives from agencies” and that the bill would “facilitate the exchange of information between government agencies and the Legislative Finance Committee.”
“Other (than Medicaid), areas where we have had these problems are in education, prison system and state investment funds,” Keller said.
Keller hopes to avoid a contentious fight, he said.
“We did not do this in a controversial way but the issue has come up again with the AG’s allegations, and we need to deal with it,” he said. “We need to keep things focused on the issue and avoid territorial disputes.”
Keller began meeting with officials from the AG and HSD today, he said, though he refused to discuss details.
“The next step is to talk with the agencies,” Keller said. “Then the full Senate will decide whether to move forward with the override.”
The Governor’s office has not yet responded to requests for comment. HSD Spokeswoman Betina Gonzales McCracken refused to comment on Keller’s efforts Tuesday, saying only, “the Human Services Department will work with the AG’s office to clarify any issues that may exist.”
The override motion is evidence of how frustrated legislators have become with the executive branch, according to New Mexico Foundation for Open Government Executive Director Sarah Welsh.
“It’s amazing that we would have to explicitly legislate checks and balances like this,” Welsh said Tuesday. “Basically, they want information and they feel thwarted. This latest move might seem like inside baseball, but it really points to a larger problem that I run into nearly every day – it’s very difficult to get information out of this administration. And it’s not just reporters who get frustrated. It’s legislators and candidates and activists of all stripes. It’s a baffling phenomenon until you remember: information is power, particularly in this new digital age.”
Feds “Aware” of Allegations
Last week, The Independent revealed, in an exclusive story, that an Attorney General’s report shows the state had hindered Medicaid fraud investigations.
Those allegations were forwarded to the U.S. Center for Medicaid and Medicare Services (CMS), the agency that administers federal Medicaid funding to the state, Inspector General spokesman Mark Wilson told The Independent Monday.
“We alerted CMS to the issue, based on the New Mexico Attorney General’s report,” Wilson said. “Now it’s up to them to contact the state and find out what’s going on there.”
CMS officials did not respond to emails and telephone messages requesting comment. McCracken would not comment on whether CMS had contacted HSD about the allegations.
According to an analysis released this week by the Foundation for Open Government, the current proposals for an independent state ethics commission would make virtually all of the meetings and documents of that commission confidential. But is it worth establishing an independent ethics commission if the panel’s work is secret?
The New Mexico House of Representatives on Friday voted unanimously to allow video webcasting from the floor and streaming audio from committee meetings as early as next week. And the Legislative Council Service will begin posting lawmakers’ votes on the Web within 24 hours of each vote.
The governor’s office has until Thursday to formally respond to my request that it release information about the 59 political appointees Gov. Bill Richardson plans to lay off next month, but it’s beginning to sound like the information may…
The New Mexico Independent, the New Mexico Foundation for Open Government and KNME’s New Mexico In Focus have teamed up to present a free seminar on the Inspection of Public Records Act (IPRA) and how to obtain…
