{"id":16565,"date":"2010-04-27T12:20:39","date_gmt":"2010-04-27T18:20:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=16565"},"modified":"2010-04-28T07:50:04","modified_gmt":"2010-04-28T13:50:04","slug":"da%e2%80%99s-office-isn%e2%80%99t-keeping-a-schedule-for-martinez","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2010\/04\/da%e2%80%99s-office-isn%e2%80%99t-keeping-a-schedule-for-martinez\/","title":{"rendered":"DA\u2019s office isn\u2019t keeping a schedule for Martinez"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Susana Martinez<\/p><\/div>\n

Martinez isn\u2019t saying how she\u2019s keeping track of job-related appointments. Sunshine experts disagree on whether, if she keeps them on a personal calendar, it\u2019s a public record.<\/h4>\n

The Third Judicial District Attorney\u2019s Office<\/a> in Las Cruces says it\u2019s not maintaining a calendar or schedule for District Attorney Susana Martinez<\/a>, who\u2019s spent a lot of time in recent months on the campaign trail in her quest to become governor.<\/p>\n

Las Crucen Ernie Bean recently filed a records request with the office for Martinez\u2019s schedule for the month of March. Chief Deputy District Attorney Susan Riedel, the office\u2019s records custodian, responded by writing that the office \u201cdoes not maintain a calendar or schedule\u201d for Martinez.<\/p>\n

Does that mean Martinez is keeping track of appointments and events related to her work as district attorney on her own, using equipment or resources not belonging to the district attorney\u2019s office, or that no one is keeping a schedule of Martinez\u2019s job-related work?<\/p>\n

Martinez declined to answer that question.<\/p>\n

Nothing in state law requires Martinez\u2019s office to maintain a calendar or schedule of her appointments. If her office did maintain such a schedule, it would be a public document under the New Mexico Inspection of Public Records Act<\/a>.<\/p>\n

How is Martinez keeping track of appointments?<\/h3>\n

<\/p>\n

Martinez\u2019s schedule has been the subject of some controversy in Las Cruces, where there\u2019s been discussion about how much time the Republican gubernatorial candidate is spending working in a job Do\u00f1a Ana County taxpayers are paying her $109,603 to do this fiscal year.<\/p>\n

Clearly, running for governor has consumed a great deal of Martinez\u2019s time in recent months and has frequently taken her to other parts of the state for campaign events. But there\u2019s no question that Martinez has continued to do work as district attorney even while she\u2019s been running for governor:<\/p>\n

\u2022 Martinez spoke at a child abuse awareness event in Las Cruces earlier this month.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Last month, Martinez held a news conference to announce that no charges would be filed against two police officers involved in a shooting death, which I\u2019ve recently written about<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Martinez has been involved in the ongoing investigation<\/a> concerning Las Cruces City Manager Terrence Moore.<\/p>\n

The question is how Martinez is keeping track of her job-related appointments and events.<\/p>\n

A public records question<\/h3>\n

The Attorney General\u2019s Office<\/a> and the head of the New Mexico Foundation for Open Government<\/a> (FOG) disagree about whether, if Martinez is keeping track of her job-related appointments on her own using equipment or resources not owned by her office, such a schedule would be a public record.<\/p>\n

Phil Sisneros, the AG\u2019s spokesman, said such a schedule would not be a public record, but he cautioned that he was speaking generally, not about any specific situation.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is our position that personal calendars and schedules are more like notes a public employee keeps for his or her own use, even if they include business appointments,\u201d Sisneros said.<\/p>\n

He said that contrasts with the AG\u2019s belief that messages public officials send using personal e-mail accounts are public records if they relate to public business. That\u2019s because, Sisneros said, such e-mails \u201care created or maintained for or on behalf of the public body,\u201d unlike the personal calendars and schedules he said some employees keep for their own use.<\/p>\n

On the other hand, FOG\u2019s executive director, Sarah Welsh, said if Martinez is keeping a personal calendar that includes appointments and events related to her job, it\u2019s a public record. Appointments not relating to her job can be redacted before it\u2019s released, she said.<\/p>\n

Welsh said the public records act \u201capplies to all documents regardless of physical form or characteristics that are used, created, etc. by any public body and relate to public business.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIf this is the primary way that she keeps track of her public work, that\u2019s clearly a public record,\u201d Welsh said.<\/p>\n

Sisneros said there\u2019s no case law to settle the legal question.<\/p>\n

\u2018Basic oversight\u2019<\/h3>\n

As to the disagreement with the AG, Welsh said her organization tends to interpret the public records act \u201cmore broadly and aggressively in favor of openness than the AG does in some of these things.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe err on the side of openness and say if it deals with public business it\u2019s a public record,\u201d Welsh said.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s the legal argument, she said. Welsh\u2019s policy argument is that Martinez should release whatever information she has about her public appointments and events.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s just basic oversight of what a public official is doing,\u201d Welsh said. \u201c… Governors have virtually no expectation of privacy. Everything they do, 24\/7, is subject to public scrutiny. That\u2019s one of the hazards of the job, and that\u2019s probably one reason why so few people want it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBottom line, anyone who wants to hold that position better get used to questions like these,\u201d Welsh said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Third Judicial District Attorney\u2019s Office isn\u2019t keeping a schedule for District Attorney Susana Martinez, who\u2019s been busy in recent months running for governor. Martinez isn\u2019t saying how she\u2019s keeping track of job-related appointments. Sunshine experts disagree on whether, if she keeps them on a personal calendar, it\u2019s a public record.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,1],"tags":[108,115,111,107],"class_list":["post-16565","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","category-uncategorized","tag-2010-election","tag-dona-ana-county","tag-open-government","tag-roundhouse"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16565","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=16565"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16565\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16565"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16565"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16565"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}