![\"Tim](\"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/Keller-Tim-336x211.jpg\")
<\/a>Courtesy photo<\/p>
Tim Keller<\/p><\/div>\n
The account was set up after Keller was elected in November but before he took office, a Keller spokeswoman was quoted by the Albuquerque Journal<\/a> as saying. Keller has continued to use it for government business since he officially took office on Jan. 1.<\/p>\n State law allows government officials to use private email accounts for public business. But they must maintain and release those emails in response to public records requests as they would emails hosted on government servers.<\/p>\n That doesn’t mean using private email is\u00a0a good idea. The N.M.\u00a0Foundation for Open Government has concerns about Keller’s gmail account.<\/p>\n \u201cFor purposes of transparency, all government agencies should only use public email accounts to conduct public business,\u201d FOG President Greg Williams, an Albuquerque attorney, was quoted by the Journal as saying. Not doing so \u201cincreases the likelihood that public records requests won\u2019t be complied with and contributes to confusion,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n The state Republican Party\u00a0is also criticizing\u00a0use of the private account by Keller, a Democrat. The GOP learned\u00a0about the situation when the Auditor’s Office handed over some of Keller’s Gmail messages in response to its\u00a0records request.<\/p>\n \u201cTim Keller\u2019s obvious disregard for the law and transparent government is the epitome of hypocrisy,” The Santa Fe New Mexican<\/a> quoted GOP spokesman Patrick Garrett as saying. “He preaches government ethics but ignores the actions of his own office.\u201d<\/p>\n Keller’s spokeswoman, Justine Freeman, defended the use of the Gmail account —auditorkeller@gmail.com<\/a>\u00a0—\u00a0in a statement to The Santa Fe New Mexican.\u00a0\u201cIt is not a \u2018private\u2019 email account in the sense of being a personal account or exempt from public disclosure,\u201d the newspaper quoted her as saying.<\/p>\n Freeman took a shot at Republican Gov. Susana Martinez in statements to both newspapers. Martinez and staffers were using private email to conduct government\u00a0business early in her administration, before, under immense public pressure<\/a>,\u00a0she ordered a stop to the practice.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Governor\u2019s Office used private email accounts because they were attempting to conduct official business \u2018off the radar,\u2019” Freeman said. “With the Auditor Gmail account, we always considered it official and public.\u201d<\/p>\n Democrats and Republicans have been engaging in a war of words ever since Keller announced in July that his office may have found wrongdoing by Demesia Padilla, Martinez’s Taxation and Revenue Department secretary. The situation relates to Padilla’s\u00a0handling of a government audit of a business that was her personal client before she became secretary.<\/p>\n