{"id":24052,"date":"2010-12-06T08:40:03","date_gmt":"2010-12-06T15:40:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=24052"},"modified":"2010-12-06T14:00:23","modified_gmt":"2010-12-06T21:00:23","slug":"where-is-martinez%e2%80%99s-%e2%80%98new-level-of-transparency%e2%80%99","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2010\/12\/where-is-martinez%e2%80%99s-%e2%80%98new-level-of-transparency%e2%80%99\/","title":{"rendered":"Where is Martinez\u2019s \u2018new level of transparency?\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

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

Gov.-elect Susana Martinez\u2019s<\/a> \u201cbold change\u201d was supposed to include a \u201cnew level of transparency\u201d<\/a> not seen before in state government.<\/p>\n

In one of the first tests of that pledge, Martinez is coming up short.<\/p>\n

The Santa Fe New Mexican requested copies<\/a> of applications for state police chief and head of the Department of Public Safety from Martinez\u2019s transition team, which is working to set up the administration before Martinez is sworn in on Jan. 1.<\/p>\n

If Martinez had already been sworn in, the applications would be public. But because Martinez isn\u2019t yet governor, her transition team claims, nothing about the applicants is public.<\/p>\n

\u201cGov.-elect Martinez takes her responsibilities in relation to open government and transparency very seriously,\u201d Martinez spokesman Danny Diaz was quoted by The New Mexican as saying. \u201cThe reality of the situation is that these are not public records; therefore, there is no records custodian due to the fact that there are no public funds, employees or equipment dedicated to the matter.\u201d<\/p>\n

N.M. Foundation for Open Government<\/a> Executive Director Sarah Welsh disagrees.<\/p>\n

\u201cThose people are applying for state jobs, not campaign or transition team jobs \u2013 their salaries will be paid with taxpayer money, and they will be managing large state agencies,\u201d she said. \u201cTheir applications are being received, used and held on behalf of the executive branch by the transition team.\u201d<\/p>\n

Appellate court ruling sets precedent<\/h3>\n

Welsh referred to a 2009, precedent-setting ruling from the Court of Appeals in favor of her organization and the Farmington Daily Times that required the City of Farmington to release applications for the job of city manager.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn this Court\u2019s opinion, New Mexico\u2019s policy of open government is intended to protect the public from having to rely solely on the representations of public officials that they have acted appropriately,\u201d Judge James. J. Wechsler wrote in the ruling. \u201c\u2026As a result, when, as here, the application is for a high-ranking public position, the public\u2019s interest in disclosure outweighs the City\u2019s concern that fewer people will apply, and, thus, disclosure is required.\u201d<\/p>\n

And yet, the \u201cfewer people will apply\u201d argument was used by the Martinez transition team in responding to The New Mexican\u2019s request. The New Mexican reported that a \u201csenior member of the transition team\u201d said applicants \u201cneed to be afforded a reasonable amount of privacy. Otherwise, highly-qualified people might be reluctant to apply. Most candidates don\u2019t tell their current employer when they are applying for a job.\u201d<\/p>\n

Though the precedent set in the Farmington case is relatively recent, universities have been required by law to release information about presidential finalists for a long time. Some regents have complained over the years about having to do that, but it\u2019s worked out in the end.<\/p>\n

And the release of finalists\u2019 names has forced regents to involve employees, students and the public in the process \u2013 so, as Wechsler wrote, the public\u2019s interest in disclosure outweighs any concern about fewer applicants applying.<\/p>\n

Transition refuses to answer questions<\/h3>\n

I wanted the Martinez transition to elaborate on its reasons for not releasing the applications, so I asked for an explanation of the legalities. All I got was the same statement Diaz gave The New Mexican about Martinez taking her responsibilities to be open and transparent seriously but stating that these are not public records because \u201cthere are no public funds, employees or equipment dedicated to the matter.\u201d<\/p>\n

I think the Martinez transition is missing the point, so I asked these follow-up questions: Considering that the records would be public if Martinez had already been sworn in as governor, why not set an example of openness by releasing them? Is there some overarching reason that doing so would be counterproductive or cause harm that overrides setting such an example?<\/p>\n

The transition refused to answer those questions.<\/p>\n

This isn\u2019t transparency<\/h3>\n

I can acknowledge that there are arguments on both sides of the debate about whether these applications are public records. But doesn\u2019t bringing a new level of transparency to government imply that, when in doubt, you\u2019ll err on the side of transparency instead of secrecy?<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re going to err on the side of secrecy, wouldn\u2019t explaining the reasoning for that be the transparent thing to do? Doesn\u2019t the public deserve to know why the secrecy is necessary?<\/p>\n

Maybe the Martinez transition has fully explained its reasoning, and the simple answer is that they won\u2019t release the applications because they don\u2019t have to. If that\u2019s the case, it\u2019s secrecy at its worst and is cause for concern.<\/p>\n

Or perhaps their reasoning is that they\u2019re worried about discouraging applicants, even though that wasn\u2019t an explanation Diaz gave to me. If that is their reasoning, it\u2019s simply wrong.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m told that transition teams have not treated such information as public before. But that\u2019s not the point. Martinez\u2019s slogan \u2013 \u201cbold change\u201d \u2013 means doing something in a way that hasn\u2019t been done before. There\u2019s nothing bold about doing the same thing past transition teams have done.<\/p>\n

Martinez\u2019s team should either release these records, or, if there\u2019s a compelling reason to keep them secret, explain it to the public.<\/p>\n

Haussamen bio<\/a> \u2502\u00a0Commentary archives<\/a> \u2502\u00a0Feed<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Gov.-elect Susana Martinez\u2019s \u201cbold change\u201d was supposed to include a \u201cnew level of transparency\u201d not seen before in state government. In one of the first tests of that pledge, Martinez is coming up short.<\/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-24052","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\/24052","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=24052"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24052\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24052"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24052"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24052"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}