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.
House Bill 598, sponsored by Joseph Cervantes, D-Las Cruces, was given a do-pass recommendation by the House Consumer and Public Affairs Committee on a vote of 6-1, with only Rep. Zachary Cook, R-Ruidoso, voting against it.
“The citizens in our state should have ready access to government documents without artificial barriers,” Cervantes said following Tuesday’s vote. “E-mail is an integral and accepted means of communication, and no less so than a mailed letter or postcard.”
Cervantes’ bill comes in response to New Mexico State University’s assertion in 2007 that records requests I filed weren’t valid because they were sent via e-mail. The attorney general considered the issue and said that, though his office and the vast majority of state agencies treat e-mail requests as valid, state law doesn’t explicitly require that they be treated as valid.
Currently, the New Mexico Inspection of Public Records Act requires response to “oral” and “written” requests for public records, but there’s apparently no clear definition of what constitutes writing. Denying a request because it was sent electronically, and forcing someone to instead deliver the request in person or mail it, is one method some government agencies, including NMSU, have used to make it more difficult to access public records.
Cervantes’ bill would clarify that writing includes e-mail, fax and other electronic formats.
“It is absurd to deny a records request on the basis of an argument that e-mail is ineffective without an accompanying piece of paper,” Cervantes said. “Government should be about helping the citizens be served and not about toying with ways to avoid those responsibilities.”
The bill now moves to the House Judiciary Committee, of which Cervantes is vice chair, before it can be considered by the full House.
Other bills
Cervantes’ bill is one of three introduced in the Legislature that would clarify that electronic requests for public records are valid. The others are House Bill 507, sponsored by Majority Leader Ken Martinez, D-Grants, and House Bill 534, sponsored by Eleanor Chavez, D-Albuquerque.
Chavez’s bill, which would also require that public records be made available when requested in an electronic format from remote locations, has been given a do-pass recommendation by the Consumer and Public Affairs Committee as well. Martinez’s bill, which would also cut the time agencies have to respond to records requests from 15 to 10 days, is still awaiting consideration by its first committee — the Health and Government Affairs Committee.
Meanwhile, the Consumer and Public Affairs Committee tabled another proposal from Cervantes on Tuesday related to the public records act. House Bill 600 proposes adding a misdemeanor criminal penalty to the public records act — a $500 fine per violation, the same penalty that’s already in place for violations of the New Mexico Open Meetings Act.
There is currently no criminal penalty for violating the public records act.
It’s unlikely, but not impossible, that the bill will be brought back to life in the current legislative session after being tabled on Tuesday.