Attorney General Gary King is accusing Gov. Bill Richardson of violating the state open-records act by withholding the names of those in the 59 political jobs Richardson said he eliminated.

"It seems implausible that your office would make a formal announcement (about the layoffs) when it had no set of records to support its numerical assertion," Chief Deputy Attorney General Albert Lama wrote in an opinion this week. "It creates the impression that some staff member in the Governor's Office possesses, contrary to your response letter's assertions, records pertaining to the 59 exempt employees ..."

Several news organizations, including The New Mexican, requested the names, titles and salaries of the exempt employees whose jobs were eliminated to help balance the state budget. The only information Richardson provided was a news release about the layoffs and more than 90 pages of e-mail correspondence, mostly between reporters and the Governor's Office

The New Mexico Foundation for Open Government asked the attorney general to intervene in the case on Jan. 21.

"The AG's office is essentially echoing the public's gut reaction, which was — seriously? You can't really expect us to believe that you don't have any documents and you don't know who does," Sarah Welsh, executive director of the foundation, told The Associated Press.

Richardson's office argued that under the Inspection of Public Records Act, a state agency isn't required to create new documents to meet an open-records request.

But in the attorney general's written opinion, "... the information available to us at this time suggests the Governor's Office possessed additional records that were responsive to Ms. Welsh's request that were not released for inspection."

Lama said it's unlikely that Richardson's office wouldn't know which state agencies had the records sought by FOG and the reporters.

Lama warns that the governor could be inviting a lawsuit. "A person whose request has been improperly handled may bring an enforcement action in district court and if he or she prevails, is entitled to damages, costs and reasonable attorneys' fees that be calculated per day from the date of violation."

In a response e-mailed to reporters, Richardson spokesman Gilbert Gallegos said, "We respectfully, but strongly disagree with the opinion. The Governor's Office complied with the law and the Attorney General's Compliance Guide when it turned over 98 pages of responsive records. The fact that the requester was not satisfied with those records doesn't mean the Governor's Office must create new records or act as a clearinghouse for all of state government."

In a subsequent e-mail to The New Mexican, Gallegos said the attorney was "speculating."

The opinion said Richardson's office should "re-evaluate its response" to the records request, and if nobody in the Governor's Office had the records, it should immediately find out which agencies do.

Contact Steve Terrell at 986-3037 or sterrell@sfnewmexican.com. Read his political blog at roundhouseroundup.com.