Gov. Bill Richardson (Photo by Heath Haussamen)
Gov. Bill Richardson’s office formally responded today to my request for information about the 59 political appointees who are losing their jobs and – surprise, surprise – the response included no information about those people who are losing their jobs.
As happened late Wednesday in its response to The Santa Fe New Mexican’s Kate Nash, the governor’s office provided me only with a number of e-mail exchanges between Richardson spokesman Gilbert Gallegos and reporters about the news that the governor was laying off the exempt employees.
“We have enclosed the documents responsive to your request. With the delivery of these documents, we consider this request closed,” the governor’s records custodian, Marcia Maestas, wrote in a letter I received this morning.
But as Nash reported this morning, the N.M. Foundation for Open Government takes issue with the governor’s responses to the records requests.
From Nash’s article:
“Sarah Welsh, executive director of the New Mexico Foundation for Open Government, said there’s no doubt the information is public.
“‘It’s just amazing that they would put out a press release and refuse to answer the obvious questions,’ she said.
“‘It’s hard to imagine they didn’t write this down somewhere,’ Welsh said. ‘Did they memorize the 59 names and then call them?’”
The state’s Inspection of Public Records Act doesn’t require government agencies to create documents in response to requests. That’s why requests must be comprehensive, because you’re seeking documents that already exist. Rather than asking for a list of the 59 people losing their jobs, I 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.”
Apparently, the governor’s office possesses no documentation about the layoffs. No lists. No plans drafted by cabinet secretaries who were considering who would lose jobs. No letters, e-mails or faxes to those losing their jobs. No salary information about those losing their jobs.
And, most importantly, the governor’s office has apparently not communicated in any way that creates a record (memo, e-mail, voice mail, fax, etc.) with any other state department about the employees who are losing their jobs.
Find that hard to believe? Me too.