{"id":2127,"date":"2007-08-21T00:07:00","date_gmt":"2007-08-21T06:07:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/2007\/08\/lawmakers-report-productive-meeting-on-foundation-move-forward-with-ag-letter-possible-legislation\/"},"modified":"2007-08-21T00:07:00","modified_gmt":"2007-08-21T06:07:00","slug":"lawmakers-report-productive-meeting-on-foundation-move-forward-with-ag-letter-possible-legislation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2007\/08\/lawmakers-report-productive-meeting-on-foundation-move-forward-with-ag-letter-possible-legislation\/","title":{"rendered":"Lawmakers report productive meeting on foundation, move forward with AG letter, possible legislation"},"content":{"rendered":"

State lawmakers reported a productive meeting with officials from New Mexico State University<\/a> on Monday about whether the NMSU<\/a> Foundation\u2019s<\/a> donor records should be public. <\/p>\n

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

In addition, a draft of a letter seeking an attorney general opinion on whether the foundation\u2019s records are legally public documents is being circulated among the Do\u00f1a<\/st1:placename> Ana<\/st1:placename> County<\/st1:placename><\/st1:place> delegation. And lawmakers are talking about possible changes in state law to clarify the situation.<\/p>\n

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

\"\"<\/a>\u201cI think the next step is to get the letter up to the attorney general and get some clarification and see if maybe we need some legislation,\u201d state Rep. Nate Cote<\/a> said following the meeting.<\/p>\n

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

Rep. Joseph Cervantes<\/a> hasn\u2019t decided whether he\u2019ll sign the letter, but he is considering legislation that would open most state university foundation records to the public.<\/p>\n

He said he believes some donors should be allowed to remain anonymous if restrictions are placed on them.<\/p>\n

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

\"\"<\/a>\u201cIt would create an appearance of impropriety to have a bidder for a project or someone buying and selling services to the university at the same time making anonymous contributions, and I think that\u2019s worth further discussion,\u201d Cervantes said. \u201cI recognize that there are areas where state law is lacking. I think our university administration and regents would appreciate greater clarity and I think that\u2019s an important role for legislators to play.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

I recently requested that lawmakers seek the attorney general opinion on whether the foundation can legally keep information about donors secret. That was in response to the regents\u2019 announcement in May that they were using money from secret donors to boost the compensation of the president and former men\u2019s basketball coach.<\/p>\n

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

In anticipation of the request, the attorney general\u2019s office has already begun consideration of the issue, and is also looking into whether the university violated government transparency laws in its handling of records requests and in the holding of a regents meeting that wasn\u2019t properly noticed.<\/p>\n

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

\"\"<\/a>Rep. Andy Nu\u00f1ez<\/a> said he first saw the draft of the letter to the attorney general Monday, and there\u2019s some disagreement about whether it should take a position on whether the foundation records should be public. Nu\u00f1ez said he\u2019ll sign the letter as long as it\u2019s neutral because, to him, this isn\u2019t about the compensation being given to the university president by private donors but is about \u201cwhat\u2019s legal and what\u2019s not.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

Cote<\/st1:place> agreed that the letter should be neutral and simply seek clarification from the attorney general. He said he likes Cervantes\u2019 idea of legislation that would make most donor records public, and said that should include \u201clarge donors that would have a connection to the university or to any public entity.\u201d Such donors, he said, \u201cneed to make their names public. I think they ought to accept that as part of the process.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

Nu\u00f1ez said he isn\u2019t going to take a position on whether donor records should be public until after the attorney general issues his opinion.<\/p>\n

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

NMSU to explain position to the public<\/span><\/p>\n

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

During Monday\u2019s meeting, the two regents<\/a> who were present, Chair Laura Conniff and Vice Chair Bob Gallagher, explained to legislators how the decision to use private donations to boost the compensation came about and answered lawmakers\u2019 questions. University President Michael Martin<\/a> let the regents take the lead and didn\u2019t say a lot during the meeting.<\/p>\n

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

\u201cThe legislators had many good questions and I think received satisfactory answers to those questions,\u201d Cervantes said. \u201cWe were given a thorough history of the president\u2019s contract and how that came about. Some of the concerns were resolved by the explanation we were given.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

Cervantes said he hopes the university shares with the public the information it shared with lawmakers at the meeting. Gallagher said the university is in the process of drafting a letter for publication on this site and in local newspapers that will explain the situation. He expects it to be submitted this week.<\/p>\n

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

\"\"<\/a>Gallagher also said the proposal made by Cervantes could be \u201cheaded in the right direction,\u201d saying prohibiting anonymous donors from bidding on university contracts or conducting other business with the university is something \u201cwe\u2019re certainly willing to take a look at.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

However, Gallagher said if lawmakers want an attorney general opinion, they shouldn\u2019t focus on the NMSU Foundation or educational foundations in general, but should instead ask about \u201call private foundations with ties to public bodies,\u201d including any non-profits that use public facilities.<\/p>\n

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

\u201cCertainly we do not believe that the university needs to be singled out,\u201d Gallagher said. \u201cIf you\u2019re going to look at foundations, look at them all.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

Overall, Gallagher said he thought the meeting was \u201cvery productive\u201d and suggested that lawmakers and university officials meet more often \u2013 within the guidelines of the Open Meetings Act, which would prevent the attendance of more than two regents at such meetings.<\/p>\n

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

Cervantes said he hopes the meeting marks \u201cthe beginning of a continuing dialogue.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

In addition to Cervantes, Cote and Nu\u00f1ez, the meeting was attended by Reps. Mary Helen Garcia<\/a> and Joni Gutierrez<\/a> and Sens. Mary Jane Garcia<\/a> and Mary Kay Papen<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n

Update, 1:30 p.m.<\/p>\n

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

Papen said the meeting was \u201cextremely productive\u201d and said she believes that people should be allowed to give anonymously. Opening the records to the public could overwhelm people with requests for additional giving, she said.<\/p>\n

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

\u201cI personally would like to see people be able to give the anonymous gifts, and I would like to see it clarified so they can do that,\u201d she said. \u201cI hope that we will be able to protect those people.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

\n

Papen also said some constituents have asked her to sign the letter to the attorney general, and said she thinks requesting such an opinion \u201cis probably a good thing to get the air cleared.\u201d She had previously said she would sign the letter.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

State lawmakers reported a productive meeting with officials from New Mexico State University on Monday about whether the NMSU Foundation\u2019s donor records should be public. In addition, a draft of a letter seeking an attorney general opinion on whether the foundation\u2019s records are legally public documents is being circulated among the Do\u00f1a Ana County delegation. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2127","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2127","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=2127"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2127\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2127"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2127"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2127"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}