Attorney General Gary King on Thursday appealed a judge's ruling that he should pay about $20,000 for violating the state's public records law.

In a notice filed in the state Court of Appeals, King's lawyer said he's appealing last week's order by state District Judge Beatrice Brickhouse. Brickhouse ruled that King's office had violated the state Inspections of Public Records Act by not honoring lawyer Dan Faber's request last year for information about salaries of staff lawyers with the Office of the Attorney General.

Faber represents three staff attorneys in a federal suit against King. Faber's clients claim they were paid less money than their male counterparts. That case is pending in federal court. King has denied any gender discrimination and said any pay disparity is not related to gender.

King's lawyer has asked that the order be "stayed" until the appeal is decided. That means the total sum would not increase each day the case is in appeals.

Brickhouse ruled that King must pay $100 per day between Jan. 14 and whenever he turns over the requested records. The judge also ruled King owes Faber $10 a day for the period between Aug. 26, 2010 — the day King originally denied Faber's request — and Jan. 14. During that period, there was an order in the federal case that put all exchange of information between the two sides on hold. That order was lifted on Jan. 14 but has since been put in place again, Faber said.

Since taking office in 2007, King's office has organized a series of public meetings across the state in which his staff discuss with local government officials and residents compliance with the public records law and the open-meetings act. One such meeting took place in Santa Fe earlier this month.

A spokesman for King argued that the appeal of the judge's damages would not harm the open-records act.

"The damages Mr. Faber sought, and the district court awarded, are simply not available under IPRA," Phil Sisneros said in an email.

"The statute has two damages provisions, and each is designed to address a different kind of violation. In the first, the statute provides damages of up to $100 per day for any agency that fails to respond to a request in a timely manner. In the second, the statute provides damages in the form of actual damages, costs, and attorneys' fees in the event an agency wrongfully withholds documents and the requester brings a successful lawsuit to obtain those documents. Our lawsuit was the latter kind, but Judge Brickhouse's order provides damages for the former kind of case. We would argue that the judge's order — and not our appeal — threatens to damage IPRA."

Sisneros said in March said the office was continuing to deny the public-records request because, "We're operating under the federal court order, which still has a stay for any discovery including IPRA requests."

But Brickhouse in March said the state's public-records law "provides a statutory right independent of the federal rules of discovery."

Contact Steve Terrell at 986-3037 or sterrell@sfnewmexican.com