{"id":15281,"date":"2010-04-04T23:19:02","date_gmt":"2010-04-05T05:19:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=15281"},"modified":"2010-04-06T07:58:43","modified_gmt":"2010-04-06T13:58:43","slug":"the-right-to-hear-criticism-of-elected-officials","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2010\/04\/the-right-to-hear-criticism-of-elected-officials\/","title":{"rendered":"The right to hear criticism of elected officials"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

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

The right to criticize elected officials is at the core of the First Amendment. The Public Regulation Commission says you don\u2019t have a right to hear that criticism. But what good is the right to criticize if what you say is kept secret?<\/h4>\n

I don\u2019t understand why government officials seem lately to have difficulty understanding what is and is not public information under the state\u2019s Inspection of Public Records Act<\/a>.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve written a lot about the secretary of state\u2019s recent snafus<\/a>. But the latest action that appears to violate the public records act comes from the New Mexico Public Regulation Commission<\/a>, which is, according to the Albuquerque Journal, refusing to release<\/a> comments that are critical of other employees and commissioners. The comments were included in employee surveys the PRC conducted last October.<\/p>\n

The surveys were released to the media last year, but with about 15 percent redacted \u2013 the 15 percent containing critical comments. In considering whether to reverse the decision to redact the comments last week, PRC members voted 4-1 in favor of keeping the critical comments secret.<\/p>\n

You could argue that the criticisms of specific employees contained in these surveys may not be public record because they are \u201cmatters of opinion\u201d that might meet the criteria of this exemption to the public records act:<\/p>\n

\u201cLetters or memorandums which are matters of opinion in personnel files or students\u2019 cumulative files.\u201d<\/p>\n

But elected officials don\u2019t qualify for the personnel exemption. They work for us \u2013 you and me. That means the criticisms of commissioners by PRC employees are undeniably public.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s my belief that any general comments about employees at the PRC that don\u2019t identify specific workers are also public, because those aren\u2019t \u201cmatters of opinion\u201d that are contained in any specific employee\u2019s personnel file.<\/p>\n

Thankfully, there\u2019s one member of the commission \u2013 Jason Marks<\/a> \u2013 who voted to release the information to the public. What\u2019s unfortunate is that the other four think they have the right to hide comments that could be damaging to their own reputations.<\/p>\n

The public\u2019s right to know<\/h3>\n

According to the Journal, Commissioner Jerome Block Jr.<\/a> \u2013 yes, the guy who\u2019s currently under indictment<\/a> \u2013 said during Tuesday\u2019s meeting of the PRC that he doesn\u2019t want \u201cto hang our employees out to dry.\u201d And Commissioner Sandy Jones<\/a> said, according to the newspaper, that he was worried the media might distort some of the comments.<\/p>\n

So, Commissioner Block, don\u2019t release the comments that are critical of specific employees. The New Mexico Foundation for Open Government<\/a>, which has taken an interest in this situation, has already said it considers that acceptable. And Commissioner Jones, it\u2019s not your responsibility or your right to limit what information the media can access because you\u2019re worried about how the media will use it.<\/p>\n

The right to criticize elected officials is at the core of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. The state\u2019s public records act is designed to ensure that the public has access to that criticism, which is an equally important element in preserving democracy. What good is the right to criticize if no one gets to hear it?<\/p>\n

We\u2019re talking about one of the foundational truths of our democracy: The public has a right to know what PRC employees said about the commissioners on those surveys.<\/p>\n

This is a fight that might be heading to court. If so, it\u2019s not one the PRC is going to win. Good for Marks for standing up for what\u2019s right. Shame on the others.<\/p>\n

Haussamen bio<\/a> \u2502 Commentary archives<\/a> \u2502 Feed<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The right to criticize elected officials is at the core of the First Amendment. The Public Regulation Commission says you don\u2019t have a right to hear that criticism. But what good is the right to criticize if what you say is kept secret?<\/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":[111,107],"class_list":["post-15281","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-commentary","category-haussamen-columns","tag-open-government","tag-roundhouse"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15281","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=15281"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15281\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15281"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15281"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15281"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}