{"id":26026,"date":"2011-02-11T11:24:38","date_gmt":"2011-02-11T18:24:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=26026"},"modified":"2011-02-14T10:06:56","modified_gmt":"2011-02-14T17:06:56","slug":"thanks-to-ag-for-getting-richardson%e2%80%99s-records-released","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2011\/02\/thanks-to-ag-for-getting-richardson%e2%80%99s-records-released\/","title":{"rendered":"Thanks to AG for getting Richardson\u2019s records released"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_26027\"  class=\"wp-caption module image alignright\" style=\"max-width: 270px;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-26027 \" title=\"Heath horizontal\" src=\"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/02\/Heath-horizontal2.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"270\" height=\"256\" \/><\/a><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Heath Haussamen<\/p><\/div>\n<p>The attorney general\u2019s intervention on behalf of those seeking to gain access to former Gov. <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Bill_Richardson\" target=\"_blank\">Bill Richardson\u2019s<\/a> office files should not have been necessary.<\/p>\n<p>The simple fact of the matter is that the law doesn\u2019t say that Richardson can have his office\u2019s records kept secret for eight years, regardless of what he asked the state\u2019s archive center to do. It\u2019s obvious from a reading of the law.<\/p>\n<p>But first, for those of you who haven\u2019t heard about this story, here\u2019s the skinny, from the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.abqjournal.com\/news\/state\/092350294217newsstate02-09-11.htm\" target=\"_blank\">Albuquerque Journal<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u201cState records administrator Sandra Jaramillo reversed course Tuesday after advice from the state attorney general and said she would release documents from Gov. Bill Richardson\u2019s administration if they qualify as public records.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cJaramillo had denied some requests for records on the basis of an agreement with the former governor. Richardson, who left office at the end of 2010, turned over the records from his eight years in office on the condition they be sealed for eight years \u2014 a condition also used by some former governors since 1967.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>To justify the tradition that has been used by \u201csome former governors,\u201d Jaramillo cited this 1967 law, which she said allowed governors to seal their office\u2019s records:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u201cThe state records administrator may accept and place in the state archives the personal files, records and documents of elected state officials or of former elected state officials, subject to any reasonable restrictions, moratoriums and requirements concerning their use by other persons.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>That\u2019s it. The law is clear: It deals with \u201cpersonal\u201d files, records and documents that elected officials or former elected officials want to give the state records administrator. It\u2019s not referring to documents that come from the office of the governor \u2013 records that belong to the people of the State of New Mexico and are not the governor\u2019s \u201cpersonal\u201d property.<!--more--><\/p>\n<h3>Fortunately, King stepped in<\/h3>\n<p>But in this state, tradition has often trumped law, and many governors, including Richardson, have had their office\u2019s records sealed for a time.<\/p>\n<p>Fortunately, Attorney General <a href=\"http:\/\/nmag.gov\/office\/Divisions\/EO\/kingbio.aspx\" target=\"_blank\">Gary King<\/a> stepped in. His chief deputy, Al Lama, sent <a href=\"http:\/\/nmag.gov\/pdf\/8%20Feb%202011-src-former%20gov's%20records%20(1)%5B1%5D.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">a letter to Jaramillo<\/a> stating that the law doesn\u2019t allow the sealing of records. Lama wrote that the law applies \u201conly to personal records.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAccordingly, the State Records and Archives must, upon request, allow inspection of public records transferred to the State Records Center by former Governor Richardson\u201d except for records that qualify for another exemption under law, Lama\u2019s letter states.<\/p>\n<p>So now, with the state\u2019s top law enforcement officer stepping in and telling her that tradition doesn\u2019t trump the law, Jaramillo is ready to release the records.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s a shame that the attorney general had to step in at all, but we\u2019re fortunate to have an attorney general who was willing to do that in spite of the potential political consequences. King, like Richardson, is a Democrat, and some want the records specifically to hunt for things related to the pay-to-play scandals that plagued Richardson\u2019s administration.<\/p>\n<p>Nice job, AG King. Keep it up.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/haussamen\" target=\"_blank\">Haussamen bio<\/a> \u2502\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/category\/haussamen-columns\">Commentary archives<\/a> \u2502\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/category\/haussamen-columns\/feed\" target=\"_blank\">Feed<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The attorney general\u2019s intervention on behalf of those seeking to gain access to former Gov. Bill Richardson\u2019s office files should not have been necessary.<\/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-26026","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\/26026","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=26026"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26026\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26026"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26026"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26026"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}