Gov. Bill Richardson (Photo by Heath Haussamen)
Days after a spokesman for Gov. Bill Richardson told a TV reporter that it was “not appropriate or dignified” to identify the 59 political appointees who are losing their jobs, Richardson’s office has formally denied a newspaper reporter’s request for that information.
The Santa Fe New Mexican’s Kate Nash didn’t get much – including anything that identifies the people who are being laid off – in response to her request.
“All I got back were a bunch of e-mails I and other reporters sent on the topic. Oh, and the press releases sent to us media on the lay offs,” Nash wrote in a posting on her blog. “Nothing else that gives any clue as to who was laid off. No letters to people who were fired. No letters to the department heads of people who were to be fired. Nothing outlining who would be chosen to get the boot or how.”
“Does anyone else find it hard to believe that e-mails from reporters on this subject are the only documents out there on this topic?” Nash asked.
Because we’re dealing with attorneys and the wording of requests is important, Nash revealed that her request sought from the governor’s office “any or all correspondence, including but not limited to e-mails and traditional mail, written memos or other communication, to or from anyone in your office related to the 59 people who were notified this week they are being laid off.”
The governor’s office has until Thursday to respond to my request, which asked for “any information available (such as, but not limited to, a list) about which 59 exempt employees are having their positions eliminated, which departments they work in and what salaries they were being paid before their positions were eliminated.”