Watchdog groups praise AG for determining spaceport violated transparency law

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Virgin Galactic hangar

Heath Haussamen / NMPolitics.net

Virgin Galactic’s hangar at Spaceport America.

The state chapter of a journalism trade organization and New Mexico’s top transparency watchdog group are praising the state attorney general’s office for determining last week that Spaceport America violated an open government law several times in its interactions with NMPolitics.net in 2017.

But the Society of Professional Journalists’ Rio Grande Chapter also expressed disappointment that the AG’s office left some questions unanswered and took 10 months to respond to the complaint from NMPolitics.net editor and publisher Heath Haussamen.

Assistant Attorney General Dylan K. Lange identified four violations of the state’s Inspection of Public Records Act (IPRA) in the determination letter released Thursday:

  • Failing to respond to a records request in the time the law requires.
  • Citing the wrong exemption to redact information from public records.
  • Charging unauthorized fees for copies of public records.
  • Refusing to release a list of Twitter accounts the agency had blocked from seeing or responding to its tweets.

But on perhaps the central transparency question in NMPolitics.net’s complaints to the AG’s office — whether the N.M. Spaceport Authority broke the law by refusing to reveal how much money some customers are paying to use the spaceport — the AG’s office punted on taking a definitive stand, even as it expressed skepticism that the agency had acted appropriately.

And the AG’s office didn’t find a violation related to the spaceport’s claim that it had no documents to back up an economic analysis that claimed the spaceport was having a positive economic impact in New Mexico.

Here’s the full statement released by the SPJ Rio Grande Chapter:

The Rio Grande Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists applauds the decision by the New Mexico Attorney General’s Office that the New Mexico Spaceport Authority violated the Inspection of Public Records Act. The decision came after a formal complaint from journalist Heath Haussamen of NMPolitics.net. New Mexico taxpayers have invested hundreds of millions of dollars into the spaceport and it’s absolutely necessary to have more transparency about this project, and yet this is the second time the Attorney General’s office has found the Spaceport Authority in violation of the state’s public record law.

The SPJ Rio Grande board of directors is disappointed that key questions about government transparency remain unanswered. One is whether the Spaceport Authority can withhold information about lease agreements at the facility. Also, Attorney General Hector Balderas’ administration did not find a violation of IPRA when spaceport officials claimed there were no records documenting positive economic impact on the state, even though the Spaceport Authority has made this claim publicly numerous times.

There also remains the open question of whether social media accounts such as Twitter are subject to IPRA. The Spaceport Authority has blocked certain Twitter users from following its Twitter account, including journalists. The AG determined the authority must make public a list of those blocked Twitter accounts, but it did not challenge the authority’s argument that Twitter is not subject to IPRA. Several federal rulings contradict this argument and we believe the AG should revisit this decision.

Equally troubling is the 10 months it took Balderas’ administration to issue an opinion on Haussamen’s complaint. This lengthy delay on clear-cut questions of transparency fits a troubling pattern under Balderas, whose job includes safeguarding and enforcing New Mexico’s most important sunshine law.

We have already seen moves by state officials to restrict transparency around Spaceport America. This is inappropriate for such a large project funded by public money and we seek more prompt, decisive action by the attorney general in ensuring public scrutiny of this project.

Though Haussamen is a member of the SPJ-Rio Grande board, he had no role in writing or approving the statement, the group said.

Meanwhile, the New Mexico Foundation for Open Government tweeted on Thursday about the AG’s determination letter:

And the Democratic candidate for state auditor in this year’s election, Brian Colón, tweeted criticism of the Spaceport Authority’s actions and support for the attorney general:

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