{"id":10632,"date":"2009-12-23T17:47:47","date_gmt":"2009-12-24T00:47:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=10632"},"modified":"2009-12-27T14:18:05","modified_gmt":"2009-12-27T21:18:05","slug":"guv-isn%e2%80%99t-being-open-accessible-or-accountable","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2009\/12\/guv-isn%e2%80%99t-being-open-accessible-or-accountable\/","title":{"rendered":"Guv isn\u2019t being open, accessible or accountable"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Gov.

Gov. Bill Richardson (Photo by Heath Haussamen)<\/p><\/div>\n

Richardson flip-flops on whether subpoenas are public and ignores requirement that he forward requests about laid-off political appointees to the appropriate agency<\/h4>\n

Let me get this straight. First, earlier this year, the governor\u2019s office released a subpoena<\/a> it had received in a federal investigation. Then, three other agencies \u2013 the New Mexico Finance Authority<\/a>, State Investment Council and Educational Retirement Board<\/a> \u2013 refused to release similar subpoenas. But eventually, all three agencies reversed courses and followed the governor\u2019s lead in releasing the subpoenas (The ERB<\/a> first, then the NMFA<\/a>, then SIC<\/a>).<\/p>\n

Now, the governor\u2019s office is refusing to even tell the Albuquerque Journal<\/a> if it has received any subpoenas in the ongoing investigation into the nationwide investment scandal that has taken hold in New Mexico, let alone release such subpoenas if they exist.<\/p>\n

Is anyone else confused?<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s what the governor\u2019s office told the Journal when the newspaper asked if the office had received such subpoenas and, if so, whether it would release them:<\/p>\n

\u201cAny responsive records the Governor\u2019s Office may have received would be exempt from disclosure. Such documents would relate to a matter that is or will be before a federal grand jury. This office will not release records of this nature pursuant to the federal rules governing grand juries.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"Heath

Heath Haussamen<\/p><\/div>\n

Sounds a lot like some of the explanations given by the other agencies before they reversed courses and released the subpoenas.<\/p>\n

That confusing flip-flopping comes on the heels of the governor\u2019s office playing fast and loose<\/a> with public records law over requests for information about the 59 political appointees being laid off next month. The governor\u2019s office did not provide any such information in response to requests from me and others.<\/p>\n

And, instead of forwarding our requests to the state agencies that are in possession of the relevant records, as required by the Inspection of Public Records Act<\/a>, the governor\u2019s office wrote that it considered the matter closed.<\/p>\n

The State Personnel Office understands its legal duty, and when I made a request days ago to that office for information about the appointees, it forwarded my request to the Department of Finance and Administration. That\u2019s apparently what the governor\u2019s office should have done too.<\/p>\n

The governor\u2019s office knows that. Its response to our requests was a flagrant disregard of the law and the right of the public to public information.<\/p>\n

Then this flip-flopping on whether subpoenas from federal grand juries are public records. The New Mexico Foundation for Open Government<\/a> takes the position that the subpoenas are public. So do I. In fact, I sued NMFA<\/a> earlier this year to try to force the release of its subpoenas.<\/p>\n

With these recent actions, Gov. Bill Richardson<\/a> and his office are flagrantly disregarding the Inspection of Public Records Act and should be ashamed. It\u2019s nothing short of hypocritical that Richardson has talked about the importance of \u201copen, accessible and accountable government\u201d<\/a> and then acted in this manner.<\/p>\n

If there\u2019s one hint of transparency in all of this, it\u2019s that governor\u2019s hypocrisy is exposed for anyone to see.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s nothing short of hypocritical that Gov. Bill Richardson has talked about the importance of \u201copen, accessible and accountable government\u201d and then flagrantly disregarded the requirements of the state\u2019s Inspection of Public Records Act.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1192,10],"tags":[112,111,107],"class_list":["post-10632","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-commentary","category-haussamen-columns","tag-bill-richardson","tag-open-government","tag-roundhouse"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10632","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10632"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10632\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10632"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10632"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10632"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}