{"id":2078,"date":"2007-08-08T13:26:00","date_gmt":"2007-08-08T19:26:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/2007\/08\/nmsu-is-placing-hurdles-in-front-of-public-records\/"},"modified":"2009-08-22T15:01:58","modified_gmt":"2009-08-22T21:01:58","slug":"nmsu-is-placing-hurdles-in-front-of-public-records","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2007\/08\/nmsu-is-placing-hurdles-in-front-of-public-records\/","title":{"rendered":"NMSU is placing hurdles in front of public records"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Some governments provide easy access to public records. Others appear to look for ways to keep the public in the dark. Lately I\u2019ve come across both. <\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Because of allegations that city employees were inappropriately involved in council races in Albuquerque<\/a>, I recently requested months of e-mails, cell phone records and time sheets for four city officials.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

The city responded in a timely manner, is offering to mail the records to me in Las Cruces<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> and is charging a reasonable $34.50 for copies and postage \u2013 10 cents per page and $1 per compact disc, far less than the $1-per-page allowed by state law.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

New Mexico State University<\/a>, meanwhile, is placing hurdles in front of public records.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\n

The university stepped into controversy in May by announcing that it was using private contributions to boost the compensation of its president and men\u2019s basketball coach. It funnels donations through a non-profit foundation that keeps them secret, a practice that has been deemed illegal in some states. Many \u2013 including me \u2013 believe letting secret donors help pay public employees creates the potential for impropriety.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

The university denied my request for information about the donors in May but did provide, without charge and in response to a request sent via e-mail, a copy of its agreement with the foundation.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

In July, the Board of Regents approved a new agreement with the foundation. Soon thereafter, I requested a copy, but was told my request wasn\u2019t valid because it was sent via e-mail. Regardless, NMSU said, the document wasn\u2019t public because it hadn\u2019t been signed by all parties.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

The latter is ridiculous. Government records become public long before they\u2019re formally approved or signed. And NMSU had not only treated e-mail requests as valid in the past, but also responded via e-mail to two subsequent, hand-delivered records requests.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

I asked the attorney general whether the university\u2019s actions violated public records law. His office is investigating. The university eventually provided the new agreement \u2013 and charged $1 per page \u2013 but still asserts that e-mail requests aren\u2019t valid. On a related request, the university charged more \u2013 $40 for 40 pages \u2013 than Albuquerque<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> is charging for hundreds of pages.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

I also requested the e-mails of the foundation\u2019s director, a university vice president who uses a government account. Even the White House understands that government e-mails are generally public, so it had the RNC set up a separate system for secret communications.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

But on Friday, NMSU said the e-mails may not be public because the foundation agreement requires confidentiality. It forwarded my request to the foundation, which said Monday the e-mails aren\u2019t public but if I request something specific it may be voluntarily released. If I pursue this, NMSU says I\u2019ll be charged for \u201clocating, reviewing and producing\u201d the e-mails in addition to copying costs allowed by public records law.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\u201cUnderstand that NMSU takes its obligations under the Inspection of Public Records Act very seriously,\u201d university attorney Bruce Kite informed me (via e-mail). \u201cNMSU cannot ignore other important goals or public policies and it cannot ignore contractual obligations.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Saying you take public records law seriously doesn\u2019t make it true. Goals, policies and contracts don\u2019t trump state law.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Albuquerque<\/st1:city><\/st1:place>\u2019s helpful attitude makes it appear there\u2019s nothing to hide. The university\u2019s disingenuous and standoffish positions create the oppose appearance.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\n

A version of this article was published today in the Albuquerque Tribune<\/a>. I write a column for the newspaper that runs on the second and fourth Wednesdays of each month. A prior version of this posting should not have implied that the university had never before used private donations to boost the compensation of high-ranking employees.<\/p>\n

\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Some governments provide easy access to public records. Others appear to look for ways to keep the public in the dark. Lately I\u2019ve come across both. Because of allegations that city employees were inappropriately involved in council races in Albuquerque, I recently requested months of e-mails, cell phone records and time sheets for four city […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2078","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-haussamen-columns"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2078","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=2078"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2078\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2078"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2078"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2078"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}