{"id":16878,"date":"2010-05-05T06:49:34","date_gmt":"2010-05-05T12:49:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=16878"},"modified":"2010-05-05T12:05:08","modified_gmt":"2010-05-05T18:05:08","slug":"denish-may-provide-records-related-to-her-schedule","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2010\/05\/denish-may-provide-records-related-to-her-schedule\/","title":{"rendered":"Denish may provide records related to her schedule"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Lt. Gov. Diane Denish (Photo by Heath Haussamen<\/p><\/div>\n

Lieutenant Governor\u2019s Office says it doesn\u2019t maintain Denish\u2019s calendar, won\u2019t say who \u2013 if anyone \u2013 does keep such a document<\/h4>\n

Lt. Gov. Diane Denish\u2019s<\/a> office now says it doesn\u2019t maintain any sort of calendar or schedule of Denish\u2019s appointments but may be able to provide NMPolitics.net with other documents that indicate some of what she\u2019s been doing.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Office of the Lt. Governor does not maintain a calendar for the Lt. Governor,\u201d Chief of Staff Joshua Rosen wrote Tuesday in an e-mail. \u201cIf you\u2019re looking for internal staff communications and other staff notes related to logistics for state-related events, we will be happy to try and track down whatever is available.\u201d<\/p>\n

NMPolitics.net took Rosen up on that offer for internal communications and notes. I\u2019ll let you know what he provides.<\/p>\n

Last week, Rosen denied NMPolitics.net\u2019s request<\/a> for a copy of Denish\u2019s calendar or schedule for a 30-day period.<\/p>\n

\u201cDiane\u2019s public events are announced so that New Mexicans can come see her in their communities,\u201d Rosen wrote in an e-mail. \u201cHer private appointments are not maintained in the state email system and, per direction from the Attorney General, this document is not subject to IPRA (the\u00a0New Mexico Inspection of Public Records Act<\/a>). Therefore the Office of the Lt. Governor has no records responsive to your request.\u201d<\/p>\n

I asked Rosen to clarify if he was saying the office keeps no calendar for Denish or just that it\u2019s not subject to IPRA. He said the office \u201cschedules events relating to state business\u201d but \u201cdoes not maintain an official calendar.\u201d<\/p>\n

Who maintains Denish\u2019s calendar?<\/h3>\n

<\/p>\n

As was the case when the Third Judicial District Attorney\u2019s Office\u00a0in Las Cruces announced that it is not maintaining a calendar or schedule<\/a> for District Attorney\u00a0Susana Martinez<\/a>, the question is whether Denish or someone else outside her government office is maintaining a calendar of her appointments or whether no one is keeping a schedule of her work-related appointments.<\/p>\n

Denish and Martinez are both running for governor and have campaign staffs.<\/p>\n

According to Rosen\u2019s previous statement, Denish\u2019s office is scheduling meetings related to her job as lieutenant governor.<\/p>\n

But who\u2019s keeping track of the fact that they\u2019re scheduled isn\u2019t clear. Rosen declined to answer that question.<\/p>\n

As I\u2019ve already reported, the Attorney General\u2019s Office<\/a> and the head of the New Mexico Foundation for Open Government<\/a> (FOG) disagree about whether, should such hypothetical calendars or schedules exist somewhere other than in public officials\u2019 government offices, they are public records.<\/p>\n

Phil Sisneros, the AG\u2019s spokesman, said last week that the AG believes \u201cpersonal calendars and schedules are more like notes a public employee keeps for his or her own use, even if they include business appointments,\u201d and are not public records.<\/p>\n

Sisneros reaffirmed this week that calendars and schedules \u201cmaintained by a public office for a public officer\u201d are public records.<\/p>\n

Basic accountability<\/h3>\n

Sarah Welsh, FOG\u2019s executive director, said last week that 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 She said if Martinez is keeping a personal calendar and it\u2019s \u201cthe primary way that she keeps track of her public work, that\u2019s clearly a public record.\u201d<\/p>\n

Welsh said the same about Denish\u2019s calendar on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

\u201cAgain, I would say that how a public official spends their time doing state business is a matter of public record and is of interest to the public,\u201d Welsh said. \u201cWe\u2019re not talking about their personal lives. We\u2019re talking about what they are doing for the people of New Mexico. Are they doing the job they were elected to do? Who are they speaking with? Who are they meeting with?\u201d<\/p>\n

Welsh said knowing how public officials spend their time \u2013 as it relates to their public jobs \u2013 is basic accountability.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy basic question for any elected official, and for the AG\u2019s office, would be, \u2018How is the public served by allowing elected officials to keep public appointments private?\u2019\u201d Welsh said. \u201cI\u2019m talking about one-on-one meetings with constituents or lobbyists or their staff \u2013 public business. Not campaign events, not that they\u2019re going to soccer games \u2013 meetings that have to do with public business.\u201d<\/p>\n

Welsh has said if public officials are keeping one calendar that combines appointments related to their official jobs with personal appointments, the personal appointments can legally be redacted before the document is released.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Lt. Gov. Diane Denish\u2019s office now says it doesn\u2019t maintain any sort of calendar or schedule of Denish\u2019s appointments but may be able to provide NMPolitics.net with other documents that indicate some of what she\u2019s been doing. The office won\u2019t say who, if anyone, is maintaining Denish\u2019s calendar.<\/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":[108,111,107],"class_list":["post-16878","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","category-uncategorized","tag-2010-election","tag-open-government","tag-roundhouse"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16878","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=16878"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16878\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16878"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16878"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16878"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}