{"id":2414,"date":"2007-10-22T15:46:00","date_gmt":"2007-10-22T21:46:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/2007\/10\/there-may-be-hope-for-more-transparency-at-nmsu\/"},"modified":"2007-10-22T15:46:00","modified_gmt":"2007-10-22T21:46:00","slug":"there-may-be-hope-for-more-transparency-at-nmsu","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2007\/10\/there-may-be-hope-for-more-transparency-at-nmsu\/","title":{"rendered":"There may be hope for more transparency at NMSU"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>There may be reason to hope that the Board of Regents<\/a> of New Mexico<\/st1:placename> State<\/st1:placetype> University<\/st1:placetype><\/st1:place> will abandon archaic policies related to public participation in and notification of its business and enter the 21st Century. <\/p>\n

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

The board gave Common Cause of Southwestern New Mexico<\/a> a chance today to argue for increased public input at meetings, earlier release of meeting agendas and more information about what happens in closed sessions, and at least one regent said he was open to making some changes.<\/p>\n

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

The board gave no timeline for deciding whether to make changes, but Regents President Laura Conniff said the board would discuss the issue with its attorney. (This seems like a good time to remind the regents that such discussion must take place in a properly-noticed, public meeting of the board.)<\/p>\n

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

At issue are three points:<\/p>\n

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

\u2022 The regents, for years, have only notified the public that upcoming closed sessions would include discussion of \u201cpersonnel, real estate and legal matters,\u201d and sometimes \u201cwater-rights matters,\u201d even though the state Open Meetings Act<\/a> requires that notice of meetings state \u201cwith reasonable specificity the subject to be discussed.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

\u2022 The regents only allow public input after a request is submitted, along with all documentation that will be presented, two weeks before a meeting, and then only if the regents president, after conferring with the other members, OKs it.<\/p>\n

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

\u2022 Agendas are made available to the public only 24 hours before meetings.<\/p>\n

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

The bottom line about the regents\u2019 current policies is this: They either barely meet or skirt the requirements of the Open Meetings Act. Even if they\u2019re legal, they are ridiculously far behind just about every other government around, including the state\u2019s other major institute of higher education, the University of New Mexico<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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

A few examples:<\/p>\n

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

\u2022 The Do\u00f1a Ana County Board of Commissioners<\/a> releases agendas to the public about a week before meetings are held.<\/p>\n

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

\u2022 The Las Cruces Public Schools Board of Education<\/a> gets specific enough about the reasons for closed sessions that it stated in announcing an Oct. 10 closed session that its members were meeting to evaluate the superintendent.<\/p>\n

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

\u2022 The UNM regents<\/a> allow public comment, without prior approval and at all public meetings, on any item on their agenda during discussion of that item and on topics not on the agenda before they adjourn.<\/p>\n

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

Lynn Ellins, Common Cause member and former president of the local chapter, made the case for change to the regents today, saying they are doing a good job at running the university \u2013 as evidenced by increasing enrollment numbers \u2013 but their policies are lacking in some of the areas of public notice and involvement. He said a few changes would build credibility.<\/p>\n

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

A pledge to consider the request<\/span><\/p>\n

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

Conniff pledged that the regents would consider the request, which was allowed to be presented only after Common Cause went through the two-week procedure. The group has been asking the regents for changes for years.<\/p>\n

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

\u201cWe all believe in not only adhering to the letter of the law but we also believe in the concept of the Open Meetings Act,\u201d Conniff said.<\/p>\n

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

Regent Steve Anaya said board members are provided with copies of agendas five days before meetings and questioned why they could not also be released to the public at that time.<\/p>\n

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

\u201cPersonally, I think when we get the agenda, everybody else ought to get the agenda,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

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

Anaya also said he \u201cdoesn\u2019t have a problem with\u201d allowing public input at meetings without prior approval. As to the question of whether the regents should be more specific about the reasons for closed meetings, he said, \u201cWe could probably argue until the cows come home whether we are following or are not following the letter of the law.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

Conniff then made this pledge:<\/p>\n

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

\u201cWe do appreciate your input, and we will take it seriously,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

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

There was another sign of hope. Today\u2019s closed session of the board was preceded by notice that the regents would discuss \u201cthe leasing of property,\u201d which, while not as specific as notices provided by LCPS and the county commission, is much more specific than \u201creal estate.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

Ellins noted that fact, and said he hoped it was setting a new precedent.<\/p>\n

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

The moves apparently being considered by the regents would be big steps in the right direction. The regents will also likely get some guidance on matters related to open government in the coming weeks or months. The attorney general is already considering, after receiving requests from me, the Las Cruces Sun-News and four state legislators, a number of questions related to whether they can legally keep NMSU Foundation records secret and whether the regents violated government transparency laws at a July meeting and in refusing to release an agreement approved at a later meeting. You can click here<\/a> to read more about those requests.<\/p>\n

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

More to be done<\/span><\/p>\n

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

Even if the regents agree to all the requests made by Common Cause, more changes will be needed. For example, consider this: Rolling quorums are illegal and occur when a majority of members of a public body discuss, in person or through other communication, public policy outside of properly noticed meetings. The quorum is called \u201crolling\u201d because all the members who participate aren\u2019t in one place at one time.<\/p>\n

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

For example, one board member could call each of the other members to discuss an upcoming item on the agenda and seek their pledges to vote the way he wants. If he conducts such discussion with a majority of board members, that\u2019s illegal, because such discussion is supposed to take place at public meetings.<\/p>\n

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

The regents\u2019 current policy on public input actually requires that Conniff confer with the other members before deciding whether to allow public input like Common Cause gave today. Since Common Cause is asking for a public policy change, isn\u2019t the discussion of whether to allow the group to make its case a discussion of the formation of public policy? What was said during those conversations in deciding whether to allow Common Cause\u2019s presentation?<\/p>\n

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

Regent Bob Gallagher told a newspaper reporter during today\u2019s meeting that the increase in freshman enrollment, not Common Cause\u2019s request, should be the big news of the day. His problem is that he thinks, because the regents are doing a good job, they should be allowed to proceed without checks on their power.<\/p>\n

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

He\u2019s wrong. Without public scrutiny, over time, such public bodies become corrupt. Public scrutiny is what will allow the good work currently being done at the university to continue for years to come.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There may be reason to hope that the Board of Regents of New Mexico State University will abandon archaic policies related to public participation in and notification of its business and enter the 21st Century. The board gave Common Cause of Southwestern New Mexico a chance today to argue for increased public input at meetings, […]<\/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-2414","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2414","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=2414"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2414\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2414"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2414"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2414"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}