{"id":41710,"date":"2012-08-28T09:20:34","date_gmt":"2012-08-28T15:20:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=41710"},"modified":"2012-08-28T09:22:26","modified_gmt":"2012-08-28T15:22:26","slug":"supporting-sunshine-laws","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2012\/08\/supporting-sunshine-laws\/","title":{"rendered":"Supporting sunshine laws"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_41711\"  class=\"wp-caption module image alignright\" style=\"max-width: 120px;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-41711\" title=\"Soules, Bill\" src=\"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/08\/Soules-Bill.jpg\" alt=\"William P. Soules\" width=\"120\" height=\"160\" \/><\/a><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">William P. Soules<\/p><\/div>\n<h4>I want the citizens of this county to know that I admit my mistake \u2013 a violation of the New Mexico Open Meetings Act \u2013 and I apologize.<\/h4>\n<p>As a candidate for the New Mexico Senate from District 37, I feel it is important to address an issue that occurred during my time in elected office as a member of the Las Cruces Board of Education.<\/p>\n<p>Approximately 10 years ago, I was charged with and convicted of violating the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nmag.gov\/consumer\/publications\/openmeetingsactcomplianceguide\" target=\"_blank\">New Mexico Open Meetings Act<\/a>. While I never intended to circumvent the Open Meetings law, I did participate in a closed personnel session about the superintendent. The court determined that the closed meeting was not properly advertised to the public. Therefore, I was found guilty of a misdemeanor and I paid my fine.<\/p>\n<p>I want the citizens of this county to know that I admit my mistake and I apologize. I believe that sunshine laws are a critical component of the public input process and that these laws help to create a strong democracy. The public has a right to see and hear how their elected officials are performing.<\/p>\n<p>Over the last 10 years, I have watched as the legislative process has become more open with webcasts and publishing of committee votes. If the residents of Senate District 37 elect me as their senator, I will be a leader in strengthening sunshine laws and will actively support efforts that require the Legislature to follow those laws.<\/p>\n<p>The entire process, including conference committee meetings and votes, should be open and transparent. The public deserves its government leaders to open the books and provide accessibility to all citizens.<\/p>\n<p>I have spent my adult life in public service and I will continue to do so. When voters make their choice for the New Mexico Senate District 37, I ask they consider my entire record and not just one incident to which I have admitted to and from which I have grown. I am asking for your vote to serve the good people of Do\u00f1a Ana County.<\/p>\n<p><em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.soules4senate37.com\" target=\"_blank\">Soules<\/a>, a Democrat, is a candidate for the Las Cruces-area District 37 seat in the N.M. Senate.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I want the citizens of this county to know that I admit my mistake \u2013 a violation of the New Mexico Open Meetings Act \u2013 and I apologize.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2941,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1192,16],"tags":[156,125,111,107],"class_list":["post-41710","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-commentary","category-guest-columns","tag-2012-election","tag-education","tag-open-government","tag-roundhouse"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41710","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\/2941"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41710"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41710\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41710"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41710"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41710"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}