More information about the 59 exempt state government employees who were laid off earlier this year is slowly becoming public, but several state agencies have yet to cough up any information despite being asked by the New Mexico Foundation for Open Government.

The foundation is seeking any information related to people who were laid off as part of Gov. Bill Richardson's order to help solve the state's budget crisis. It has received names of 22 employees whose positions were discontinued or who resigned or retired. It also has received responses from departments who said they were not affected by the layoffs and several that said they needed more time to respond.

But 11 departments or agencies haven't responded at all to the request.

Sarah Welsh, the foundation's director, said she's getting tired of waiting.

"We're still pretty far from getting to the bottom of this," she said Friday.

Walsh sent her original request for information on the layoffs to the Governor's Office in January. In response to public-records requests seeking information about who was laid off, Richardson's office has said it doesn't have documents showing the names of those who were asked to leave.

Attorney General Gary King's office said in mid-April that the governor's staff should work to find out which agencies have information about the layoffs and provide it to the foundation, which filed a complaint with King's office. Richardson's office then forwarded Welsh's request to state government agencies.

The agencies that Welsh said hadn't responded to the requests as of Friday are the Energy, Minerals and Natural Resources Department; the Environment Department; the Military Base Planning Commission; the Natural Resources Trustee; the Nursing Board; the Professional Engineers & Professional Surveyors Board; the Public Employee Labor Relations Board; the State Investment Council; the Commission on the Status of Women; the Veterans' Services Department and the Workforce Solutions Department. Walsh on Tuesday sent them a reminder e-mail about her request.

"It goes to show how important it is in this kind of environment for the requester to spend a lot of energy on this. This is my job and I'm having a hard time following up," Welsh said. "It should be a lot easier."

Not responding to a request for information violates the state's Inspection of Public Records Act, which requires a letter within three days acknowledging a request.

Some of the better known people who were laid off include Bruce Kohl head of the Securities Division at the Regulation and Licensing Department and former Secretary of State Rebecca Vigil-Giron, who was a constituent liaison with the Department of Workforce Solutions. Their names have not been submitted to FOG. The Regulation and Licensing Department said it needs more time to collect the information, and the Department of Workforce Solutions is one of those that hasn't responded.

Richardson's office last month released a list of 69 titles of employees in 35 departments who were separated from government. That list includes people who have resigned.

The titles were included as part of a news release about the 1,071 vacant state government positions that Richardson is eliminating, including 73 vacant exempt positions.

The number of exempt employees, who serve at the pleasure of the governor, ballooned during the Richardson administration to at least 450. By comparison, there were about 167 exempt employees under former Gov. Gary Johnson, according to legislative testimony earlier this year. Not all are appointed by the governor, however. He doesn't hire exempt employees at either the state Legislature or the Attorney General's Office, for example. Lawmakers had tried to reduce the number of exempts by as many as 280 while addressing the state's financial crisis.

The layoffs of exempt employees are estimated to reduce the state payroll by $8.3 million.

ON THE WEB

• See the documents produced by various agencies at www.nmfog.org.

Contact Kate Nash at 986-3036 or knash@sfnewmexican.com. Read her blog at www.greenchilechatter.com.